Order of Hermes
📜 Order of Hermes of Madison
"We are not merely the keepers of knowledge—we are its architects, its defenders, and, when needed, its erasers."
The **Order of Hermes** in Madison represents the oldest, most structured, and paradoxically most fractured magical Tradition in the city. With three major power centers, deep historical roots, and responsibility for **New Avalon** and the **Capitol Node**, their failures—and successes—are engraved into the city’s very foundation.
🧱 Origins and Role in Madison
The Order has operated in Madison since at least the 17th century, when **Jay Dee** first arrived at Teejop and began shaping the leylines into **sigil-encoded infrastructure**. Hermetics founded the **Capitol Node Seal**, established the Madison cabal network, and spearheaded the creation of **New Avalon**, the Horizon Realm tethered to the city.
They were once revered as spiritual architects. Now, they are accused of being its **silent saboteurs**.
🏰 Key Members
Jay Dee – The Reality Architect
- Founder of New Avalon - Warden of the Capitol Node - Current emotional state: **Unstable, haunted by paradox** - Believes the glyph to seal the Nameless has been lost—or perhaps rewritten by him unknowingly
Leon Keone Bone – The Burdened Librarian
- Keeper of forbidden texts and possible **holder of Excalibur** - Believes love is his greatest failure and redemption - Suspects the original glyph has infected the library with recursion
Sophia “Sable” Moreau – The Arcane Archivist
- Appears to be a ghost or echo-persona - Holds prophecies and records no one else can read - Could be the last living link to a Hermetic House erased from history
Gwydion Kelly (Hermetic Ally)
- Once Jay Dee’s rival, now increasingly paranoid - Believes the only way to fix the glyphs is to burn them and start over - Keeper of timelines no one else remembers
🧠 Practices and Beliefs
The Madison Hermetics focus on:
- **Sigil-based spell structure**
- **Quintessence manipulation via Prime geometry**
- **Temporal geometry (via Sable and Gwydion)**
- **Hermetic echoes—scripts from forgotten cycles**
Many Hermetics in Madison also follow **House Ex Miscellanea**, a catch-all House of rogue scholars, rewritten mages, and failed Sealsmiths.
📉 Current State (1985)
| Aspect | Status | |--------|--------| | **Leadership** | Fragmented. Jay Dee leads in name, not unity. | | **Sanctum** | Located beneath the Capitol and in the New Avalon Citadel. | | **Trust Level** | Low. Other Traditions question their secrecy and past glyph failures. | | **Paradox Influence** | High. Reality glitches around Hermetic strongholds are increasing. |
⚠️ Secrets and Concerns
- Jay Dee may be the **original author of the glyph that broke the Seal**
- The **Mirror of Shadows** in New Avalon was created by Hermetic design—now it warps memory
- **Sophia may not be alive**, but the Seal reacts to her presence
- **Excalibur**, held by Leon, may be a recursion anchor that draws the Nameless toward him
📜 Legacy vs. Threat
The Order of Hermes in Madison **built the city’s spiritual skeleton**. But some believe they also **introduced the disease**. Now, they must decide whether to **rewrite the truth**, **erase their own works**, or let the city fall—because of what they did, or failed to do.
📚 See Also
"All names have power. And one of ours may have doomed us all."