by Gavin Bennett (Mage: The Sorcerer’s Crusade | Resources)
The mages of Diedne were once the 13th House of the Order of Hermes. Then came the Schism War in 1004, when magi of House Tremere and House Tytalus dragged the weight of the Order down against their Druidic brethren. House Diedne was cast down, branded as Infernalists and tossed to the four winds. For two centuries, they few survivors were hunted all across Europe.It started when the Tremere declared Wizard's War on House Diedne. That House was already under deep suspicion, and was very unpopular, because of its obsession with maintaining its ties to the old Druidic cults, and using its old magical lore. There was also a sense of the House never quite "being one of the team," having its own agendas. That the Diedne magi were so secretive and clannish did not help. The Tremere whipped Flambeau into frenzy, and manipulated House Tytalus into war. In 1008, when it looked like the Diednis were going to lose, House Guernicus declared the entirety of that House Renounced. The apparent last survivor of the druidic magi was murdered in 1012, and the War was considered over.
The Tremere themselves were cast out of the order a mere three centuries later, and in the aftermath of that war, the survivors of House Diedne began to regroup. It was a slow process, as Magi who had spent several mortal lifetimes in hiding had to learn to trust one another.
And now, in 1490, there are four main remnants of the House. At the height of Diedne�s power, there were only roughly 100 magi. By 1490, there are 20 magi in Europe who can honestly claim association with the Fallen House. However, these twenty magi have not been idle, and the eight followers of Llewellan who responded to Nightshade�s call are perhaps the most effective of ambassadors and scholars amongst Nightshade�s followers.
The most obvious "remnant" belongs to the Verbena Tradition. Eight mighty druidic magi walk across Europe, as negotiators for the Verbena, and as protectors. As time goes on, they fade away from sight, absorbed fully into the Tradition.
A second group, consisting of several magi, but only a half-dozen of whom were actually sworn into House Diedne, name themselves the "Order of the Wise" and other, similar names. This group remains in obscurity, save for a brief involvement with the battle with the Seven Thunders. It is believed that this "order" might be recruiting whatever is left of the Druidic Order.
A third group, represented, if not actually led by the Magus Christopher of Bremen, waits in the Black Forest, in Germany. These Mages are outcasts, and feared across Europe. For Christopher of Bremen was one of the magi of House Diedne who were actually caught by the Hermetic Quaesitores dealing with demonic powers. The few reliable reports of this group claim that he serves another mage, a warlock of tremendous power, and a German druid who made a deal with the Devil to survive the night of the Quietening, when Christ was born.
And finally, a fourth group exists, hidden within the Catholic Church, the Brotherhood of the Black Crown. The Brotherhood claims three of the former Filia of House Diedne as members, and leaders. Their leader is Maeve of Iona, a renunciate Nun who was seduced away from the church by a Diedne mage. It is this group, who we will be discussing in the following article.
The Black Crown
Hardly a crown, more a rudely wrapped band of briars, with long, sharp thorns. The crown is not black, either, but deeply bloodstained. It has been in the possession of the druids of House Diedne for some six hundred years; they believe it is none other than Christ�s crown, stained forever by His blood.
Magi of House Diedne found this thing in the ruins of a Monastery in France that they had put to the sword in 960 AD. The monks had been encroaching onto the Magi�s territory, and interfering with the workings on the Covenant House. The Magi responded with violence. In the ruins they found the Black Crown. (The sullied crown was the magi�s original term for the thing). A monk revealed under torture that this indeed was Christ�s crown. The Magi of that covenant have hidden the crown ever since.
The crown was kept in the House�s Domus Magnus, in Normandy for centuries. But during the Schism war, when the magi of House Tremere closed in, a Magus by the name of Kevin, bore the crown away. The crown�s power destroyed him, but the crown was safe from the Tremere. One of Kevin�s Consor�s is said to have blinded himself so that he may look upon the crown, and he took it to the home of one of the few survivors of the druidic mage order. The consor, whose name is lost to history, hung himself that winter. The Crown was later taken to Iona.
Five hundred years later, the crown is an ill-omened thing. A device of blasphemy and an instrument of Christ�s torture, the magi of the Brotherhood believe that the crown is truly an Infernal thing. The druid-mages do not claim to be Christians, nor do they claim to fully understand the workings of the Divine and the Infernal, but they know that it was the taint of Infernalism that brought down House Diedne, and they remember well the Quietening, when the Tetragrammation�s servants cast down the old world. If the crown remains hidden, then the cataclysmic powers of either Heaven or Hell will not be loosed upon them.
But certain Diedne mages, who know of the Crown, believe that its power is relevant for another reason; the Christ was an archetype, a pattern, and an aspect of what they call Esus, the spirit of sacrifice of the wood. They believe that the crown should be worshipped as a Druidic thing.
Perhaps they are right. What is certain is that the Crown will destroy them.
The Brotherhood
The Brotherhood is a secret society of mages, who claim perhaps two dozen members, scattered across Europe. Their sworn duty is to maintain the oral traditions of their Druidic forbearers, and the guard the crown. By safeguarding the crown, they believe that they safeguard druidism.
They believe that one day, if they survive and prevail, druidism will come again.
More ironically, the Brotherhood survives within the bosom of their enemies. The Brotherhood masquerades as monks and nuns of the Holy Catholic Church. There is a strange poignancy in their actions; the Church built its cathedrals and monasteries on the site of holy, pagan, ground, places maintained by the Druids. And now, some of those holy places play host to druids again. These druids do not merely hide from their Christian contemporaries; they also hide from the Order of Hermes, and the Celestial Chorus. They hide from the Hermetics, because they do not trust them; they hide from the Celestial Chorus because they know that the Chorus will hunt them to extinction.
What they do not know is that the Catholic Church has gotten word on their existence, and even now, the Order of Uriel are preparing to wage a campaign of war and murder on the druidic mages.
The Brotherhood also seeks to remain aloof from the Verbena and other, similar crafts. It sees the witch mages are traitors, and sell-souls. However, the Verbena may represent the Brotherhood�s only hope of survival.
However, in 1450, at the height of� a magus of the Brotherhood fled Scotland, for London, finding his way to the Order of Hermes Chantry there, claiming of terrible dreams of a coming war in the North, when the "Northern Lights will scream when the Red Lord awakens; when the man of straw takes the Black Crown." The Brotherhood had that renegade murdered in Lambeth for his treason, before the Order of Hermes could find out anything. The matter remains on record in the Order of Hermes� London covenant, however.
Philosophy: They were the scholars, the judges, the executioners, the priests, the healers and the destroyers who kept the Celtic culture together for so long. With their magic and their secret traditions, and their ruthless suppression of treachery, they oversaw the conduct of wars and the conduct of daily life in times of peace. Worshipping the horned king of the wild, and the triple goddess of winter and war and life, and serving the mighty and terrible lords of Arcadia, they were powerful once.
Their belief system is largely animistic. They pay homage to, but do not worship, the lords of the Tuatha De Dannann. The Danu were not Gods, after all. They believe that the world itself is a "church not made with hands," and consider formalised religion something of a blasphemy. It is a blasphemy that protects them, however. Their gods, if such they could be called, are personifications of nature: the Horned God of the Wild Hunt and the Forest (who the Brotherhood sometimes calls Esus), and the Triple Goddess of Life, Death, and the cycle of creation and destruction. These forces are amoral things, at best, and the Druids reflect that lack of coherent morality. They kill because they can. They create because they can. They interpret the laws, and they were once judge, jury and executioner.
Tools and Style: The Brotherhood practices, in truth, a strange, much bastardised form of druidic magic. They hold their meets, and ceremonies on certain Christian feast days, so as to remain hidden within the Christian faith, but only on days known to have been stolen from pagan rituals. This includes, Christmas, Easter, and Highsummer. Their magic is purely elemental, controlling wind and waves and fire. Some, masters of what the Traditions would call the Spirit sphere, communicate across the veil of world to Arcadia, and beyond, learning much that is hidden, and uttering prophecies.
Organisation: The Brotherhood maintains a loose "cell based" structure. They live, as monks or nuns (just not celibate monks or nuns), alone, or in groups of not more than three. One in each cell knows the location of one other cell. Information passes, slowly, but secretly, between cells. The monastery in Iona plays host to three mages, including the "abbot" of the Brotherhood, but two mages live close by. The reason for this concentration is to safeguard the Crown from any direct assaults. The brotherhood uses monastic ranks to describe its ranking system.
Primus: Maeve of Iona, a mother-superior or a nearby convent, she uses magic to ensure that no one wonders too much why the nun spends so much time amongst the monks. She appears, to mortal eyes, to be very old indeed, but this mistress of Life magic has a deep and powerful control over her body. She is, in truth, possessed of the health and appearance of a 30 year old. When amongst her fellow mages, the years seem to fall away.
Initiation: The ceremony is a closely held secret, and revealing these secrets is treason punishable by lingering death. What is known is that the Initiate is shown certain revelations about the hidden world, which culminates in the person�s "awakening."
Affinities: Forestry, wood, water, weather.
Followers: Pagans, religious folk, certain scholars.
Concepts: Priest, scholar, cloistered monk, nun, hermit.
Stereotypes
Council Magi: We shall never allow ourselves to trust these sorcerers again.
Daedaleans: These scholars and makers know much that is interesting, and much that our ancestors knew� we would know why.
Infernalists: Strike them down when you find them; hide from them if they are stronger. But watch them, and be wary.
Destiny
The Order of Uriel hunts the Brotherhood through Europe until 1550. Then, believing the Brotherhood to be wiped out, and the Crown secure in the Vatican, the Order calls off its crusade. In 1789, the Crown disappears from the Vatican.
Rumours surface for many years that the Brotherhood infiltrated the nascent Technocracy, although to what purpose, none can say for sure. The Brotherhood is also said to have fled from Europe to the darkest heart of Africa. One document recovered in Jamaica in 1989 seems to hint of their presence in the Caribbean in the early 19th century.
It is said that the Brotherhood actually infiltrate the Order of Uriel, lending their powers to the Order in its crusades against the Infernal, while subtly directing its actions.
Using the Brotherhood
The Brotherhood is best suited as a group of quiet, deadly, adversaries for your Troupe. They rarely take direct, violent, action, but when they do, the action is swift, deadly and quiet. They have no hesitation killing anyone who they deem as a threat to their existence, or to the safety of the crown.
Your troupe could come across them while investigation some mysterious murders within the church, or perhaps while uncovering centuries old Hermetic documents, that suggest that perhaps House Diedne was not completely wiped out. Alternately the characters could unearth some legendary about the crown � references to it exist in certain damned bible texts hidden within the Vatican, and several Celestial Chorus Chantry houses. The crown itself is a powerful thing, and some mages would kill to own it.
