This post will discuss two (really three) of the most notorious organizations that are active within The Steinwald and have wildly different reputations.
The Ptolemaic Organizations (known more colloquially as the Constellation Cults)
Dating back to before the Reconciliation of the planets (roughly 300 years before the present), these organizations were originally one secret order that consisted of people who believed they could find a way to bridge The Planar Divide and cause a crossing over of beings from across the Divide they view as gods. Named after Claudius Ptolemy, the first contributor to the Alexandria Wonder World, The Disciples of Ptolemy sought to reverse engineer Lo’chian mythology and sought to open The Planar Divide to allow beings from both planes to pass. Initially, the goals and methods of the organization were peaceful, but eventually in around 200 AR, a more radical split occurred that brought about two rival organizations, Terra Nova and Olympia. Terra Nova seeks to bring awareness of The Planar Divide to the masses via peaceful means such as the use of hallucinogens or through methods commonly done by paranormals. Olympia wants to test the idea of bringing out the presence of the so-called gods by causing catastrophic incidents such as seeking to mass murder Lo’chian Dragons and their allies or enslaving Sylphs and/or Nymphs. Terra Nova and Olympia have been effectively at war since the original split.
Some examples of some of the off-shoots of Terra Nova and Olympia.
- Terra Nova
- Cassiopeia
- Looking to find contact with the gods through the use of psychedelic drugs
- Seen as mostly harmless. Generally does not cause trouble and is generally a safe organization.
- There have been cases of Cassiopeia members that have created more nefarious offshoots.
- Centaurus
- Looking to find contact with extraplanar activity by providing them a vessel through automatons.
- Generally harmless.
- Draco
- Arm that was created to sabotage Olympian activity and to steal/extort funds from them. They have also been known to retaliate against attacks from forces outside Terra Nova.
- Due to the letter of Seedbearer law, they have not committed any official crime.
- More brazen members have been arrested for attacking/blackmailing lesser Council members.
- Libra
- This arm of Terra Nova aims to bring balance to the activities of the other groups and to monitor Olympia activity.
- Considered to be a vigilante group that while their targets are usually confirmed to be committing worse crimes, to be a dangerous outfit.
- Cassiopeia
- Olympia
- Andromeda
- Seeks to extort Terra Nova organizations by mimicking their underground activities and creating false flag incidents to tarnish Terra Nova organization's reputation.
- One of the less dangerous Olympian organizations, but still will kill if need be.
- Cygnus
- Seeks to bring out the gods by causing the subjugation/execution of Lo’Chian Dragons and their allies and the promotion of the superiority of European peoples
- Originally focused on the destruction of Lo’chian society. Turned Nazi real quick for some reason,
- Gemini
- Seeks to bring out the gods via the subjugation of extraplanar creatures such as Sylphs and Nymphs. They do this by placing them in automatons which are then given to be used by Cygnus/Orion.
- Generally don’t want to kill if needed, but will raid robotics warehouses and protect what warehouses they have in their possession.
- Orion
- Looking to bring out the age of the gods via the destruction of current empires
- Will act as mercenaries for any sort of organization seeing to cause political turmoil.
- Don’t really have a set ideology, really just the worst kind of accelerationists.
- Andromeda
The Canaries
The Canaries are a group of artists and writers who anonymously write stories that detail the exploits of nefarious groups and people acting in Seedbearer as well as around Nova Britannia and the US. Stories that they have put out have exposed Council Members being on the take, actions of criminal organizations, and the nefarious acts that have been done by other countries. Most of these stories have some of the details in such a way that they don’t explicitly call the person out to be in the legal clear, but context can clearly point to who they are talking about.
The only officially known member of The Canaries is the owner, Simon Hawk. He is incredibly protective of the identities of the other members of the group and the sources that he has for his stories. It’s been claimed that most of the sources get their information from illicit means but no one has ever gotten concrete evidence of the fact. It’s also rumored that many celebrities have been members of the group or have at least been a source.
The general reputation amongst the public for the group is rather positive. Whenever a new Canary release comes out, it will almost certainly be a bestseller. The group has also been pioneers in new mediums as some of their bigger releases have been in comic form, a medium that hasn’t really been taken seriously.