Mysterium/temp

Philosophy
Forget Fallen World governments and occult politics. Knowledge is power. Over time, mystic lore trumps worldly ambition. The members of the Mysterium consider their order the purest because it shuns mundane power. Its members prefer to seek pure magical knowledge. This doesn't mean that there aren't influential mystagogues (as mages of the Mysterium call themselves), but even so, members of the Mysterium seek out knowledge first. Power is the welcome side effect of holding the chief currency of the occult: sorcerous lore.



Character concepts
The stereotypical Mysterium cabal is a group of lonely sages minding moldering grimoires and corroded Artifacts. Throughout history, witch-hunters and ignorance have forced the order to seclude itself, waiting centuries for human curiosity to defeat dogmatism. Old mystagogues still tend the ancient library-fortresses, but the modern order is more adventurous. The modern mystagogue is an archaeologist, cryptographer, and master of riddles who scours ruins. He soothsays the layout of city streets and programming codes. But aside from these puzzles, enemies also threaten the Mysterium. Ancient curses and cultist bullets try to keep the secrets of Atlantis submerged and mages ignorant. The modern order values its scholar-adventurers as much as its librarians.

The modern world is a storehouse of secret lore, waiting to be retrieved, catalogued, and developed for the good of the Awakened. Mysterium mages travel to obscure parts of the globe to add what lies therein to the sum of occult knowledge. Don't assume, however, that the order freely shares its hard-won research. Some knowledge is too dangerous for general consumption or too valuable to just give away. Exploration takes its toll in money and lives, and the Mysterium needs some leverage to fund, staff, and protect future quests.

In Atlantis, the Mysterium's members were professors and librarians. Legends describe the Cenacle of Sighs, where mages could consult the ghosts of savants and vast libraries written in the tongues of fae, demon, angel, and god. The ancient order ventured into the hinterlands to learn the natural sciences and cull the innovations of barbarian states. These expeditions were almost as martial as they were scientific, because outlanders (and the night-horrors who often ruled them) feared and hated the Great City. The early mystagogues paid for their knowledge in blood, securing a place of honor in the city's silver halls.

Without the Mysterium, also called the Alae Draconis, the Wings of the Dragon, the ruling cabal could never have built the Celestial Ladder. The order grew nearly as mighty as the Silver Ladder, and it restricted access to its collection to keep challengers from usurping its place. So the order became an architect of the Fall and destroyed the libraries it created. Survivors dared to hope that the barbarians they once plundered had done the same to them, so that Atlantis' wisdom would spread throughout the world. Order mages founded their own traditions as they wandered, teaching the crafts of writing, poetry and storytelling, imbuing it all with vital magical symbols. They hoped that future generations would sift truth from fiction and Awaken to Mysterium secrets, renewing the Atlantean arts.

Today
Modern mystagogues believe that they are that future. The time has come to collect the secrets of magic from its prison of ancient languages, myth cycles and forgotten crypts. This is the most important mission in the world to them. Though attitudes vary, the order as a whole has little patience for the sanctity of human history. All that matters is Atlantis, magic, and the secret codes that lay hidden in the world. This is why other mages accuse the Mysterium of grave-robbery and plundering. But the order calls its accusers hypocrites, because they are all too happy to use the knowledge that Mysterium mages risk their lives to acquire.