The Seculars ¶

^{Should not us kin decide our own fate?}

The Seculars are a coalition of forces -- looser than most Iconic retinues -- dedicated to the liberation of kin from the meddling forces above and below. They do not posit that angels, devils, gods, and demons do not exist. Rather, that their influence on the kin of the land ought to be revoked, by any means necessary.

The Seculars in the World ¶

Ages and The Seculars ¶

The Seculars are a new breed, given birth by the Tragedy of Caldera. What good are the forces that preserve the world if Foothold, Forge, and Axis burn, collateral in the grand schemes between gods and devils?

The Seculars arose to reject the outsized influence The Diabolist, The Crusader, and The Priestess had on the lands.

Allies in the Empire ¶

Naturally, the Emperor finds the broader aims of this group tolerable. The Seculars find the Archmage and his forces useful, but whether or not the feeling is mutual hasn't been solidified.

Owing to their shared radicalism, Seculars and the High Druid's groves find themselves happy to break bread together. The Seculars may recruit from the Prince of Shadows's ranks, sometimes without recognizing it. Nothing like a good power-vacuum to draw the wrong crowd.

Naturally, as two newly-minted icons, The Seculars enjoy working with The Factory, if only because they see it as a useful source of personnel.

Enemies and Rivals ¶

As below, so above. The most-radical creed of The Seculars cast aside all of the Gods' virtues, light and dark alike. Naturally, this makes the Priestess and the Crusader the enemies of The Seculars.

Were the Diabolist still around, they'd likely find themselves receiving the ire of The Seculars. Still, her vestigial cults and machinations often seek to disrupt The Seculars.

Other beyond-the-realm influences are not so readily agreed upon by the ranks of The Seculars. What of The Lich King? Interloper from beyond this coil, to be excised and cast away, or needed comrade for the hard task of purging the heavens and hells? And so forth for The Great Gold Wyrm, and The Three.

The Seculars and Your Hero ¶

The Seculars are a good pick if your character concept has been ground down by the grinding of the great gears that drive the cosmos. You will find yourself among friends, with a desire to free themselves from their yoke. The Seculars can provide your hero connections to Gods, Devils, and other forces beyond the realm.

Do expect to go along with their wildest plans, schemed against the Gods themselves.

Uniques and The Seculars ¶

Perhaps you've been handed the mantle of divinity, and wish to reject it. Perhaps you have an inroad to the heavens and the hells. Your Unique should align you in some way towards rejecting the plans of the Gods, whether you were the lynchpin of their designs, or chaff cast aside.

Religious and Esoteric Backgrounds ¶

Perhaps your hero is a high priest of Komra, or simply a lowly friar in Santa Cora. Do you know too much about The Silver Cathedral, or were you sent by Zanteg to liberate the markets? Maybe you were abducted for ritual sacrifice, or perhaps you knew where to gather sacrificants.

Working for The Seculars ¶

As a patron, The Seculars can provide you with the means of division and disorder. At their heart, they are a rebellion against the status-quo: The grander status-quo, of kin's place between heaven and earth. You will find yourself receiving gifts from above and gifts from below, in equal measure. Plundered, of course, or perhaps handed over by monks turning a new leaf.

Working for The Seculars will see you rubbing shoulders with high-society to earn them new converts. And when that can't be done, it'll see you demolishing the foundations of high-society all the same.

The real truth is that The Seculars may not have a plan for what their new world looks like. As a coalition, there is no singular vision, yet, and what comes to follow may be worse than what was, but at least the kin will decide their own fate.

Using Connections ¶

Secular Organizations ¶

The Way of Blue, a nomadic society from The Northern Outlands. Well-versed in an esoteric magic centered around monsters, they were decimated by devil-kind during The Tragedy of Caldera. They reject all extraplaner interference, as a result, with a burning ire.

Orcish Flametakers, a radical outcrop of Ngahama's flame worshippers. They reject her as a gatekeeper for the purity of fire that is so central to Orcish society. Your average radical wishes to reclaim the gift of fire from devilkind, dragonkind, and all else who would abuse it, in the name of Ngahama. A Flametaker wishes to usurp the flame from Ngahama herself.

The True Ecumenical, a group of former fundamentalists from all stripes: Bishops of the Gods of Light, ritualists of the Gods of Dark, and cult leaders of the Abyssal Ones. A smaller group with importance for the intellectual legitimacy of The Secular, they work together to try to find common threads among all their disparate objects-of-worship. Of course, the Gods and the Devils exist, and their plans must be studied to be overcome.

More To Come…

Important Figures ¶

Jared, Blue Scion, an outlander Human whose life was destroyed by devilkind. Has some minor control of dimensional magicks, which is useful when trying to invade extraplanar realms.

Christopher the Fourteenth, the second son of the Emperor. As was tradition for second-borns, he was sent to become a holy man in Santa Cora, where he was taught the Ways of Light. While there, he saw the shortcomings of divinity and The Priestess's ways, and has come to conspire against them, in letters and missives penned with the royal seal.

Sha-Liravarilash, an elder Red Dragon who deigns Dragon-kind supreme over kin. With the slaying of Kse-Larosalasoralesk at the hands of Katarina during The Tragedy of Caldera, the confidence once enjoyed by draconic society wavered. Lirav seeks to rally her kind towards the destruction of the divine and the diabolical.