Order of Hermes

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The Order of Hermes is one of pillars of the Traditions. A Fellowship during the Dark Ages, it draws upon a potent fundus of magical knowledge and has shaped occult history to great deals.

Its failings however, are equally grand. Hubris runs strong within the elitist Order and with the Reckoning, many of their traditional ways are challenged. Old, carefully hoarded secrets are gone forever in many cases, while mystical items and powerful patrons are destroyed or locked away beyond the hostile Gauntlet. The survivors on Earth can only hope to remember their teachings and learn all that they can. The Order will survive, but it may not be the same Order that it once was.

Paradigm

Hermetic philosophy is complex and many-layered. At the heart, the Hermetics profess the drive to perfection. This drive manifests through trials, tests, self-discovery, and the rejoining of fragmented patterns like disparate languages or mathematical conundrums. Ideally, each individual has a Word, a divine imperative that drives the figure's revelations. By exploring the boundaries of that Word and all of its meanings, the individual rises to his inner nature, then beyond. Each step in the process is a challenge that requires a leap of perception but also opens the way to the next path. Eventually, the human passes far enough to become something cosmically divine.

In the Dark Ages, the Order of Hermes practiced four Forma based on a Foundation of Modus (formidable discipline): Anima (command of life), Corona (command of the mind), Primus (command of Quintessence), and Vires (command of elemental forces).

Early History

The Tradition traces its roots to the Sumer and ancient Egypt of 5000 years ago around the time when the first writing systems were developed. Before written language, names were thought to be inherent to the objects they designated as reflections of their true natures. With writing as an ability to catch and manipulate names, the scribe was able to imprison the object and manipulate its very nature. The catching of names was considered a magical act in ancient societies so the ability to write was reserved for the clergy under the direct influence of gods of wisdom and magic such as Thoth.

From the summonings of Babylonian priests to Egyptian priest's divining the Nile's flooding from stars to Solomon's seals, which gave him control over world, it was the time of the greatest mages of Western tradition. It was also the time when the greatest grimoires and talismans were created. However, apart from Solomon we don't know their names and so the body of knowledge consisting of theurgia, goetia, astrology and alchemy was known as the work of a single Ascended being called Hermes Trismegistus.

Letters provided useful metaphors for abstract concepts, so for the first time in history thinkers were able to ascend from the physical world into whole new realms of ideas. First, Plato formed the theory of realism that allowed a secular paradigm for controlling every element of reality. Mystics then equated ideals with divinity developing manicheic, gnostic, neoplatonic and other dualistic theories around 2nd century CE, forming the Cult of Mercury as one of the first united magical traditions. But the great intellectual upsurge of the 2nd century was soon squashed by the rapid expansion of Christianity which strove for orthodoxy in the Mediterranean region. Soon Rome fell and Western civilization fell onto Dark Times. The Cult of Mercury officially disbanded itself in 415. Hermetic scholars fragmented, the sharing of ideas halted and wizards secluded themselves in their towers for protection and to study free of the Church's inquiry.

Dark Ages

The Order was formally founded in 767 in the german city of Durenmar, thanks to the efforts of the wizard Bonisagus, developer of the Parma Magica, which allowed mages to meet each other without fearing an attack, and lady Trianoma, who united the disparate remnants of the old Cult of Mercury. In the Pax Hermetica, the joined Houses united their magical knowledge to form the Ars Hermetica, which would later have significant influence on the Sphere model of the Traditions.

The original Order of Hermes

House	Founder	Specialization
House Bjornaer	Mistress Bjornaer	Shapeshifting
House Bonisagus	Lord Bonisagus	Magical Theory
House Criamon	Lord Criamon	Enigmas
House Diedne	Boann Diedne	Druids
House Ex Miscellanea
House Flambeau	Tempus Flambeau	War Magic
House Jerbiton	Augustus Jerbiton	Mundane Affairs
House Mercere	Henri Mercere	Messengers
House Merinita	Lady Merinita	Faeries
House Quaesitori	Guernicus	Justice
House Tremere	Tremere	Hierarchy/Magical Duelling
House Tytalus	Master Tytalus	Will
House Verditius	Lord Verditius	Enchantment

These mighty magi signed the Code of Hermes and began the hard work of assimilating other lost hermetic knowledge. They met several enemies in less civilized lands, who opposed the Orders claim of magical superiority. The Houses of Tremere, Tytalus and Flambeau became the foremost soldiers in this conflict, developing the tradition of Certamen for magical duelling. In 817, Pralix bani Tytalus brought an alliance of celtic wizards into the fold. Against protests from some of the more conservative members, a new House was formed: Ex Miscellanea, which would contain all smaller traditions.

In 848, the Founder of House Tremere sought to become the Orders sole leader, but was stopped by a cabal of independent mages. Despite this, warnings to the other Houses of the danger of House Tremere went unheeded. In 876, the Order seized its prime covenant, the fortress of Doissetep, from the hands of Infernalists (although critics claim that the Hermetics merely painted the former owners as Infernalists as a justification for their prize) and moved it to the Pyrenees in 891 as their new headquarter. Under their stewardship, magical traditions in Europe began again to consolidate and prosper again.

House Tremere, however, schemed steadily to gain more power within the Order. They turned on House Diedne, the most clannish isolate house, and accused them of diabolism. In the Schism War of 1003, House Tremere and House Flambeau turned on House Diedne and destroyed them, with the sanction of the other Houses. It was during the war, that some mages felt a shift in the nature of magic. Spells began to fail and former rituals that worked without flaw began to cease. Tremere, fearful of losing any iota of his power, comissioned researched from the Chantry of Ceoris, which later yielded insight into vampirism thanks to captured members of the native Tzimisce. Convinced that vampirism is the key to unlimited power, Tremere and seven of his disciples underwent a ritual in 1022 that turned them into vampires, becoming the first of Clan Tremere.

The rest of the Order did not notice the corruption of one of their founding Houses. In 1171, thanks to new insight from the Middle East brought home by the Crusaders, the Hermetic Lorenzo Golo of Florence laid hands on the Kitab Al-Alacir. His fascination with the text led to the formation of his own House, House Golo and later, in 1188 to his desertion of the Order to throw his lot with the Templar Simon de Laurent, who would form the Natural Philosopher's Guild. The growing of an academic class within the population suited the Order, who found many eager apprentices for their own arts.

In 1199, the Order discovered Tremere's crime and declared war upon the rogue House in 1204. The first Massassa War saw an alliance of House Tytalus with the Tzimisce in order to destroy the upstarts, but the Tremere were prepared. Gargoyle swarms and Blood Sorcery, as well as the quicker capabilities of vampires to propagate left both sides of the war devastated and in 1299, the Order simply abandoned the war, hoping that the Tremere would die out on their own. In the conflict, House Jerbiton was demoted and placed amidst the rabble of House Ex Miscellanea, the first of the Founding Houses to fall, later followed by House Merinita in 1300s. Also, the covenant of Mistridge fell to the Craftmasons in 1210, generally believed to be one of the first shots fired in the Ascension War. At the time, no one noticed the significance of the event.

The new millenium brought several upheveals. The Bubonic Plague devastated the Orders infrastructure and led to further disgruntlement among the population to the arrogant wizards in their towers, who lorded over the peasants like kings and cared nothing about their plights. The begin of the Progrom by the newly founded Order of Reason, who sought to end the tyranny of superstitionists and wizards further destabilized the Orders hold upon the universities. In 1412, the Order adopted the Egyptian priests of Isis into their ranks, as House Shaea. In 1429, the prominent mage Gilles de Rais bani Ex Miscellaneae became barabbi, after a failed attempt to use the young peasant girl Joan d'Arc to drive out the English and her burning as a witch in 1430. Infighting and distrust between the Houses after the failed Massassa War paralyzed the Hermetics and would surely have doomed them.

In 1440, the word of other mages reached the Order who sought alliances to fight against the depleting of magic. A meeting between the witch Nightshade, the priest Valoran and the Hermetic LaSalle in the ruins of Mistridge further cemented the need of cooperation. After the Order of Reason attacked Doissetep itself and forced the mages to relocate it to the Shard Realm of Forces in 1448, the construction of Horizon began to prepare for the Grand Convocation of mages from all over the world. The Order allied itself to several Dragons and declared war upon the Order of Reason. LaSalle, part of House Tytalus, dueled the masters of several Houses to force unity into the Order, aided by House Criamon and House Verditius. It was hard work and lasted eight years before the Order could make its stand at the Grand Convocation.

During the Convocation, House Bjornaer split from the Order to join the nascent Verbenae. Hermetic arrogance costed them many friends and proposals that all other magical Traditions should join their Order as Hermetic Houses (or as part of House Ex Miscellaneae) were met with ridicule and scorn. The Order maintained its identity thanks to its exploits against the Daedalans of the Order of Reason. Plans of uniting with the Ngoma or Wu Lung were met with derision from the Order, who didn't believe that anything would be gained by allowing savages and primitives in their ranks. Also, the other Traditions rejected the supremacy of the Order, despite major contributions in the magickal theory and organization of the Council of Nine. The Order then assumed the Seat of Forces within the Council, but many Masters were bitter about this. Some Hermetics wondered if joining the Order of Reason might be feasible. After all, both Orders required discipline, discretion, scholarship and a passion for understanding; both believed a small elite must guide and protect the masses. This was quickly abandoned by the majority of the Order.