by Dorromee Ado, Grand Scholar, the Central Guilds, Tarnath

Dorromee Ado, Grand Scholar, the Central Guilds, Tarnath

Sula 26, SP~5,022

Acquisitions and Archival is one department that every GERC division consults regularly. A&A gathers and catalogues everything from rare materials for imbuing Energetic objects (and for using Spells, in the case of the Non-Guild Energetic Division) to historical Guild documents, to unexplained Energetic objects found in the world. A&A is also the division that maintains the GERC libraries spread throughout the continent; while there are smaller libraries at almost any GERC research outpost, each of these borrows their books from the massive central library located in Naldrin City. Referred to simply as “The Vault,” this library contains approximately 800,000 texts that are maintained by a small army of archivists.

A&A is unique among GERC divisions in that, because of the sheer number of workers employed, the majority of its active members are not Channels. While members of every Guild are a part of A&A – Mentarchs, Mystics, and Evokers are especially useful, the former for library and information-related tasks and the latter two for analysis of Energetic artifacts – the Vault is staffed by over 100 members who maintain order in the library at all costs. These archivists are highly trained and highly knowledgeable – and given the reverence of most GERC members for knowledge in general and books in particular, they are treated with deference by even the highest-ranking GERC members.

One of the treasures stored in the deeper vaults of the A&A’s archive are some of the original texts from Lissalana, a Zweyjen sorcerer who founded the semi-religious, semi-scientific sect known as “Wholewalkers.” After Lissalana encountered a rather unusual daemon who showed her Ethem in Its entirety, as if viewed from miles and miles above Its surface, she reported that it was possible to walk north through the icy wastes of Tamarra and reach a kind of hub. This hub connects to other continents, she says, and you can reach them all on foot. These documents, of course, are kept under close guard. It’s not known whether they’re true, but they have intrigued researchers and browsers alike.

The current division head of A&A is Mevvar Akcher, a low-Barrier dwarven Mentarch who nevertheless has an astounding breadth of knowledge across a variety of academic fields. Mevvar, at 34 years old, is quite young for a division head, but has proven himself to be an outstandingly competent administrator.