(Art credit: Aaron)

The Archive is a plane within the Realm of Balance, ruled over by the god of knowledge, Gunian the Archivist. It is an endless eldritch library full of all the knowledge of the cosmos that the god and his keepers have collected. A deep purple haze permeates the plane, lit only by bioluminescent tentacle-like plant-life and innumerable candles. While some locations look more like an infinite indoor library, other locations look like forests full of bookshelf-stalagmites. Stacks of books form mazes and spiraling pillars that can reach as high as the ceiling. Discarded pages and floating tomes fill the hazy air, as if pulled by invisible string. Travel to the library is relatively easy, and Gunian offers no charge to access most of the knowledge stored within. To take from the archive, you must present Gunian with new knowledge he does not yet know of—or a look into your memories.

In the primordial era, this plane used to be called Arvanador. It was a vast, infinite expanse of pristine wilderness covered in lush forests and deep growth. It was essentially a garden curated by the gods, and was considered to be a heaven-outside-the-heavens. However, during the Realmshatter, chaos bled into the plane and Gunian took over the plane, corrupting it from the inside-out. Despite the gods trying to reclaim the plane, the transformation was too deep and he was allowed to keep the plane into the first era. The plane's status as a heaven-outside-the-heavens is still maintained as many scholars choose to spend their afterlives in its infinite halls. The realm is haunted by these ghosts of mortals forever searching for knowledge.

The Keepers

The infinite archive is maintained by the Keepers. They are giranium ophanim created by Gunian. During the The Angel Rebellion, while most angels who wanted to become devils were successful, those who botched the ritual or were unlucky enough to be 'taxed' by Gunian were transformed into these ringed librarians and forced to serve him for eternity. Many of his followers and any who sell their soul to him are also turned into keepers at the end of their lives.

Telekinetic floating rings, they have a nucleus in the middle that acts as their brain and power source. This nucleus is not able to be destroyed by conventional means, you cannot even touch it as physical matter just goes through it. They develop more rings as they grow older and more powerful. Each ring rotates and spins, making the being look like a gyroscope. The metal rings are somewhat flexible and bendable, despite being made of the metal Giranium. The oldest of the Keepers have been known to have upwards of fifteen rings. Each ring has eyes on it that alternate closed and open on every other ring. They only blink every few minutes, when the open and closed eyes switch. The Keepers have complete control over their rings and their axis. For example, they can turn themselves into a wheel if they so choose. Because they float at a fixed speed, they are not very fast by nature. Whenever they use their innate magic, the entire orb glows with a green flame. Keepers have been known to lock troublemakers inside their rings and nucleus.

They have only one purpose in their eternal lives—to study, and to archive. Rarely, you can find lone keepers across the cosmos, from unexplored jungles on alien planets, to scientific labs of mortal make. They are connected to all the knowledge in the Archive, and their goal is to constantly add knowledge to it. They teleport between realms at will, and they usually do not attack, only studying peacefully. Despite that, they can shoot magical beams out of their nucleus if threatened. While their nucleus is impervious to physical attacks, and the metal rings block most magic, they have an extreme weakness to any kind of psychic attacks or soul magic. If you can destroy their nucleus through those means, they simply fall apart. Despite their almost unlimited supply of knowledge, they are not extremely intelligent, only having above average intelligence at most. They are not very creative beings, only focused on learning and recording rather than making and thinking. And even though they have access to all knowledge, it does not mean that they know all knowledge. They only look up things in the Archive when they need to, which can often take a long time other species may not have patience for. Most scholars have learned to cooperate with the Keepers, because the knowledge they give back is unlimited. While most cooperate, some do not. Many do not want their secrets added to the Archive, and kill Keepers on sight.