The Dai'an Savvarchives

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The back alleys of the Holy City of Hope in Nurin. Buried somewhere within this maze are the fabled Dai'an Savvarchives, a series of loosely-connected dreamstone libraries belonging to the mysterious directors of the Dai'an Assertia.

"The Dai'an would have us believe fleeting images, stolen from the proverbial dinner plates of demons, constitutes serious academic inquiry... no wonder they hide their faces! The activities of this so-called institution are farcical at best, dangerous demonology at worst."

— Erasmus Heyn
Letters, Second Winter 3992
The University of Halewijn

The Dai'an Savvarchives are one of the largest collections of savvarchs, or dreamstones, in the Gamma Quadrant, located deep within the maze-like inner reaches of Dur'Andal, in the Holy City of Hope in Nurin. Like the philological amphitheatres of the Dai'an Assertia, they are run by a mysterious entity known as the Dai'an. Unlike other dreamstone collections, the Savvarchives allow wider audiences to experience the dreamstones, acting as a sort of library. Within its austerely arched Nurinian halls are some of the treasured cultural artefacts in the Broken Empire.

The Duskscape

As the Third Age dawns on Materia and weaknesses in the Veil between the Waking World and the Duskscape grow like tears in an old flag, new interdimensional relationships are establishing themselves. Intelligences on both sides are astir at new possibilities. First Age writings about demons and chimerae and fae no longer seem as fanciful or imaginative. The "world", as Material peoples know it, is expanding rapidly.

On the Waking side, fear pervades the conversation: most speak in paranoid whispers, tinged with excitement, of shadowy marauders bleeding outward from the twisted cityscapes and shimmering jungles of the Dream Time.

That said, this new arrangement works both ways, as some enterprising individuals have been fast to realize. As Waking socities are forced to contend with new, alien breeds of predator and kidnapper, demonic societies are increasingly inundated by Waking... thieves. Perhaps the most prized targets for these interdimensional burglars are demonic creations known in Khayyamite as petraphylacs, in High Juran as savvarchs and in Middish Common as dreamstones. Collections of these objects are known as savvarchives.

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Staff in hand, a dreamstone acquitor carefully follows a lead in the demonic city of Kloster Storkenfels.

Dreamstones

Being creatures of the Spective layer of reality beneath our Material one, demons are known, in the technical babble of the Dai'an, as cognitovores. Just as Material creatures consume Matter (also called Logos) to continue existing, Spective creatures must replenish their beings with their own—pardon the crude generalization—stuff, usually called Pathos. The term 'Spective' informs words such as retrospective, introspective, circumspective, et cetera; in other words, high cognition. Dreamstones are, for lack of a better definition, repositories of Pathos or cognition. For demons, they appear to be equal parts books and food.

It's important to note savvarchs may not only contain the Pathos of fellow demons, but sometimes that of dreaming Materials as well. What's more, with enough training Material humanoids are able to perceive the contents of these objects. For those who can understand the language of the dreamstones, one can gaze into the (albeit distorted) mind of an individual thousands of years dead: individuals who existed during the soaring heights of First Age Materia, who lived under the rule of the mighty Lichlords, who fought in the wars between the Insurgent and Colonial Gods, who watched their homes dissolve under the dragonfire of Elir-Otrinax's armies. Rarest of all, one may see horrific glimpses of the the world falling beneath walls of demon-haunted brine, viewed by the few who lived to dream of it.

It might seem like utter sacrilege to put a price on these precious things, but some do.

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Hildegard van Elmdor: immortal smuggler, corsair, assassin, bounty hunter, entrepreneur and possible Lichlord, said to have "written the book" on dreamstone acquisition. (She has not, to anyone's knowledge, written a book on the subject.) (Illus. The Author via HeroForge (Left) and dall-e (Right).)

Dreamstone Acquisition

Those who engage in dreamstone theft are known as acquitors. The methods and history of dreamstone "acquisition" alone are subjects that deserve their own section in any respectable library, let alone a single article. Demons are a diverse species with a breadth of society that puts Waking Materia to shame. To even navigate a given demonic settlement, let alone treasure hunt there, is a dizzying process requiring slow, careful familiarity, no small amount of luck and sometimes (in the case of more hostile cities like Kloster Storkenfels) a strong sword arm. In a very rough sense (insofar as demonic psychology is fathomable at all), these thieveries can amount from anything to a mild raiding of the pantry to a loss of a revered artefact. One may go "dumpster diving" in a market arcade in Sarkoldu'un-Imathratep and find a priceless treasure from a humanoid perspective, yet find only alien babble in the deepest vaults of Rom's Grey Peaks.

The Savvarchives

Though several dreamstone collections exist around the plane, the Dai'an Savvarchives are the only ones that share their contents with the wider public, acting as an odd sort of library. Membership is not easy, mind: it's whispered the entrance fee involves the bearing of a great gift to the Dai'an. Their existence is not heavily advertized, using obscurity as a way to filter away casual audiences and undesirables. The archives themselves are buried deep within the mazes of inner Dur'Andal, the island half of the Holy City of Calm; spectacularly hard to find even if you know what you're looking for. Dreamstones are absolutely not to be removed from the premises, and their use is done only under the strict gaze of a Savvarchive Keeper, whose ruthless reputations are only tested by the foolish.

Dramatis Personae

The Dai'an

The Librarian

The Keepers

The Inula'an

Erasmus Heyn

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One of many amphitheatres in the Dai'an Assertia.
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Little can be written here as almost nothing is known about the Dai'an. They could be one person or a council of several. They might be mortal or immortal. It might be a position occupied in a historical line. All communications with this entity or entities are done using go-betweens.

What is known is that nothing occurs in the Assertia or Savvarchives without their go-ahead. It is the Dai'an who decide what lectures are hosted at the Assertia amphitheatres, and it is with their finances that dreamstones are purchased and acquitors contracted.

Their identity is one of the most richly-debated subjects in Lorentine halls. On that subject, perhaps one thing that can be gleaned is they seem to have a sense of humour: the Juran comedian Loumidis the Bald once requested a slot in the Assertia to lecture on the subject of their identity, and to everyone's surprise, it was approved. He completed the lectures without harrassment, though it is largely agreed he failed to cast aside any significant curtains.

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The Librarian. (Illus. The Author via HeroForge (Left) and dall-e (Right).)

The Librarian is whom you speak to if you wish to gain access to a dreamstone. It is him that knows where individual savvarchs are and how they're organized. Ancient of age, he has no known forebear; it's possible the library's system of organization is his own creation, known by no one else save perhaps the Dai'an themselves.
The Librarian is classically Nurinian in disposition: unhurried, untemperamental, possessed of complex of spiritual belief-habits and a stickler for cleanliness.

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Various Keepers of the Dai'an Savvarchives.
Illus. HeroForge (Left) and dall-e (Right).

The innocuously-named Keepers are the protectors (and if need be, retrievers) of the Dai'an savvarchs. It is their ruthless expertise that ensures the perdurability of the Dai'an's investments. All but the most trusted clientele must reflect on a dreamstone in the presence of a Keeper, and if one goes missing, they are urban rangers of the utmost skill at tracking lost things. And woe betide anyone caught red-handed: the Keepers strain at the limits of the generally peaceful Nurinian reputation.

The Inula'an are perhaps the most famous of the Savvarchives' regular visitors. They are are an anonymous group (presumed) of authors who publish historical journals pieced together by the Dai'an dreamstones. While there are several respected historians who source their work from this library, the Inula'an are household names: their untitled publication on the broad history of the First Age Godwars, colloquially called the Inula'an Dialogues, is the most sold history book in the Gamma Quadrant.
Despite the shared anonymity, there is no sign the Inula'an have any association with the Dai'an; both seem to hold to the same belief their identities are irrelevant, which isn't an uncommon temperament in Nurin. Though a complete maze, Nurinian spirituality frequently holds the power is in the words, not who says them.
The Inula'an's signature is the stamp of a Sphinx, possibly Tallarax-Apsasu itself, holding a scepter.

Erasmus Heyn is worth noting not as a member of the Dai'an Savvarchives but as their most famed opponent. Heyn is a professor, philosopher, writer and polemicist from the University of Halewijn in Æthermark. His contention is dreamstones are not authentic and even if they are, dreams are a poor substitute for reality.