Ahl-i-Batin
All things are connected, for all things are One.
Though this world appears to be a rich
pageant of people, places, creatures, and
thoughts, those myriad elements are but
mirrors and reflections of a greater Unity.
When one realizes this fundamental truth,
the Tapestry unfolds, responding to one’s will.
That Will and the Tapestry become One. This
truth the Ahl-i-Batin have known since their beginnings on
the legendary Night of Fana, when, in the midst of a terrible
war, a faction of Akashayana came upon a group of Darwushim
– dervishes – who were dancing and whirling in the moonlit
night. On that night, the Brothers and the Darwushim danced
together, forming a great mandala... and in the midst of that
dance, an ancient consciousness Awakened.
Called the Entelechy by certain scholars, this consciousness was said to be comprised of the Ascended souls of mages who lived in an age before this one, mages who hoped to bring humanity into harmonious unity with the cosmos. As the Entelechy manifested into our chaotic world, it fragmented and dissolved. In so doing, it caused the Akashayana and the Darwushim dancing in the center to become a single entity that was neither one man nor the other. This was the Kwajah- al-Akbar, and as it spoke its mighty prophecy, those who danced around it were enlightened. Time ceased to be. Everyone upon that field became one with their partners in the dance – united in mind, body, and spirit.
When the Fana ended, all those who had been joined became individuals once again, forever transformed by their experience. Of what use were names? Of what importance country or kingdom when one understood the Unity of all things? The story of that night ends with these newborn souls forming a circle and dancing a spiral into its center, where, one by one, they disappeared. When these Ahl-i-Batin (“Subtle” or “Interior” Ones) re-emerged, their sole purpose was to continue the legacy of the great consciousness that now spoke in the voices of their Avatars. From the humblest hut to the grandest palaces, these mages used their Awakened magicks to bring about Unity for all mankind.
These are the myths surrounding the Batini. Such tales recall that once, not long ago, the Ahl-i-Batin sat upon the Council of Nine Traditions, occupying the Seat of Connection, as Correspondence was then called. People have said that the rise of the Technocratic Union spelled the end of the Subtle Ones, forcing them all into exile – hiding in the mysterious Realm of Mount Qaf, lost to time and obscurity. Everyone knows that.
And what everyone knows is false.
The Ahl-i-Batin never went anywhere. Rather, they went everywhere, leaving the turmoil of the Technocratic pogroms in the Middle East to emerge in Europe, Asia, the Americas, Central and South Africa... always gently and softly bringing the world into Oneness – one whisper, one sigh, one leaf-fall at a time.
But although Batini ideals focus on Oneness and light, their methods, in practice, often take on the darker, bloodier cast of war – particularly with regards to their ancient fight against the Nephandi. It has been said that no one knows the ways of the Dark Mirrors, or battles them as assiduously, as the Batini do. It was Batini scholars, after all, who compiled the dreaded Sebil-el-Mafouh Whash that first detailed the Nephandi, and it was Batini Masters who drove the Devil Kings from the Middle East. Unfortunately, their deep connection to the Fallen also leaves the Subtle Ones far more susceptible to Nephandic corruption than they might be otherwise. Both groups could indeed be seen as opposite reflections of the same principle: all things are Unified, and thus all things remain bound... even light to darkness and oblivion to hope.
