The Belvedere Society

Nomenclature
The Belvedere Society will be the primary name for this group, however they can be referred to as the “Society” or “Academics” in short.

Appearance / Archetypes
The appearance of Society members differs wildly according to which sector or industry they belong to and where they are generally. However the overall pattern is a fairly simple black/white color theme for the “Professors” or higher ups in the Society or alternatively simple oil-stained cloths of various patterns for the younger Apprentices and engineers.

History & Faction Hierarchy
The Society’s origins lay in a small group of scientists that escaped with Illious Demar from the oppression they were facing on the mainland. Upon reaching Sedaire they formed the Belvedere Academy, using their knowledge to build it up and investigate the strangeness that occurred within the city and around it early in its history. As it grew, its halls began to encompass more than just academia but engineers, industrialists and inventors from all over the world, until it was eventually renamed as the Belvedere Society 10 years ago as industrial expansion of the city began. This industrial capacity was especially enhanced by Governor Vandalis’ encouragement in finding a solution to the digging problems.

However, despite its more recent focus on practical engineering skills and invention, the Society still clings to its Academic roots. The head of the Society is Professor Thomas Winston. Under him are a vast array of positions which can be summarized into three tiers: Professors, Engineers and Apprentices.

The Professors are at the top of the pyramid, with the greatest amount of benefits and knowledge after years of hard work, training and learning as Engineers. Below Engineers are Apprentices, whom are normally considered as raw recruits, students or occasionally hired labor.

Philosophy / Paradigm
The Belvedere Society’s main goal used to be the pursuit of knowledge and science back in its heyday – nowadays though they pretty much have expanded, becoming a society apart from the Government and with a significant amount of Industrial power – much to the chagrin of both the Governor’s court and to many of the older professors and academics left behind by the sweeping change. However, that doesn’t mean the Society has abandoned its scientific routes – many that still work in it do acquire knowledge for the greater good, which is why so many are interested in the machine that lies within the abyss.

They know it can manipulate time – and do it on a fundamental level that prevents it from going forward. To the Society, such a device presents an unparalleled scientific opportunity…as well as a human one. If one were to learn the secrets of the machine, then one would essentially be able to understand time itself – and eventually, be able to control it. It is for this reason primarily that the Society tries to get past the wall and to the device and will do anything to achieve it.

Motivation / Goals
The Society’s main motivations lie from a mixture of curiosity into the machine and the nature of time, a desperate need to stop the Armageddon and simple greed for the secrets and potentials the machine holds. To this extent their main goal is to fashion some sort of device that can be taken into the Abyss and essentially “pull” or move the machine up, dragging it from its location and up to where the Society can use it to stop the coming Armageddon and then study it to uncover its secrets.

Relations to other Aware Factions
The Society’s relations with the royal guards and government was never really all that well – on numerous occasions even before the machine was built Society members have been indicted for murder, industrial sabotage or attempting to gain access to secret resources within the Government. Even before that, the army has had to clean up more than one mess the society has created over the city’s history.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Society has always seen the government and army being akin to meddlers, constantly interfering with and limiting their experiments and the advancement of science. Thus one could say that the current relation between the factions is, at best, outright hostility.

The Society’s relation to the monastery on the other hand is fairly intriguing. At the outset of their awakening, the Society actually attempted to bring the Monastery onboard as allies – but was rebuffed before actually being attacked by the Monastery. In the initial raids, the Monastery managed to escape with several highly valuable magical items. Ever since then the Society has been on the defensive against the Monastery, whom have made many attempts to steal their equipment.

Relations to the Unaware
The society actively uses the unaware as tools, in essence, to study beyond the wall as well as get around the Nihilists. Often they will bribe, blackmail or otherwise convince unaware to take special equipment beyond the wall and bring it back – or otherwise act as meat shields against the Nihilists. To them since the unaware basically reset everyday, it doesn’t matter what happen anyway. This is something they try to do to you as well, which is how you discover about what they do and join them initially at least. 2.8 Distribution

The Society is largely distributed around the eastern slums and industrial area of the city, with some connections to the mines. Their main HQ is the Observatory building which lies at the heart of the factories and is essentially a large school as opposed to anything to do with astronomical readings. They have several groups that do operate near the wall as well, but these have to remain well hidden to avoid detection by the Nihilists.

However, one area they give a wide berth are the docks – many an aware has lost their life in an attempt to scout out the Monastery’s HQ, often loosing the equipment they had on them.

Ending
Towards the end of the time limit, the Society will attempt to push through to the wall in a desperate bid to get to the machine, coming into direct conflict with the Monastery and Nihilists. To this extent they will also stir up as many unaware in the form of a mob as possible and will be the main instigator of chaos in an attempt to confuse the Nihilists and get you through to the machine.

The main objective in this case is to retrieve the machine after it is repaired. To this extent you are given several tools with which to fix it, along with a method to communicate with the society from deep underground. Following their instructions you manage to make most of the repairs to the machine. At first, the repair seems to work as the machine stops and appears to change in its cycle.

The apocalypse has been prevented – time continues to flow even as the clock hits 23:59 and then rolls over to 00:00 for the first time in centuries. As it begins to turn to 00:01 of the new day, however, time begins to slow and slow and slow, till it finally comes to a complete stop, freezing over. The last thing we see is the entire city, frozen over into nothingness as time basically fails to move forward.

Special Abilities / Tools
The Society’s main shtick is from the large number of magical materials that they use and incorporate into their body armor, weapons and instruments. Unlike the Nihilists and the Monastery, the Society has many mechanisms with which to record information from one day to the next, while much of their machinery and weapons are preserved due to the magic materials from which they are built. Additionally, they have storage devices, containers and bags that preserve materials (albeit just small items) stored in them across day resets. Overall their style is more towards using words, reason and their status in society to achieving their goals as opposed to pure brute force or violence.

Combat Styles
Combat styles for the Society NPC will essentially be heavily reliant on ranged combat, using either bows and arrows or flintlock rifles. Their armor is at best, light and paper-thin, while most stats improvements target one’s ability to hit targets at range. The key advantage they have however is that most of their weapons – despite being weaker in raw damage to the Nihilist counterparts – remain with the player due to him having a bag that does the holding for him. The downside is that if an enemy gets into melee range, it’s all over.