The Purifiers Guild
The Purifiers Guild was an organisation established to assist mages dealing with the various threats emerging from the Dark Domains during the Age of Shadows.
The guild followed up the work of Aldebaran Smith, who had identifed early manifestations of the Shadow Suckers as a threat and developed the first countermeasures.
Culture
Mages who joined the Purifiers Guild did so out of a sense of duty. There was a feeling that magic users needed to redeem themselves, since their reputation, damaged seriously by the Time of Terrors, had never fully recovered in the intervening years. And the Purifiers Guild were at least partially successful in improving the public image of mages at a difficult time.
Wendy Salmoth was one of their most famous members due to her well deserved reputation for bravery and scholarly rigour, which was revealed to all in her important work, Shadows and Manifestations, first published in 4542 APC. This book became a universally studied and frequently carried guide used by all members of the guild in later years.
Public Agenda
The Purifiers Guild promised to help at any time or place where there was hostile activity from the Denizens of the Dark Domains that had spread during the Age of Shadows. They specialised in the removal of Shadow Suckers, acting as an agency of supernatural pest control.
History
The Guild of Purifiers was formed after the death of Aldebaran Smith to continue his work and provide help to places and people afflicted by the Shadow Suckers. Although it was strongly associated with the Free Union of Magical Scholars and had its headquarters at Greystow, it was an independent organisation which welcomed members on all continents and certainly had many from the Institute of Magical Analytics who at this time had moved from Quarowl and were based in Myruthea in the city of Ralsimoor.
After 4612 APC when the dark purposes of the Justice of the Shadows were exposed with the discovery of a copy of the Testament Of Shadows, the Guild realised that it was fighting much more than random infestations and it needed to improve training, recruit more members and talk with local governments. The Guild helped to generate the sense of urgency which led to the founding of the Cities Under Grace in 4635 APC and later provided teachers to assist with the development of a military response to the Shadow Suckers in the form of the Grace Army Corps of Combat Purifiers.
The Guild suffered its greatest setback in 4739 APC when its headquarters at Greystow was infliltrated by Gwen Oxford, the seductive and dangerous Darkest Umbral of the Justice of the Shadows. She destroyed a number of important records and poisoned five influential leaders before she was caught, sowing confusion and setting the Guild back by many years.
Disbandment
After the invasion of Prince Rygarde and the creation of the Limit Protectorate the Guild was proscribed due to the opposition of many of its members to the new rulers of Magicians' End and it effectively ceased to exist from 5162 APC.
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