The Gnosis Protectorate

In the early days of the Awakened on Yorth, an organization called The Photismencium was formed by the more academically-inclined of the Awakened. They believed it prudent to catalogue the various stories of Awakening, as this was clearly a momentous occasion in need of documentation. On the Second Day, they formally announced The Photismencium, but at the same time were concerned with rumors they heard of the Dissidents, who told secrets of the Awakened, the Automaths themselves, and Yorth. Later, after The Photismencium had established themselves as respected leaders of Awakened society, they announced a forum, at which they told the leaders of the Awakened societies the truth, as they saw it, after analyzing the evidence and comparing the varying stories they heard. This truth was that the Automaths were not what they seemed, and neither were the Awakened, and nor still was Yorth itself. The people looked on, dumbfounded, for by that time they had already established religious orders of worship for the Automaths and had started to disavow certain of them as Dissidents for there heresy.   After much discussion and argument within The Photismencium itself following this forum, three main camps emerged: one, led by Thalia Heilar decided that it was best to follow in the spirit of the Automaths, for even though the truth might be known to them, it was still their wisdom and will for the Awakened to live in harmony and peace on Yorth. The second were outraged at this truth, and furthermore that the rest of the Awakened rejected it, and went on to found The Verum Imperium with former Photismencium sage Ekhan Dahri as their leader, with the goal of vengeance against the deceitful Automaths and usurping them as rulers of all Yorth and Anuwai beyond. The third of these camps, led by Resys Marfun, believed that in order to achieve the original goal of The Photismencium, a stronger argument must be made to the people, using not only sound logic but irrefutable evidence of their claims.   Resys Marfun left The Atheneum with her cohort to the isle of Tyrgos, in the Tychi Sea northwest of The Cradle. There, she established The Gnosis Protectorate, an organization with the mission of searching Yorth and realms beyond for evidence to back their claims about the Automaths, the Awakened, and Yorth. These claims themselves The Gnosis Protectorate kept secret, for they knew what damage could be done to their credibility if what they believed to be true were allowed to fester and get branded as a mere conspiracy theory.   Early on, the presence of the Protectorate on Tyrgos worried The Verum Imperium and The Union, but after many years of the Protectorate doing nothing more than setting up guildhouses and secret underground chapters, without any obvious ambitions concerning toppling their governments or upsetting the status quo, they came to be ignored, a relic of the past, if sometimes something of an irritant to both. However, in more recent times, The Protectorate has become more and more concerned that their research could potentially be of monumental upset to both of the major Awakened nations, and that some way to save and deliver the truth to the Awakened must be found and their secrets must be kept, lest their powerful neighbors decide to wipe Tyrgos off the face of the map.   The Protectorate busies itself with researching the artifacts and texts in their possession, as well as sending out agents (sometimes hired adventurers or mercenaries for less important or more dangerous tasks) in order to seek out more artifacts that they might use to establish their case.   Ranks: Seeker - Hunt out artifacts, Learner - apprentice researcher, Reader - researching in texts, Protector - guards, Operant - coordinator of sanctums, research