The Fiery Tongues

The Seven have been mostly successful at preventing large-scale problems with demons. Even before then, what few mages there were tended to be able to carefully curb the ambitions of any extra-dimensional travellers. Many wonder if the Seven are doing their best to uphold The Terra Doctrine or if their goal is to simply supplant all other Terran mage organizations. The tale of the Huore Shetou (火熱的舌頭) or Fiery Tongues serves as an example of why this sort of objective organization is needed.

History

Magic arrived on Earth in fits and starts throughout the latter half of the 19th century. Sometime in this period, the first mages began to appear in late Qing dynasty China. Their explorations of their abilities were innocent enough at first, but a few of the more powerful ones quickly became obsessed with demonology and demon summonings.
Within the space of a couple of decades - no one is quite sure when the organization began - a couple of large cult-like sects of mages had sprung up in Henan Province. They quickly joined together to form the Huore Shetou with the stated goal of "studying" demons and exploring their natural environment. However, many mages in the region quickly began to see past this façade and discover the truly unsavoury nature of their work. Lacking anyone to turn to, a war began to develop between the Huore Shetou and these "rogue elements" as these more upright mages tried to wrest control from their demon-worshipping counterparts.

Battle for Xuchang

During the Japanese invasion of the country in World War II and the resulting displacement of people, their conflict came to a head, even attracting the attention of some foreign mages. This culminated in a firefight in Xuchang that was blamed on Japanese sympathizers by the local mundane authorities. The Huore Shetou were nearly wiped out when they tried to summon a demon so demanding of resources that the sheer energy required killed a half dozen mages. The demon, a Lord of the Abyss by many accounts, failed to appear in person but the resulting Portal permanently weakened the boundaries between our dimension and the Unending Abyss. The major mages of the region who survived learned their lesson and the organization formally disbanded soon afterwards.

Effects of the Huore Shetou Today

The Huore Shetou's many demon summonings caused so much damage to the fabric of reality that demons have been known to rarely appear to mundanes, even. This is a grave security concern for many Seven mages to this day, and much of the Seven's Chosen who serve on Earth are stationed in this region. Attempts have been made to try and heal over the wounds caused but none of them have worked so far.

Unknown - 1938

Type

Secret, Occult

Geographic Location

Henan Province, China

A bit of cloth torn from the robes of a Fiery Tongues member and held in the Mulhemish Museum.

All images in this article were created by me, EmperorCharlesII, unless otherwise credited.