Background
One of the most prestigious and secretive mages' guilds in the Empire. While most guilds specialize in one type of magic, the Triskelions are generalists, as their true passion is not the exercise of magic but its underlying theory. The Order's members study the connections between diverse branches of magic in the hope of further explicating the underlying laws that governed magic. Most of the time, the Triskelions are allowed to pursue their own interests in diverse corners of magic — but when there is a difficult magical problem that needs solving, all of those varying points of view make it much more likely that they will find a solution.
In the Second World War the Triskelions were brought in to assist with an Allied research project headed up by the Whalish Strategic Weapons Research Division (SWORD). The goal: develop a super-spell capable of destroying an entire city. SWORD hoped that a decapitation strike against the Republic of Telvar would end the war in the east and spare the Allies from making a costly ground assault that they weren't sure they could win. To ensure plausible deniability for Metamor's government, neither the Majestrix nor Defense Minister Rickkter were told exactly what SWORD and the Triskelions were working on. The Empire's leaders had serious problems with killing innocent civilians, but the Whalish (and the Triskelions) believed that the sacrifice of a few million Telvari would save far more lives in the long run — if the weapon could be completed before the war dragged on too long.
Unfortunately, the spell worked, and in the process it created the Rift.
Membership
The Triskelions accept only wizards of master rank or higher, and their worldwide membership is capped at 66. Members are given one of four titles to denote their relative power and skill:
- Magus (the lowest)
- Magus Argentus
- Magus Aureus
- Magus Ipsissimus (the highest)
There are only six Magi Ipsissimi at any given time, and only 23 individuals have been given the rank through the entire history of the Order.
Culture
Known Members
Artax was a member of this guild in the 1800s, with his membership ending after the Second World War. He has since changed his name and his prior membership is not known to any current members.
Tyria Kemmler was a contemporary of Artax who was known for her expertise in transmutation and necromancy. She was the lead investigator on the the Balefire spell that destroyed Telvar, and used a key insight from Artax in order to complete the spell (to his lasting guilt). She and Artax were also involved sexually for an unknown period of time. The Triskelions came under increased scrutiny after the Second World War, and Tyria was eventually dismissed from the Order when she refused to abandon her more morally-questionable lines of research. She never actually used most of the more sinister spells she developed, so criminal charges were not brought against her, and she continued to live in style at the highest levels of Metamor City, selling her arcane services to the wealthy and powerful. Her continued experimentation with dark magic eroded her sanity, however, and in 1997 CR she stole a dragon's egg, killed the fence who had obtained it for her, and caused 50 million marks' worth of property damage in her subsequent battle with the egg's mother.1 She is currently serving a 150-year sentence in a maximum-security Imperial prison.
Author's Notes
Sources: Artax
