The Temple of the Exploding Head

As League sects go, none have more power or authority than the Sisterhood of Light. They come and go as they please, they take what they want, they have their own police force and their own fleet, and they dictate the course of the League. The Sisters are the de-facto rulers of the League.

There is, however, one very outspoken group that mocks and challenges virtually everything the Sisters do: The Hertogs.

The Hertogs are a loose band of disaffected scholars, chefs, tailors, craftsmen and scientists whose ongoing mission is to bring down the Sisters. They operate in secret, their origins and membership are unknown.

They first came to general attention in 003120AX when they published a book in the city of Jacarta called: The Real History of the League and of the Elders in Particular written by, mysteriously enough, “The Hertogs”. The book challenged a number of key points in ancient League history as told by the Sisters and presented a much darker history, especially regarding the old, departed Elders. Essentially, the book claimed the League is enslaved to the Sisters, claimed they are bizarre and demented, and called for an end to their reign. Predictably, the Sisters reacted badly to the publication, censuring the publisher and calling for an “open debate” with the Hertogs to cover the key points made in the book.

The Hertogs were a no-show to the debates. Instead, they circulated a number of pamphlets claiming the Sisters intended to smoke them out into the open, capture and most probably torture them to death.

Since then the Sisters have gone on a quiet, but persistent, campaign to discover the identity of the Hertog membership. Unfortunately, the Hertogs appear to be adept at avoiding the Sisters’ vaunted Stare as, so far, they have yet to uncover a single one. They suspected Grand Dame Hannah-Ben Shurlamp, EVoR of the University of Dee as being a key member, but they could not prove her involvement. Their search continues.

The Hertogs are seldom quiet. They publish frequent comments and critiques, usually blasting the latest Sisterhood proclamations. They once, famously, shot holes in a simple article written by a Sister proclaiming her fondness for the lunch menu at the Empire Hotel in St. Edmunds. Such childish antics, their tendency toward paranoia and hyperbole, and their unwillingness to come out into the open tends to lessen their impact and gives the general League populace pause. They are considered to be an interesting, if not entirely credible, voice in the regular postings not to be taken too seriously.

There is word that the Hertogs produced a groundbreaking work called The Splendor of the Vith detailing the considerable power the Vith peoples of Northern Kana once possessed and how the Sisters waged a successful bloodless war to rid them of it. This book, if true, would be particularly damning and could lead to the downfall of the Sisters. So far, the existence of the book is a mere rumor and no copies are publically available to be read.

copyright 2013, Ren Garcia, Carol Phillips and Eve Ventrue