Orders in the Twin Cities

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The Orders in the Twin Cities

The Free Council is the main force in Minneapolis, the FTRP, the Transhuman Society and the Seekers of Truth are all major Free Council cabals in the city. However, this also results in the Free Council being slightly disorganized, as there is no decision-making body for the Order: the FTRP considers the Assembly and the Free Council one and the same, so the Order doesn't really present a unified front anymore, and the views of individual cabals are more important thant he ideals of the Order.

Surprisingly enough, there is also a Free Council presence in St. Paul. When the Free Democrats were exiled by the Assembly, a lot of them decided to risk their old enemies before the Seers of the Throne. A delegation presentented itself at the Consillium and asked the Hierarch for refuge in exchange for information about the Assembly's plans and secrets. The Hierarch, seeing value in the deal, accepted, and the Free Democrats formed a cabal in St. Paul, dedicated to organizing Free Council opposition to the FTRP, and achieving democratic reforms in the Consillium through peaceful means. The Hierarch, secure of their loyalty, generally lets them do what they want, even set up their own small Assembly, although the rising number of Free Council mages, either from younger apprentices espousing democratic ideas or even a rising number of older mages discontent with SIlver Ladder rule, is beginning to worry him. The St. Paul Council is always one step away from being branded treasonous and exiled. Again.

The Silver Ladder is the ruling body in St. Paul, and the most numerous order in that city, mainly due to its practice of accepting exiles and discontents from Minneapolis into the city if they join. The Silver Ladder has regular caucuses, in addition to Consillium meetings, to ensure a more or less unified view in Consillium. The caucuses are less dominated by the Hierarch, Atum, and his cabal, the Black Pyramid, than their opposition would have one believe. The Black Pyramid, though powerful, is hardly powerful enough to rule without making compromises with other Silver Ladder cabals. Other prominent cabals with a majority of Silver Ladder members are the Phoenix Feather, radicals pursuing the forced Awakening of the whole of humanity, and staunch enemies of the Guardians of the Veil, and the Golden Throne, a power-hungry group of willworkers that are watched suspiciously as a result of their Seer-like rhetoric.

The Silver Ladder does not exist in Minneapolis. The FTRP deems all Silver Ladder members to be counter-revolutionary and enemies of the Assembly, and forcibly exiles any mages that espouse sympathy for Silver Ladder views. This has created a certain presence of exilesin St. Paul, usually resentful of the Assembly. This is the origin of most of the Golden Throne members, and their strong anti-Assembly sentiment is probably the only reason the Consillium tolerates their views.

The Adamantine Arrow is split in two factions that hate each other to the death and would stop at nothing to completely eliminate their "enemies". First there are the original Arrows of St. Paul, represented by the Order of Mars, a cabal dedicated to maintaining order and the authority of the Consillium, and the Frogtown Boxers, a cabal whose stated goal is to achieve martial perfection through harsh training, ascetic regime and, curiously enough, gang warfare. Then, the People's Revolutionary Army of Minneapolis, modelled after communist guerillas and spouting a radical leftist political view, they are the enforcers of the Assembly's will and the hated enemies of the St. Paul Arrows. Apart from the PRA, a few associated Adamantine Arrows exist in Minneapolis, but the Arrow and the PRA are basically one and the same.

The Guardians of the Veil of the Twin Cities are disinterested in the convoluted politics of the region, as they feel it only distracts them from their job. Unfortunately, this neutrality means they are often dragged into conflicts between the cities as mediators who, though not trusted, are at least equally reviled by both factions. The Guardians go along with this, because it ensures them a place in the Twin Cities, but hardly ever use it to maneuver political advantage. To the Guardians, the most important thing is to keep the conflict between cities from spilling out onto the streets and causing untold damage to reality, and keeping the Seers of the Throne from accumulating too much power. There are no Guardian-dominated cabals in the Twin Cities, strangely enough, as the Guardians prefer to combine their objectives with those of other Orders and so be able to levvy more resources. This means that Guardian caucuses are meetings of Guardians from different cabals of different cities, and although led by Nebet-het of the Black Pyramid, the Guardians do a good job of working on issues in both cities.. .and under both the Consillium and the Assembly's noses.

The Mysterium, although split in two for historical reasons, take the bitter politicking between the Cities in their stride, and stand at arms length to both ruling bodies. The Minneapolis mystagogues, including prominent members of the Transhuman Society and the totality of the secretive Board of Mysteries, practice the Free Council's techné, with a definite slant for making what they sometimes humorously refer to as "magitech": impossibl technology powered by Mana. The Order maintains a friendly rivalry with the St. Paul Mysterium, represented by the Resplandent Pentacle, an Asian elements-themed cabal that specializes in uncovering the primordial aspects of magic, and the Society of Illustrous Gentlemen, who sponsor Awakened-led expeditions to little-known parts of the world to uncover knowledge of Atlantis preserved in ancient ruins. The two branches of the Order are politically independent, but regularly hold inter-city meetings where they compare discoveries and magical achievments. The Mysterium is generally considered good-hearted and unconcerned with the paranoia that dominates the Cities, though many criticise their political apathy as tacit support of the unjust regimes, and their unwillingness to share their discoveries, even when the security of the community is at stake.