BROTHERHOOD OF BERTRANDO

By Anders Sandberg (nv91-asa@nada.kth.se) (18 Apr 94)

Description

This is a small group of mages devoted to the protection of mankind. They see themselves as a kind of magickal police, ruthlessly destroying any mage threatening mankind. They are well organized, trained and fanatic. What makes them even more frightening is that the seem to believe in their cause, and have not allowed themselves to be corrupted by greed or lust for power.

The Brotherhood of Bertrando was founded during the middle ages in Europe, as a response to the fact that many mages experimented with diabolism or other dangerous activities. The founder, only known as Bertrando, seems to have been an influential mage in the Order of Hermes. At first, it was just a kind of secret, unofficial police which in secret investigated rumors of diabolism or the abuse of magick. If they found the suspect guilty, they often turned him or her over to the Quaesitors, the Inquisition or the mundane authorities. But during the late Diddle Ages, the group became more and more extreme. They saw how darkness spread everywhere, how pestilence and famine erupted and the number of mages involved in it constantly grew. They felt that they had to fight the evil harder, and instead of just tracking down offenders they also punished them, most often by death. The name of the Dark Lightning became feared among mages of all traditions.

When the lesser Rrder of Hermes dissolved, partially because of the widespread attacks from the Inquisition and the Brotherhood, partially because of internal chaos, many of the mages from House of Quaesitor joined the Brotherhood. It became a secret army, spread across Europe. During the years that followed, the organization tracked down many mages and killed them, often for minor offenses. Slowly, the attacks ceased as the mages learned to hide themselves or perhaps because they had become very few. The Brotherhood also dwindled, yet again becoming a small organization.

Today it still exists, and yet again seek to destroy all abusers of the powers of magick. It ruthlessly kills marauders, nephandi, rogues and any tradition-mage who they feel misuse their powers. Their relation to the Technocracy is a bit strange. Since their idea of magick is fairly medieval, they tend to regard most technomancers as non-mages, and only attack the Technocracy if they find out that it has used something that is clearly magick in an unsuitable manner. They regard themselves as the judges over individual mages, not whole organizations like the Technocracy. The Technocracy, on the other hand, regards them as allies against the Marauders and Nephandi, and tolerate them as long as they do not turn against them.

The Brotherhood today is small, just one or two cabals of mages organized into small teams. The members are all formally equal, but each team is led by a Veteran, generally the most experienced member. There is also an informal ranking system, depending on experience, power, dedication and how long the mage have been member. Prospective members are invited to join, and subjected to a series of grueling tests to test the members loyalty, magickal experience and willingness to ruthlessly destroy evil magick.

Their ideology is simple: they must guard mankind from all kinds of misuse of magick. "Misuse of magick" is defined by the Brotherhood and quite flexible. To use magick for personal gain is forbidden, as is manipulating or controlling somebody else, hurting or killing people with magick and of course any magick dealing with evil (or any) spirits. Of course all magick used to commit crimes of mundane nature are forbidden. They also punish crimes against the old laws of the lesser Order of Hermes, like scrying on other mages or killing another mage. The punishments they give are strongly medieval, and generally quite harsh. Minor offenses, like using magick in gambling or for theft is punished by mutilation. More severe crimes, like demonology, is punished by burning at the stake (if possible).

The Brotherhood have no strict rules, but generally tend to fall back on the old judgements in the Codices. Each Codex is an old journal containing the details of the cases against their enemies and the punishments. Today the collected Codices number 15 large volumes. All cabals of the Brotherhood are required to keep copies of the Codices, and enter their actions into them. They are often quite gruesome readings, but also important sources of information about both the organization and their victims. That is why the Brotherhood carefully guards the Codices, and will ruthlessly hunt down anybody with a copy. However, there are a few copies which have been lost (especially after the middle ages, when the membership of the Brotherhood began to dwindle).

The members are mostly recruited from the Celestial Chorus, Order of Hermes, the Trenchcoaters and rarely the Akashic Brotherhood. Most members keep their loyalties to the Brotherhood secret, and often have prominent positions inside their own Traditions. Their main enemies, besides the obvious Marauders and Nephandi, are the Euthanatos, Verbena, Orphans and some groups in the Order of Hermes, who have been hunted by the group for a long time. However, not many mages today know about the organizations existence, and most thinks it is a thing of the past. The Brotherhood does not advertise either, and tends to avoid leaving any trace.

Its methods are a mixture between magick and detective work, and when they attack a wrongdoer, they often use mundane methods. They have found that most mages are quite well prepared against magickal or supernatural attacks, but can be easily brought down using a bit of thought, planning and expertise. When they are done with the criminal, they often arrange things to look like an accident or a mundane crime.