Speculating about the Archaic Elevated Caste...

[Petike]

Seriously, the Archaic form the very backbone of the whole Penumbra series' plot and backstory. But what do we actually know about them ?

They are clearly a worldwide and ancient organization of some sort. Hints :

1. The note found in the toolshed in Overture, which has two types of dating - one is the usual 2001 AD, but the other states 9000-something... This would mean, that the Archaic have been around since the end of the last ice age (?!)

2. Their members found or mentioned in the entire Greenland base are of very diverse nationalities, though most of them come from the Americas, Europe or Australia.

They apparently have enough money and material to fund their secret activities, which consist of research of all things paranormal, mysterious, or defying regular scientific explanation.

Now for the questions :

Were they a religious cult/order, or a more pragmatic, atheist-like group, obsessed only with forbidden science ?
Do they recrute new members regularly, or favor people of a "chosen" ancestry ?
How many of them are there anyway ? Do they have other secret research bases around the world ?
Any mentions of a rank system or special terminology or something ?
(Carpenter kept mumbling about "rank" and "status".)
Did they have any sort of insignia ?
(I personally don't remember stumbling upon anything while playing.)

What are your opinions about them ?
Go on and feel free to speculate.
I doubt that Tom Jubert or the devs will tell us (if they ever got as far as creating a detailed background for the Archaic)... :-)