Although mages tend toward individualism, most are intelligent enough to realize they’re more likely to achieve their goals if they work with others of their kind.
Most mages eventually join a cabal of between two and thirty of their peers.
Large or old cabals might include a mixture of mentors and apprentices, but most are made up of peers at the same level of magical development.
Cabals can be loose associations sharing nothing more than the communal rent on a few safe houses, tight-knit circles of mages who deliberately choose Shadow Names to take on complimentary roles and enhance their group rituals, or anything in between. Despite the social pressure to join a cabal, even a loose one, the Orders do accept lone Solitaries as members.
For the majority, cabals provide many benefits:
Symbolic Function
Mages frequently build cabals around a theme based on their number of members, the quality of their magical practice, their locale, or any other factor that members recognize as a proper magical correspondence.
One might be formed along an elemental theme, with each member embodying a different element.
Another might use astrological signs, alchemical metals or processes, pantheons of gods, cards of the Tarot, totem animals, or even characters in a Shakespearean play.
A cabal’s symbolism is as important as a Shadow Name in most mages’ eyes, and the choice of cabal name and theme tends to dominate all its member’s destinies to some degree. Furthermore, cabals who perform ritual magic together are capable of better results if they can incorporate their cabal’s theme into the casting.
Mutual Protection
At the very least, membership in a cabal means someone will notice if you go missing, and they’ll come looking for you.
A mage can usually depend on his cabal mates to support him in disputes with other mages and to have his back if one of the Mysteries he is investigating follows him home and tries to kill him.
It’s considered good manners for a mage to let his cabal know what lines of inquiry he is currently pursuing and what kinds of enemies he might have made along the way, but at the end of the day a cabal is likely to get him out of trouble first and demand explanations later.
Common Cause
While each mage has her own personal obsessions, the mages of a cabal quite frequently pursue Mysteries together. This allows them to pool their resources and cover more ground than they could alone.
Each Mystery solved increases the Gnosis of the cabal as a whole, which makes all the members better-equipped to pursue deeper Mysteries.
Collective Bargaining Power
When making deals with other mages, a mage with the backing of a cabal has significantly more bargaining power than a Solitary.
First, a cabal acts as a sort of insurance that the mage will uphold her end of the bargain. Cabals value their reputations and will apply social pressure to members who might make other members look untrustworthy.
Additionally, if something beyond the mage’s control (such as her death) prevents her from keeping her word, her cabal can usually be persuaded to fulfil the obligation in her stead.
Second, a cabal acts as a de facto enforcer of any agreements its members make. A Solitary mage can appeal to a Consilium for satisfaction, but a cabal can carry out its justice swiftly and without outside approval.