The Naos Group
The Naos Group, named for the concept of the naos, the holy inner sanctum where the idols of the gods were kept in pagan temples of old, is an organization nearly a century old. The Naos Group is quite wealthy and influential, with branch offices all over the world.
The Naos Fanums
Currently, there are eleven active Fanums, though twelve have been built in the past century or so — the third of them, the Berlin Fanum, was destroyed during the twilight years of World War II.
The Naos Group offices are small affairs, generally consisting of three to five offices, a lobby and conference room, a director’s office and a small attached emergency bedroom suite. These offices serve the public face of the Naos Group, serving as offices for the charity and research grant functions of the Group.
These offices always connect to nearby buildings through secret passages, however — generally speaking, while it may seem that the Naos Group is only a small suite of offices in a larger building, the truth is that the Group as a whole generally owns the whole building. These buildings, in addition to providing office space, also boast extensive living areas to shelter Naos Group operatives.
The Athens Fanum
The first of the Naos Fanums, the Athens Fanum was built in the 1890s. The small four story building that houses the Fanum has seen many incarnations, including a short period during World War II where any traces to the Naos Group were expunged.
Currently, the Athens Fanum acts as an office for the Naos Group, with six offices in addition to the director’s office. The other offices around the Naos Group are rented out to short-term corporate ventures, such as come-and-go travel agents, telemarketing ventures and the like.
Between these offices run a corridor of secret passages providing egress from the Naos Group offices as well as access to various janitorial closets and electrical rooms. The second story of the Athens Fanum consists of vaults, archives and archaeological research labs and storage warehouse space. The materials stored here consist primarily of relics, artifacts and lore associated with the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe. The only public access to this floor is a small lobby with doors to six small apartments, all kept for the use of the Naos Group (though three of them are occupied by agents of the Athens Fanum).
The top two floors are nothing but apartments, half of which are kept for the use of the Naos Group employees, and the other half of which are rented out to promising university students that the Naos Group wishes to cultivate, or others with interesting and promising skills that might find use by the Group.
The New York Fanum
The second of the Fanums, the New York Fanum was built in the first decade of the 1900s. Located in the Upper East Side of Manhattan Island, the New York Fanum is best known for housing the Richston Center for Anthropological Studies, with the small Naos Group offices tucked into the back upper floors of the museum.
The Group offices here boast only three offices, plus the director’s office and guest suite. The vault here stores relics and similar items taken from the Eastern and Middle United States, as well as most of Canada. The Group also owns a brownstone across the street, however, where many of the Group’s agents and employees live.
