Sanctioned

Aye, you can say they're kooks. And you'd be most right. But they're kooks able to turn your ma into a toad before she can ride your ugly old pa by reachin' into yer past. And you'd just melt right away, like so much ice cream. And that'd be a mercy, 'cause I've seen what happens to those they convert to their "kooky" ways.

-overheard at a MWDF nightclub in the Iä system

Structure

The Sanctioned operate from a fleet of starships, including the mothership Mystra, and hold no planetary territories. The organization is ostensibly ruled by the cult's innermost circle, the Augures, but the cryptic nature of the organization makes this hard to verify. Milky Way Defense Force (MWDF) intelligence claims that a single Augur, the Augur ex Caelo, holds the greatest political and arcane power, in part due to his (or her, or otherwise) command of the Mystra.

Public Agenda

The Sanctioned are a cult in violent rebellion against the Parties to the Sol Accords. The group holds Sorcerers to be above those not gifted with True Magic, and wishes to impose a magocracy on the Milky Way. In pursuit of their sociopolitical and religious goals, they have taken credit for the sudden appearance of True Magic in the galaxy. (Whether or not they were truly responsible for this phenomenon is unclear.)

History

The group now known as the Sanctioned was a small religious cult that appeared in the galactic periphery in roughly 3180 CE. When the cult was accused of unethical experimentation with various intelligent species, specifically the Iehuca and the Pygmies, the Party assaulted the group's compounds in a massive sting operation.
Seventy years later, in 3250 CE, the group returned to the galactic stage with a new name. This time, they came as champions, heralding the "Epoch of Magic" which they allegedly ushered in. Between their religious bravado, the natural confusion within the Party caused by True Magic, and the massive mothership Mystra—the construction of which is still a mystery—they rapidly gathered supporters from certain disenfranchised fringeworlders. In the intervening twenty years, they have grown into a superpower in their own right, with a deadly navy and outstanding arcane capabilities.