Alis Aquilae

Alis Aquilae is a Cabal of mages which has endured since the early thirteenth century. It predates The Consilium by the Bay, and also continued after it, becoming part of The Consilium of the Stone Circle.

In all of this time, it has been associated with one or more of a circuit of farmhouses less than an hour's walk north of Lancaster, each of which has a number of well-constructed outbuildings suitable for habitation by humans as well as animals.

History
The lineage of the Cabal is almost two hundred magi long and is certainly too much to be detailed fully in this space. What is agreed upon generally is that a young Jewish woman, a wandering Scot, a strange Cornishman and a young Moros who had already been inducted into the Mysterium met in the fledgling town in Lancaster, in the shadow of the castle, and recognised something in one another.

Taking advantage of an opportunity, they gained ownership of the first of these farmhouses, making common cause in the interests of expanding their knowledge. Word began to spread and others gathered to them, including representatives of the Silver Ladder and Adamantine Arrow. Bolstered by the Arrow's presence, their use of local magical resources became more aggressive, bringing them into conflict with mages of the Isle of Man over use of Tass reserves discovered at sea.

This period came to a halt only with the arrival of a Guardian of the Veil, whose aggressive approach to enforcing the Lex Magica brought conflict, but ultimately led to an agreement between the Cabals each to take only from some of the land beneath the waves.

In the fourteenth century, expansion of influence to the northeast brought conflict, introducing them to the Pendle Witches. The dispute this time spilled into violence, with the two Cabals finally burying the hatchet some three decades after first meeting, to deal with the greater threat that was a Banisher presence in the area. Once that was dealt with, the head of each Cabal sat down in discussion and agreed that cooperation would be greatly beneficial.

They invited the magi of the Isle to join in this, but the magi of the Isle refused, suggesting that questions for the mainland were questions for the mainland. And so the two giant groups of magi took stock of their combined territory, realising how ill-prepared they were to oversee it. It was agreed - and for over two centuries it was Silver Law of the newly-minted Consilium by the Bay - that more Cabals were to be created and maintained, each with a specific purpose; the Pendle Witches remained unified, holding the vast majority of the female magi in the Consilium; Alis Aquilae cast off all its members but the Silver Ladder.

So were created the Barrowmen, who were exclusively Obrimos; the Elders of the Circle, who dwelt on the outskirts of human society, speaking with the then-strong population of Changelings who hid in the wilds, and who all were Mysterium, keeping the fae secrets for themselves, and the Quaesitores, a Cabal of warriors mostly of the Adamantine Arrow. So too were created the Wild Hunt, a group of Guardians of the Veil who took to the southernmost parts of the Consilium, standing as watchers against violations of the Lex Magica.

But power in the Consilium remained, for centuries, vested in Alis Aquilae - who had the first Hierarch, the first Sentinel, the first Chancellor and Castellan - and the Pendle Witches, who held the Archives for almost three hundred years.

And so it was until, in an effort to diversify power, the Gregson Five rose to prominence in the latter half of the twentieth century...

Members
Branwen, Moros of the Silver Ladder.

Iseult, Obrimos of the Silver Ladder, Pure Sovereign.

Constantine, Acanthus of the Silver Ladder.

Ebraucus, Mastigos of the Silver Ladder. (formerly known as Segway)

Rockefeller, Moros of the Silver Ladder. (deceased)