Secret Imperial Society

Variously known as the Secret Imperial Society, the Hermetic Order of the Twelve Elementals, and the Brotherhood of Pankration, the SIS claims a heritage the runs all the way back to the very first Mana Mages of ancient Krace, who first approached magic as a science. For the members of this secretive, conspiratorial society, magical knowledge is the solution to everything, and magic is the only question worth answering. Small things like law, society, and life are immaterial in the quest for total knowledge and control of magic. Officially, the SIS has four ranks. Initiates are fanatically loyal, usually lack magic ability, and are typically coked out of their minds on a potent drusg derived from the leaves of the Mana Tree. (Outside the SIS, this drug is expensive and hard to come by, and usually used only for religious rituals – but the SIS seems to have plenty.) Initiatory ranks, of roughly increasing mojo, involved Illuminates of the Third Tier, Illuminates of the Second Tier, and Illuminates of the First Tier. First Tier Illuminates tend to take on strange, fancypants names, like “Most Exalted Wizard” and “Great Wise One.” Despite some religious trappings, the SIS fundamentally see themselves as (magic) scientists, and think of the gods primarily as phenomenon to be studied. One of the Society’s few restrictions on experimentation is against trying to resurrect a God, as they’ve found in the past that it usually goes very badly. The SIS has many “lodges”, but they are led by a secretive and elusive “Master”, who has used has used his superlative knowledge of magic to move from one body to another and become effectively immortal.

Known SIS Members

• Mannern Fuchuan, the Master of Mana
• Marcus Heinkel