The Grand Iroquois Confederacy
Structure
The supreme legislative and deliberative body of the Grand Iroquois Confederacy is the Grand Council, composed of 50 hereditary sachems—male leaders drawn from the matrilineal clans of the Six Nations. These sachems serve as lawmakers, peacekeepers, and guardians of the Great Law of Peace. Each member nation contributes a designated number of sachems to the Grand Council:
| Nation | Number of Sachems |
|---|---|
| Mohawk | 9 |
| Oneida | 9 |
| Onondaga | 14 (including the Firekeepers) |
| Cayuga | 10 |
| Seneca | 8 |
| Tuscarora | 0 (non-voting; advisory voice only) |
The Onondaga Nation holds a unique position as the Keepers of the Central Fire, serving as hosts of the Grand Council and fulfilling a central role in the mediation, record-keeping, and ceremonial guardianship of the Confederacy’s deliberations.
Sachems are not elected by popular vote, but are appointed for life by the Clan Mothers of each matrilineal clan. These women, highly respected and spiritually significant within Iroquois society, possess the exclusive authority to:
- Nominate sachems based on wisdom, character, and service to the people.
- Depose sachems who act contrary to the Great Law of Peace or the interests of their clan, in a ceremonial act known as “knocking off the horns”, where the symbolic antlers of leadership are ritually removed.
While the Grand Council is composed entirely of men, it is governed by matrilineal oversight, reflecting the Confederacy’s unique balance of male representation and female authority. This dual structure ensures that leadership remains accountable to the collective will of the people, especially the women, who are regarded as the life-givers and moral compass of the nations.
Assets
Magic, in its truest form, is the manipulation of reality through the application of will and spellcraft, drawing power from a parallel realm known as the Otherworld. Within this plane, raw magic saturates the air, and thought itself becomes a conduit for reshaping reality. However, this malleability comes at a price—prolonged use of magic inevitably erodes the psyche.
The deeper one draws upon magic, the more the boundary between reality and imagination dissolves. This feedback loop—magic breeds madness, and madness enhances magical potency—is a universal law known to all practitioners.
Where the veil between the Realworld and Otherworld thins, Magical Nexus Sites emerge—zones of immense arcane concentration known collectively as Middleworlds. At the heart of a Middleworld lies a Cradle City, a metaphysical capital that exists simultaneously in both planes of existence.
These cities are not merely settlements; they are sentient anchors of magical civilization, veiled from common perception yet vital to the global magical network. The leyline system that connects these sites forms the Magical Net of Earth, a mystical lattice that maintains the arcane equilibrium of the planet.
In North America, all major Middleworlds and their Cradle Cities fall under the jurisdiction of the Grand Iroquois Confederacy (ICON), which functions as the continent’s primary magical authority. Unlike their European counterparts, whose magical traditions are deeply entangled with trauma, conquest, and nihilistic transcendence, ICON practitioners draw their strength from a worldview rooted in balance, reconciliation, and spiritual integration.
North American magic, as taught by ICON, holds that madness and sorrow are not sources of magic, but conditions to be understood, accepted, and integrated. This cultural distinction produces magicians of exceptional mental stability, long life, and refined specialization, in contrast to the often unstable yet explosively powerful casters of Euromagic.
During the early 20th century, the United States government, through its covert metahuman agency known as HAVOC (Hostile Anomaly Vigilance & Operations Commission), pursued unethical magical experimentation under the pretense of national security. Drawing upon research initiated during World War I, HAVOC manipulated social, economic, and geographic conditions to artificially cultivate high-magicka zones, forcibly concentrating populations predisposed to latent magical expression. These projects, referred to internally as the Trauma Factory, resulted in generations of uncontrolled magical proliferation and widespread psychological damage.
ICON, excluded from these programs and denied oversight, spent decades contesting this violation of magical law and cultural sovereignty. By 2017, after extensive advocacy, ICON successfully pressured both the United Nations and the United States into dissolving HAVOC’s magical division. Authority over all magical oversight in North America was formally transferred to ICON, including exclusive governance of all Cradle Cities and Middleworlds on the continent.
Over the next two decades, ICON led the Great Healing, a continent-spanning operation to deconstruct HAVOC’s trauma networks, reweave the damaged leyline systems, and reintegrate magic into communal life through culturally aligned, sustainable practices. This act of metaphysical restoration is widely regarded as ICON’s crowning modern achievement and a model for magical governance in the post-HAVOC era.
Today, ICON's stewardship of the North American Magical Domain ensures that the balance between power and sanity, Realworld and Otherworld, is vigilantly maintained.
Foreign Relations
The Grand Iroquois Confederacy (ICON) is recognized as an Observer Member of the United Confederation of Earth (UCE), acknowledged as a transnational cultural and political confederation with enduring sovereignty over intertribal matters and shared ancestral law.
Observer Member Status
As an Observer Member, ICON itself does not possess voting rights within the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), nor does it host the Supreme Court of Earth (SCE) or INTERPOL operations under its collective banner. However, ICON retains diplomatic standing, maintains a permanent delegation to the UN, and is entitled to representation on UCE advisory councils, special assemblies, and cultural preservation forums when permitted by charter.
Status of Member Nations
Each member nation of the Confederacy—such as the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora—is recognized as a sovereign Full Member state of the UCE in its own right. As such, each:
- Holds full voting rights in the UNGA
- Is subject to SCE jurisdiction
- Hosts and cooperates with INTERPOL operations via National Central Bureaus (NCBs)
These nations exercise full sovereignty in all domestic and international matters, with one notable exception regarding treaty-making and collective external policy.
ICON’s Treaty Authority and BIR Supremacy
The Grand Council of ICON retains supreme authority over confederation-wide treaties and international compacts. No ICON member state may independently enter into an external agreement that conflicts with a Binding Iroquois Resolution (BIR)—the highest legal instrument of the Confederacy. In such cases, the BIR supersedes UN mandates, including Binding Resolutions, within the territories of ICON member nations.
Membership and Continuity
An ICON member state's decision to join or withdraw from the UCE as a Full Member does not affect the Confederacy's collective Observer status. The ICON Observer designation is independent and continuous, regardless of fluctuations in individual state membership, thereby preserving the Grand Council’s ability to mediate international affairs on behalf of its peoples.
Point of Contact
All diplomatic, legal, and policy matters involving ICON are directed to the Women’s Council, the Confederacy’s recognized external liaison and moral authority. This council serves as the primary interface for UCE institutions, including the UNGA, SCE, and INTERPOL.
ICON is the primary magical authority for North America, controlling all the major Middleworlds of North America via their Cradle Cities. Magic is suffering, but Magic does not come from suffering, this is a common Euro-centric idea that leads to European Magicians being considerably more powerful but with shorter life spans and debatable mental stability. ICON holds a different Native American world view, that magic can be drawn from the natural sadness and madness found in our world and lives, that we need to face it and accept it as apart of us. This results in North American Magicians having longer life spans, significantly stronger mental stability and more specialized magic as opposed to powerful Euromagic.
Laws
The Grand Iroquois Confederacy operates under the Great Law of Peace, a constitutional framework emphasizing consensus, balance, and dual-gendered authority in all matters of legislation and governance.
Binding and Non-Binding Resolutions
No treaty or legislative proposal attains the force of law unless it is ratified through a Binding Iroquois Resolution (BIR). For a resolution to be considered binding, it must be approved by:
- 75% of the recognized male voters (Sachems)
- 75% of the Clan Mothers representing the matrilineal lines
BIRs carry the weight of law and are automatically enforced across all member nations of the Confederacy. In contrast, Non-Binding Iroquois Resolutions (NBIRs) may be proposed and adopted voluntarily by individual nations but do not possess collective legal force.
Revision of Council Laws
Amendments to existing laws or customs, including reinterpretations of the Great Law of Peace, require the consent of two-thirds of the Council of Mothers. This process reflects the Confederacy's foundational reliance on maternal consensus and cultural continuity.
Authority of the Women's Council
While only men may serve as Sachems, the real political authority lies with the women, particularly the Clan Mothers, who:
- Appoint and remove Sachems through a formal ceremony known as “knocking off the horns”, in which the symbolic deer antlers—an emblem of leadership—are ritually removed from the leader’s regalia.
- Hold veto power over treaties, declarations of war, and matters deemed in conflict with the moral or communal welfare of the people.
- Guide legislative direction through regular council meetings and act as the primary source of proposed law within the Confederacy.
The Women’s Council, composed of the Clan Mothers from each nation, operates as a parallel legislative authority to the Grand Council of Sachems. Their sessions are held independently and their decisions are relayed through male messengers, or through appointed female orators who address the men's council directly.
Role in the United Confederation of Earth (UCE)
In diplomatic matters, including external relations with the United Confederation of Earth (UCE), the Women’s Council serves as the official voice of the Confederacy. As the custodians of collective memory, moral law, and social cohesion, their assent is required for any Confederacy-wide engagement in international treaties or defense compacts.
Bilateral Recognition with Special Observer Protocols
- ICON holds Observer Status in the United Confederation of Earth (UCE), same as EMA.
- Both recognize each other as sovereign magical authorities, but do not share jurisdiction.
- No binding defense pact, but they do collaborate on containment of extradimensional threats, magical trafficking, and stabilization of leyline breaches.
- Disputes are resolved through the Council of Magical Equilibrium, a neutral arbitration body.
Cautious Strategic Partnership
While both organizations serve critical roles within the United Confederation of Earth (UCE), their historical tensions, differing cultural worldviews, and philosophical divergences prevent full alignment. However, shared existential concerns—especially regarding the Mindscape, magical-psionic overlaps, and planetary metaphysical stability—necessitate coordination, mutual respect, and occasional collaboration.
ICON respects WAPID’s logistical reach, technical superiority in psionic containment, and its role in safeguarding the psychic dimension. However, there remains lingering mistrust due to WAPID’s inheritance of many psionic oversight protocols originally developed by HAVOC, including surveillance over sensitive magical populations.
WAPID acknowledges ICON’s unquestioned authority over North American magical domains and considers them a vital regional partner, particularly in leyline regulation, trauma remediation, and containment of Magical-Mindscape overlaps. However, WAPID finds ICON’s mysticism and decentralized cultural frameworks difficult to integrate into its global psionic infrastructure.
Conditional Cooperation under Cultural Sovereignty Clause
INTERPOL and ICON cooperate on magical and metahuman law enforcement only when ICON tribal sovereignty is respected, and extradition is explicitly approved via either the Tribe’s recognized national government or a Binding Iroquois Resolution (BIR) authorized by both the Grand Council and Women’s Council.
Mandated Separation under Conditional Oversight
- No formal diplomatic relations beyond what is required for UN-mandated coordination
- Joint operations require third-party supervision by the UN Global Security Council (UNGSC)
- ICON refuses to recognize HAVOC's magical authority in any North American Middleworld
- HAVOC still considers itself a stakeholder in magical national security but is legally barred from interference
Ceremonial Non-Recognition with Metaphysical Quarantine
- ICON does not formally recognize the AARF as a legitimate political, magical, or spiritual entity.
- All known AARF operatives are denied access to Cradle Cities and are subject to automatic banishment rituals or metaphysical nullification if encountered within ICON-governed Middleworlds.
- ICON has passed multiple Binding Iroquois Resolutions (BIRs) declaring AARF ideology an existential threat to Earth’s magical lattice and prohibiting any treaty, pact, or engagement with the group.
- The AARF, meanwhile, considers ICON an impediment to continental unification and seeks to destabilize its authority via magical espionage, targeted relic theft, and cultural disinformation.
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