Chamber of Ciphers

## Overview

The Chamber of Ciphers is a secret guild of knowledge smugglers that operate through a network of libraries known as "vaults." There are over three dozen vaults in Elmara. Membership is extremely exclusive, limited to those who can be trusted by a master 'Librarian,' a position of authority and overseer of one of the branches of the guild.
The Chamber of Ciphers believes in the following tenants:

* Knowledge is sacred.
* No knowledge is heretical.
* Knowledge must not be lost or destroyed to the whims of the ill-informed.

To ensure that knowledge is preserved, especially highly secretive knowledge and knowledge that is considered heretical by others, there is an ongoing effort to copy and distribute among the secret libraries. Members are allowed (and encouraged) to read the knowledge to maintain ephemeral copies that could be recreated again in some form.

## Roles & Duties

There are a few primary roles within the Chamber of Ciphers:

### Librarians

* Act as the head of a guild branch.
* Responsible for acquiring, copying, and distributing knowledge along their route.
* Oversee a vault and its contents.
* Can appoint new members into the guild.
* Must educate all members they oversee in the ways of the guild.
* Must record any special knowledge, per the guild's tenants.
* Must also accept the responsibilities of the Guardians.

### Guardians

* Must protect the books and knowledge contained in the vault.
* Must learn from the knowledge contained in a vault so that it can be reconstructed.
* May be expected to occasionally smuggle books to another vault on the route.
* Must be educated in certain codes, such as to identify other members.
* Must document and record any and all special knowledge that one comes across.

## Distribution

Secret and heretical books will be smuggled throughout the network of vaults. When a book arrives it is the Librarian's responsibility to copy the contents of the book by whatever means are possible and preserve the knowledge. In time, they are expected to smuggle the book to a new vault when an opportunity presents itself.
Each vault has a specific set of routes that they are responsible for distributing knowledge through.

## Secret Codes

Each member is trained in a set of secret codes for three primary use cases: To safely identify other members of the guild, to secretly inform other members that they have been compromised, and which contingency plan to react with.
There are also ciphers that members can learn to add an extra layer of security to messages. Librarians are required to learn it. Guardians don't have to learn it unless they intend to exchange secret messages by letter.

## Knowledge Contained

The vaults contain many forms of illegal or highly sensitive forms of knowledge. The collective network of vaults has quite a useful selection, although each individual vault may be quite limited.
With sufficient time to expand and a little luck, a vault may include one or more of the following:

* Illegal or suppressed knowledge about the Gods.
* Knowledge on magical relics.
* Gnomish secrets that have been deciphered.
* Secrets of alchemy.
* Secrets of magical crafting.
* Secrets of enchanting.
* Secrets of necromancy.
* Ciphers that have not been broken yet.
* Locations of magical interest.
* Alternative descriptions of historical events that may have been whitewashed.
* Any knowledge that is known or suspected about other secret organizations.
* Unverified suspicions.
* Much more.

## History

The Chamber of Ciphers was established in 952 in the city of Dorromio, Elmara, by two librarians that were troubled when the church announced that certain information was being labeled as heretical. They began copying and recording any so-called 'heretical' knowledge they could get access to before it could be destroyed. To ensure the knowledge would never be forgotten, they established relations with librarians along the King's Route, hoping to find ways to pass information between their respective cities.

Over the next ten years, the original goal of their group expanded and they began accumulating information from any sources they could manage. Because of the increased risk of exposure, contingency plans were added. New procedures were put in place to suppress the chances of discovery. Librarians were given separate instructions, and Guardians were appointed for the roles of exploration, protection, and as ephemeral record keepers.

In 977, when Dauron attacked, the original librarians fled from Dorromio, feeling they were at greater risk due to Dauron being much more strict about what topics were designated as heretical. The guild was slightly fractured, but new leadership emerged and the general principles remained intact. Each route ended up having different customs, procedures, and ciphers, but this was in some cases by design to ensure redundancy in case a branch was exposed.

The smuggling network has continued to slowly grow in size, including across kingdom borders.