Since His Majesty Gawain's coronation, the entire realm had once again become a unified whole, and the Administrative Hall had issued an order:
A comprehensive sorting of all books and archives across the nation was to be conducted, and all knowledge was to be given restorative protection.
The significance of this undertaking lay in organizing the technical data that had been scattered throughout the human world since the pioneer era, curbing the effects caused by gaps in Human Civilization's technological inheritance; in preserving historical evidence and regional records from the old kingdoms, ending the former chaos in which local accounts were confused and history intertwined with distorted legends; and in collecting and organizing the scriptures of all churches, further incorporating and reforming religious forces within the empire while weakening and eliminating the clergy's monopoly on knowledge.
Countless scholars, priests, and clerks had thrown themselves into this endeavor, one that might affect the empire's next hundred years. Yet unlike the grand projects that drew countless eyes, their work was quiet and tedious:
They wrestled endlessly with decayed ancient books, sorting files from vast amounts of repetitive, fragmented, and even contradictory text. Some of the moldy old books and dust-covered scrolls recorded powerful techniques dating back to Ancient Gandor, while others contained nothing more than crude, clumsy verses casually penned by some third-rate noble poet. All of it had been buried in heaps of old paper across the land, worn beyond recognition through court struggles, church conflicts, and wars between lords, nearly forgotten by all.
Centuries of civilizational decline and the chaotic medieval-style noble system had truly destroyed far too much. Too many treasures had been left to gather dust in the process.
As one of the participants in this undertaking, Savan Terry had actually begun his work much earlier. Not long