The Seers of the Throne, willing servants of the Exarchs, who keep Sleepers in the Lie in exchange for temporal power.
Magic is Payment
The Exarchs have won. The living Supernal symbols of oppression rule supreme, while the Fallen World is kept separate by their will. Humans are blind to the wonder of magic, the few who glimpse the truth squabbling over shattered remnants, ancient ruins, and the fragmented writings of lost archmages. Gods sit the throne of reality while men look up in envy and fear. Better to rule on Earth in order to one day serve in Heaven.
From a position of wealth and power in the Fallen World, the Seers of the Throne interpret the will of the Exarchs. In the kingdom of the blind, the Seers are kings. The third great sect of the Awakened opposes the Diamond and the Free Council out of religious obligation — one of many commandments from their faceless, never-seen masters in the Supernal Realms.
The Seers can directly compete with any of the Diamond Orders in their respective areas of expertise, and frequently exploit human culture to a degree that enrages the Free Council. Their battle-mages worship war itself, marching alongside sages who serve the living symbol of control through surveillance. Wealth, power, sex, magic — all are granted in exchange for oppressing humanity and furthering the Lie.
They serve the Ministers, earthly servants of a particular Exarch and the heads of Ministries, each dedicated to a particular form of control over the Fallen World — military force, religious and secular authority in tandem, economics.
The Ministries constitute the Iron Pyramid, a massive power structure that extends into Supernal politics with the Exarchs as capstones. Every Ministry is, essentially, a small Order patronized by a particular Exarch, affiliated with hundreds of independent cults dedicated to that Exarch. The Iron Pyramid acknowledges four Exarchs as Archgenitors, and their Ministries as Greater over the Lessers.
The Ministries didn’t invent the forms of human misery they espouse and exemplify, but they draw magical strength from the suffering of the Fallen World. The Mystery cults that spawned the Ministries are still extant, providing the Seers with fanatics and, to their eyes, cannon fodder.
The Great Ministries (and those who threaten their stability, such as the capitalistic Mammon) maintain stables of supernatural servant creatures, or deep ties to the societies of creatures that used to be human. Ministries rise and fall with new forms of tyranny, though Seers all pretend that the Great Ministries are eternal.
Mages join the Seers when they want to use their magic to live comfortably, taking everything they couldn’t get before they Awakened. They also join when they’re afraid of the Exarchs or Seers, or want to be on the winning side. Finally, the Seers have been known to poach by promising Pentacle apprentices a Mystery they desperately need.
Core Beliefs
The Will of the Tyrants
Humanity is fallible. The Exarchs are not. By the Seers’ reckoning, the world isn’t Fallen at all — the cosmos is a vast pyramid of power, with the Exarchs on top. The Exarchs rarely speak directly to their servants, except through Ministers and, occasionally, Prelates — Seers of good standing in the Exarch’s eyes, who sometimes experience visions or dream-notions attributed to Exarchal will.
Domination is the key theme common to these visions, defining a clear condition of victory but an uncertain method. Cryptic or highly metaphorical, Seers hold these to be tests of their wisdom, with successful interpretations leading to victory over their rivals on the path to power.
Given their once-human origins, so the Seers believe, the Exarchs reward loyal service with magical secrets and a place within Pyramid hierarchy. Many Seers live as plutocrats, supported by the Ministries they serve, rewarded for performing whatever acts their divinations or their superiors demand.
Advancement comes when a Seer is strong enough to demand it — most Seers watch their superiors for weakness while working to undermine their inferiors.
Mages who serve the Exarchs faithfully will be rewarded
The advantages of service within the Iron Pyramid are obvious. Money and temporal Fallen power are the least of these — even junior Seers experience a level of comfort unheard of outside of celebrity culture. Less obvious are the advanced rotes, Grimoires, and potent artifacts that faithful Seers receive, including use of Profane Urim — artifacts which allow total domination over vast numbers of servants, controlling minds and manipulating wills in ways both gross and subtle.
The ultimate rewards of Fallen service are archmastery and, Seers pray, Ascension to the Supernal and a place among the Exarchs.
Divination reveals the Tyrants’ will
Through varied means of Fallen divination — Tarot and dream interpretation being the two most popular methods — Seers gain insights into where to act and what to do to further the Exarchs’ power. The Tyrants control the world, after all — the marks of their will are there, if only you look for them with the requisite wisdom to comprehend.
The Seers are obsessed with omens and signs, even beyond raw applications of the Fate and Time Arcana. They listen for High Speech in the white noise of radio telescopes, consult charts of bird migrations, and enslave Sleepers who have the gift of foresight. The more Seers work the Exarchs’ will, the more rewards they find, including unique praxes (that still serve the Tyrants), artifacts of Atlantis, and Supernal Verges.
From the Iron Pyramid comes prestige and servitude
As the Exarchs are above mages, so are mages above Sleepers, and the Seers direct minions in campaigns of surveillance and subversion. Among the Awakened, the Pyramid defines the hierarchy. Senior mages encourage their lessers to delegate tasks, offering less and less explanation further down the Pyramid while tolerating more and more personal exploitation.
It’s not easy — a Seer must split her time between utilizing and sabotaging subordinates while flattering and undermining her superiors. The various Ministries also wrestle for influence within the Pyramid. The net effect is that despite all the advantages the Exarchs’ sponsorship brings, the Seers spend too much time jockeying for position and chasing their personal Mysteries to fully wage war on the Pentacle.
Origins
Individual cults and Ministries differ on the fine points of mythology, but the majority ascribe to something like the Diamond’s Atlantean stories. Seers hold the Exarchs to be Ascended mortals who created a powerful artifact, or portal, or both, called the Celestial Ladder. The Exarchs-to-be used it to force their way physically into the Supernal Realms, Ascending en masse to rule the cosmos and remake it according to their vision.
When the Diamond Orders first formed, they all included groups who believed the Exarchs should be placated or worshiped. The first major Exarch cult split from the Diamond almost immediately, styling themselves slaves of the General, Exarch of control through fear of violence.
They fell with the rise of Republican Rome, scattered and crushed by circumstance and rivals for the General’s attention. Other cults survived both within and without the Diamond until the 16th century, when the followers of the Unity, Exarch of control through xenophobia, became the Hegemony — the first Ministry of the Lie, using political ideology, nationalism, and racism to divide and conquer humanity.
Mysteries
The Seers look for Mysteries revealing the Exarchs’ will, or are directed to them by their divinations. A great many Seers are directed to search for Mysteries under the command of their hierarchy, ostensibly by the will of the Exarchs, but most often to satisfy the whims of their betters (though most Seers assume that if the Exarchs took issue, they’d say so).
For their part, Exarchs command the Seers to conquer the Watchtowers by studying Awakenings, control magic by hoarding secrets and mystic sites, enslave the Old Gods and various powers antithetical to Supernal magic, regulate The Abyss, divide humanity with rivalry and resentment to keep them Asleep, and destroy the Pentacle and the Nameless Orders.
By contrast, the Exarchs also direct Seers to protect humanity from existential threats, and renew the vault-seals of ancient horrors called the Bound. Not even the Tyrants wish to rule a kingdom of ashes. More than once in history, this has required making common cause with the Diamond — primarily the Silver Ladder, but occasionally the Guardians of the Veil and the Mysterium.
Last but most important, the Exarchs do take direct action on very rare occasions, sending avatars called Ochemata out from their Supernal palaces into the Fallen World. Ochemata are Supernal Entities formed of the Exarch’s symbols, god-like in power, but Seers say each is but a shadow formed of its parent Exarch. Sometimes, an Ochema issues commands to a Seer. Most of the time, they are reserved for tasks the Exarchs don’t trust their slaves with.
Magical Symbolism: The Words of the Tyrants
Seer tools transcend cultural boundaries, relying on the symbolism of their Ministry’s patron Exarch. Seers incorporate Exarch icons into High Speech, runes, and illuminated scripture. Most often, this is an orison to his patron, a prayer for intercession of a Tyrant’s will.
Repeatedly drawing on her Exarch draws a Seer’s soul closer to alignment with her patron’s symbols. After successive castings of high magic, a doorway appears in her Oneiros, leading to a brutal Supernal test of loyalty in a dreamscape controlled by her patron’s servants, with a successful harrowing leading to Prelacy.
Hubris
No mage serves the Throne out of altruism. Even the deluded or willfully ignorant find themselves quickly disabused of notions of fighting the good fight. Yet there’s great profit in tyranny, and no shame in admitting that. Unfortunately for the Wisdom of Seers, the missions assigned them by superiors are often traumatic.
The Tyrants care not for those below them, and while they reward valued servants and Prelates, few make the leap from expendable to indispensable. Seers fall to Hubris when they follow orders no matter the cost to themselves or others, when they enslave Sleepers to work their will, or when they steal Artifacts and other magical supplies from other groups without regard. Sadly, these actions neatly describe the Seers’ mandate.
Concepts
Abacomancer
I lazily trace a glyph in the fresh ashes. He was a father of three, and his children hardly spoke to him in the last decade of his life; their guilt means a particularly gaudy spot urn in the columbarium. The ashes of a father are a fitting tribute to my gods, so it’s his ashes through which I work my divination.
The wind kicks up, blowing coolly over white marble, shifting and twisting the glyph into something new. I wipe the ashes on my greatcoat and ignore the screams of the man’s ghost. The Exarchs have answered my queries, and I will not let some crying shade distract me from the call of gods.
Architect
The city stretches before me. Others of my Path would deem her a concrete jungle, but I see her as a living companion, as lonely as I am. Her lungs billow black smoke into the air, while her guts teem with thousands of residents. I raise my hands, and a dozen architects at three different firms unknowingly coordinate their efforts.
The Exarchs bring order to this world, just as I bring order to this city. A skyscraper here, highway ramp there — enough to alter weather patterns, bringing storms to my lover’s belly. Drop by drop, the poorest within her will wash away, their foundations crumbled and possessions destroyed. In five years, property values will be low enough for gentrification to take hold, and my true work will begin.
Stereotypes
Adamantine Arrow:
They exalt challenge, but not the ones who challenge them.
Free Council:
Genius is unappreciated, even when it’s completely backwards.
Guardians of the Veil:
Their dreams aren’t as empty as their conscience seems to be.
Mysterium:
Career scholars who worship power? There’s lots for you here, friend.
Silver Ladder:
One nation under gods; accept nothing less
Lore Bite
“All it costs is your soul.” Is that what they’ve told you happens when you serve the Throne? Spare me. And no, before you ask, the street meat vendor you’ve been eating from all these years is not an evil mage. I’m just borrowing him for a few minutes. A tip, free and friendly: shed your links if you can, cease your habits if you can’t.
You’re quite easy to find.Here’s the truth: Humanity is oppressed, no matter what happens. You live in the Fallen World, but it will not move for you. You see the Lie, but you’ll always live in it. You cannot beat the Exarchs. You can’t even truly fight them. The best you can manage is a vague and persistent resistance.
The Diamond does not tolerate dissent or disloyalty, and the Free Council tolerates nothing else. We are no different than the “Atlanteans,” save that we serve the divine beings who are demonstrably at the helm of the universe rather than old wizards fighting a war lost before Plato first wrote down the name of some made-up island.So don’t. A far wiser saying goes, “If you can’t beat them…”, but you already know the rest. Pithy, perhaps, but we’re speaking of magic here. Don’t take my word for it. Sleep well tonight, listen to your dreams, and scrutinize the signs. If you’re wise, if you desire reward for your service, They will tell you where to go.
And no, it doesn’t cost your soul. Just your obeisance, better given to gods than men who think themselves divine.