The Cobalt Soul

Under the enlightening scritpures of Ioun, the Knowing Mistress, priests and monks who have been drawn to the calling of truth and knowledge spend their lives training within The Cobalt Soul. Rather than a single physical building, The Cobalt Soul is a collective term for the universal knowledge and philosophies upheld by those who follow Ioun's teachings. The Cobalt Soul is guided by a central belief that true strength is found in understanding the world around you.

Structure

At the top of the Cobalt Soul organization is the High Curator, who dictates the Archive's goals to subordinates and uses this power to assign marks to expositors, outline allies and enemies to their Archivists, and approve the expeditions proposed by monks. The most senior High Curator does not wield supreme power, but is generally deferred to in regards to the direction of the organization as a whole, and takes over the responsibility of leading from the Archive in Theogonia.

Archivists act as administrators at each Archive, delineating tasks, overseeing the training of new members, and even negotiating for or purchasing artifacts and records -- often from those unaware of their true value.

Expositors are the covert agents of The Cobalt Soul. These enlightened infiltrators extract information that others would keep secret and use their newfound knowledge to better the world. As masters of acquisitions, expositors answer only to their High Curator.

The monks of The Cobalt Soul are the enlightened knowledge-seekers of their order. They research places where ancient knowledge could be hidden and lead large-scale expeditions to these places. This often puts them in agreement with the Seekers of the Order of the Eight, who also research the lost places of Astoria in order to find lost relics of ancient civilization. The two organizations work hand-in-hand with each other, with the agreement that any artifacts of interest to The Cobalt Soul will fall under their possession and care after spending time among the collections and museums of the Order of the Eight.

Culture

Ioun is still wounded, but her wisdom and grace has returned to the world -- at least in part. Under the guidance and wisdom of their patron god, members of The Cobalt Soul seek to enlighten themselves through study and research. They devote their lives to studying mysteries of the world and uktilizing that knowledge to protect it from repeated the mistakes of its past. To this end, the Soul makes the immense breadth of knowledge within their archives available to anyone and everyone who seeks to educate themselves -- though some secrets are so potent that they must remain hidden from the public until the proper time.

Public Agenda

Untold knowledge was lost during the reign of The Adamant Empire. Since the fall of the Empire, The Cobalt Soul and their progenitors have sought to recover what was lost. They hope that, in time, their tireless effort will eventually usher all societies to an enlightened future.
Empires thrive on misinformation and propaganda. Because of this, The Cobalt Soul's mission is very important to Astoria. The Soul works to provide the truth to those who will listen, overtly update revisionist history (like that which was so prevalent during the time of the Empire), and to remove false information before it can spread too far. Unfortunately, those who would seek to hinder this mission have successfully infiltrated the Soul over the centuries, and some of their attempts to rewrite fact and history in favor of their own interests have succeeded. In response, the Soul had to construct a powerful, hidden force of expositors to defend their texts from manipulation and uncover truths that remain guarded.