The Unbroken Circle

Bearing a necklace of of bent steel rings hammered shoddily into shape, the members of the Unbroken Circle seem little different than any other scholars. They delve into the history of Lost Si'yla and search for the secrets of the dead gods. They fear the power of the Ascended and try to find safe ways to recover the golden age of the mortal races. On the surface, the Unbroken Circle are no different than anyone else.

Beneath the fake smiles and false faces that mask the taint of undeath, the Unbroken Circle are one of the most eclectic organizations in Tollomai. Secretive and solitary, the only way to join is to discover their secret on your own... but once you do, there is no turning back.

The road to knowledge is lined with unmarked graves.

Structure

Because members of the Unbroken Circle so rarely meet one another, there is little in the way of an official hierarchy. Instead, members tend to defer to the opinions of their elders. Three times throughout the history of the Unbroken Circle has Jervik the Once-Ascended been forced to use his authority as the founder, but even he chooses to let his followers do as they please.
Known as the Grand Unliving, Jervik speaks to his members one a year, so long as he remembers. While he is absent, the five Beyond Death manage the group as a small council, though their actual power is limited. In lieu of actual control over younger members, the Council Beyond Death instead offers bounties to those who investigate areas of interest to the Unbroken Circle. Many younger members see this as a way to promotion within the organization, though the Council has no plan to ever give up their positions.

Culture

Undeath and immortality are dual edges to the razor that cut the members of the Unbroken Circle. The members must take great care to remind themselves of what it was like to be mortal, and the organization harshly punishes those who fail to remember that the mortal races are not to be harmed in the pursuit of knowledge. Still, there is no cure to the slow loss of humanity that comes with the slow passing of aeons. As a member of the Unbroken Circle grows older, they tend to spend less and less time among the mortal races, instead choosing the company of other immortals or the solitude of a workshop.

Public Agenda

The first goal of the Unbroken Circle is a mandate from Jervik the Once-Ascended. Never will they reveal themselves to the world, or allow knowledge of their existence to become commonplace. He abhors violence, but in this case it is permitted if there is no other way to protect the order's secret. Jervik would rather kill someone than allow the world to become tainted by the knowledge he carries.
The second goal of the Unbroken Circle is what unites the members. With immortality to drive them, the Unbroken Circle can delve into ruins sunken beneath the oceans and travel inside volcanic craters filled with toxic gas. They search for the cause of Ascendancy, but more importantly, a cure. While Jervik has no interest in being a savior of the mortal races, he thinks a cure to Ascendancy would allow the mortal races to save themselves.

Assets

Within their secret headquarters, the Unbroken Circle hoard knowledge of Lost Si'yla. They have acquired many tomes of lore and journals of researchers from the fallen civilization, destroying copies of works that they thought too dangerous while keeping the originals preserved in an airtight chamber. Their temple is built within the submerged ruins of a forgotten Si'ylan city that was buried beneath Mother's Lake following the Seventh Cataclysm, which had been preserved well enough that it contained many things Jervik had not been able to find in a lifetime of searching. Some of these he has deemed too dangerous even for the other members of the Unbroken Circle, and keeps in an even more hidden location.
The city, which Jervik calls the Seashell, has been lovingly restored by the members of the Unbroken Circle over thousands of years. Once home to tens of thousands of Si'yla, now each member of the Unbroken Circle can claim an entire building as their living quarters, filling it with mementos of their extraordinarily long lives and building whatever they need to conduct their research. The Seashell teems with strange animals, some created by members of the Unbroken Circle and some saved from enclosures in other Si'yl ruins that had kept them alive since the Fall. While the members are away, maintenance of the city is conducted by a small army of Si'ylan machines, restored by Jervik. If the Seashell were ever to be attacked, each of automatons is capable of wielding weapons from the vast armory the Unbroken Circle has collected and restored.

History

The Unbroken Circle is a term created by Saemon the Watcher, an Ascended who had sought out Jervik in hopes to shed his own ascendancy as Jervik the Once-Ascended had hundreds of years before. Though it took many years to track down the elusive lich, Saemon finally managed it. After days of discussion, Jervik revealed his secrets to Saemon. He had not learned of a cure for Ascendancy, though he had hope that one day he would; his death had separated his soul from his body, freeing the Ascendancy that had been bound to him. When he stole his soul back with his magic, it was bereft of Ascendancy, and he was free of the curse... but also undead.
Though he was loathe to repeat the process, Saemon was persistent. Their friendship lasted for Saemon's entire life, with years of disconnect as the time washed over Jervik without the lich noticing. Finally, as Jervik watched his friend age slowly, his friends and family withering and dying without time seeming to affect either of them, he agreed. Saemon's rebirth was the start of the Unbroken Circle, and the two friends turned their immortal minds to the task of saving others from Ascendancy as they had been saved.

Military

Almost all of the Unbroken Circle are powerful mages, wielding magicks they have mastered over centuries of practice. Though pacifistic by nature, the Circle does have to defend itself from the automated defenses of Si'ylan ruins as they explore, keeping them practiced. Two thousand restored or rebuilt Si'ylan automatons patrol the Seashell, and each one is capable of equipping itself with weaponry from the armory, making themselves tireless, heavily armored combatants wielding weaponry far stronger than the mortal races generally can obtain.

Technological Level

The Unbroken Circle represent the closest the mortal races have come to attaining the heights of glory lost when Si'yla fell. They have mastered the feats of bioengineering that Lost Si'yla used to create the fields and livestock that fed the nation, which were later turned to making horrific warbeasts as the Seven and One destroyed the civilization that they had built. The Unbroken Circle has also learned how to create Ancienttech weaponry and some members devote their eternity to creating new weapons, filling the organization's armory.

Trade & Transport

Most of the undead in the Unbroken Circle choose to follow Jervik's example and become lich, eschewing the need for anything. Though some become lesser forms of undead and require blood or other substances to remain functional for one reason or another, there is no need for the Unbroken Circle to purchase anything. Gold is likewise worthless to them, since selling their discoveries would make them richer than even the dwarven bankers. The only currency the Unbroken Circle trades in is information, and they pay handsomely for anything they are unable to uncover themselves.

Education

There is a significant barrier to entry to the Unbroken Circle. Those who discover the organization's existence are generally also scholars, and many of them are equally obsessive and dedicated as Saemon or Jervik. Every member is an expert within their field of study, most eclipsing the rest of the world in their detailed knowledge of their craft, thanks to hundreds of years spent in isolation pursuing their passion.

Diligence Unto Death

Founding Date

5131

Type

Secret, Occult

Capital

The Seashell

Training Level

Elite

Veterancy Level

Decorated/Honored

Leader

Jervik the Once-Ascended

Head of State

Saemon the Watcher

Government System

Oligarchy

Economic System

Post-scarcity economy

Currency

Information

Location

Mother's Lake