Circle of Healing and Transcendence

The Circle of Healing and Transcendence (often simply known as the Circle) is an esoteric Boshaari and Mewei sect of arcanist healers based out of Althaini Sanctum in the unexplored depths of Aistanar. Its history is ancient - its earliest incarnations came to be thousands of cycles before the Great Jump.
Though they are far from the only group with a vested interest in cybernetics and Magitek, the sect revolves around the idea of arcane transhumanism - that is to say, the science of arcane and its uses in healing, modifying, and transforming living bodies. They propose that their work, when completed, seeks to radically improve the lives of ordinary people across Tau Elpis and alleviate collective suffering wrought about by disease and the effects of old age. The Circle is the keeper of the ancient Boshaari arcane art known as Rectifying.
The Circle is split into three distinct categories : the Conjurers, who wear white robes trimmed with red whilst on duty, offer their services as wandering healers and chromedocs across Aistanar and beyond; the Scholars and their green garbs perform most research, teaching, and study; finally, the Sorcerers form the true leadership and priesthood as keepers of the Sanctum. Some statistics also count Acolytes as a fourth group of people who are not part of the Circle but regularly seek their guidance - such as what an Eldelyn chrome-doc might do.

Goals & Beliefs

The Circle is perhaps the last remaining sect of the Rectifiers' Guild, a powerful healer syndicate that operated in service of the ancient Boshaari Imperial Crown, ages before the Great Jump and loss of the Boshaari crown-galaxy. By means of once-commonplace arcana, all sects once believed in approaching physical perfection, yet all disagreed on the path to take. A few sects remained idealistic whilst others had abandonned all such lofty goals. Shortly before the Oberon Incursion, a civil war had erupted amongst the various groups - ascetic monks, tattoo-parlor chromedocs, and traditional healers of the Fallanist tradition all fought each other until the Guild itself had collapsed. A small group - the Eighth Circle, a Mewei and Boshaari group, had remained hidden and boarded the Embassy Ark before its fateful departure.
The sect's stated, open goal is to provide succor to those in need. However, there is a distinct transelvenist flavour to the healers and magisters of the Circle. Seeing the weaknesses of physical bodies are obstacle to be overcome for the greater good of elvenkind/Meweikin and beyond, many Scholars seek to overcome the limits of tissue and bone through magical alteration, and their influence in the emerging field of cyberware development is only growing. A few prominent chromedocs on Aistanar at least have had training from the Circle, if they are not full-fledged Circle magisters themselves. Many acolytes operate out of the Hodeth Belt, on mining vessels or stations, providing the kind of healing and tools needed by the impoverished working folk there who cannot afford expensive medicine withheld by Coalition corporations. A few prefer to remain as benevolent healers wandering from town to town on the Mewei or Boshaari frontier.

Joining the Circle

Seeking the Circle's knowledge and expertise is a relatively easy matter - not necessarily cheap, especially if one wanted the services of a wandering healer, but also not as expensive as the most high-tech drugs the Circle competes against. Many who seek Circle guidance are not able to perform Spellweaving themselves and are simply regular doctors or chromedocs who seek to incorporate magitek into their mundane daily practice. Whilst the Circle will gladly teach the arts of cybernetics and magitek to those that visit it, the arcane arts of Rectifying are kept obscure for a variety of reasons - not least of which is the gruelling process of training an Arcanist to become a Rectifier, and the sheer commitment required of any learner. Magicks revolving around healing and changing living tissue are extremely fickle, and require far more intensive training than most arcane fields of study. Thus whilst Rectifiers wield tremendous power on bone and tissue, their conditionning has effectively closed the door on any cross-curricular spellcasting.

Althaini Sanctum

Located on an island nearly on the antipode of New Eldelyn, the Sanctum is remote, accessed only orbitally (gravcars do not have that sort of range), and surrounded by untarnished natural beauty. The Sanctum was first built in the 3rd Cycle and its inhabitants have sought to upgrade it ever since. Within the Sanctum, one might find a few Magitek and Research Laboratories and Assay Facilities. At least part of the complex functions, effectively, as a factory and Landing Bay, since about half of the sect's income comes from the manufacturing of magitek. Another part of the complex provides for living spaces, a Secure Library, a Yanna shrine, a Medbay, as well as entertainment and meditation facilities. Burrowed underground, a geothermal facility replaced the old programmable matter fission plant in the 136th Cycle and provides for the Sanctum's energy needs.

Type

Education, Magic