Eyes of Avalir

The Eyes of Avalir, sometimes simply the Eyes, is an agency of detectives and investigators working for the Magisterium of Avalir. The organization works out of the Hall of Eyes, and it holds watches throughout the city, serves as a point of contact for the constabularies of other cities, investigates the deaths of mages who failed to ascend to godhood in mimicry of the Raven Queen, and is tasked with protecting the Tree of Names.

Sightwardens, apparently specifically investigators within the Eyes, are trained in skills ranging from identifying visual cues of various illusions to sensing magical auras. They are highly competent in combat, particularly against mages. At the time of Exandria Unlimited: Calamity, the Senior Sightwarden was Cerrit Agrupnin.

The emblem of the Eyes of Avalir is an eye with a slitted pupil.

Description
The Eyes of Avalir works for Avalir's Magisterium, which is concerned with magical law. It is tasked with forever protecting the Tree of Names, an artifact that is "incredibly, profoundly important to the significance and safety of Avalir". Its members are said to "have to make it make sense in this world of magic and insanity and try to find reason and logic in a place that seems ruled by the belief that there are never going to be prices or consequences for any of this".

The organization maintains watches throughout Avalir, at least through the late night. It additionally works with constabularies of other cities, such as that of Vasselheim; it is contacted in matters of missing persons and to search for anyone stowing away within the city. The Eyes regularly open cases on mages who were killed failing to ascend to godhood in the style of the Raven Queen.

Hall of Eyes
The Hall of Eyes, the headquarters of the Eyes of Avalir, is located in the Cloudstone district of the city. The building is very large and made of marble, and it is described as lacking a hum of magic within its walls and is instead filled with a "cold and silent somberness".

At the center of the building is a 40 foot by 40 foot room carved from a single piece of marble that serves as a psychometric chamber that builds replicas of spaces using the memory of objects placed inside it. One wall contains a window of magical force that allows operators of the room to see into it while it is at rest and to communicate with anyone standing inside. The room has controls that allows someone using the room to move the chamber forward and backward in time and to access the Librarium Incantatum's record of magical objects.

A section of the Hall of Eyes is called the Hawk's Nest. The office of Senior Sightwarden Cerrit Agrupnin is located there. Orwyn's office is down the hall from Cerrit's.

History
The Eyes of Avalir is considered a "very old" organization by the time of Exandria Unlimited: Calamity.

Exandria Unlimited: Calamity
Some days before the events of Exandria Unlimited: Calamity, the Eyes of Avalir were called upon by Vasselheim authorities to investigate the disappearance of Vespin Chloras, who was believed to have possibly stowed away to Avalir. Additional rumors were that Vespin was trying to recreate the Raven Queen's ritual and ascend to godhood himself. While they intended to dismiss the case when Vespin was not found, believing it to be a standard failed ascension, a member of the Ring of Silver asked them to keep the physical evidence for reasons of academic importance instead of sending the items to be destroyed as usual. This prompted Orwyn, the investigator on the case, to bring Senior Sightwarden Cerrit Agrupnin into the investigation at the beginning of. Cerrit's initial findings led him to realize that it was an unusual case, and he asked Orwyn to keep the investigation private between themselves. Per Cerrit's instructions, Orwyn wrote a report, sent it and the items to Cerrit's office, then destroyed all other records so that Cerrit had the only copies.

Loras claimed that Eldamir the Wise, a member of the Septarion ruling council to whom Loras was apprenticed, was interested in Cerrit's investigation. he asked Cerrit's friend Patia Por'co to report anything she learned from Cerrit to him, instead of alerting the Magisterium.

That night, Cerrit was involved in a fight with allies of Vespin, including Lacrytia Hollow, k'nauthi mages, and other traitors in the city. He was targeted by an aggressive Detect Thoughts spell and was forced to relay details of his investigation, notably the location of Vespin's personal effects and that Orwyn was involved. Shortly after, he returned to the Hall of Eyes to find the report and items missing from his office and Orwyn dead in his own office. Before he died, Orwyn was able to kill multiple of his attackers and write a letter to Cerrit. In his letter, Orwyn acknowledged that Avalir did not have much time left and informed Cerrit that the two included Runes of Recall were for Cerrit's children and keyed to their mother. He lost strength to write in the middle of wishing Cerrit luck.

Membership
There are no wizards in the Eyes of Avalir, and there are few, if any, in its ranks capable of spellcasting seeing as members do not carry or wear the equipment of spellcasters and are instead armed with weapons. Members of the Eyes of Avalir wear rings bearing the organization's emblem. Apparently, investigators within the organization are called Sightwardens.

Sightwarden training
Sightwardens have "rigorous" training in various skills to combat spellcasters. They are significantly trained to identify magic, notably visual cues for someone hidden by Invisibility, other illusion spells, or shapeshifting and visual cues for control spells such as Dominate Person. They are also trained to develop the ability to feel magical auras and presences, ranging from an aura around an individual to the overlapping of leylines and the starting of the spell engines as Avalir travels. Sightwardens are highly competent in combat, especially against mages; Cerrit is described as knowing what nerve to hit to reliably force a mage to drop a spell, and Orwyn killed multiple ambushing attackers on his own before he was overwhelmed.

Sightwardens are taught in the history of the city, such as the existence of the Tree of Names; though, information about the Tree of Names is considered an old piece of training. They also can access at their discretion records documenting the image and arcane mark of every senior archmage that Avalir encounters in Exandria. Because there are no wizards in the Eyes of Avalir, the Sightwardens instead rely on simple enchanted items, such as Runes of Recall, to do their work.

Known members

 * Cerrit Agrupnin, Senior Sightwarden, eisfuura
 * Orwyn, half-orc investigator
 * Costello, present when Cerrit and Orwyn used the psychometric chamber

Trivia

 * It is unclear how Cerrit's title of Guardian of the Seventh, apparently a title related to the Magisterium, relates to the Eyes of Avalir, if at all.