Secret Societies
Given the ability to recruit students, henchmen, extraplanar allies, and
undead minions, an ambitious necromancer could amass a sizable army of underlings,
given enough time and determination. Some wizards, having gone mad with their
quest for power or lacking enough ambition to rise beyond the status of a petty
tyrant, are content to remain in relative seclusion, basking in the glory of
their isolated dictatorship.
Other necromancers are of more modest ambitions. They have absolutely no
interest in rulership at all and are merely content to ignore the entire
time-consuming business of raising followers and minions. Simply put, they are interested
only in tending to their quiet research.
Finally, some wizards join secret societies—and some join as many as they can.
A secret society provides training, support, information, and contact with
like-minded allies for not only wizards, but priests as well. The secret society
takes the individual wizard or priest, along with his or her entire private army
of followers, and makes them part of a larger necromantic community, each of
the members of which are dedicated to some mysterious goal greater than any of
them could aspire to singly.
Most campaign worlds have at least a few secret societies. In the Spelljammer
multiverse, the evil Tenth Pit opposes the honest Pragmatic Order of Thought;
in the Realms, the wicked Zhentarim are balanced by the honest Harpers; Dark Sun
has its rebellious Veiled Alliance; the Land of Fate has the incendiary
Brotherhood of the True Flame. These covert Orders—some established for good, others
for evil—help flesh out a campaign world, making it more realistic, exciting,
dangerous, and complicated, all at the same time. Before we explore a few secret
societies with necromantic interests, it will be helpful to review some of the
basic principles on which these orders are founded.
Every secret society shares three common attributes. First, a secret society
convinces its members that they are members of a powerful elite. Second, each
society contains arcane rites, code words, recognition signals, and hidden
chapter houses to maintain an aura of mystique and secrecy. Third, secret societies
are founded for a concrete and specific goal. Once the DM understands these
three general characteristics, it will be easier to create more realistic and
compelling secret societies for the campaign.
Privileges of Membership. Those who join a secret society immediately gain the support of a wide body
of colleagues. These friends will provide their new member with arcane training,
financial resources, even magical items. Society chapter houses may contain
huge reservoirs of knowledge, monetary wealth, and caches of arcane devices for
use by members of their Order. A necromancer joining a secret society may gain
access to the Order’s huge spell books to augment his or her own personal power.
A priest, on the other hand, gains the spiritual support and guidance of other
members of his or her own religion. He or she may also gain access to new
spells and devices which can only be fabricated or granted by members of the
religious Order.
Finally, there are the social intangibles of belonging to such an
organization. These sorts of things may not mean much in terms of strictly interpreted game
statistics, but they are still fundamental motivators of human behavior.
Membership in a secret society is considered a privilege by those who belong to it,
and even its evil subscribers truly feel a sense of fellowship and camaraderie
with their peers. The most depraved necromancer may still crave to be welcomed
and appreciated by a few fellows who understand his or her problems and are
interested in helping resolve them. Members of a secret society quickly come to
believe that they belong to a privileged community of the elite.
Rites of Passage. As their very name implies, a secret society is a covert organization whose
existence, location, purpose, and agenda must all be kept strictly hidden from
the mainstream civilization. This is usually done to protect the society and its
members from its enemies (either civilization as a whole, a reigning
government, or an opposing secret society). Incidentally, this intense aura of secrecy
helps reinforce the sense of mystique, privilege, and all the other social
intangibles associated with the Order as well.
Every secret society contains a set of codes, recognition signals, and an
established rite of passage that ensures its continued secrecy and the loyalty
(fanaticism) of its members. Potential new converts are not immediately welcomed
into a secret society. There are numerous tests and secret rituals that must be
performed in order to become a member. By performing these rites (however
abominable), an aspiring member gradually “proves his worthiness” to the Order and is
finally allowed admittance as an initiate.
The Goal. Once indoctrinated, an initiate is usually assigned one or more members of
the Order to help complete the training (brainwashing). Even good-aligned
societies attempt to mold the minds of their members to establish some sense of
conformity and provide motivation to work for a common goal of extraordinary
importance. This brainwashing can be accelerated, if need be, with mind-influencing
magic and medicines, but it can just as easily be performed by a highly
charismatic individual with a thorough understanding of human nature.
A society’s true goal is almost never revealed to its low-ranking members. As
they “prove their worthiness” in a sequence of increasingly difficult tests,
small pieces of a much larger puzzle are gradually revealed to them as they rise
in the ranks of membership. Finally, only after their unswerving loyalty to the
Order has been proven by countless tests, the true hidden purpose of the
organization will be revealed to them, like a religious epiphany.
A covert Order maintains a cult of secrecy even within its own hierarchical
organization. Only the highest members realize its true agenda. Although a secret
society can exist for a good or noble purpose, their methods of indoctrination
and brainwashing are easily twisted and can become a powerful tool of evil.
They are thus ideal tools for both corrupt necromancers and fanatical death
priests.
For the remainder of this chapter, we present a few necromantic secret
societies that the DM may care to transplant into a campaign. These organizations can
serve as shady employers and questionable contacts for information, but more
likely, they will serve as villains or long-term enemies. Feel free to modify or
embellish any of the following descriptions to suit the particulars and
religious pantheons of the campaign.
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