In short, everything had happened through a series of coincidences.
Some people might have felt that the emergence of movable-type printing was nothing remarkable. After all, as mentioned before, commoners had little interest in books because they simply did not need them. Faerûn had no imperial examination system to provide a path upward, and the chances of changing one's fate through study remained vanishingly small. Even in ancient China, only a tiny fraction of people had managed to change their fate through learning, let alone in Faerûn.
What was more, the noble class tightly monopolized knowledge. Even with movable-type printing, nothing would necessarily change. Those nobles would do everything in their power to prevent books from becoming widespread. Never underestimate the force nobles could unleash to protect their interests. Those people would dare do anything for their power!
Compared to that, the commoners of Faerûn would rather have their children become professionals. After all, that path offered a far easier route to success than studying. Viewed that way, the emergence of movable-type printing did not seem all that significant.
Perhaps that should have been the case. After all, the broader environment was what it was; one or two new inventions could not completely change it. But Solam was different. Do not forget that Solam had ordered six hundred thousand books in one go! The bald sage Colson saw things clearly. Solam obviously had not bought that many books to take home as firewood or toilet paper.
Solam was surely planning to launch large-scale educational outreach! Otherwise, he would have no use for so many books!
And that was what interested the bald sage!
Where did Solam intend to send these books? Who did he intend to give them to? What was his goal?
In short, the answers to those questions