What do you get when a spy, a scholar, and a sliver of divine will walk into a bar? The lead-in to a bad joke, indeed, but also the great enclave of Belvedere.
Belvedere is one of the great old Orgs, founded soon after the Dark Ages ended and Aurelia brought the Gods' graces to Færrin. The Watcher gave the first Provost a mandate to chronicle the planet as it was, is, and will be. The first Provost journeyed to the peaks of the highest mountains on the planet, such that his view of the Watcher's sky would be unimpeded and Færrin's ground would be clear. There, in Austrene, he founded the first chancery of Belvedere, a public forum for studying the natural world and recording any newfound knowledge.
What Have You Become?
No mortal-built structure is permanent, and Belvedere is no exception. Thanks to outside pressures, what began as a simple fact-recording outfit quickly ballooned into so much more. While the first Provost and his like were content to sequester themselves away from the rest of the world, the promise of powerful secrets was too much of a lure for other Orgs.
Belvedere was beset by those who would crack it open and harvest any power they might find within. To survive, it changed. First came political meddling -- members of the Org who would learn people instead of things. After all, the people of Færrin are just as crucial to its history as natural events. Socialites and spies from Belvedere would enter high society and fight proxy wars, turning their enemies against each other and spreading discontent.
Second came the Hearts, slivers of sentient divine energy gifted by the Outer Gods. As Belvedere expanded, so too did its data availability. Before long, the quantity of information far outstripped their ability to process it. The Hearts had no such issues and could easily connect seemingly disparate data points. Quickly, the Hearts became coordinators and leaders within the Org, and in the modern day, many report to a Heart alongside (or instead of) another person.
Now, a member of Belvedere has a few paths to take. They could join the ranks of the academics, studying natural phenomena. They could become archivists, recording history's ebb and flow. They could be aristocrats, moving through polite society like a fish through water. Finally, they could be arcanists, working closely with the Hearts and their divine machinery.
Few places in Austrene concentrate Fanes and Hearts as densely as Belvedere — the Hearts folded into the city's hierarchy as an additional layer rather than an afterthought, which lends the place an unusual spiritual texture. That the city doubles as a school, with children receiving a proper education alongside whatever else Belvedere demands of them, only deepens the sense that power here is being quietly cultivated from the ground up.