Okay, so I know we’ve sort of talked about this before in the Magiq University threads, but after finishing The Order on Netflix (super campy but I really liked it, so sue me), what if the Guilds were secret societies on a regular, mundane college campus where magiq is unknown (or a Book of the Wild type situation where magiq is likely known but prohibited)?
How would your guild invite neophytes? What would your gathering space be like? What sort of bonding/introduction activities would you do? (Everyone, veterans and new friends, feel free to jump in!)
Maybe new Thornmouth have to track down a rare book and donate it to the school library for their “initiation”? The more obscure the book, the better of course.
Gossmere would certainly be the least secretive of the six, though not without it’s rituals.
I think its members would have to have shown a certain amount of dedication to the community, maybe community service or activism. I also think that major traditions would revolve around bringing the school together, like big meals cooked by the members of the society. It’s “tomb” would be like a cozy den, with a warm fire and a plush carpets. I believe Gossmere would also take students in and out freely, believing no space should be cut off from the community.
I’d say that Ebenguard would probably end up having its common space being in the oldest hall on campus. Hidden to most, except those who know the knock or the symbols.
As for initiation, it may have something to do with following the old traditions. the old ways. We would hold to old traditions, changing them when needed, but at the heart still traditional. I dont know what those traditions would be as of right now, but those are my thoughts.
please comment and add! im not entirely sure what else i can think of at the moment.
I agree. I imagine Gossmere being very open and active on campus, except working under a “front” like any other mundane club. I imagine it being like an student environmental group, community service organization or the like. I have an image in my head of a campus community garden run/tended by Gossmere. The community garden is the guilds “tomb,” except meeting are held in secret out in the open using Shapeshifting Arts.
Once they’ve spent some time doing the surface/mundate activities of the social group front, potential neophytes are invited over to the garden to talk to a couple of guild members, but unbeknownst to them, the entire guild is there wearing animal shapes, and are all present for the “interview.”
Invitations are slipped into the pages of well worn books in the deepest corners of the oldest parts of the library. Said invitations may seem inconspicuous at first, perhaps its a old card from the card catalog, directing one deeper into the library. The card has a page number written on it; turning to that page brings you to an insert on which a piece of blackout poetry is described. Finding the source page of the blackout poetry then brings you to the deepest recess of the library; a concealed reading nook or obscure section of magiqal literature hidden from standard circulation. Pulling the book from the shelf may trigger it to swing open, revealing a passage into deeper archives, and something else. The lack of electric lighting is notable, lanterns and torches throwing eerie, flickering shadows. Those curious enough to brave the hall would feel it wind around, the subtle curve barely noticeable until you realize you’ve already spiraled down far further than the reaches of the library would allow. Though at that point you’ve already come upon a room. The same bare stone of the passage makes up the walls and the floor but an emblem shines from the floor, the golden sheen to the lantern symbol upon the floor intriguing and inviting. That’s when you take notice of the lights in this room, gone are the torches and lanterns mounted on the walls. The sole light in this room comes from 3 small lanterns set upon a stone table in a row. Each contains a flame of a different color; maroon, purple, and orange. Selecting a lantern will reveal 1 of 3 tests based on the color of your choosing. A test of memory for maroon, a test of wisdom for purple, and a test of curiosity for orange.
Passing this test will allow you into a plushly decorated common room lit by hanging lanterns and a large fireplace. A large table in the center of the room hosts a golden lantern, wicks of many colors, and a stick of incense. Each material has a label attached. Said label has one word instructions. ‘Select’ for the wicks, ‘Light’ for the incense, and ‘learn’ for the lantern. If the neophyte is Thornworthy, they will select the color of their choosing, insert it into the lantern, light the incense off the fire or one of the lanterns in the room, and then light the lantern itself. The wick would alight in a brilliant flare of colored light. A rope with a hook on the end would lower to the table with another label, ‘rise’. Hooking your newly lit lantern onto the rope triggers the rope to begin rising into the air. As it rises, lanterns of various colors light up*, all hanging from the ceiling. At this point the members could welcome the neophyte.
*I’m not sure it’s clear so author’s note - These lanterns are from the other members, each one would have a lantern of their own color.
I was in kind of a rush to get my ideas out but yhere’s a lot of little details, like specifically blackout poetry and what sort of tests could test Wisdom, Memory, or Curiousity, that I’d like to explore. So, thoughts anyone?
Legends on-campus speak of them; mysterious green robed figures in masks of various animals, appearing in the woods around campus. Anyone who tries to trace them often says they’ve gone missing, but usually they leave signs of their existence: bones of animals, strange rocks or crystals in patterns or formations, words written in a strange flowing script, written with charcoal. The one key common thread is a single word: Balimora. Asking about it is forbidden by campus officials, and the student body has various rumors about how one would join, but it seems their main difficulty or challenge to join is to even find them in the first place. They move around almost as much as the students, never staying in the same place more than a few days at a time, and those who reported joining in order to tell others about their order often find their memories totally gone. The only one who seems to know anything concrete is the earth science teacher, mister orlov, and god knows he isnt telling.
Yes, theres a strange and mysterious group living on campus, but good luck finding them.
I’d say that Ebenguard would probably end up having its common space being in the oldest hall on campus. Hidden to most, except those who know the knock or the symbols.
As for initiation, it may have something to do with following the old traditions. the old ways. We would hold to old traditions, changing them when needed, but at the heart still traditional. I dont know what those traditions would be as of right now, but those are my thoughts.
please comment and add! im not entirely sure what else i can think of at the moment.
As an Order or on-campus group, I feel like the Ebbies would denote their members with something like a small bow charm,
As for initiation, I feel like it would involve a test of balance. or more accurately three test of balance.
Now that my irl job isn’t taking up all of my free time…here were my thoughts on Flinterforge as a secret society:
Students who worked with particular dedication, and who showed the appropriate signs, would find one day that someone had left a bronze, folded paper shape, the design varying from person to person, on their workspace. When they touch it, the paper bursts into yellow flame which is warm to the touch, but not so hot as to singe, and then melts into a bronze-decorated invitation bearing a date, time, and location.
Those who chose to accept the invitation would be introduced to a mentor, who wears a uniquely-designed bronze mask. The mentor asks the neophyte a series of three questions: “Do you seek to understand? Do you seek to create? Do you seek to improve?” If the neophyte answers in the affirmative, the mentor will present the neophyte with three challenges - a puzzle box, a blank sheet of paper, and a piece of their own work that was turned in for a class or project. Once they succeed in understanding the puzzle, creating something from the sheet of paper, and improving on their own completed project, the mentors reveal themselves and the invitation transforms again into the new member’s own mask.
Balance in all things: physical (perhaps crossing a chasm above a haunted body of water on a long, threadbare bridge), mental (being able to create a noteworthy debate against a fellow pledge, perhaps debating a classic ethics conundrum? At the last moment, before the debate, the pledges are told they must argue the opposite of what they’d prepared for), and emotional (I’m unsure about what this would be, but something similar to what Harry has to do in Goblet of Fire when his friends are all underwater). There could also be a field game that requires some giant scales?
