Order of the Piercing Gaze

Roles

• Grand Archivist
• High Archivist
• Archivist
• Seeker
• Head Librarian
• Librarian

 

The Grand Archive

  The Grand archive of the Order of the Piercing Gaze is located in Drakenspire - the capital city of the Empire of Draugheim. It is there that the Grand Archivist oversees the storage, maintenance and access of records that are gathered by members of the order as they travel the continent. The Grand Archivist is assisted by a small group of High Archivists who in turn oversee the common Archivists. The Archivists perform the day-today tasks of running the Grand Archive by scribing copies of information, providing records that are asked for by those with access to them, and preventing the records from deteriorating or being stolen.    

Archives and Libraries

  The Order of the Piercing Gaze has many smaller archives and libraries which can be found in almost every major city across the continent of Midasfjall. These are operated by a singular High Archivist or Head Librarian who oversees a team of Archivists or Librarians respectively. Archives contain more restricted facets of knowledge that are only accessible to higher level members of the order or individuals from the Empire of Draugheim with the renown necessary to gain access, whereas libraries contain useful information that is open to the public. Archives are much more subtly displayed within cities than libraries as they are intended to be bases for agents of the order specifically, not the common populace.  

Agents of the Order

  Those who actively go out and gather knowledge on behalf of the Order of the Piercing Gaze are known as Seekers. Seekers are tasked with collecting useful information or discovering new knowledge by following leads and hearsay, after which they are expected to return to an archive to submit the newly found information to the Archivists within. Seekers are typically sent out as investigators by the High Archivist of the archive they work for, but a Seekers with enough renown within the order can be granted the freedom to follow their whims and pursue whatever facet of knowledge piques their interest.
Archivists are sent to investigate leads but these jobs tend to be confined to events within the city of their Archive rather than delving into ancient ruins, although on occasion, a seeker will assemble a task force to follow a lead that they have discovered and will enlist archivists to join them in doing so.  

Ranks

  An agent joining the Order of the Piercing Gaze does so as one of the two occupations within the organisation; a seeker or an archivist.
  Seeker Ranks
 

• Seeker Initiate - (1 Renown) Receive Your Faction's Insignia. The insignia for the Order of the Piercing Gaze is a metal amulet bearing the symbol of an open book with an eye within a sunburst at the center.
• Seeker - (3 Renown) Faction Training. The Order of the Piercing Gaze offers training in Investigation and Survival. Training is free but requires a full week (10 days) to be spent as downtime per proficiency.
• Detective Seeker - (10 Renown) Item Procurement. The Order of the Piercing Gaze can provide wizard/cleric/sorcerer spell scrolls of 3rd level or lower for a Journeyman Seeker for half of their market value. This feature can be used once per work week (5 days) and requires the Journeyman Seeker to visit their nearest archive or safehouse to do so.
• Revelator Seeker - (25 Renown) Becoming a Mentor. The Revelator Seeker can requisition a OPG Seeker to serve as a companion npc. In addition, the level of spell scrolls that are available to requisition from the Order of the Piercing Gaze becomes 5th level or lower.
• Enlightened Seeker - (50 Renown) Task Force Leader. The Enlightened Seeker may now requisition a Detective Seeker to serve as a companion npc. In addition, the level of spell scrolls that are available to requisition from the Order of the Piercing Gaze becomes 7th level or lower.

  Archivist Ranks
 

• Archivist Initiate - (1 Renown) Receive Your Faction's Insignia. The insignia for the Order of the Piercing Gaze is a metal amulet bearing the symbol of an open book with an eye within a sunburst at the center.
• Archivist - (3 Renown) Faction Training. The Order of the Piercing Gaze offers training in History and Insight. Training is free but requires a full week (10 days) to be spent as downtime per proficiency.
• Scribemaster Archivist - (10 Renown) Item Procurement. The Order of the Piercing Gaze can provide facilities to aid in the crafting of spell scrolls and aid research efforts. The Scribemaster Archivist can now create spell scrolls in half the time it would normally take to create them. In addition, any checks made to research a subject have their DC's decreased by 2. The Scribemaster Archivist must work within an Archive or an OPG Safehouse to access these features. If the Scribemaster Archivist is a Wizard, the time taken to scribe any spell scroll into their spell book is halved when working within an Archive or an OPG Safehouse.
• Enlightened Archivist - (25 Renown) Becoming a Mentor. The Enlightened Archivist can have an Archivist scribe a wizard/cleric/sorcerer spell scroll for them. The Enlightened Archivist must still provide material components for the scroll and the spell scroll created by the Archivist may only be of 3rd level or lower but the time taken to create the spell scroll is halved. The Archivist may also help out with research, any checks made to gain knowledge about a subject have their DC's decreased by 3. The Enlightened Archivist must visit an Archive or an OPG Safehouse to access these features.
• High Archivist - (50 Renown) Establish an Archive. The High Archivist may attempt to persuade the Order of the Piercing Gaze to grant them their own Archive. If their plea is successful, the High Archivist may found an Archive in a location of their choosing and gains the following features. The High Archivist may have a wizard/cleric/sorcerer spell scroll of up to 5th level scribed by Archivists, subject to previous conditions, and the DCs for their research efforts are decreased by 4.

The creed of the Order of the Piercing Gaze is to seek knowledge in the name of enlightenment, both of the self and of the surrounding society. Members of the order can typically be split into two categories, those who enjoy detective work and those who wish to use and preserve knowledge for the betterment of all. Seekers tend to be of the former disposition, as their natural proclivity towards investigative behaviours makes them ideal for gathering knowledge and unearthing secrets. The Archivists are those who wish to see knowledge used and maintained for all time for the purpose of betterment, either because they believe in the pursuit of perfection, or because they follow the tenets of Astraea - the goddess of wisdom and society.

The Order of the Piercing Gaze strives to discover knowledge and unearth lost secrets, in particular those left behind by the Ordentians after the cataclysm which wiped out their empire. The order operates out of archives and libraries, both of which serve different purposes but work towards the goals of the organisation as a whole. The archives are for members of the order to store and learn of newly discovered knowledge, while the libraries are to allow the public to follow their own intellectual pursuits. The order's goals are to:

• Seek, store and maintain articles of knowledge
• Use relevant knowledge for the betterment of society
• Provide the oppurtunity for the uneducated to learn in keeping with the tenets of Astraea 
• Uncover the secrets left behind by the Ordentian Empire