“I see. I imagined that he was cast out of all decent society.”
“If society were really decent, he would have been.”
— George Gissing, The Odd Women

The Victorian era is a time of great upheaval for magi across the globe. The smoking imperialist war machine crushes all before it, while its masters in the Order of Reason struggle with a moral rift surviving well into the next century. The Traditions also wrestle with the imperialist credo while pre-industrial allies feel the boot of colonial oppressors on their throats. Invading forces annihilate native cultures and their magi defenders with terrible efficiency. Victorian society demonizes the foreign and the lower classes in equal measure, with the slum-dwelling masses as reviled as the exploited populations of central Africa. Magi, night folk, and Umbrood wage terrible battles on both sides of the Gauntlet as they duel to control nodes and territories. A time of great change indeed.
We often view the Victorian period only through the grimy lens of the British Empire. Our very term for the era, “Victorian,” refers to the Empire’s monarch as a touchstone. However, focusing only on eerie gaslit streets and grand candlelit balls excludes much of the period’s history and culture. Wars, great and small, rage across the world, while the empires of the West extend their reach far and wide. A hundred cultures lose battles against invading powers and fade from history. Millions die of famine in India and Ireland even as imperialist masters eat bread made from corn grown on the starving peoples’ land. Manipulation pushes India’s diverse cultures and religions into conflict while the East India Company, and later the British Crown, plunder its wealth.
Cultural tourism brings exotic goods to colonial ports, filling the musty corners of gentlemen’s clubs and museums with objects better left untouched. The plunder of innumerable cultures flows freely into the conquerors’ hands, much of it to vanish for good, destroyed through neglect or disappearing into private collections. Alongside cultural artifacts come no small number of arcane threats. More than one London building unwittingly contains treasures capable of unthinkable horror. The telegraph, steamships, and railways revolutionize travel and communication, tightening the Order of Reason’s grasp on the world, allowing them to map “inappropriate” locations out of existence.
Magi in this era explore the mysteries of distant lands, deal with peoples long-separated from the rest of humanity, and experiment with enigmatic magick. Some magi defend their homelands from imperialist forces while others seek to explore the edges of existence. Not every magus is an adventurer. Some fight shadow wars in the smokestacks of the industrialized world. Others dine in high society, pulling strings that kill as surely as cannon fire. Darkly-purposed secret societies and clandestine depravity disguise themselves beneath a thin veneer of propriety and draconian morality. Trust nobody, especially not your allies.
Awakening grants magi the tools to transcend Sleeper notions of class, race, gender, and culture, but the magi themselves harbor many of these same prejudices. Awakening grants insights into the world. A callow highborn woman hears the thoughts of beggars she looks down on. An unfeeling doctor senses the horrific spiritual landscape his macabre treatments create. This gift of insight is a curse for some while others choose to ignore it, cleaving to their previous life. Awakening grants enlightenment, not compassion. A magus may find a thousand reasons why she doesn’t need to help that child dying in the gutter or why those native workers need flogging. The Awakening offers a second chance to be a better person, but some remain unchanged in their views.
Awakening is a time of vulnerability. For the powerful magi that prowl the hallways of every occult society and university, a naïve magus is ripe prey. Merry Jill Sweeny, a London tosher who combs the fetid sewer filth for items of value, Awakens in the darkness after nearly drowning. Jill quickly finds herself thrown into a world where she’s a highly-prized resource. An upper-class gentleman with a promising smile seeks her out in her slum. A strange raggedy woman with mismatched eyes and a horde of rats stalks her through the sewers. A famous Indian doctor offers her a job without explanation. Who can she trust and who does she choose? Beware, young magus, for the world is much larger than you can imagine! Temptation and corruption waits behind every corner.
Not every magus is willing to clash with friends and colleagues for the sake of others; it takes a good heart with courage and a strong mind. For all too many, creeping back to the familiar justifications and excuses is easier than standing up for the oppressed. What harm, they say, if I use my position in government to vote down the rights of women because the time is not yet right? What harm indeed, if I use my connections in the army to have locals driven from their lands in South Africa so I can open a new diamond mine and surely make more productive use of it than they? Greed and self-interest are powerful motivators; just ask the Nephandi, although it doesn’t take a soul bought and paid for or a Nephandic caul to forge a petty racist with delusions of grandeur.
Consider the story of a colonial magistrate with a head stuffed full of Victorian ideals. An interest in the occult, born out of boredom and some long-stifled academic leanings, blooms into writing papers on the subject. The magistrate enters into a correspondence with a powerful Order of Hermes maga, the attention of whom he has attracted. With each piece of arcane lore the maga feeds him, the magistrate Awakens. Upon discovering that his mystery correspondent is a native woman, he must adjust his core beliefs to accept her as his superior. Even if the magistrate accepts his new master, he is unlikely to treat his plantation workers any differently, or allow his wife to speak her mind in public, at least not without some further reasoning from those he considers his peers.
By contrast, a magus from a pre-industrial state operating in an area of imperialist influence has a difficult road ahead. These magi must contend with a prevailing social system built to oppose and oppress them, doubly so for women or those whose sexualities stray from the strict Victorian moral code. Knowing that they are equal to or better than their oppressors makes things even more difficult. Wisdom, experience, and strength of character enable these magi to deal with those that would bully and belittle them. Those lacking these traits often “flame out,” drawing the social and physical ire of imperialist forces.
A Ngoma magus from Western Africa visiting London may find himself scorned for his clothing, his looks, and his “unrefined” accent by Sleepers who couldn’t begin to comprehend his knowledge and power. Given that our Ngoma friend can humble his bullies with a gesture and a few well-chosen words, how difficult is it for someone like him, used to absolute respect and deference, to restrain himself? Other magi offer some solace from the world of Sleepers. These men and women are, by definition, enlightened and some even share a rational and open-minded worldview.

Gender, Gender Roles, and Equality
Victorians frown upon women taking prominence outside the home, though this slowly changes as the 20th century looms. The American Civil War enabled women to take on new roles and this encourages change. Europe, despite having Victoria as one of its most powerful heads of state, rarely accepts women taking on non-traditional functions. Some upper-class ladies find freedom with the death of their male “protectors,” but most are just as stifled as their lower-class counterparts. Outside of Europe, gender roles become increasingly blurred, especially for European colonists living on the frontiers where the lifestyle requires everyone to do their part.
Magi are more cosmopolitan than the average Sleeper, and they generally treat all genders as equals. Even the stuffiest Order of Hermes magus must acknowledge that there are many competent magae within the ranks of the Awakened. Within the Awakened community a vocal minority still believes in “a woman’s proper place,” but in most cases, they are decried as fools. Women initiates usually find the meritocracy within the Awakened world refreshing after decades of domination by family, friends, and society.
Some women achieve and hold high-level positions within the Awakened community, though “boys clubs” thrive in certain groups, such as the Order of Reason. Layers of glass ceilings and passive discrimination face any maga intent on advancement in these organizations. The more egalitarian Traditions and Crafts, such as the Verbenae and Dream-Speakers, are blessedly free of this bias. The contrasting freedoms offered by Awakened and Sleeper society require a steady mind to manage and keep separate. While in council with her allies, a maga’s word may be law to a hundred men, yet when she wishes to address a Sleeper town council they may ask to speak to her husband instead. This dichotomy is enormously frustrating, throwing open a staggering number of doors for the Awakened woman even as it denies her those self-same opportunities among the very people who she has now outgrown.
Instead of letting her true self be forced underground, revealed only behind closed doors to the Awakened few, many a Willworking woman seeks fulfillment beyond the fringes of Victorian society. Some travel to far-flung places or Umbral realms where the tethers of gender mean nothing. Others remain where they are but actively strive against the strict mores and rules that class and sex would impose upon them, embracing rebellious or outrageous elements and movements as a form of resistance. Society pushes back, however, and a maga’s enlightened perception may be decreed as madness or even cut short by the horrors of the era’s medical treatments for those judged unsound of mind.

Magi in Society
Every magus began as a Sleeper, likely spending a great deal of their time soaking in the Sleeper beliefs and prejudices of their time. The Victorian world isn’t a kind one: imperialist states can be cruel and class-driven. Outside of them, the colonies are rough places to live with little physical or social protection. Beyond the West and its colonies, much of the world is gripped in the throes of conflict, the necessities of survival, or long-running problems of their own. A magus may come from the wealthy elite, the impoverished underclass, or any of the handful of sub-classes in between. Very concerned with the class divide, everyone is keenly aware of where they sit within the hierarchy; a working-class laborer looks down on the “criminal classes,” while the upper class tallies their worth in distance from the throne while begrudgingly admitting the fabulously wealthy into their ranks. A magus’ class deeply colors their world view, tainting dealings even among the Awakened.
Of deep importance to an Awakened of this time is their opinion on the great social force of the era: imperialism. The conflict between imperialist philosophy and the lands that fall beneath its control serves as a primary driver for many of the key political events of the age. A powerful force that rampages across the world, imperialism causes untold harm, destroying cultures wholesale, nurturing slavery, massacres, displacement, and forced reeducation, to name but a few atrocities. Distance and propaganda enable average people to willingly buy into the benefits reaped by imperialism. After all, scholars and statesmen alike claim they are civilizing the world, bringing unity and safety to everyone.

Awakened Conflict
For magi, this age is a troubled one; the Order of Reason reinvents itself, shedding the last vestiges of morality and ridding many of its more egalitarian elements. The Ascension War runs hotter than it has in centuries. Spiritualism and hermeticism rise and gain popularity, offering the more spiritual Traditions the opportunity for a greater grasp on the consensus, while science reigns unfettered by the power of the Church and gives the Order of Reason’s luminaries terrifying free reign. The War spreads to every corner of the world, born on the tide of imperial power.
The Order of Reason rides high at the forefront of this expansion, but the Traditions are not altogether innocent of wrongdoing. The Order of Hermes freely plunders Egypt for lost secrets, while more downtrodden mystic organizations find themselves invigorated by fresh recruits from decimated native populations. Some Traditions come close to breaking apart during this time, as the divide between Tradition imperialists and oppressed colleagues grows. In 1884, a convocation in Paris intended to discuss the issues facing magi in the colonial regions devolves into violence, almost starting an intra-Tradition war.
Many Tradition masters and their pupils subscribe to the philosophies expressed in imperialism and a few take it further, seeking to convert magi that don’t follow their beliefs. Dark rumors of mountain castles, secret Horizon Realms, and isolated estates where foreign magi undergo “resocialization” plague the Traditions. While these places do exist, only half of them are secret Nephandi plots; the rest are true believers, who think they are helping “poor deluded fools.” With a history of marginalizing their own (House Díedne and House Ex Miscellanea for example), the Order of Hermes is at the forefront of this movement, joined by elements of the Chorus Celestial and Verbenae. These views conflict sharply with other magi both inside and outside of the above Traditions. The Dream-Speakers fight desperately to save their people across the globe while the Akashayana and Batini do the same for their strongholds in the East.
In short, the Traditions are in as much turmoil as the Order of Reason at this point, mostly due to centuries of distrust and infighting brought to a head by colonial expansion. This internal conflict tends to involve younger members of the Traditions, who are deeply invested in the tumult of their time, even in the face of disapproval from ancient masters. Regardless, a minor shadow war rages among such rivals until the late 1880s, marked by assassination and betrayal.
Magi not interested in fighting the Ascension War or the imperialist struggle must still consider the ramifications of both in their daily lives. Both the Order of Reason and Traditions take a join-or-die attitude in the face of these great conflicts, and magi choosing to stand apart too overtly paint a target on their heads. A staggering number of secret societies, clubs, and lodges arise, offering protection, community, and increased understanding among the various factions. Magi from the Far East and Africa travel to spread word of their philosophies, while in the Americas, secrets groups meet in the dreamlands or the vast wilderness, unseen by their colonial oppressors.

Awakened Among Sleepers
In society at large, Awakening is the ultimate form of social mobility. Even the weakest of magi may garner large fortunes through the clever use of magick. Carelessness, though, may attract unwanted attention from night folk, fellow magi, or even Sleeper authorities. Pity the magus whose transmutations of lead into gold bring the Peelers and Board of Inland Revenue to his door! A clever enemy can frame a magus for a crime, and point to inexplicable wealth or influence as proof. Organizations with centuries of wealth and power, like the Traditions and Order of Reason, might be willing to shower the right recruit with gifts in exchange for their unquestioning obedience, and have the structures to protect them from unwanted attention. Of course, wealth can’t buy the manners, contacts, and “breeding” of an upper-class upbringing.
Wealth is only the first step for someone wishing to move social class. The magus may need to overcome racial and gender prejudice while forging new connections, either through magick or impressive acts of social manipulation. Etiquette itself is the final gauntlet through which the nouveau riche must pass. The careless manners of the upper class come from rigorous drilling and tremendous social pressure. Emulating these requires practice and, most likely, a teacher.
Walking away from your previous life is very hard in a society that places such massive importance on social currency. A magus born to Birmingham’s slums may struggle to hide her accent and manners from new highborn allies. The struggle worsens when her old friends call to see her fancy new house, or demand favors in exchange for concealing her “unfortunate connections.” Once again, the great magickal organizations are happy to help, and in some cases require, their new initiate to reinvent their life. Like choosing a craft name, this personal reinvention also serves a practical purpose in hiding possible ritual magick connections.
While magick might let a magus live a life of leisure, the Awakened do not rest on their laurels. They feel the drive to engage with the world and change it. Magi often choose professions outside of the norm that challenge them while fulfilling their long-term goals or dreams. Explorers, builders, philosophers, and romantics, the magi attract attention, and by doing so find themselves called on to fall in line. An outspoken magus positing unpopular opinions finds himself in short order beset on all sides by societal pressures, backed up by draconian laws and a network of gossips capable of destroying hard-won social capital in mere hours. Victorians know that they must sever a tainted connection else risk losing their social standing. Scandals and other social disasters fast find one without a friend in the world. Even the lower classes suffer from this social ostracism, though the upper and middle classes feel it most keenly.
In some cultures, a magus might already have an established role to assume, such as a shaman, witch doctor, or cunning man. These established paths offer societal sanction for otherwise hard-to-explain behavior. Some magi have no choice but to walk away from such traditional roles. In the Congo region, after European invaders eradicate entire tribes, the surviving magi are now bereft of those they once helped. Amid the smog-belching factories of Britain, old traditions from the countryside wither and die beneath the boot-heel of poverty and pain. Even where such practices survive, a Willworker cannot always conform to the expectations of Sleepers. Many seek to forge a path of their own.
Magick and talent let a magus choose from a multitude of jobs. A railway consultant, helping to constrain the local paradigms. An engineer shielding miners from dangers hidden underground. A cataloger of arcane artifacts brought back from university-sponsored expeditions. A writer turning his adventures into fanciful “penny dreadfuls” in the hope that one day someone may realize the truth behind the fiction. Professions like alienist, spiritualist, or consulting detective draw strange events to a magus’ attention. In 1883, the alienist, Albert Westenra, battles malevolent Umbrood possessing colonial children across the African continent. Such cases become almost commonplace as Victorian scientific curiosity overcomes age-old superstition. Agatha Webley, an American Euthanatos maga, runs a secret detective business. Her clients are the richest women on the continent. Her cases are the kind that the Pinkertons refuse to take, considering them “flights of imagination and feminine fancy.” Doctors and scientists come across their fair share of weirdness, also. They encounter strange magick, terrifying diseases, and supernatural events.
Imperialist expansion across the globe awakens things better left undisturbed. At home, in old Blighty, the shift from rural to urban living leaves the wretched poor with little or no recourse when the darkness preys upon them. Engineers excavate the bones of ancient cities, ripping open centuries-old plague pits and forgotten graveyards with aplomb. In 1860, nighttime sewer works near the Thames break into a sealed Roman chamber. Engineers find brickwork with scratch marks made by human nails, and an ancient skeleton with evidence of cannibalism. For the next three months, a silent figure stalks the underclasses of London, nicknamed the “Spitalfields Rector” for its occasional use of Latin and favored hunting grounds. The Rector vanishes without a trace after an estimated twelve killings. The police, finding no bodies, spend little time investigating. The missing persons, of lowly origins, lack significant connections.
With the invention of the steamship and train mean, magi no longer need to rely on magick to cover vast distances. The abundance of travelogues and fiction, like Around the World in Eighty Days, makes things much easier for those using elegant travel magick. With clever planning and just a whiff of elegant magick, trains run like clockwork, and carriage horses never run lame. Many magi take this as a cue to journey farther, going beyond their maps to explore lands outside the Order of Reason’s grasp. They meet with new peers and interact with each other free of the strictures and rules laid out by their ruling organizations, often embracing a spirit of discovery and camaraderie. Imperialist forces are rarely far behind earnest adventurers, however. The Order of Reason reaches out across the globe, mapping the undesirable elements out of existence, and seeking technologies unknown to the West.
In Europe and North America, Victorian morality divides the world into two spheres. The pure sphere of hearth and home; and the grubby, corrupt sphere of the outside. The parallels between the home and a magus’ sanctum are undeniable. Many a magus treat their home as a sanctum, enhancing its defenses using the power of this belief. The widespread use of lamps and candles as light sources means intruders are never sure what the copious shadows hide. Is that flickering flame is a fire spirit preparing to attack or just a bad wick? The “pure” Victorian household conceals a multitude of sins. Domestic abuse is common, even if better concealed among the upper and middle classes. Household power resides in the hands of the husband. The Church, society, and the law enforce such patriarchal authority. Codes of silence and propriety allow such dark acts as a Nephandus would revel in to flourish unhindered.
Victorians consider raising a family a high social duty. Being childless draws pitying glances. Surely every woman wants to be a mother, and all men desire to extend their line? Seeking a “good match” involves pursuing unmarried men and women with vigor. Refusing too many offers leads to gossip or worse. A magus has much to hide and admitting a Sleeper into one’s innermost life complicates matters. A prospective husband or wife may have to pass inspection by the magus’ Chantry. They may have connections they are unaware of that make them a danger to the magus. They might unknowingly meddle in sanctum defenses. Even an offhand remark at the gentleman’s club about a wife’s strange habits risks drawing unwanted attention.
Family is a potential weakness that enemies can exploit, requiring much effort to protect and ward them. A magus might hide family members, bind entities to protect them, or cast protective spells on them. Pity the poor thief that jumps a magus’ husband in a dark alley only to find themselves facing the very face of Old Nick, himself.
Marriages between magi sometimes flaunt social Sleeper conventions. A wealthy English woman marrying a wild man from the Irish wilderness raises quite a scandal. Nobody in Sleeper society realizes that they are both Verbena magi sharing a deep spiritual connection. All they see is an “unfortunate alliance.” Some groups, such as the Hippocratic Circle, experiment with breeding programs in the hope of creating new magi, not so removed from what happens in the upper classes of Sleeper society. A hideously inbred family of magi might capture night folk, demons, or other magicians in the hopes of breeding a dark messiah.
Relationships and connections are vital to the upper-class Victorian. They weave this social network from a young age: going to the right school, the right university, marrying well, and raising seemly children. The smart magus uses these connections to access resources and intelligence not available to others. Magi devote much time to elegant magick surrounding etiquette and protocol. With a carefully enchanted letter or calling card, and the right turn of phrase, a magus may enter any home or meet almost anyone. It barely takes any magick work at all, if the magus has enough skill.
Servants have a great deal of knowledge of the inner workings of their master’s homes. They might share gossip and information with others of their rank, so long as doing so wouldn’t damage the family reputation overmuch. Servants are ubiquitous in the Victorian era, from the wealthy employing dozens of men and women, to the lower middle class scraping together enough to employ a single maid. The relationship between servant and family is somewhat akin to a lopsided marriage, and this goes double for a magus. Small wonder then that most magi have servants that know at least a little of their “other life.” The principle of conspicuous consumption applies to magi as well as Sleepers. As such, they often have more retainers or assistants than they truly need. By contrast, some magi choose or are assigned the role of servant. This may be for spying, espionage, protection, or inspiration. Sleepers in positions important to the Traditions or Order of Reason often find themselves with such extremely competent servants. The magi carefully manage their unwitting charges from a supposedly inferior position.

Apprenticeships and Initiations
Both the Traditions and the Order of Reason aggressively recruit not only to replace their losses but to expand their influence. While gender, race, and class don’t concern most magickal organizations as a whole, factions within them carry prejudices of their own. The Order of Reason tends to distrust magi from outside of the industrial world, believing most of them to be potential spies from the Traditions and Crafts. Once a recruiter has tested the loyalty of a prospective magus, they assign them a mentor. Within the Order of Reason, this codified process tends to pigeonhole new apprentices and stifle creativity. The Traditions practice a more chaotic approach, which, for different reasons, can leave an apprentice with an unsuitable mentor. Some Tradition masters collect and trade apprentices, gaining prestige from their exploits.
The Order of Reason has a serious problem with classism. Only the exceptional few among the lower classes have a chance to overcome crushing poverty and child labor to reach the scientific understanding necessary to join the Order’s upper echelons. The Order routinely places lower-class magi into its accelerated education program, which compresses the brutality of a decade of Victorian education into a scant few months. The use of experimental brain surgeries and drugs breaks more apprentices than it educates. Survivors graduate to the normal mentor-led curriculum. The Traditions generally accept members for who they are, but imperialist leanings often leave magi pigeonholed into Traditions associated with their cultures. A First Nations magus, for example, may find himself shepherded towards the Dream-Speakers, despite a keen interest in hermetic philosophy.
This era of heightened tensions results in rushed initiations and apprenticeships with more emphasis placed on protocol and less on actual magickal training. While the Horizon Realms remain strong and the Council of Nine Mystick Traditions holds considerable sway over Tradition magi, they struggle with the massive paradigm shifts occurring worldwide and the influx of new magi from across the globe. Some Traditions, like the Order of Hermes, still take pains to train their initiates for years. Others take a much more pragmatic approach. With training left in the hands of the individual mentor, this leads to a patchwork of training styles and knowledge. A handful of voices (mostly Hermetics) call for a formal curriculum, but the fractious Traditions are slow to change centuries-old habits.
Nascent magi supplement their sparse education by joining the worldwide plethora of secret societies and clubs. These secret societies range from the likes of the Green Men of Norwich’s social club to the Running Stream Lodge of the Great Plains, to the hidden village of Abre-Mfalme in the Congolese jungles. These diverse groups pursue a variety of social, magickal, and political goals. Society members share magick techniques, provide protection, and give advice. Some clubs serve as little more than social outlets where magi meet and talk to others of their kind. Many societies accept members from all magickal paths, especially those presided over by powerful independent magi since they have little fear of political backlashes.
Whereas membership in a cabal usually requires formal oaths and links to a Chantry, most secret societies require only common interest. With the dawning of the 20th century, opinion on secret societies sours as stories of betrayals and corruption circulate. The infamous House of Phantoms affair in 1899 prompts Traditions and Order of Reason to officially ban membership in secret societies, dissolving the last social connections between the two groups. Improved teaching methods drive the final nail into the coffin of secret societies, removing their function as substitute mentors.

Secret Societies and Other Organizations
Magi band together in social groups, forming secret societies, for a common purpose. This may be companionship, information sharing, traveling the Umbra, or some other reason. Secret societies often accept magi regardless of affiliation, making membership secrecy especially important. Your Order of Reason superiors learning that you regularly share a billiards table with a Chakravanti is not a recommended career move. That said, hypocrisy is rife, and the upper echelons of the Traditions and the Order of Reason share more than a few club memberships themselves. More than one Tradition master censures his underlings for interacting with “the enemy” while taking brandy and cigars with a high-ranking luminary three times a week.
Secret societies arise from the turmoil of the Victorian era. While the great magickal powers engaged in low-key war both within and without, human nature seeks sanctuary. Some magi need only a place they can speak their minds without fear. Others seek companionship, allies, or knowledge. That what happens within their walls stays secret is an unspoken rule, allowing magi to speak freely most of the time.
The Traditions and Order of Reason have overarching goals that don’t always have a place for their individual members’ agendas or social needs. In these cases, the secret society steps in to fill that gap. Much like every gentleman in London has a club, most magi worldwide have a secret society they call home. A magus needs his Tradition or Convention to be a magus, but he needs his secret society to help fulfill him personally.
Secret societies usually have unAwakened staff, and may rarely have members of groups outside the Awakened community, such as night folk and Umbrood. The ghosts of two fallen members of the Lion Society in Singapore provide advice to their younger members, treating them as their own children. Some groups invite those on the cusp of Awakening, guiding them along their journey. Many secret societies cross the boundaries of culture, race, and class in pursuit of their goals. The larger ones have multiple chapter houses across the world. Membership in clubs like the Twilight Northerners (daring Umbral explorers) or the Boston Twists (famous Certámen duelists) offers prestige and perks unavailable elsewhere.
With so much to deal with in Chantries and Cabals, you may well ask yourself, why use societies in your game? Secret societies offer a reflection of Sleeper culture in the era. They add a layer to player characters, and they offer the Storyteller a way to introduce new story threads and supporting characters. Lady Baxley, a Verbena, needs an expert in an esoteric healing art to save the life of the Nephandus holding her sister’s soul. Baxley’s Verbena cabal mates would never help an infamous dark magus, but maybe she can persuade someone in her dining club to help.

Secret Societies Worldwide
Gentlemen’s clubs and societies flourish in Europe, North America, and the colonies. Their Awakened counterparts thrive, too. Their ranks filled with magi from these nations and a smattering of others. In the industrial world, secret societies hide in plain sight, masquerading as exclusive social clubs. The Edgeworth Club, for example, is a group of lower-class orphan magi, predominantly street children, who gather together in a London rookery for protection and knowledge-sharing. The magi are the self-appointed protectors of street kids and have traded blows with more than one dark creature in the fog-choked streets. The Order of Reason would dearly love to capture and reeducate these young magi. The Edgeworth Club has connections to the Hollow Ones, with the club serving as a kind of “internship” for prospective Hollowers.
North America plays host to colonial clubs, imported social groups from the African continent, and First Nations lodges and societies. Spiritualist clubs and groups travel around North America, proving very popular and providing excellent cover for all manner of Tradition magi. The gentlemen’s clubs “back East” conceal factions dabbling in everything from debauchery to scientific research. The Offenbach Continuum in Boston foremost consists of Electrodyne Engineers along with a few other dogged mystery-hunters. The group’s studies focus on a strange silver-white portal, known as the Continuum, discovered deep under the city.
The New World nurtures more openness for these groups’ offerings than Europe’s more restrictive atmosphere. Magi in the American south, a center of voodoo and hoodoo practices, hide their gatherings behind fronts of Sleeper agents and theatrics. Sleepers and Awakened mix harmoniously in the shadow of powerful Umbrood. The Devil’s Dancers is a mixed group of practitioners, both Awakened and Sleeper, who travel throughout the South as part of a carnival. The dancers specialize in dealing with Umbrood, especially those angered or corrupted by recent colonial expansion. They both conceal and work their power through their performances.
In the great plains and beyond, the First Nations battle illness, famine, and draconian laws to stay alive and keep the flames of their cultures from guttering out. Native societies and lodges persevere by hiding ritual sites in the wilderness, disguising meetings as hunting trips, and developing secret signals and codes. Outside of the material world, the Shamans use the Maya dream zone or the Vulgate as sanctuaries, never truly meeting face-to-face but instead in spirit or thought-forms. The Rainmaker Society is one such group of First Nations medicine men and their allies aiming to preserve knowledge and culture. Generally peaceful, the group trains new magi, helps elders escape persecution, and hides cultural treasures. Rainmakers partially control a vast network of tunnels that fade in and out of the Umbra at certain times of the year. These tunnels cross half the continent and are home to the remnants of more than one culture already lost to the Sleeping world.
In the wider world, secret societies conceal themselves with greater care, especially given the colonial governments’ paranoia towards local cultural groups. In China, secret societies among Sleepers work to support the common people, protect them from over-harsh treatment at the hands of the imperial dynasties, and instigate rebellions. The Wu Lung, Akashayana, and Euthanatoi all sponsor Sleeper societies while running their clubs and groups from even deeper in the shadows. Even then, arrogance on the part of some Wu Lung and Metal Dragons means that they can miss even better-hidden secret societies of peasant magi conspiring under their noses. These latter groups communicate through a network of Umbrood emissaries related to the celestial courts, although such envoys may alter or fail to deliver messages if the correct forms are not observed or the content simply offends them. The Society of the Moon Hare is one such Awakened activist group instigating rebellions and defending the people from monsters, both literal and figurative. The group’s leadership regularly strikes against Wu Lung and Metal Dragons, and both groups actively hunt its members.
In Japan, the arrival of the famous Black Ships of Admiral Perry’s fleet opens up the country to external influence. Awakened groups have better access to Japan than ever before. New societies find their way into major cities, intent on learning a little of the strange Yurei traps and automatons crafted by Japanese magi. Cross-cultural societies form the basis for a new wave of interaction between the great magickal groups and the Japanese Awakened. Japan’s Two Shoe Society’s ghost hunters travel the occidental world seeking knowledge of the spirits of the West. Elders of the society suspect that unquiet souls of disrespected Western ancestors might well have a hand in fueling imperialist aggression, and wonder if they might lay such spirits to rest.
India’s Awakened community, long accustomed to the cults of the proto-Chakravanti, embrace the concept of secret societies for teaching and social purposes. In turn, the East India Company’s depredations prompt a rise in political and martial societies. India’s native magi, scarred by the legacy of the Himalayan Wars centuries before, shy away from open warfare. Instead, groups focus on more subtle solutions to British occupation. In a twist, the majority of the Order of Reason in India oppose imperialism and quietly work to oppose its influence. These anti-imperialists must act carefully and use societies like the cryptic Blue Cog Cognate to spread their message. Members of the Cognate never meet in person, exchanging messages through newspaper advertisements and dead drops.
In Africa, secret societies take on the role of spies, educators, and archivists. Groups like the Elephant School, dominated by the Ngoma, preserve and teach cultural heritage. On the other hand, the Lion Society, a secretive militant sect of native magi from all Traditions, fiercely opposes both Nephandi and mortals engaged in slavery, profane cults, and other such practices.
Colonial influence means that gentleman’s clubs are common in Africa, but they are far outnumbered by native societies. Magi across Africa usually arrange meetings as part of other events, such as safaris, celebrations, religious events, charity events, or schooling. These events hide the true nature of the group, allowing them to meet without too many prying eyes. Outside of the cities, strongholds and meeting places hide in the abundance of open space, provided one is careful not to attract the attention of an Order of Reason spy. The Children of Kabezya-Mpungu are primarily central African magi influenced by the philosophy of balance in all things. These magi believe the Order of Reason does bring some benefits, but they reject the harmful influences of imperialism. They fuse the technological and mystical in their magickal practices, attempting to make themselves into a bridge for the moderates in both the Order of Reason and Traditions alike. The Children walk a narrow and dangerous path, but they use their contacts on each side of the conflict to great effect.

Members and Power Structure
What a societies’ members do for and take from the society is key to understanding that group. The Four Rings Society, for example, has a strict (mostly age-based) hierarchy and its members strive to learn and share information about Umbrood and ghosts. The Offenbach Continuum, on the other hand, cares little for structure and has a single, tightly focused goal to understand the subject of their interest. Members of the Continuum share resources and debate the nature of the strange object, but outside their common obsession, they lack a cohesive structure.
Some groups harbor prejudices or include barriers to prospective members. The Edgeworth Club distrust adults, while the Lion Society is so paranoid about Nephandic infiltration that they constantly test each other. The Ivory Gentlemen only admit members with an upper-class English (not just British) upbringing, regarding everyone else as inferior. The Four Rings Society is open to others, but cultural differences and barriers to mystical understanding have so far kept their non-Japanese membership small. Some societies operate a tiered membership, like the Blue Cog Cognate, who mentor Sleeper scientists, offering them hints and guiding them towards Awakening. Cross-faction groups, like the Rainmaker Society, gain much from their diversity. Their understanding is broader and their members harder to pick out of a crowd.
Societies rarely exist without support staff. Social clubs, like the Parisian Mystic Diner’s Club, who dine on mythic beasts and ephemera, require scores of servants to keep them operating smoothly. Practically-focused clubs may require assistants to support their day-to-day tasks. These servants are often ignorant of their master’s true nature, but some societies find it more useful to grant such retainers a measure of occult knowledge. The Devil’s Dancers travel with Sleeper performers, a few of whom the magi helped in the past, after which they pledged their assistance in return.
Structure reflects purpose. Social clubs like the aforementioned Mystic Diners tend to be informal affairs, whereas groups like the Lion Society operate a cell structure where captives can’t expose the entire group. Membership commonly comes with responsibilities, such as the Blue Cog Cognate’s seeding of technomantic material into schools and educational institutes, or the Rainmaker Society’s transcribing of oral records. The time invested in society activities usually depends on what the member is willing to give. Few societies have the influence to demand copious amounts of their member’s time.
In return for responsibilities and time, secret societies share resources with members in line with their goals. A meeting place is the most common. Like mortal clubs, these meeting spots might have grand sleeping arrangements, like the Ivory Gentlemen’s decadent mansion on the outskirts of London, or ritual spaces like the Edgeworth Club’s (rather drafty) summoning circle. Occult libraries are common, as with the Elephant Society’s famous Living Library, and the Four Rings Society’s grand archive. Most clubs offer some form of social connections. The Edgeworth Club knows every fence and corruptible peeler in London, whereas the Devil’s Dancers have a network of friends spread across the American south.
Secret societies usually have uncodified standards of behavior or etiquette that can trip up newcomers and reveal would-be infiltrators. Rules against the use of uncanny magick or otherwise drawing Sleeper attention to the society are common. Open conflict with club members inside club grounds, breaking the Entente (see below), or bringing the club into disrepute are likewise grounds for punishment. As well as these obvious protocols, most societies have a list of minor traditions and practices unique to their history and nature, such as greeting etiquette, rules around gift-giving, and expectations around time-keeping. Depending on the nature of the secret society, punishments for transgressions range from minor censure to expulsion, or worse.

Manners Maketh Magus — Etiquette for Magi
The Victorians produce countless books on etiquette, and with good reason. The social landscape of the industrial world is a nightmarish labyrinth of protocol and decorum designed to exclude those not born to it. Outside the imperialist sphere of influence, magi contend with social situations and complexities beyond anything the likes of which a London gentleman might conceive. Each culture has its traditions, laws, and etiquette, as does each group of Awakened, let alone all the legions of Night Folk and Umbrood. The great library in Doissetep contains an entire annex dedicated to protocols and pacts from mortal and Umbrood to Night-Folk and Fae courts.
Some wonder why magi choose to inflict new rules upon themselves when they have the choice and power to ignore such protocols. These rules, both great and small, protect the Awakened from each other and offer a framework of stability in a world that can otherwise be cruel and chaotic. Rules enforce structure, ensure a magi’s place within it, protect the weak (sometimes), and reign in the foolish and dangerous.

Basic Etiquette
Approaching another magus in public is a delicate affair. A pair of Chorus Celestial magi might know each other by symbolism hidden on their clothing or an archaic version of a common blessing. An Order of Reason luminary at a cafe might doodle an equation on a piece of paper, dropping it for his suspected ally at another table to complete. Outside of the great magical organizations, a magus must rely on local conventions and variations of the Entente (see below) when making contact. In all cases, approaching another magus with weapons or will-working tools holstered is considered good form. Trust is a rare thing in these times. Sometimes introductions are better made by another Awakened rather than forcing an acquaintance where none is desired.
When first meeting another magus, it is polite to refer to them formally, usually citing their presumed rank. Err on the side of caution; respect is a valuable currency when dealing with other magi. Treating a potential senior with respect is both good sense and honorable. A delicate social dance ensues when meeting a magus from an alien culture for the first time, as both sides try to figure out exactly how much deference they should show. Once the magi have gone through these formalities, they acknowledge each other and become acquaintances. This acquaintance may grow to become something less formal depending on time and circumstances.
The terms magus (pl. magi), maga (pl. magae) and magum (pl. maga) refer to masculine, feminine, and non-binary magi respectively, but many younger magi consider the latter terms archaic and use magus and magi for all genders of the Awakened. Internally, the Order of Reason refers to their Awakened members as luminaries, but few outside their ranks use this term. Magi rarely bother with Sleeper titles except at public events, preferring instead to use Awakened rank, if any (See M20, p. 141).
Several broad social contracts are generally followed among magi in the Victorian age. Note that outside of the Protocols and the Precepts of Damian, these guidelines are only that, and not enforceable rules. Breaching guidelines damages a magus’ reputation, resulting in ostracization or worse. Reputation and respect are crucial, so most magi avoid overt breaches whenever possible.

Customs and Courtesies
The Order of Reason has the Precepts of Damian, handed down to Queen Victoria by the College Invisible. The Traditions have the Protocols, with their foundations in the Order of Hermes. For magi outside these groups, the Entente is a set of conventions generally recognized by magi in the industrial world.
Numerous minor pacts and agreements exist outside of these codes of conduct, some common sense, some practical rules, and others cross-cultural agreements. Mortal sorcerers, Umbrood, and Night-Folk inspired many of these pacts and agreements, mostly through their own social contracts. Examples of the more obscure rules include several hundred yards of text concerning gifting, spawned by dealings with the Fae courts of old; a mistranslated old Hermetic law prohibiting the eating of garlic before meeting with vampires; and the forbidding of the use of spirit magick on 7th March every year in a tiny coastal village in Northern France.

The Precepts of Damian
The Precepts of Damian form part of the Order of Reason’s raison d’être and manifesto. Professor Damian, a representative of the College Invisible, the unseen masters of the Order of Reason, outlines these guidelines to Queen Victoria in the late 19th century. These rules bring the Order of Reason’s goals into sharp focus — a new philosophy for a new era. Within a few months of the precepts’ release, the College Invisible release clarifications to senior magi within the Order to help with their correct interpretation. New clarifications of the precepts and their initial interpretations, listed below, become a yearly event within the Order of Reason as the world changes and the interpretations require updating.

Order, Stasis, and Consensus
Bring Stasis and order to the Universe. Predictability brings safety. Once all is discovered and all is known, Unity will be won.
This lofty precept requires the illuminated to reign in their use of uncanny magick. It outright bans the use of catastrophic magick except in the most extreme circumstances. The illuminated must lead by example, and the structured advancement of their magick means that one day, everything they do will fall within the realm of the mundane. Luminaries use this rule as a measure of their fellows, looking down upon those breaching it, and ostracizing those flaunting or skirting it.

Technology and Training
Convince the Masses of the benevolence of science, commerce, and politics and of the power of Rationality. Conflict and suffering will be eliminated in our Utopia.
This precept requires illuminated agents to use the trappings of science at all times. The successes of the Order of Reason must come from science and rational thinking rather than mystical nonsense. The precept encourages the illuminated to create and herald benevolent scientific wonders for the betterment of others. Luminaries most often uphold this ideal by sponsoring and partaking in events that celebrate modern science and technology.

Safety and Security
Preserve the Gauntlet and the Horizon. Chaotic individuals who open gateways with impunity threaten the stability of our world. Uncontrolled portals also allow outside forces, such as Nephandi, access to our world. This must never happen.
This precept is a straightforward series of commands: thicken the Gauntlet, patrol the Horizon, deal with those who would endanger the world. The term “chaotic individuals” causes many luminaries to question their connections and acquaintance with long-term friends in the Traditions. A lot of soul-searching leads to friendships decades in the making broken asunder.

Knowledge and Surveillance
Define the nature of the universe. Knowledge must be absolute, or chaos will envelop all. The elemental forces of the universe must not be left to the caprices of the unknown.
This Precept commands the illuminated to catalog the entire universe. Some of the more zealous factions within the Order use this Precept to justify terrible breaches of personal privacy. Some luminaries use this precept to excuse mixing with Tradition magi. After all, one cannot learn if one cannot observe closely.

Progress and the Pogrom
Destroy Reality Deviants. Their recklessness threatens our security and our progress toward Unity.
This rule gives the luminaries the moral authority to do whatever they want to destroy reality deviants. In the Victorian Era, the definition of “reality deviant” is somewhat lax and many luminaries decide on a case-by-case basis who they consider as such. A British Void Seeker visiting South Africa may decide that a Zulu Ngoma magus is a threat to the Order while playing billiards twice a week with two Verbenae warlocks in his club back home in old Blighty.

Enlightenment and the Empowered Elite
Shepherd the Masses; protect them from themselves and from others.
This precept is a favorite of those within the Order who see themselves as shepherds of humanity, taking a paternal, and oftentimes condescending, approach to Sleepers. Luminaries cleaving too much to this rule appear condescending to the masses — something particularly irritating to higher-class Sleepers patronized by a magus of a lower social class. Not knowing one’s place in the world is a huge faux pas in Victorian society that trips up more than one luminary, with devastating consequences for the Order’s agenda.

The Protocols
Inspired by the ancient Code of Hermes, the Protocols are the basic rules of behavior laid out by the Council of Nine, the high council of the Traditions. A magus breaking a protocol usually finds themselves answering to a tribunal of their peers. The sad reality is that in Chantries with imperialist leanings, those of the “right breeding” are rarely punished as harshly as their lower-class counterparts.

The Entente
Intended to guide those living in industrialized societies, this set of social rules are among the first things taught to a newly Awakened magus. These rules enable magi to function in society without having to worry about their lives turning into a battlefield or driving themselves into paranoid seclusion. Although drawing inspiration from the Precepts and Protocols, magi living in the industrial world consider these rules more practical. If you choose to live within the European empires, these rules are both wise precautions and helpful protections.
While there is no formal power enforcing these rules, magi consider breaking the Entente as poor form, damaging the breaker’s reputation, and even making her fair game should others wish to act against her.