Post by The Designer on Feb 25, 2007 18:27:42 GMT -5
May the Roses Bloom upon your Cross
The Rosicrucian Alliance
Founded in the 17th century, the Rosicrucian alliance was at first a small order which practiced false magic. However, as members of the Order learned true magic, so too did they begin to see past the magical deception of the world and became entangled in magical politics. While at first the Rosicrucian Order encompassed Europe as a secret society, they were eventually pushed by back that other order, The Order as well as Eternity in eastern europe. Taking England, Whales, Scotland and parts of Northern France as their stronghold, the Order eventually began to encompass other magic societies, teaching them the secrets of magic as the Order slowly turned into an Alliance. It was in the early 19th Century that Aleister Crowley united the various free cabals around Britain and Northern France to form the complete Alliance with his signing of the Treaty of Roses.
The Treaty of Roses
Before Aleister Crowley signed the Treaty of Roses, he first unified the magic societies around the Britain and Northern France areas, to act as a opposing force to the Rosicrucian Alliance. This opposing Alliance, under the direction of the Hermetic Order of the Holden Dawn and the Argenteum Astrum, nearly lead to all-out war over Magical England. However, Crowley met with the Rosicrucian representative to sign the Treaty of Roses, shocking both sides of the conflict as the two would become one. The conditions of the Treaty was that the two heads of both Alliances, the Rosicrucian and Crowley's Alliance, would share power and provide stability.
One year after the Treaty, the leader of the Rosicrucian Alliance died under mysterious circumstances, leaving the other head, Crowley, a clear cut path to the power seat to create true unity. However, knowing that many would resent Crowley's rule, question his involvement in the previous head's death and try to provide a successor to the leader instead of him, Crowley decided to integrate all members of his Alliance into the Rosicrucian Alliance to control the Alliance. Since previously he was the leader of his own alliance, and now that his alliance has fully integrated into the Rosicrucian Alliance, no one could dispute his claim to leadership as the new acting leader of the Rosicrucians.
From then on forth, Crowley has ruled the Alliance with his soul-switching spell, rendering him the immortal lord of the Alliance. Many of the Younger members see him as a God and venerate him so, while the older ones, some of which have also learned the secret of soul transfer, has resented his rule and wishes him to die and not come back. At this moment, the Alliance is torn in three between those who want to get involved in the world, those who want to isolate themselves and those who wish to continue in moderation.
Recently, the Alliance has been enjoying various appeals from other, foreign secret societies or cults to join in on the Alliance. A major division has been created between those who would accept them and those who would reject these out of country societies.
Magic Style: The Alliance's specialty is Ritual Magic (Known to most of the Rosicrucian mages as three different categories: theurgy, magick and chaos magic), Alchemy, Wordology, Symbology and Numerology. The Alliance deals with what people consider "Traditional" magic... Ritual Circles, finding meaning in obscure phrases, etc and etc.
MILITARY ASPECT:
The Rosicrucian Alliance, while intended to seek out magical secrets and advance the individual human soul, is well a military power in the Arcane World. Their Ritualists know spells that can easily take down air planes, demolish tanks, and kill armies. Not only that, the Alliance makes extensive work of Spirits, Deities, Demons, Elementals and other magical creatures, deploying them like equipment rather than soldiers. Only a few, weaker magical creatures serve as soldiers and not as equipment. In total, the members of the Alliance can be broken down into three Categories: Warrior, Destroyer and Magic Being.
Warriors serve as the standard soldier of the Alliance. They fight using magic as front lines men and are basically the foot soldier of the alliance. Usually, warriors serve to protect destroyers and allow them to do their job but also act as occupation forces and other roles.
Destroyers are perhaps more important than Warriors. While a warrior alone could take down a dozen men, Destroyers can cast grand rituals that could burn down buildings, obliterate a tank, or even more powerful spells. They act as the Artillery of the Alliance, providing heavy support for the warriors.
And Finally, Magical beings act as the equipment of the Alliance. Stronger beings act as Air vehicles, tanks, and other pivotal things that an army needs. Think of them as living equipment in military terms. However, weaker magical beings act along side warriors, providing their own skills needed on the battlefield.
NUMBERS BREAK DOWN
Total: 1.1 Million
Number of Warriors: 400,000
Number of Destroyers: 200,00
Number of Warrior Magic Beings: 200,000
Number of Equipment Magic Beings: 300,000
THE FACTIONS:
While the Alliance is a conglomeration of various secret societies, these societies/groups/orders/etc all fall within the purview of three factions. These three factions are known as the Dawn Faction, the Zenith Faction and the Twilight Faction.
The Dawn Faction wishes for a new dawn, so to speak, to fall upon the Alliance by entering the world stage after being confined only to Britain. Many of the more radical advocates call for entering of the Arcane Treaty Organization. Currently, the Dawn Faction contains half of all members and is the largest of all three factions, but encompasses only a small number of major player groups in the alliance.
The Zenith Faction believes that a return to isolation is needed. With the dread attack of Beast and the zombie infestation of the North, the Alliance should not be drawn into the world stage and instead focus upon gathering magical secrets so that the Alliance can enter it's zenith. The Zenith Faction may not have as many members as the Dawn Faction, but it does include influential groups as well as a solid base of followers, enough to rival the Dawn Faction's members.
The Twilight Faction is by far the smallest of the two major groups. The Twilights believe that their moderation of world affairs and internal isolation, as the Alliance currently is doing now, is key to the success of the Alliance. The name of Twilight has actually no meaning behind it in terms of what they what they want happen to the Alliance (E.G. Reach a New Dawn, enter Zenith), but since the other two sun phases have been taken the Twilight Faction might as well use Twilight. While considerably smaller than both other factions, the Twilights hold the most influential and powerful groups of the Alliance; Nearly all major players in the Alliance are Twilight Faction. Not only that, Aleister Crowley himself is the head of this faction, rendering it the faction in power.
BODY OF THE ALLIANCE:
The Alliance is basically composed of Secret Societies, making it impossibly to join the Alliance without first being part of an Alliance Cabal, Cult, other magic group and what not. Detailed is but a sliver of the various magic groups within the Alliance.
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn: Aleister's party and the order in power, the Hermetic Order of the Golden dawn wishes to continue it's control over the Alliance and maintain it's power. The Order itself is composed of many powerful mages, making acceptance into the Golden Dawn something requiring a lifetime to achieve.... The true Golden Dawn anyways...
The Rosicrucian Order: The Founders of the Alliance and most influential group, the Rosicrucian Order acts as the mediators of the Alliance. While true the Golden dawn does have more power than the Order, nearly everyone respects the Rosicrucian Order, and nearly no one, save the most influential groups, question it's orders. The Order is part of the Twilight Faction. While true that many off-shoot Rosicrucian Orders have appeared over the centuries, most if not all are under the direction of a true Rosicrucian Order member, making the Rosicrucians among the most influential group in the world.
Argenteum Astrum: The order that Aleister create and lead before he left them to retake control of the Golden Dawn, Argenteum Astrum wants a return to it's glory days and take the power that the Rosicrucians and Golden Dawn has accumulated. This effectively makes them of the Zenith Faction, and are among the core groups in the faction. However, they are still among the most powerful of groups within the Alliance, making them quite dangerous. Within the AA, a strict structure of power exists in order to maintain Argenteum Astrum's chain of command.
The Free Masonry: The Free Masons are said to have joined the Alliance after the American Revolution, and it is said that the magical secrets that the upper level members learned help win the war for America. Regardless, the Free Masons exist in every part of the world, 5 million "Regular" members in total. The higher level members, though are inducted into the Alliance and quickly learn the secrets of magic. Their numbers are the majority of the Alliance, and the group itself is the central figure of the Dawn Faction. That might be due to the fact that the Free Masons have thousands of untapped members in other regions of the world, and letting the Alliance enter the world stage would allow those members to join the Alliance officially, increasing the Free Mason's power. Besides Britain and France, the other nexus of Free Mason power is North American, specifically the U.S. and Canada. As such, conflicts with D-13 has risen over the Free Masons role in the New World.
The Cabal Pact: Aside from the major groups, small low key cabals do exist in the Alliance. While not as influential, big or even as populous as the other groups, the Cabals came together to form the Cabal Pact, a group of mages that share nothing in common other than resisting the more powerful groups. The Cabal Pact's numbers are low, being the minority among the influential and power groups. Acting more as the cannon fodder of the Dawn Faction than anything else, the Cabal Pact wishes to secure more power within the Alliance.
The Ordo Templi Orientis: Being one of the smaller groups within the Alliance, the OTO was an off shoot of the Golden Dawn, primarily existing within the U.S. and often running into trouble with D-13. As such, the Ordo Templi Orientis only claim and stake in the Alliance is that it once came from the Golden Dawn, allowing it passage into the Alliance. As such, the OTO is entirely Dawn Faction, and wishes to be fully accepted into the Alliance.
The Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica: The Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica is the religious arm of the Order Templi Orientis. It is another offshoot of the Golden Dawn, and is basically in the same sate as the Ordo Templi Orientis. However, while once an arm Hymenaeus Alpha X broke off EGC from the OTO and made it an independant body. While it can be said that Hymenaeus Beta sent the EGC back into the fold of the OTO, that's only true for human followers, not mages. They, much like the OTO, are Dawn Faction members.
