The Archivist Council - Unaligned
There are many organizations in Faelon that rely on the shadows to do their work. There are those you would expect, of course: cults, assassins, and those with nefarious ends to achieve. Torchlight shone upon these shadowy organizations would bring ruin to them and most honest citizens would say the world would be better for it.
Then there are organizations that work in secret; groups who must take to the shadows not because their cause is evil but rather that their work is just and righteous.
It is the nature of mankind that sometimes the most dangerous work you can perform is also the truest; and without that work of truth and goodness and darkness would hold sway over the land - darkness far more dangerous than a rampaging Ar Grush or an Urdaggar raid.
In the case of The Archivists, good is served and evil thwarted by the simple collection of unbiased facts.
The secret society known as The Archivists are a small but active group of collectors who believe truth and knowledge are often twisted, forgotten, purposefully lost by those who seek their ends.
The Archivists judiciously write down every bit of knowledge they can and catalog it for the use of those with pure hearts and motives. In some cases they pursue and steal knowledge from others whom they believe are hoarding, twisting, or abusing it.
Somewhere in almost every town of note, there is an archivist and their secret library. In smaller towns, it may be one person working secretly and diligently to catalog local knowledge. In larger cities, there are often many Archivists with networks of people who unknowingly feed the collectors with news and tidbits of information.
Each Archivist, as a local operative is called, is responsible for the gathering and preservation of knowledge and truth in their area. In larger cities, there are Senior Archivists that guide a group of Archivists in their collection of knowledge. The Council are voracious in setting up local networks each headed by an archivist and their successors, whom the current archivist may not even be aware of. Archivists are responsible for purging untruths and rumors from the information they preserve.
The council, the senior members of the archivists, run the organization secretly from behind their jobs and positions. Almost all are aristocrats, magic users, or the heads of colleges. They each have their own motives and methods. They can call upon their own private armies in the Shining Key, each employing Freebands dedicated to their own grasping for knowledge. While most have good intentions and character, there have been times when one of the council has been unmasked as having abused their position. This is exceedingly rare and is punished swiftly.
The real power in the archivists is held in the position of Librarian. There is only one librarian at a time, and they are chosen only by a unanimous vote of the council. They are in charge of and responsible for the Archivist’s vast wealth of knowledge preserved in books, scrolls, and handwritten journals of archivists from around Faelon. This sum of knowledge is kept in a secret library hidden deep beneath Larmedin in Thormenal.
The Library itself “The Repository,” can be visited and viewed by only a few people including the Council, the Librarian, and the Curators, the Librarian’s staff. The Repository is whispered about amongst the archivists, as none have seen it to talk about it openly. Mystery and rumor swirl around it, with some even saying the library itself is magic or magically hidden.
As a whole, the archivists care only for truth and knowledge. They seem to see no other issues. They are without compassion or any other emotion when it comes between them and the pursuit of knowledge.
They have a militant arm, the Shining Key, that uses violence to carry out the decrees of the Archivists. Warriors in the Shining Key are sought after and chosen for not only their skills but their loyalty, idealism, and ability to keep their mouths shut. Bragadocious drunkards need not apply. The Archivists employ all kinds of adventurers, from outright warriors to thieves and assassins.
Shining Key warriors wear no outward signs of their allegiance. They often pass as a mercenary company under an assumed name to keep attention directed away from them. Their missions are shrouded in secrecy even to most of their members. Their leadership and key operatives may be the only ones who know the real objective of a mission they are assigned to.
The Shining Key is wielded by the council. An Archivist can call upon the Shining Key if needed but usually rely on their own network of spies and thieves that are locally sourced. It is a curious juxtaposition that many seekers of fact and truth use criminals in their searches.
Though seemingly noble and humble in their pursuits, the Archivists have great power to influence events in Faelon. Their power, influence, and nature are always being informed by the current members of the council and their motives.
Devotees of the Faeler goddess Ailea often find themselves pursuing the same information as the Archivists, and more than one Ailean priest and priestess have found their way into the Archivists. Ailea’s focus on knowledge and truth is a perfect fit for the Archivists, though admittedly the Ailean would gather knowledge for the sake of knowledge while the Archivist’s knowledge may be used for different ends. Conversely, Archivists who are discovered will often explain their activities under the guise of an Ailean devotee in the pursuit of knowledge as most Faelers at least understand Ailean devotion to truth.
At times where truth and knowledge can turn the tide of events in Faelon the Archivists reveal their knowledge to the right parties to influence outcomes. Such revelations must be approved by a unanimous council vote. The information is given to the most trusted operatives in the Shining Key who make sure the information is revealed in a way that never points back to the Archivists. In this way wars have both been averted and started, alliances made and broken, and dynasties both dissolved and formed.
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