Editing Illumian (section)

===Quill===
While vengeance cabals take the fight to the [[githyanki]], quill cabals instead attempt to reassemble the lore the illumians lost when the githyanki sacked the Library of the Sublime. Avaricious book collectors, quill cabals stop at nothing to acquire tomes they don’t already possess. Their libraries are first-rate, which makes them a target for forces that desire the knowledge ensconced on the shelves of illumian enclaves.

'''Typical Directorates:''' The two most important directorates in a quill cabal are the acquisitions directorate (which acquires new tomes and lore for the cabal’s library) and the collections directorate (which organizes, researches, and guards the library). The other directorates exist solely to support these two directorates, and the illumians at a quill cabal’s Black Table are almost all former acquisitions or collections directors. Quill cabals also include outreach directorates devoted to working with libraries in nearby communities, often at a wizards’ college or major temple. The illumians arrange to staff the library with their sages and make loans from the quill cabal’s library in exchange for access to the stacks. While the illumian librarians quickly extract any useful lore from the library they’re staffing, they remain afterward to watch for new books.

'''Plots:''' A quill cabal does its utmost to obtain new or recently discovered books, so the acquisitions directorate is at the forefront of the cabal’s plots. An acquisitions directorate might hire explorers to delve into ancient ruins, or it might sponsor a long journey to acquire a work of great worth—sometimes from a willing seller, but often without the knowledge of the book’s current owner. Quill cabals have their share of intracabal plotting. Conflict can emerge between the acquisitions directorate and the outreach directorate if an outside library has important lore. The acquisitions directorate wants to seize the material outright, but the outreach directorate wants to preserve the relationship with the outside library.

'''Enemies and Allies:''' Quill cabals maintain friendly relations with other kinds of illumian cabals—they have a reason to be cordial, and all cabals recognize the value of rebuilding the storehouse of knowledge that was once the illumians’ greatest possession. Through their outreach directorates, quill cabals develop powerful allies among wizard colleges, religious libraries, and collectors of lore. While these alliances are pervasive, they don’t always run deep. For example, the church of [[Boccob]] may appreciate the librarians from a quill cabal, but that doesn’t mean they would mount a crusade to save the cabal from a [[githyanki]] attack.

'''Enclaves:''' Quill cabals are packed to the brim with books, maps, scrolls, and lore in all its forms. Shelves line even the hallways in a quill cabal enclave. The central library is usually riddled with traps that kill or imprison intruders while leaving fragile books unharmed. Every quill cabal enclave has a shrine to [[Aulasha]], and she figures prominently in much of the artwork and architectural ornamentation. Quill cabal enclaves also maintain the usual array of magical laboratories as well as workshops for papermaking, binderies, and the like. If the cabal has an active outreach directorate, the enclave creates magic portals to remote libraries where its librarians work.