The Green Circle

The Green Circle is a sect which developed in the city of Ramoros some twelve years ago. Although possessing only a small following, typically consisting of no more than a dozen members at a time, the group has attracted a considerable degree of public controversy because of its stated attempt to recreate some of the less reputable aspects of the pre-Wesmodian religions of the Eleven Cities.

Foundation and history

The Green Circle was founded twelve years ago by Garyod Somay, a scholar living in Ramoros, in response to his reading of Among the Boles of Dahan, the primary research output of thaumatologist Margyas Maray. Maray's book offered a highly complimentary and picturesque description of the activities of the pre-Wesmodian clerisy of Dahan, the god of water and fertility. Although subsequent research has called the accuracy (and indeed honesty) of this work into question, the book struck a chord with Somay, who believed that the lightly-wooded hills to the west of Ramoros would be an appropriate location to revive the rituals Maray described.
It is not clear exactly how many people originally followed Somay in this endeavour, or precisely what induced them to take part, but he has been conducting seasonal rituals in a series of sacred groves in the hills four times a year ever since. Attendance at these rituals is kept small by design, with Somay explaining that his 'inner circle' may consist of no more than fourteen people, ideally precisely balanced at seven male and seven female. Former members of this circle suggest that attendance is often rather lower than that, with winter solstice rituals sometimes cancelled altogether for lack of interest. Nevertheless the circle has endured over a dozen years, conducting fairly regular rituals to Dahan over that time. Though membership is more fluid than Somay appears to desire, fresh recruits, drawn mostly from the petty aristocracy of Ramoros, continue to replace those who demurr.

Ethos

The Green Circle is dedicated to reviving the worship of Dahan, the pre-Wesmodian god of water, rain and male fertility. Claiming to be one of the Boles of Dahan, and to have initiated himself to the rank of "ash," Somay hopes to build a city-wide cult. He promotes Dahan as a more 'honest' and 'natural' god than Hayan, who is still habitually worshipped (or at least is the excuse for public gatherings) in Ramoros (among other cities), arguing that the purpose of religion is to reconcile humanity with nature and that, by highlighting the parallels between human and vegetable fertility, the worship of Dahan achieves this.
Much of the image of Dahan and his worship that the Circle promulgates is drawn from Among the Boles of Dahan, although Somay - who maintains a firm hold on the doctines and practices of the group - has seen fit to alter or disregard aspects of Maray's research with which he disagrees. He has, for example, lobbied the government of Ramoros to 'reinstate' the tradition of The Spring Princess, which the city, like most others, has no actual history of observing. He has also sought contact with the Beast Men of Pergyad, hoping to build links with them, arguing that Pergyad and Dahan's pre-Wesmodian cults were in fact linked, an idea which Maray never mentions. Both of these initiatives have yet to have any success. He also specifically excludes children from his organisation, an interesting policy given that children appear to have been somewhat central to the worship of Dahan as described by Maray.

Activities

The Green Circle performs rituals to Dahan in a series of 'sacred groves' in the hills to the west of the city. For the first several years the content of these rituals, and the location of the groves, was not known, as Somay insisted on secrecy, but over time former members have drifted away from his orbit and, to his evident consternation, been willing to discuss practices with members.
Rituals take place at the solstices and equinoxes. Somay has constructed new Stone circles at four locations, all within a few hours walk of Ramoros (although such phenomena are thinly scattered over the Alluvial plain, no pre-Wesmodian examples of the phenomenon have been found anywhere near the city). Standing at the centre of such circles dressed in a white robe and wreathed with ivy, Somay invokes Dahan and speaks several incantations in what appears to be Old Zolian. Twelve other members of the group, similarly garbed and standing at precisely-denoted intervals around the edge of the circle, echo these incantations to the best of their ability (Somay teaches them, by rote, beforehand). A fourteenth member of the group, invariably female, then gives her own incantations from a kneeling posture before Somay. This can go on for some time. Both Somay and his female chief acolyte carry knives to this ceremony and brandish them at several points, with Somay symbolically drawing the point of his blade over the woman's throat towards the end. Whether this is intended to symbolise or refer to the human sacrifice supposedly practised by the pre-Wesmodian Boles of Dahan or not is unclear, since Somay is notoriously cagey about giving away information about his rituals to "outsiders."

Criticism

It must be said that very few members of broader Ramoran society take the Green Circle particularly seriously. The group seldom achieves its full ritual quorum of fourteen members and as yet none of the other members has stuck with the organisation for long enough to be 'initiated' into the new fellowship of the Boles of Dahan of which Somay claims to be the first. Jokes about what these people - predominantly young men - get out of the rituals continue to make the rounds in the city.
Pholyan thaumatologist Qrovatan Medys has investigated the Green Circle been particularly vocal in his criticism of it, arguing that Somay's understanding of the "ancient mysteries" of Dahan are mostly manufactured from a combination of Margyas Maray's assessment of the pre-Wesmodian cult (of which Medys is also vocally critical) and the fantasies of "immature men." He also observes that the construction of new stone circles is an absurdity, given that the sites of pre-Wesodian circles were clearly chosen with enormous care and that such circles (or the remnants thereof) already occupy the only sites where such constructions could have worked. He argues that the Green Circle is devoid of thaumturgical or religious merit and that it could be dangerous into the bargain, since it is "only a matter of time" until Somay decides he must actually go through with one of the human sacrifices he evidently gestures towards in his reconstructed rituals. Somay has responded by insisting - against prevailing historical opinion - that human sacrifice in the worship of Dahan was always merely symbolic and that Medys lacks the insight and gnosis required to truly understand the mysteries of the god.
Most former members of the Green Circle have washed their hands of the group altogether. One former member who behaves differently is Margyas Hasyan of the Green Crown, a former central acolyte and organiser of the group who distanced herself from Somay and decamped away from Ramoros altogether, settling instead in Loros and founding a splinter group known as the Ivied Ones. This group, currently consisting of Hasyan and around half a dozen female followers, distances itself from the Green Circle by presenting itself as a explicitly matriarchal group of thaumatologists attempting to develop a modern system of water and fertility magic with reference to both pre- and post-Wesmodian research into the worship of Dahan. Despite the well-known historical consensus that the pre-Wesmodian Boles of Dahan were an all-male group, the Ivied Ones have been greeted more warmly by other thaumatologists than the Green Circle was. Somay, for his part, damns the group as completely missing the point of Dahan-worship and promised magical retribution - retribution which, to date, has conspicuously failed to eventuate.

Type

Religious, Sect