Council of Nine

This article provides information on the Council of Nine Mystic Traditions specific to Radio Noir.

Ever since the dawn of reason, the Traditions have been on the ropes. Magic has been steadily ground away by science, at first little by little, but since the mid-1800’s this has been happening at an ever-increasing pace. Beset by a hostile consensus and an increasingly aggressive Technocratic Union, the Traditions are loosing ground on all fronts. The Council of Nine Mystic Traditions itself has largely become a forum for old Masters to complain about how much better things were when they were young.

The individual Traditions too are feeling the pressure of a hardening reality. They have all lost chantries and nodes, some to the technocrats, but more than one sacred grove has been cut down by Sleepers in the name of progress. This has caused a few to withdraw to Horizon Realms and others to turn towards internal intrigue, seeking to take what they need from their allies in the Council of Nine. Yet others, like the entire Tradition of the Ahl-i-Batin, tired of the Council’s endless debates about the metaphysics of the world while they themselves were fighting tooth and nail against the Technocracy across North-Africa and the Middle East, decided to leave the Council entirely.

Across the Traditions, there is a sense that imminent change is inevitable, but their problem is perhaps best summed up in their very name. After all, they do style themselves the Traditions. It is therefore perhaps not surprising that they are having trouble adapting to a world changing more rapidly than ever. Even the name itself isn't accurate; since the withdrawal of the Ahl-i-Batin nearly two decades ago, the seat of Correspondence has sat empty. The sad truth is that there is little besides a common adherence to the Protocols and the alliances formed and maintained by grassroots-level cabals holding the alliance together.

The actual Council of Nine Mystic Traditions itself is found in the vast Umbral realm of Horizon. An envoy from each of the Traditions holds a permanent seat here, one for each of the Spheres of Magic. In this moon-sized pocket dimension, Mages from across the world meet and mingle. It is a place of wonder and miraculous realities, although according to the Etherite Maggie Waneworth, Horizon is, "a bigger nest of spies and racketeers than you'll find anywhere else in the whole wide Creation."

The Nine Council Seats

 * Correspondence - currently empty
 * Entropy - Euthanatos
 * Forces - Order of Hermes
 * Life - Verbena
 * Matter - Society of Ether
 * Mind - Akashic Brotherhood
 * Prime - Celestial Chorus
 * Spirit - Dreamspeakers
 * Time - Cult of Ecstasy