Shapers

The Shapers are a uniquely Asterian institution, a collective of wizards and other learned spellcasters united by their ability to create life. While only the most skilled among them can spontaneously fabricate a creature without lab equipment, even their greenest apprentices are drilled on the core principles--principles that they keep a jealously guarded secret.
What is known is mostly superficial, the trappings of their laboratories and their grand halls. Shaper architecture emphasizes both economical design and overwhelming scale; a Shaping hall won't have intricate carvings or gilded window frames, but soaring, vaulted ceilings and towering statues of forbidding figures in robes are the norm. Despite this open space, their research labs are often close, hot, and humid, with unknown fumes swirling through the air from the noxious chemicals and reagents necessary for Shapers to bend life to their will. Forests of glittering crystal pylons charged with raw magic feed their machines and vats through conduits embedded in the bare stone floors.
The Shapers themselves value presentation in their personal being just as much as they do in their architecture. They will almost never be seen without a deeply hooded robe, dyed in solid colors and cut with clean lines to present as imposing a silhouette as possible. Their attitudes vary from academic absentmindedness to megalomania, but they universally regard "outsiders" (e.g. non-Shapers and especially non-mages) with a combination of disdain and professional arrogance. To the Shapers, it's critical to present the image of being an unbroken front, infallible and unbreachable.
Internally, of course, they're anything but. When you consider that the organization is made up of squabbling academics engaged in world domination, factionalism and power-brokering are unavoidable, especially in the heartland of the Republic. Those wishing to avoid the politics of the order often set up remote research warrens in the territories or on any number of the countless deserted islands surrounding both continents, delving ever deeper into their craft. It's difficult to tell which path is the more dangerous.

Public Agenda

• Further their own understanding and mastery of life itself
• Eradicate alien magical influences like gods and demons
• Suppress or at least harness uncontrolled magic like sorcerers
• Maintain their control over the world's nations

Type

Guild, Mages

Leader

Anaxagoras Chiron

Leader Title

Archmage Chair

Parent Organization

The Asterian Republic