Category: Coriolis

At many tables or virtual table-tops round the globe these past couple of years, there have been many shoot-outs in the Garden of the Seekers on Coriolis, and many times brother Ramas has been shot, stabbed or other-wise killed on that peaceful bridge at it centre. This garden, like many more across the Horizon, is maintained by acolytes of the Circle of Seekers. But who are the Seekers?

It is said that the Seekers could have become an important faction on their own, but for some reason chose not to. Instead they are credited with being instrumental in the creation of of the Church of the Icons, which is, remember, “the Horizons youngest faction” created after the arrival of the Zenith. But if that is the case the seekers did not hang around for long. Once the Church had a firm footing in the Horizon’s politics the Circle of Seekers retreated, or were they pushed out? The core book says “Today, the Seekers […] have been marginalized, looked upon as wise ascetics and prophets rather than actual figures of power within the faction.” Being “marginalised” seems to suggest it was something done to them, but I think its more likely to be their choice – they are after all ascetic philosophers, dedicated to “understanding the Horizon and the innermost nature of the universe.” Perhaps the hurley-burley of factional life is something they would prefer to do without. Perhaps they created the Church specifically for that political purpose.

That said, they do sometimes involve themselves in modern politics. The core book tells us that with a reputation for being skillful and neutral negotiators, they have often been called upon to end bitter conflicts. But such interventions are rare and at the request of at least one of the participants. Apart from this and the gardens they maintain, they keep themselves to themselves.

So where do they retreat to? According to the core book, apart from “scattered colonies and temples” on Menau they are “strongest on Sadaal, on Mira and her sister systems, and on Dabaran, where they have both the Temple of the Circle and a monastery school in Lotus, the holy city.” This last is their headquarters as it were. The Temple City of Lotus is a bit like our Rome, an independently run city state: “A mere fifteen years before the beginning of the Portal Wars, the Circle of Seekers — having tirelessly cared for the city’s pilgrims through a tumultuous series of coups and usurpers — were entrusted with governing Lotus.” That said, there is a schism in the Lotus City according to one the adventures in the Last Cyclade. The Lotus Council is in the ascendant, claiming to better represent the ice worship across the Third Horizon.

The idea of retreat, of separation from the rest of society is a very import one in Seeker philosophy. According the to the core rules the title of Seeker “is only awarded someone upon initiation into one of their monasteries, which are always shaped like circles.” This reminds me of the Neal Stephenson novel Anathem, where each monastery is a series of concentric circles, and progress through ranks of the monastic order is market by moving into an inner circle, getting closer closer to the centre of the monastery. I must admit, I had the same thought about the monasteries on Zalos, so perhaps the Seekers and the Order of the Pariah share some commonalities? But what are the secrets held by the innermost circles of the Circle of Seeker?

One thing not every Seeker will publicly admit to is that their acetics can manifest Mystic powers. Importantly, they could even before the advent of the “Mystics Disease” when people started manifesting such powers spontaneously. Is there a connection? Well this is where we got into real spoiler territory and if you don’t already have an idea what I am talking about you might want to stop listening/reading.

Players who have participated in a Song for Jarouma make have worked out that the “Emissaries” were scientists, possessed at an incredibly long distance by people from the Second Horizon. These people are called the Symetry, or the Santulans (it may be that the Santulans are the leaders of the Symetry). We are told that they fled the tyranny of the the First Horizon and became the dominant political force in the Second.

The Atlas Compendium tells us that the Circle of Seekers were originally a part of the Symmetry, and together they discovered several nodes in the Third Horizon which could create a mystical link between systems in a fashion that falls outside of the technology and methods used by the Portal Builders. Using the nodes, the Seekers could stay in contact with their mystic allies in the Second Horizon. Its one of the these nodes – long thought destroyed by the forces of the first horizon during the portal wars, that was used to possess the scientists on Xene.

Which raised questions. The Seekers claim to have severed all connections with the Symetry during the portal wars? But have they? Is that actually something they convinced the other factions of to avoid being purged like the Nazareems Sacrifice? The Lotus Council has split with the other seekers because (the say) the seekers are too wedded to older, second horizon thinking. Are they really still in communication with the Symetry? The Last Cyclade says that “after the loss of their observer at the (Coriolis) Council, the Santulans (the Symmetry) instead strengthened the Children of the Song and are preparing their acolytes in the Circle of Seekers for the coming darkness. The mystics of the Third Horizon are being turned into a secret strike force for when Ardha once again shows its true face.” Well if that is true, it suggests its happening via these nodes.

And if at least some nodes still exist, do the Circle of Seekers have an instantaneous communication network across the whole Third Horizon? Are they secretly manipulating the Church of the Icons from a distance? According to the Last Cyclade perhaps not, or rather, perhaps not as successfully as they had hoped: “the Circle’s leaders are becoming worried about [the Church’s] submissive attitude when dealing with the Hegemony and the Consortium […] it is becoming increasingly clear that the Seekers will have to start acting independently.“

If you are a GM, running players who have opted to be part of the Circle of Seekers, what does all this mean for them? How much should they know? The idea of circles within circles and advancing though the monastic ranks means they might have to purchase Faction Standing before being let on on these secrets. Maybe even faction standing isn’t enough. Maybe though, they could be surprised by fast communication across the horizon, or offered a way of learning the mystic powers talent and an mystic talent appropriate of the Circle, like Thought Transferance or Puppeteer.

And consider, after the events of The Last Cyclade, what are the motivations of the Seekers? Are they still in league with the Symetry? Or are they more loyal now to the people of the Third Horizon. What might they do, with an army of mystics. Are they the “New” Seekers?

On the podcast we last talked about the Syndicate back in episode 18. Wow! Over three years ago. Back then we were still called the Coriolis Effect, and experimenting with the format. That piece was a discussion rather than an essay and we never consolidated our thoughts into a written article. So here it is. 

Dave prompted the discussion by asking:

“The Syndicate, are they all bad?”

And I answered, yes, yes they are.

They are bad in two ways. Obviously the first is that that are criminals – they do bad things. Now you might argue it is not a bad thing, if there is a thing you want or need, and there are asinine laws preventing you from getting hold of it legally. Look at prohibition in America for example, Many people enjoy a drink, and while drinking to excess can be dangerous to one’s health and irresponsible drinking might cause social disorder, a lot of people who were in other ways perfectly law abiding, felt it reasonable to acquire booze from criminal bootleggers. But even though the thing you want isn’t bad, the people selling to to you are.

But the second way in which the Syndicate is bad is, in a rare misstep from the creators, it is a badly written faction. Let me present as evidence the story of the Syndicate as presented in the core book, which tells us that “The faction is made up of a group of wealthy families from the crew of the Zenith who joined forces with Firstcome criminal groups on Algol, Sadaal and Zalos.” When the core book tells of the Consortium families and the Hegemonic families it lists them and names them, yet the write up for the Syndicate lists only the Birbasils, whom we meet in Mercy of the Icons in Beybasin on Kua. So… who are the other wealthy Zenithian families? Are they any?

The core book goes on: “They cooperate with the Guard to combat petty crime because it disturbs their more lucrative forms of business: protection rackets, gambling, pimping, drugs and smuggling.” The first item, protection rackets, I quite like, especially because it sort of fits with Dave’s concept of Crossroads Colleges. But the other things on that list I have issues with, especially when reading in the next column “The only areas the Syndicate stays away from are slave trading and the smuggling of faction tech.” Well, this is a nice distinction. We know from our own modern world that slavery exists in many forms, not just the slave trade of two hundred years ago, but debt bondage, indenture, and sex trafficking. Pimping is not that far removed from slavery actually. And we see the Birbasils directly involved with actual slavery in Baybasin. They might say they leave the slavery to the Algolans, but two parts of the Syndicate are Algolan after all. I don’t buy it. And I don’t buy that “the Syndicate is the largest criminal organization in the Horizon,” not when only one column before that bold statement the authors admit that “the basis of the Syndicate is the gangs that run the different plazas on Coriolis.”

Let’s get this straight, my overriding point is the Syndicate is not a “Faction.” It does not have a seat on the Coriolis council, neither it does have a fleet (even if these rumoured “black ships” are real). It does have one Zenithian crime family, two more from Algol and another couple from Sadaal and Zalos, dividing up the rackets in various parts of Coriolis station itself. Yes their influence extends as far as Kua, miles below the station and maybe, with family connections in the systems of Sadaal, Zalos and Algol they may have some little influence there. But with the slow communications available through the portals their influence can not be effective direct control. The parts of the Syndicate families in those systems will not automatically obey the word of distant Zenithians, two or three jumps away. The Syndicate may be a moderately successful extended crime family, but only one of dozens, hundreds or even thousands of criminal organisations that, importantly, compete with each other, rather than with the other Factions the Third Horizon. 

So how can we reconcile the fact that core book gives them such prominence? First of all, we should realise that the Corebook can be an unreliable narrator. Its representation of the Syndicate may well be written by the Birbasils themselves, always eager to sound more powerful than they are. Such exaggeration is helped by the Bulletin, which claims to be a horizon-wide news network but has a Coriolis centred bias. When it reports upon the thugs and gangs of Coriolis station as “the Syndicate” while ignoring the criminals in other parts of the horizon, it’s easy to think that they are all part of the same thing. And as Dave said when we discussed it before – local gangs in other parts of the Horizon might be using the Syndicate’s name to burnish their own reputation.

And the other thing, that really is growing their influence, is Havaleh, the idea we discussed back in episode 143 in September. The Consortium do have banks, yes, but for doing trade across thee horizon the have to rely on the Havaleh network, and the Havaledahs that they have been pumping money into these last six decades are mostly the Syndicate ones on Coriolis. So the Consortium are reliant on the Syndicate to enable business transactions, and the Syndicate’s influence has grown, is growing – not so much through their criminal activities, but through what many Firstcome consider a more legitimate practise.

What does this all mean for players and GMs? First all GMs should big-up some of the other criminal organisations out there: the Serpent (who have a base on Coriolis after all), the Ferekam and the Okra Darma. If your crew are petty criminals themselves, have their patrons be one of these (or an organisation that you have made up) so they don’t start with the impression tax the Syndicate a Horizon spanning mega-gang. Maybe introduce the Syndicate as upstart rivals. Especially if your crew are mostly Firstcome. And if they are, and you do, focus on first on the Syndicate’s Zenithian component, the Birbasils. Perhaps even introduce them as the Birbasil crime family. 

OR if you are starting on on Coriolis station itself, begin by focussing on the rivalries between the Syndicate gangs – have the Rafas teaming up with the Afyana family against the Adibals or Intisaars, and only when the player characters are deeply involved in the turf war, have the Birbasils step in to negotiate, and if necessary, enforce the peace.

In short – remember that criminals keep to the shadows, and keep the Syndicate shadowy, amorphous as long as you can. Don’t let the players assume that they are all powerful. Indeed let them assume they might be beaten… and have the Syndicate’s power and influence grow with that of the players, but always one step ahead. 

Here, where we live on old Al-Ardah, we have become used to the convenience of modern banking. The recent covid related changes have encouraged an accelerated adoption of contactless technologies, a little like the money-tags in the Third Horizon. But our world is small, the distances tiny and complex transactions don’t take long to travel. Now, most of us carry a computer in our pockets that can send money to a friend on the other side of the world, seemingly instantaneously. 

Each world in the Third Horizon may have networks and transfer technologies that are just as quick. I am sure it takes moments to transfer money from Coriolis itself to the Monolith on Kua for example. But when the start talking about transfers across systems, or between systems, the speed to light becomes an issue. Money can not break the laws of physics. Instantaneous communication of data is just not possible. So the modern banking systems that we think of today just aren’t up to the job.

However, the Third Horizon has access to a tried and tested alternative. One that started in 8^th century India when communications along the Silk Road were just as slow as would be across the Third Horizon.

Havaleh basically works like this: it is the day of settlement, and your group must facilitate their regular payment on their ship loan, but they are three portals away from their generous benefactor. All they need to do is find a local Havaledah or money broker, give them the birr, and the details of who it is intended for. If their creditor needs the money on that day,. they will visit their local Havaledah, who will give them the sum, on trust that the group’s will have paid another Havaledah somewhere in the horizon and effectively, they are owed the money by that Havaledah. Trust is an important factor here, and there is very little paperwork involved. Indeed the word “havaleh” is synonymous with the word “trust” in many languages. It is considered somewhat rude (but not entirely unacceptable) to even ask for a receipt when you make your deposit with a Havaledah. 

Sometimes however, there does need to be some security and passing of authentication between different Havaledahs. The first level of security is to chose your havaledah from your trusted network. All firstcome factions maintain their own havaledah networks, and among the Zenethians, only the Consortium and Hegemony mistrust the very concept of havaleh. All the faction networks are interoperable, and money can be exchanged between them. The largest and most used, especially for inter-faction exchange is that of the Syndicate. Indeed, there are those that say that without its havaleh network the Syndicate would be nothing more than local criminal gangs and crime lords, and thus the Syndicate IS is havaleh network. The consortium tries to maintain what it calls “a civilised banking system” via the Bulletin’s communication technology but to do any real business it resorts to havaleh, and is the Syndicate’s biggest customer. The Zenithian Hegemony however generally does not use havaleh, and its propagandists like to talk about the way it enables crime, tax evasion and political unrest. 

The second level of security is a complex system of verbal code-poetry that havaledahs use to authenticate their own communication. While generally the system works on trust, sometimes one may have to resort to a distant havaledah one has not worked with before, so send someone to a havaledah they don’t know – and of course that havaledah is unlikely to hand out money to someone who comes in off the street. So, sometimes, a creditor will be a given a code-phrase to use to identify themselves as the legitimate recipient of the money. By necessity, given the slow speed of travel between systems, such phrases are exchanged among havalehs in advance, and usually they are two-part cyphers, to ensure that if a transmission of codes is intercepted, it can’t be used on its own to defraud the havaleh for whom it is intended. Traditionally, the two parts of the cypher are sung, not written down, and for generations families of talented song-poets have served the havaledah community as code couriers called angadias.

What happens when it goes wrong? When the intended recipient doesn’t get their money? Well, first of all, the recipient always gets their money. The debt is between two havaledahs. And the havaledahs don’t cheat each other, not even when two different factions are involved. So they work together to see where “failure of communication” (as it is euphemistically known) occurred. They will likely enlist investigators to help. The nature of these investigators varies by faction. The Free League and the Nomads use private invetsigators, but most of the firstcome factions have their own investigative systems. The Syndicate is unusual, they use their own angadias, who possess not only beautiful soprano voices, but the tools and authorisation to collect the debt by any means necessary. The very least anyone who is caught cheating the havaleh system can expect is ostracisation, loss of faction standing and previous friends and allies turning their backs to them. Of course they are no longer able to use the havaleh network to move birr, and for most sensible  people this is deterrent enough.

Debtors are rarely killed, its more difficult to get your money back from dead people, but that does not mean and anyone who owes birr to the Syndicate can relax on the Day of Settlement.