The First Cabal was a group of mages appointed by the newly-formed Council of Nine Mystic Traditions to gather support for their cause and fight the Order of Reason. Each Tradition selected one member, with Heylel Teomim of the Solificati appointed as the cabal's leader. They were active from 1466 CE until 1470, when Teomim's betrayal lead to the Cabal's destruction.
Overview[]
The members of the First Cabal were as follows:
- Heylel Teomim, of the Solificati
- Eloine "Chosen and Beloved", of the Verbena
- Sister Bernadette of the Celestial Chorus
- Walking Hawk, of the Dreamspeakers
- Akrites Salonikas, of the Seers of Chronos
- Fall Breeze of the Akashic Brotherhood
- Cygnus Moro of the Euthanatos
- Louis DuMonte bani Quaesitor of the Order of Hermes
- Daud-Allah Abu Hisham ibn Muqla al-Baghdadi of the Ahl-i-Batin
The group was trained and blessed by the leader of each Tradition before setting out on their mission as representatives of the Council.
The Cabal initially achieved some progress under Teomim's leadership. They fought the Legion de Triumph at the Destruction of Garoche, burned down Tezghul the Insane's stronghold of Kupala Alka, and did many other great deeds. Teomim and Eloine also began a romantic relationship, and in 1469 Eloine gave birth to twins.
The Great Betrayal[]
Despite their successes, tensions grew ever worse between members of the Cabal, both due to philosophical conflicts and more personal ones. Teomim came to believe that the Cabal, and the Council, was too deeply riven by internal dissent to truly oppose the Order of Reason. Only a serious attack, they believed, would bring the Traditions together behind a common purpose.
Thus in the spring of 1470, Teomim betrayed the First Cabal into a trap set by the Cabal of Pure Thought: Salonikas escaped, but Fall Breeze, DuMonte, and Abu-Hisham were killed in the attack and Moro was tortured to death in captivity. After some months Salonikas lead a rescue and managed to retrieve Eloine, Bernadette, and Walking Hawk, and in turn they tracked down Teomim and brought them back to Horizon for trial. Eloine's children were never found.
After Teomim's execution, the four surviving members of the First Cabal scattered. Salonikas exiled himself; Eloine gave up magic entirely; Bernadette retreated into a life of service; Walking Hawk returned to his homeland in eastern North America to warn his people of the coming of European colonizers.
Legacy[]
The First Cabal is perhaps better remembered for the Great Betrayal than for their successes. Porthos Fitz-Empress, a contemporary of the Cabal, compiled a book of their history, the Testaments of the First Cabal, in an attempt to impress upon modern mages the significance of their achievements and to put Teomim's actions in a wider context.