Aegis Kai Doru - The Guardians
They say there’s a room somewhere under the ground, where for well over a thousand years, generations of one family have kept hidden the head of John the Baptist. It still sometimes prophesies disaster, they say. Who guards it? They tell the story of Berenger le Saunière, a poor village priest who, all of a sudden, became fabulously rich. He left cryptic clues in the fabric of his church. The confessor would not absolve him on his deathbed. What did he fi nd? The story of Jacques de Molay, burnt for heresy, still does the rounds, ending with a rumor of a treasure and a curse, lost since that day. Who knows where it can be? Does the tomb treasure of Akhenaten, heretic pharaoh of Egypt, still exist? Or the looted treasure of Troy? Or the golden chains that once bound Zenobia? Or the tomb of Gilgamesh? The Guardians of the Labyrinth know. They are the Aegis Kai Doru, the Shield and Spear. They believe it has been their business since before history began not only to guard the magical treasures of countless lost worlds, but to use them against creatures of the supernatural realm, against whom they still nurse an ancient grudge. They’re antediluvian: they tell their initiates that they predate the great fl ood event common to the myth of most Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cultures. Some even call it Atlantis, or Lemuria, or Pan, or Mu. Once, they say, every one of their number could use magic freely. Even then, they were the custodians of a vast labyrinth in which the greatest magical treasures were kept. A quarrel turned into a war, and one faction ejected the owners of that ancient maze from the island. They made plans to return, but the cataclysm came too soon, because — so the Aegis Kai Doru believe — the shape-changing people broke an ancient taboo and brought down the wrath of heaven and the spirits. The isle sank. The exiles were joined by other exiles. But they did not forgive. They blamed the disaster on those who had cast them out, and began to wage war using the few relics they had taken with them. The others had destroyed paradise, they said. That could not be forgiven.
More than a thousand years later, they had forgotten their own magic and had become the Aegis Kai Doru, the Shield and Spear, after the treasure of Troy (which some of their number absconded with when the city fell). The relics were theirs to keep and, when necessary, use to protect those people who suffered at the hands of callous witches and hungry fi ends. They maintained this purpose through the ages of Greece and Rome, the Byzantine Empire and the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the Modern Age, all the time seeking out those objects that it was their right to protect and use. Even now, an Inner Circle still meets in Athens, and keeps a list both of the relics found, lost and destroyed, and the witches and monsters they have killed. Few among the Aegis have ever met the purported nine who sit upon the council, but those who have speak of their fervor, of the strange look they have in their eyes, of the vast chamber of which every one of a hundred alcoves contains a thing of immeasurable value and power. Hardly any of the Guardians get as far as the Second Initiation into the Secrets of the Aegis Kai Doru; few are even aware that the Aegis Kai Doru has more than the one initiation. The Aegis Kai Doru remains picky about whom it recruits, spending years at a time checking out candidates and often picking people from the same families who have been part of the Aegis Kai Doru for thousands of years. The older, higher members of the organization often show a great deal of subtlety in recruitment. Sometimes a new member doesn’t even know he’s joined.
More than a thousand years later, they had forgotten their own magic and had become the Aegis Kai Doru, the Shield and Spear, after the treasure of Troy (which some of their number absconded with when the city fell). The relics were theirs to keep and, when necessary, use to protect those people who suffered at the hands of callous witches and hungry fi ends. They maintained this purpose through the ages of Greece and Rome, the Byzantine Empire and the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the Modern Age, all the time seeking out those objects that it was their right to protect and use. Even now, an Inner Circle still meets in Athens, and keeps a list both of the relics found, lost and destroyed, and the witches and monsters they have killed. Few among the Aegis have ever met the purported nine who sit upon the council, but those who have speak of their fervor, of the strange look they have in their eyes, of the vast chamber of which every one of a hundred alcoves contains a thing of immeasurable value and power. Hardly any of the Guardians get as far as the Second Initiation into the Secrets of the Aegis Kai Doru; few are even aware that the Aegis Kai Doru has more than the one initiation. The Aegis Kai Doru remains picky about whom it recruits, spending years at a time checking out candidates and often picking people from the same families who have been part of the Aegis Kai Doru for thousands of years. The older, higher members of the organization often show a great deal of subtlety in recruitment. Sometimes a new member doesn’t even know he’s joined.
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