Bound Sodality
"The Archivists are creepy, but I believe their heart is in the right place."
~Archmage Dulacar, of the Brass Tower.
"Make no mistake: they're not as wholesome as they appear."
~Head Conservator Wrivock, of the White Tower
Structure
Gapiy'gog is the uncontested leader of the Illustrated Men. The hierarchy below the Archmage becomes murky and nebulous, with younger and less experienced members naturally bowing to those with clearly more. If the experience gap isn't clear, then they treat each other as equals and collaborators.
Culture
The Archivists have a dual culture. Mostly, they are a scholarly organization interested in learning, particularly magical and engineering feats of both the past and future. The quirk of their tattoos and funerary rites notwithstanding, the scholarly impression disappears when their organization has been denied. Specifically, when their members have been denied access to secrets they have claimed. This means when a member dies, their tattoos become the target of recovery efforts, and those recovery efforts involve an Archivist Retrieval Team.
The Archivists are seekers of knowledge. They search the world for esoteric knowledge and eldritch lore, tattooing what they've learned in spidery runes across their skin, typically in the Old Tongue, though sometimes runes from druidic circles or celesital, giant, or even infernal script may also make appearances as well as illustrations and pictures. This is where the colloquial name the Illustrated Mages comes from. When their time comes, their bodies are retrieved by their guild and examined by masters of the book to identify new and noteworthy information to add to the Greatest of Work. Their highest honor is to have found something worthy and unique enough to result in their flesh being flensed and added to the tome as pressed and treated vellum.
Unlike many organizations that seek secret knowledge, the Archivists dislike secrets and will only withhold them from seekers if disclosure would harm their guild. Likewise, they detest secrets held by others.
Public Agenda
The Archivists seek knowledge for the purposes of seeking it, and serve as a collection of lore.
Assets
The guild itself is not poor, but their scholarly pursuits are expensive and not particularly rewarding.
Footprint: 1d4
Wealth Dice: 2d8
Influence: 1d6
History
The guild has been around since the ages of the Grimlocks, but not continuously. It has had many incarnations, eventually a dark age will eliminate them for a time but Gapiy'gog eventually resurrects them, working on a new volume of the Greatest of Work.
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