Nation of Nine

This is a far-ranging, decentralized union of qabals concerned with the preservation of sacred places. They oppose threats to the natural world and associate the corruption of the Red Death with colonialism and the spread of technology. Most members hail from cultures that have been on the wrong end of European empire-building, although at least one of its associated qabals includes a fair number of agents of Western European descent, who use their cultural fluency and privilege to perform covert missions against the imperial powers.

The Nation is even more secretive than most qabals, since their activities often place them in direct opposition to the world’s leading political regimes as well as supernatural foes. Some say their name indicates they are a union of nine separate qabals, but even this number cannot be confirmed by outsiders.Each of the various sub-qabals keeps its own sigil. Contact between them is rare, except among leaders. When lesser agents must identify themselves to members of another sect, they do so with the sigil of the qabal they are meeting, rather than their own. The first of the recorded sub-qabals was Libertad (“Liberty”), whose activities are recorded as early as 1589. Their most noteworthy work was with abolitionist and anti-monarchist movements in various Western countries, and they were especially active around the French Revolution and the lead-up to the American civil war. They are also said to have engaged in mystical espionage to aid the Union cause in that conflict.

et Libertad was also involved with the central mission that has since unified it with all of the Nation of Nine’s other qabals. Since ancient times, humankind has identified special locations as sources of mystical power. Modern adepts and mystics often speak of places where lines of magical energy (sometimes called “ley lines”) intersect. Many locations have been recorded that not only empower spellcasting, but diminish the corrupting power of the Red Death. In many places, these sites are still kept secret, often under the vigilance of the Nation, in the hope that their unique properties need not be lost.

People living near such places tend to feel an intuitive impulse to protect and preserve them, but several factors can remove this instinct. Growing settlements, the clearing of natural features, increased reliance upon technology, and the imposition of outside cultural values all work, on many levels, to obscure any need to defend such sites. This is especially true when such “civilization” is imposed by an invader.

Some of the most well-known of the world’s magically sacred sites have already been depowered, corrupted, or devastated by the Red Death’s agents. Stonehenge’s sorcerous potency is greatly diminished, the great pyramid at Giza focuses energies that have long since been corrupted, and Angkor Wat was abandoned after being nearly destroyed. The Nation of Nine is determined to defend those that remain.

Some have theorized that these places are marshalling points, where the Earth itself concentrates its resistance to the invasive power of the Red Death. Members of the Nation believe such locations are vital to saving humanity from the great Evil. Therefore, they consider opposing the relentless march of what some would call “progress” to be an absolute moral imperative. Though many of these qabalists have known the horrifying outrages of oppression, their larger mission is not only about preserving or avenging any particular cultural group. Rather, they have united for the salvation of all humankind.