Archivist

Historians, Scholars, and the Keepers of What Is Known

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Who They Are

In a world where most pre-Sundering knowledge was destroyed or lost, the people who preserve, organize, and transmit what remains are performing an act of survival, not bureaucracy. The gaps are significant: the Lost Decade has no record, the century before the Sundering is fragmentary, and the caravan years exist mostly in oral accounts Archivists have spent two centuries trying to verify. They're also, inevitably, the people who notice when the official record doesn't match other evidence — and most learn not to ask too loudly. The ones who do tend to end up in interesting situations.

Starting Attribute Priority

Category	Priority	Starting Points
Mental	Primary	7 points + Profession +1 Intelligence
Social	Secondary	5 points
Physical	Tertiary	3 points

Profession Bonuses

Attribute Bonus	+1 Intelligence
Skill Bonus	+1 Academics
Free Background	1 dot Contacts (Academic or Archival Community)
Profession Points (5)	Recommended: 2 access to the Basilica's primary archival collection, 2 research equipment/workspace, 1 named contact with restricted record access

Suggested Starting Abilities

Talents	Alertness 1, Expression 2, Empathy 1, Subterfuge 1
Skills	Research 2, Etiquette 1, Security 1
Knowledges	Academics 1 (+1 Profession = 2), History 2, Occult 1, Investigation 1

Profession Strength & Challenge

Strength: The Record Remembers	Challenge: The Gaps They Cannot Fill
Once per session, locate a specific piece of historical, legal, or administrative information — including technically restricted records — through legitimate methodology.	Discovering evidence the official history is incomplete requires a Willpower roll (diff 6) to set the thread aside. Pulling on the wrong one has consequences.

Roleplaying the Archivist

Archivists are perhaps the Mundane Profession most naturally positioned to encounter the supernatural truth — not through violence or chance but through accumulated evidence the official record can't accommodate. A meticulous Archivist who takes their methodology seriously will eventually notice people who appear across generations without aging, events with no mundane explanation, an entire decade with no record. The question isn't whether they find the anomalies. It's what they do when they do.

Quick Reference

Attribute Bonus	+1 Intelligence
Skill Bonus	+1 Academics
Free Background	Contacts (Academic/Archival) 1
Profession Strength	The Record Remembers
Profession Challenge	The Gaps They Cannot Fill

See also: Mortals overview · Character Creation Guide