Union (secret)

At the heart of the Church is the Union, the successor to the original conspiracy that organised the rebellion against the Mage Sovereigns. The modern Union is formed of a council which is wreathed in secrecy, but never includes the High Regent or the Regents of the Church, and a network of informants and enforcers who allow the council to maintain their grip on orthodoxy and control across the Republic.

Hierarchy

• The Council of Eight Faces – The leaders of the Union. Each member of the Council is known as a Face and stands for one of the gods. Each of these Faces bears a mask which hides their identity, even from their fellows, behind that of one of the gods in an aspect and name long forgotten by any but the Union itself and scholars of religious history.
• Factor – The Factors are the technical specialists of the Union, many of them Artificers or arcane spellcasters. They create magics and weapons for the Hands to deploy, and operate without regard for the Doctrine Absolute.
• Shadow – The Shadows are retired Faces. They are respected and protected, as the Council have a vested interest in maintaining a tradition of comfortable retirement.
• Hand of the Eight – While the Council dictates policy, the business of the Union is devolved to its Hands. Hands are trusted agents, who organise their own working groups and decide which of those should be entrusted with knowledge of the Union. When charged with a task, they choose who should undertake it, and whether those instruments need to be Agents of the Eight, or unknowing pawns manipulated by the Hand’s open authority.
  
• Agent – Agents are those who answer to either a Hand or directly to a Face, and know that they serve the cause of the Union, but are not entrusted with discretion and initiative.
• Eye – Eyes are intelligence-gatherers, each the master of a network of informants. While they may be called on to act directly, their true value is as passive observers.
• Blade – Blades are the executive Agents of the Union, taking orders directly from Face or Hand to remove the enemies of the Council.

Type

Secret, Religious sect