Cult of Mercury

The Cult of Mercury was an order of mages in ancient Rome. They followed the ritualistic teachings of the legendary Hermes Trismegistus, who may have been a mortal mage or even the god Hermes himself. As Rome expanded the bounds of its empire, the cult came into conflict with "barbarian" mages on the outskirts of the empire, such as the predecessors of the Verbena. The Cult disintegrated after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, but their teachings were rediscovered by the mage Bonisagus centuries later. Bonisagus went on to spread this lost knowledge among any and all European mages who would listen; the fellowship that emerged from this shared knowledge became the backbone of the Order of Hermes.