The Re-Enlightenment

Was the Arkivist plan to bring about the redevelopment of Technological Civilization when humanity once again reached a level of intellectual development deemed acceptable for them to handle the power of ancient science.

## Background

Since the Unsealing of Ark Mount at the end of the Age of Regression, the initiation of the Re-Enlightenment had been largely delayed by the persecutions and discrimination the Arkivists of Kohlredia faced at the hands of the foreign nations and empires that ruled over them, who were suspicious of the Arkivist College due to their atheism, reverence of science, and refusal to sacrifice or pay tribute to the deities worshiped by their overlords. As a result, the college focused much more on guarding and preserving the ancient texts and artifacts held within the confines of Ark Mount rather than studying them. In order to safeguard their sacred knowledge, the Arkivists often had to pay large tributes to their rulers or in many instances take up arms to protect it.

This changed when the Arkivists came under the rule of the Khagoan Empire following the signing of the Treaty of Ouldar by its first Emperor, Don Wabbash. Wabbash agreed to legalize Arkivism and not interfere in the College's affairs in exchange for the peaceful annexation of their homeland Kohlredia into his growing empire. The era of relative peace and stability brought on by the Khagoan Empire's dominance of the majority of the civilized world, known as Pax-Khagoa, allowed for the mass movement of people and ideas across a large geographical area that had been unseen since the Beforetimes. Taking advantage of this new peace and the legalization of their teachings, the Arkivists decided the time was right to begin the steps towards the initiation of the Re-Enlightenment. In order to do this, they established numerous academies in many of the major cities of the Empire, where they allowed outsiders to attend lectures or enroll as pupils studying to join the College's ranks.

At Ark Mount and these newly established schools, many rediscoveries were made in the long-neglected ancient sciences, philosophy, mathematics, and chemistry and the rate of literacy rose across the empire. The elites of the empire also began to employ Arkivist tutors at their courts and households, leading to the creation of a more educated ruling class. Arkivism was especially influential among the Laeklunders, Texhuns, Calafians, and Yenkees due to these people's adherence to Nostalgia Cults which worshiped famous ancient figures as divine Gods and Goddesses. Over the next two centuries, ancient technologies such as fertilizer, advanced medicine, steam power, and finally electricity were implemented on a small scale, causing radical changes in society and an explosion in economic and population growth.

But just as the Re-Enlightenment and a new industrial revolution seemed on the verge of finally being initiated, the rise of the anti-scientific and technophobic Mallasite religion across the empire led to a backlash against the Arkivists, and when the Emperor Cicero Washtenaw declared Mallasism the state religion, nearly all Arkivist academies were shut down or razed by mobs of zealots.

The Treaty of Ouldar, which granted the Arkivists the right to was signed by the Provost of the College and the first Khagoan Emperor Don WabbashAs a result of this, the Arkivist College, which had since held a total monopoly on the ancient knowledge and science of the ancients decided that the time was right to initiate their planned Re-Enlightenment.

To initiate their plan, the College began to send out teachers known as Curators