8.6.1 Archivists

Established by Sneak, the Numerologist amidst the chaos of the Crystalline Void on the 1st of Lanosian, year 464 MA, the Archivists are a Collective of revolutionary academics, methodical scholars, confident outcasts, and obsessive lunatics united by their callous obsession with enlightenment and progress. To free themselves from all physical and intellectual shackles, the Archivists defy ignorance through any and all means, expanding their perspective to better extract existential knowledge from the esoteric as well as the mundane.

The Archivium is nestled within a fortified cliff face overlooking the Republic of Spinesreach, safeguarding both old relics and innovative curios. It is the lofty burden of the Archivists to protect the unenlightened from terrors and forbidden secrets they are not yet ready to understand, and the power and knowledge they extort from these artifacts is their just reward.

The perilous art-sciences of Geometrics, Numerology, and Bioessence are the specialisations of the Archivists. Through the use of Geometric tokens and iconography, they learn to manipulate psychic energy. They use the ancient discipline of Numerology to study and wield the fundamental arithmetic of existence itself. Mastery of Bioessence allows Archivists to hone their bodies and plague their enemies with dreadful mutagens by rejecting the physiological restraints imposed by the spirit element.

True progress has no final conclusion, no ideal state. It is an unending iterative process. Faced with such an unattainable goal, lesser minds would cling to familiar comforts and embrace self-imposed imprisonment, but the Archivists understand that unattainability makes their objective worthwhile. The world deserves to be better, and they are the only ones who possess the knowledge and wisdom necessary to make it so. Time, wealth, materials, and even lives are merely resources that must be spent efficiently to abolish all restraints, dispel ignorance, mend the world's intolerable flaws, and save the unenlightened from themselves.

Joining the Archivists in the year 503, Alchemists lend their considerable expertise in the natural sciences to the Archivium's repertoire. Well versed in the fields of Alchemy, Experimentation, and Botany, these scientists employ reason and logic to complement their Archivist associates, casting aside moral fetters in favour of unadultered discovery and progress. Blighted foliage spreads wheresoever they choose to work, and their research into live test subjects and the use of alchemical compounds on the battlefield are formidable forces to be reckoned with.