"Ah yes, let the athletes, the philosophers, the magicians, the thinkers, the painters and the poets each attend an event every seventh year. This event should test all said skills, and the winner of each shall be praised and glorified for all eternity."
Create an underground species of glowing mushrooms. They are unable to move as they are stationary, but they can hear VERY well, and through their chemical senses and such they communicate. Their purpose is to gather all information they can get. This knowledge they find is saved in the hive consciousness. The most important bits of knowledge are saved not only by the hive, but also one of the mushroom castes creates gems storing this information by magic and chemistry.
The Castes of the Luuvan
Communicators: Rare and only produced in places with frequent travellers coming by, they are usually produced to warn or to trick people of oncoming dangers, they are usually surrounded by many Sense-Based Luuvan
Knowledge Keeper: For every 150 Luuvan there is at least one Keeper. They gather the information and create Knowledge Gems
Spore Belcher: The biggest in size of all the castes, their purpose is to create spores and spit them anywhere. Usually placed at crossroads in cave systems, so they can spread their spores in all directions.
Eye Stalker: Common caste, exists to see
Ear Wall: Common caste which spreads on walls, exists to hear
Feeler: Very small in size, yet numerous, they spread over floors and send the signals of movement through the mushroom network hive mind
Chemistry: Rare Sensory mushrooms with heightened chemical sense, there to smell fires coming or chemical inbalances in the air.
Defending Stalks: There is three different subcastes to this caste, these mushrooms exist to defend the hive. One of the subcastes shoots hardened spikes, the second caste sprays a terribly smelling miasma, while the third, least common, caste shoots with acid.
Each hive is dedicated to gathering knowledge, and will expand towards the most likely source of interesting information. So a city canalisation seems like one good place to settle.