Candela Obscura
Candela Obscura is a secret society of investigators whose primary aim is the survival of mankind against supernatural forces, predating even the city of Oldfaire.
The Fourth Pharos & The Lore of Lighthouses
The Fourth Pharos is a monumental lighthouse that serves as a stronghold and a beacon of hope for Candela Obscura. It functions as the vault for dangerous artifacts, creatures, and knowledge, as well as the headquarters for the Lightkeepers of the Radiant Order.
Over the centuries, the Pharos has risen and fallen to powerful forces (both magickal and mundane). Today, this citadel is in its fourth iteration. After the fall of the Third Pharos, the Radiant Order found a way to access the Flare, the protective veil between realms, and constructed the Fourth Pharos within its bounds. Now straddling the mundane and magickal worlds, this vault is only accessible from specific thinnings that lead into the Flare. Chapter houses soon began to form around these special thinnings, creating the present-day network of Candela Obscura members worldwide.
The Fourth Pharos' otherworldly location protects this bastion from corruption within and without. Allowing one region to possess the most dangerous and powerful artifacts from around the world grants a nation incredible strength and invites unparalleled corruption. Throughout history, iterations of this lighthouse vault became valuable political and military assets that led to a great loss of human life. Equally, Candela Obscura could not stop the incredible amounts of bleed that corrupted the very landscape surrounding each Pharos, harming the people that called the area home. To this day, the ruins from previous iterations of the Pharos are infused with horrific levels of bleed.
Within the Fourth Pharos are magickal, perpetually spinning astrolabes. These arcane structures power the spells that keep the Pharos stable within the Flare and its dangerous vaults firmly sealed. This technology is repeated, to a lesser extent, in every Candela Obscura lighthouse around the world.
For centuries, Candela Obscura built these lighthouses to hold together the thinnings of the Flare and warn innocent civilians away from teh dangerous magick that emanates from them. The astrolabes within help to contain the bleed from these rifts, as well as hold them closed so that the horrors from beyond the Flare cannot continue to pass through freely.
Within the Fairelands, lighthouses are found in a variety of unexpected locales: deep in the Scarlet Wood, tucked within the snow of the Bridleborne Mountains, at the bottom of the Vastchasm, and beyond. Their strange locations have resulted in homespun, though inaccurate, folklore about the purpose of these structures and the surrounding geography.
Notable Figures
- Naomi Malick (she/her): The Conservator of the Fourth Pharos, she leads the team that protects and controls this vault. Any requests to access artifacts, information, or other restricted resources cross her desk.
- Xander Ikari (they/them): An art dealer now aligned with Candela Obscura. They have intimate knowledge of the underground world of magickal artifact trafficking.
- Allison Suarez (she/her): A fellow member of Candela Obscura currently in isolation within the Fourth Pharos. She faced intense exposure to bleed on her last mission.
Structure
The hierarchical framework of Candela Obscura is evidence of its roots as a diverse and global secret society. Candela Obscura is composed of chapters across the world -- each reflecting the culture and values of its circle members, dedicated to guarding against hte dangers of magick and otherworldly forces that threaten humanity. The Radiant Order loosely governs and coordinates activities across chapters. This administrative body seeks to maintain global awareness of Candela Obscura's operations by facilitating communication and sharing resources between chapters. Only in times of global existential crisis does Candela Obscura convene an appointed group of Lightkeepers, known as the Conclave of Luminosity, to make important decisions for the organization as a whole. Bearing the scars of secrecy and mistrust, Candela Obscura typically abhors any attempts to implement centralized control over its chapters. Both a blessing and a curse, the history of the organization is riddled with complexities surrounding its decentralized approach to protecting the world from great evils.
Chapters & Circles
Regions throughout the world are home to Candela Obscura chapters. Chapters are made up of one or more teams of Candela Obscura investigators called circles. Each chapter operates and claims jurisdiction over regions that reflect its members' cultural and demographic makeup. Chapters increase their size, power, and influence by actively pursuing the perpetual inclusion and membership that represent the values of the regions they protect. This is a cornerstone of Candela Obscura's ethos -- each chapter and its circles strive to represent the regions they operate within. Therefore, every chapter in Candela Obscura is unique, but taken as a whole, the organization represents the essence and influences of humanity at large. It is not uncommon for chapters to invite circles or individual investigators from distant regions to assist them when the need arises.
Lightkeepers & Chapter Houses
When a member of Candela Obscura aquires three scars, the risk of them gaining a fourth and fatal scar is incredibly high. To protect their investigators, Candela Obscura will invite them to retire from the organization or, in some instances, become a Lightkeeper -- though many choose to continue their work in the field despite the danger.
Though they may come to the position via another route, especially if they are experts in a particular area of magickal or mundane study, most Lightkeepers are former circle members that have relinquished field exploration. These veteran investigators are responsible for identifying potential phenomena and using their expertise to guide the efforts of their assigned circles.
Lightkeepers generally operate from the safety of a chapter house -- the covert sanctuaries where members of Candela Obscura come together to facilitate work for the organization. These locations provide a circle with a home base to plan their investigations, research phenomena, and store artifacts if and until members can safely transfer them to the Fourth Pharos.
Depending on the needs of the group, a circle in The Fairelands might have a chapter house in Red Lamp, The Eaves, tucked within a cave of The Verge, or somewhere else within the valley. Chapter houses are established in a location that best facilitates the needs of each individual circle.
Councils & The Radiant Order of Lightkeepers
The Lightkeepers of a region are known collectively as a Council of Lightkeepers. In order to facilitate worldwide collaboration between chapters, one Lightkeeper from each council is appointed to serve on Candela Obscura's Radiant Order.
Prior to its inception, chapters of Candela Obscura operated in complete isolation from one another. This all changed when a curious Lightkeeper, Lila Patel (she/her), set off on an expedition to visit neighboring chapters in an effort to exchange knowledge. When Lila arrived at the nearest chapter house, she came upon the headless remains of a Lightkeeper nailed to the ceiling, the building abandoned. Horrified, the curious Lightkeeper resumed her travels, hoping to spread word of this heinous act to the rest of Candela Obscura.
Within the next three chapter houses she visited, Lila found more of the same -- one Lightkeeper was missing their arms, another their legs, and another their torso.
Upon arriving at the fifth chapter, Lila discovered teh stitched remains of the Lightkeepers forming a fleshy monstrosity imbued with heinous magick. The creature groveled on the floor and chanted an occult warning of impending tragedy. The warning was erased from all records within Candela Obscura, including the Tome of Lumos. From this incident, word spread, and the chapters of Candela Obscura agreed to establish the Radiant Order to loosely maintain communication and coordination with each other.
Conclave of Luminosity
In times of historic crisis, the Radiant Order convenes teh Conclave of Luminosity deep within the labyrinthine heart of the Fourth Pharos, the secret stronghold of Candela Obscura. During this event, each region selects one of its members to represent the chapter throughout the duration of the Conclave. Those members gain access to Candela Obscura's most guarded truths and secrets, and with this knowledge in hand, they deliberate until the Conclave comes to a unanimous conclusion.
While the diversity of Candela Obscura's membership brings forth great power to combat the dangers of groupthink, unfortunately it injects regional interests into the decision-making process. Some have called it harsh pragmatism, others corruption. In either case, the inner political machinations of the Conclave of Luminosity have far-reaching impacts and shape the way its members arrive at each decision.
Some might ask why each chapter's most senior ranking member doesn't attend the Conclave of Luminosity. The answer is simple -- because the Conclave of Luminosity discusses forbidden lore, its members are barred from ever returning to the mundane physical realm. Instead, they are sent as emissaries of humanity to wander into the infinitely terrifying magickal world beyond hte Flare in search of information that could guarantee humanity's safety for all eternity.
Culture
Operating within the Shadow of Morality
Candela Obscura's adherence to the principles of decentralized organizational control results in a complex relationship with power dynamics. As self-proclaimed "protectors of humanity and guardians of knowledge," the organization acts as a gatekeeper for access to immensely valuable secrets.
Many Lightkeepers perform questionable acts in the name of the common good or the self-interests of the regions they safeguard. The reality is these motives and agendas might come into direct conflict with one another. As with anything that operates within the obscure boundaries of society, the decision that members of one chapter of Candela Obscura make in the shadows might disturb the hearts and minds of fellow investigators operating in another chapter.
There are Lightkeepers who dread the thought that, while Candela Obscura might one day save humanity from the powerful evils lurking in the darkness, it may not be able to save itself from the evils of humanity and its inevitable attempt to seize this dark power for malicious intentions.
Public Agenda
Values
Members of Candela Obscura are protectors of the people. With their wealth of supernatural knowledge passed down through magical generations, they focus their owrk on colelcting and studying magickal phenomena.
Style
Libraries full of ancient and esoteric literature, working by candlelight, formal attire, strange artifacts in glass cases, secret entrances, hidden passageways.
Assets
Ancient knowledge passed down by preivous Candela Obscura investigators grants this organization teh toosl and trianing they need to perate in the field.
- Lightkeepers: These veteran members of Candela Obscura use their extensive education and experience in the field to assign the circles they oversee to the assignments they are best suited for.
- The Fourth Pharos: A vault located within the Flare that houses phenomena to keep them from corrupting the world with bleed and serves as a central hub for the organization's Lightkeepers.
- The Chapter House Archives: Every chapter house of Candela Obscura contains a highly protected collection of books, artifacts, and records.
History
Origins of Candela Obscura
The Tome of Lumos is considered the definitive record of the activity of Candela Obscura around the world, going back to the organization's beginning, before the existence of cities such as Oldfaire. This text exists in a vast series of volumes, and it is the sacred charge of the Conservator of the Fourth Pharos to record the organization's affairs during their tenure. Within these enigmatic pages, it is written that Candela Obscura originated from a guild of hearth stewards called Lightkeepers
In the time before electricity, during the reign of flame, people began congretating around enclaves of knowledge that advanced the very scaffolding of civilization -- the early days of architecture, politics, and technology. As these civilizations gained power, it was natural for people to attempt to store the details of their discoveries in writing -- first in stone and then with increasing ease on hides, fabrics, and paper. The makings of the world were transcribed and read under the glow of campfires, candles, and eventually hearths.
The structures that stored this knowledge, libraries that came to be known in The Fairelands as athenaeums, were built to facilitate the study of scholarly texts or to conduct secluded meetings in dimly lit rooms as society slept. Rulers employed Lightkeepers -- stoic defenders of knowledge and keepers of the fire -- to ensure the flame did not devour the precious writings contained in the athenaeums.
Due to their complete access to the scrolls, tomes, and other artifacts contained within these unique collections, Lightkeepers accumulated vast knowledge. Additionally, they mastered a near-perfect method of memorization that allowed them to recall writing, or eavesdrop and disseminate the whispers of society's elites.
It was only natural that the great rulers of hte world would come to collect and harness magick in their quest to hoard and utilize knowledge and power. When they succumbed to the temptation to use this magick for their own selfish purposes, Candela Obscura was born.
History within the Fairelands
In ancient times, the ruling class of Oldfaire used and abused the powers of magick, deeming themselves alchemists. As with any development that eases the burdens of daily living, or forces members of society to adapt, the citizens of Oldfaire embraced the technological advancements born of this power. Out of either ignorance or irreverence, the corruptin force of bleed soon overtook the city. Supernatural forces from this disaster tore a chasm into the sea and a great flood overtook Oldfaire.
Before its fall, upon the first signs of this civilization's destruction, Candela Obscura established a covert chapter in Oldfaire. They settled their chapter houses around locations of high magickal incursion, and this was the beginning of Candela Obscura within The Fairelands. Almost all written records from Oldfaire were buried with the city but it is clear that in the centuries that followed, this chapter of Candela Obscura slowly expanded in size and influence.
Copyright: This product was created using the Darrington Press Community Gaming License. The Illuminated Worlds Standard Resource Document is owned and copyrighted by Darrington Press, LLC. All rights reserved.
Attribution: This product is based on the following Public Game Content created and owned by Darrington Press: Illuminated Worlds Standard Resource Document, Darrington Press, LLC, 2023, available at https://darringtonpress.com.
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