The Orphic Circle
Description
The Orphic Circle is a scholarly society that knows a great deal about the mysteries of the Underworld. To gain such knowledge, however, sacrifices are required – often quite literally. Many members sacrifice the living and the dead to obtain information about mortality... and to sate their own curiosity. To them, the highest goal of existence is to rediscover the sacred Mysteries of the Underworld that Orpheus took from Hades. A chief Orphic god is Eubouleus (also known to many as Dionysus). Destined by his father Zeus and his mother Persephone to be Lord Over All, he is now lord of the Underworld, god of Nether World, and god of wine, pleasure, and immortality.
Because some members of the Orphic Circle also hold memberships in other highly secret societies, every Orphic Circle member takes a mystically binding oath of secrecy.
Despite their common bonds, Orphics do not automatically know everything about the nature of their colleagues. Many an Orphic scholar has remained blissfully unaware that the ongoing acolyte he called his protÈgÈ was a necromantic vampire or a mage in disguise. In fact, most mortals within the Circle remain unaware that there are vampires and mages in their midst; likewise, many mages are unaware of vampires, and vise versa. Such secrets are even better kept than that of Circle membership. When they aren’t, members die.
The venerable tradition of the Orphic Circle reaches beyond recorded history into the shadows of a more mythic time. Current members believe that its founder was an Egyptian vampire named Lazarus whose fear of the second death led him to descend into the Underworld to seek true immortality. From his belief in the mysteries of the Isis-Osiris religion sprang the Court of the Orphic Circle, whose members even today practice rituals derived from many of Orphism’s Mysteries.
The Orphic Circle still retains this time-honored tradition of the descent into the Underworld, after the legend of Orpheus who did the same. Today’s three hundred members uniformly share the desire to discover the true nature of death and immortality, and have come along way toward doing so. Consisting of scholars, vatics, death mages, vampires, and even some wraiths, the Orphic Circle promotes research in the Underworld and, like a well-greased piece of Machiavellian machinery, involves itself deeply and securely in the politics of the Restless.
Ranking System
The Orphic Circle has two divisions: the Inner and the Outer Circles. The Inner Circle consists solely of the priesthood (The Ebon Bench), while the Outer Circle consists of the Orphic Circles’ membership. Members of the Outer Circle are all considered equal, although children are accepted into its ranks on rare occasions, and when this occurs, the child must defer to the Outer (or Inner) Circle member who sponsored him. Incidentally, in the Orphic fashion, children are allowed to attend all rituals and festivities held for Outer Circle members.
Practices of the Orphic Circle
Many of the practices of the modern Orphic Circle are based on the ancient Orphism and the cult of Dionysus. It is said that when the Greek hero Orpheus returned from the Underworld, he brought back with him precious scrolls which outlined the Mysteries of the afterlife and the precepts which mortals should follow in order to enjoy it.
From these, the Orphic poems were written, memorised and passed on from one generation to the next. Eventually, a cult grew up around the poems, some of the beliefs of which are:
- -- Upon death we are judged on the basis of our deeds in life. If judged well, we enjoy feasts, sex and other pleasures in the afterlife.
- -- The judge is known as Diké (Dee-kay). Sometimes depicted as a fierce huntress, sometimes as a punitive she-demon (poinai), Diké can be identified by her huge glossy black wings, the short loincloth and long boots she wears in the manner of ancient huntresses. She represents moral responsibility and the darker side of an otherwise very life-centered religion.
- -- Life is joy; if life is not enjoyed, neither shall death be enjoyed. Thus, black clothes shall not be worn at the altar of the gods, and impurities must be purged before all sacred events.
- -- Seek immortality in all things. Most blessed are those who create – actors, playwrights, poets, writers, artists, mothers and fathers.
- -- The cosmogenic egg is most sacred. Appearing dead like a stone to the eye, it is nevertheless filled with life-power, and, from it, the universe mystically originates. Used properly, the sacred egg can restore the dead to life. Also sacred is the phallus, particularly when represented in a liknon (an oblong basket of wickerwork filled with fruit or corn and chaff and covered with a cloth from which protrudes what looks like a phallus) and the mask of the god Eubouleus.
