Mysterium

The Mysterium is one of the five Orders of the Pentacle.

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The Mysterium in Blackmouth

The mystagogues have effectively ruled Blackmouth’s Concilium since the end of the Upheaval and the consolidation of their detente with the Guardians. Mervolian’s reforms have ended the absolute lock that the Mysterium held on the Ruling Council but has done nothing to undo the decades of entrenched structural and political systems that keep the majority of power in the Order’s hands. Which is a shame, as the Mysterium cabals are a fractious and disunited lot, too interested in their own obsessions and curiosities to see the way things are changing. Their star is waning and the disenfranchised Cabals Minoris are grumbling for a final end to the stalemate of the old detente. Rhiannon will likely be the last mystagogue to claim the title of Hierarch for a long time.

The Mysterium of the city are split along lines of cabal and personal obsession, with much of the political power of the Order held in three old cabals, two of the Majoris who have held power throughout the detente, and one with ambitions to reclaim lost glory.

The Preceptors of the Keystone, lead by the current Hierarch and two her predecessors, has been the preeminent cabal of the Concilium for much of the last century. It split from the Congregation of the Granite Obscure during the Upheaval and was in position to secure power as those turbulent times ended. The Preceptors primary interest has always been in geomancy, especially the Working of the Rebirth, and in the legends and works of Victor Herbert Crane. While their primary sanctum is hidden in a very particular corner of Hollingworth, they maintain multiple sites and vaults hidden near points of confluence in the leylines of the city, many of them containing strange relics guarded by proximi and bound entities of all sorts. Among these guarded relics are Dianann’s Stone, three of the strange items bequeathed by Slocum’s will, and numerous Crane art pieces.

The Geognostic Society is the oldest cabal in the city, and second only to the vaunted Ebon Noose of Boston for the eldest in the USA. Led by Verlamion, Councilor of the Coin, the Society was founded in the mid-18th century by mages inspired by James’ Hutton’s concept of Time and how it related to Atlantis and the Time Before. Its focus over the centuries has remained on the secrets of stone and the hidden mysteries that others overlook so easily. They weathered the Upheaval by remaining largely apolitical and rose to prominence only because they were comparatively unharmed by the conflict. Several Hierarchs in the century since have come from the ranks of the society, but they have always preferred the sedate pace of their studies to the haste of politics, though the long centuries of the cabal’s existence has enabled it to foster many unusual contacts and acquaintances. They are a small group consisting of three full members, all Masters of at least the First Degree, and their apprentices.

The Congregation of the Granite Obscure is an old cabal, arguably as old as the Geognostics but one that has been in abeyance for nearly a century. Originally founded by a religious mage trying to decipher Dianann’s Stone and the secrets of Blackmouth through the relics of found in the caverns beneath the city, it suffered a number of calamities during the 19th century that culminated with a number of members splitting from the cabal and taking the majority of its library and secrets to form the Preceptors of the Keystone. The Congregation eventually collapsed into a simple lineage of master and apprentice and remained a footnote in awakened history for over a century until Herodotus Morn gathered allies to reform the Congregation as a cabal once more. Since Morn’s passing the small cabal has been led by his apprentice Suleiman, who is still working to unify the disparate allies his master gathered, and make good on the deals he made to allow the Congregation to recover some of its strength.