Also known as the Society of Breakers, the Boundary Breakers, or the Fellowship of the Unbound. Its members are often referred to as Boundsmen or Breakers.

Description

The Society of Broken Bounds was founded a decade after the end of the Great Guild War, 12 years after the conclusion of the Shadow War. The movement finds its roots in the movement founded by the infamous blood mage Cathwala which served a pivotal role in the conclusion of the Shadow War. Hers was a movement which sought radical reform, the total overhaul of the Mage’s Guild. She sided with Namirak who in turn promised radical reform. In the decade after the war’s conclusion reform was slow and modest, though Cathwala pushed for greater reform it never happened. In frustration, she forsook the guild, and gathered six other Mages, current or former members of the guild all, who were tired of the limits and the boundaries of the Mage’s Guild. Those seven Mages came together and founded the Society of Broken Bounds.

Initially it was simply a network of likeminded mages who saw knowledge as something which everyone ought to have access to, that no magic should be forbidden to any mage who wishes to learn. Its scope and influence quickly spread, attracting not only members who were also part of the Mage’s guild, but also those who never joined the guild, and those who were shunned from it.

The Society professes total equality in its membership, though it holds to a formal ranking and set of initiation; not of authority but of knowledge and trust. It was decided that such a hierarchy was necessary to ensure the longevity of the organization and to prevent it from being easily persecuted. Over the more than a century since its founding, the Society has expanded and has begun to engage in more widespread criminal activity in order to expand its collection of knowledge.

In addition to its criminal enterprise, the Society also manages a network of ‘libraries’ containing the knowledge so forbidden by the Mage’s Guild, copies of such works are often reproduced and distributed amongst the network. More than its own libraries, many of the other magical and mundane libraries across Raath and Kradin have librarians who are members of the Society and who facilitate access to more restricted sections.

Degrees of Initiation

The Society of Breakers measures itself in degrees of initiation. To advance in rank both knowledge, loyalty, and trust must be shown. Each degree initiates a Boundsman into new levels of the Society, teaching ever more obscure and arcane symbology, iconography, and codes. The first three degrees are seen as the most important as they are the true path to initiation.

Initiate: At the 1st Degree, a Boundsman only has contact with the society through a member of the 4th degree or higher, they know very little, and must prove themselves to be allowed further.
Apprentice: At the 2nd Degree, a Boundsman is allowed to a Society Hall in order to undergo an initiation ritual, swearing loyalty to the Society on pain of exile and shunning.
Master: To attain the 3rd Degree, Mastership, Full Membership, three Masters are required to vouch for an Apprentice for them to join the ranks of the society as a full member.; Masters are required to swear loyalty to, and secrecy for the guild under pain of death.; Masters of the 3rd Degree are told of the Society’s history, of the founders, of the seven founders, and of the Society’s mission to seek the reform of the Mages guild from within and without.

After the 3rd Degree, Boundsmen are all called masters, though they can be referred to by degree. The 4th through 7th degrees are obtainable by most members through the vouching of 3 members of the degree above them. Each Degree reveals further secrets of the guild, more of its history, more of the truth behind its founding. Each degree expands the bounds of the bounds to be broken.

Fourth Degree: "To Break the bounds of Knowledge"; At the 4th Degree, a Boundsman becomes eligible to join any of the Orders.
Fifth Degree: "To break the bounds of the Mage’s Guild"
Sixth Degree: "To break the bounds of all guilds"
Seventh Degree: "To break the bounds of the Ilankelath"

The 8th through 10th degrees are the highest attainable by any new member of the Society, referred to as the venerable degrees, and the fellowship of truth. For a boundsman to attain the 8th degree, five venerable members must invite them into the fellowship, and for them to once more renew their vows to the Society, and for them to swear secrecy to the Fellowship of Truth under pain of death. Members of the Fellowship of Truth are often seen as regional leaders of the society, with members of the 10th degree holding de facto authority as the leaders of the guild.

Eighth Degree: "To break the bounds of Society"
Ninth Degree: "To break the bounds of Faith"
Tenth Degree: "To break the bounds of the Gods"

The eleventh degree is unobtainable; unofficially it is called the founder’s degree, attainable only by the first seven founders.

The Orders

The Orders are a set of secret societies which have sprung up inside the Society. They foster connection and knowledge within specific areas of magic which are often considered forbidden. They often have internal rankings, some in line with the degrees of the Society, others independent. Some are focused geographically around specific libraries, others are focused on specific schools of magic.

The Order of Blood

Scholars dedicated to the pursuit of blood magic, in the footsteps of Cathwala.

The Order of the Dead

Scholars dedicated to the pursuit of Necromancy in all it’s forms, initially founded by Nekara.

The Order of Dancing Bones

Scholars dedicated to necromancy surrounding the reanimation of corpses through the practitioner’s own ability.

The Order of Screaming Souls

Necromancers who use the souls of the dead to do their bidding.

The Order of Spores and Vines

Necromancers who use druidic practices to reanimate the dead.

The Order of Quiet Souls

Necromancers dedicated to speaking to the souls of the dead, not using them in the process.

The Order of Radiance

Scholars dedicated to the mysteries of Magryl’s magic and the radiant stones, founded by Maellen.

The Order of Silent Knives

The assassins of the Society

The Order of the Mind

Scholars dedicated to unraveling the secrets of the mind, and how to control it; founded by Verenel.

The Grey Order

Scholars dedicated to the deeper secrets of shadow, and political machinations; founded by Llandi.

The Order of Esoterics

Scholars dedicated to Far Magics, founded by Rezel.

The Ancient Order of Caverns

Society of the library of Delore.

The Order of the Great Library

Society of the Library of Temple Town.

The Order of the Silent Library

Society of the Library of the Silent Forest of Salvosh, dedicated to spreading knowledge of magic to the farthest reaches of the world. Founded by Aelfswith.

The Founders

Cathwala the Bloody

Cathwala is seen as the founder of the Society; its roots were established in her faction of the Shadow War, and it was her idea to call the others together to found the Society.

As a member of the Mage’s Guild, even after leading an army in the Shadow War, she never took a rank higher than Mage though she had High Mages and even a pair of Arch Mages loyal to her cause. Although formally educated as a Wizard, she never considered herself as anything other than a Magus. A devoted follower of Ausraeth’s teachings, she has never professed worship of that magi. Instead, she has always sought equality amongst the mages of Agrakos.

Despite formally renouncing her membership of the Mage’s Guild, Cathwala even now holds sway amongst many of the practitioners of blood magic within the Guild. Her message of freedom of information and her insatiable urge to level the distinctions of society even now draws many people into her organization.

Of the still living founders of the Society, Cathwala is and has been the most active. She makes her home living in the shadows of Idatan, though she has long ago withdrawn from public life. She is the owner of a network of apothecary shops selling various alchemical ingredients and natural herbs across the city, each of which is run by a frontman and used as a hub for the Society in Idatan.

Cathwala has maintained her youthful nature through practices not dissimilar to vampyrism. When leaving the guild, she swore to Nendek that she would be a thorn in his side as long as he lived; and has found ways to continue living to ensure that her word will be kept.

Maellen the Radiant

Maellen was a Guild Hexe, an assassin, and never officially left the guild. However, in the final year of the Guild War, she burnt out her ability to safely use the radiant magic of Magryl. That magic left a corruption in her body which slowly ate away at her. Despite her inability to use magic, she too saw the rot within the Mage’s Guild and sought every way in her power to seek change. She joined with Cathwala, and in the decade before her death she served as the impetus of the networks of secrets, of orders, and of the degrees. She used her decades of experience as an assassin to help the Society establish itself in a way which would maintain its secrecy and longevity.

She trained the members of the Order of Silent Knives, and is seen as responsible for a string of assassinations of early opponents of the Society both within the Guild and within the Ilankelath.

Nekara the Quiet

Nekara is an ancient necromancer, one who follows the traditional ways of the berylian necromancers. Of the founders of the Society, she is by a significant margin the oldest. She had been a necromancer for nearly two centuries by the time of the Guild War, by that point she already strongly resembled a corpse due to the nature of the magic which sustained her.

Verenel the Eminent

Llandi the Many Faced

Rezel the Mad

Aelfswith the Tainted

Aelfswith was excommunicated from the Mage’s Guild after perhaps the longest apprenticeship in the guild’s history, never having reached the rank of Mage by the time of her excommunication. In the first few years of the Shadow War she joined Cathwala’s army, wielding a corrupting magic that spread disease and decay wherever she was sent. Some say it is due to her travels that plague swept through the land during the Great Guild War.

After the Guild War’s end Aelfswith withdrew, settling in the ruins of Salvosh and constructing a workspace in her home there. This would eventually become the Silent Library of Salvosh, where she collects and copies magical texts, notes, etc. for study and distribution. She serves today as the Fellowship’s unofficial scribe, and rarely leaves the Silent Forest.