Untitled - The Secrets of the Mind & Body Shaping

to this predominance of “pagan barbarians”
among the barns Bjornaer, the House
quickly gained a reputation for savagery,
a reputation that the House is still trying
to shake. The goal of most of its members
was to defend the wilderness against the
invasion of the Dominion brought by the
expanding human population. Birna had
taught that the wilderness holds a great
secret of magic, a secret that can be experienced,
but not tamed. The soil unturned
by plowshare, the river untouched by the
prow of a boat, the forest that had yet to
feel the bite of an axe; these things were
sacred to Birna’s Children.
The Early Years
of the House
In the early days of the Order, a
rift struck House Merinita. Two magi
of that House battled to determine its
future course, and when the matter was
decided, the losers were accepted into
House Bjornaer. They were initiated into
the Outer Mystery of the House, and,
despite their differing philosophy, were
made welcome. This lineage has now long
since died out, but they left behind a lasting
legacy in the shape of a secret society
within House Bjornaer (see The Huntress
in the Wood).
As human populations expanded
and the tangles of forests disappeared
all across Europe, House Bjornaer tried
to turn back the tide of mundane expansion.
Most Bjornaer magi saw little wrong
with extreme measures — such as killing
peasants — in the fi ght to keep mankind
within the stone walls of its towns. Many
legends about ravaging creatures who
could walk as both fearsome beasts and
men stem from this time. In the tenth century,
a member of House Bjornaer called
Hérisson came to the realization that this
attitude was proving counter-productive
— humans destroy what they fear. The
behavior of his sodales was making the
locals more determined to cut down the
forests and destroy all of the dangerous
beasts within. Hérisson tried to convince
his House to encourage the humans to
live in harmony with nature, rather than
attacking those who violate it. However,
Mystery Cults
The Gothic Shapeshifters
According to House Bjornaer, the
Gothic witch-cult practiced Infernal
magic. The ancestor-spirits of the Goths
took the form of animals, and protected
their descendants from ill-fortune. Once
these spirits were enslaved by the cult, a
witch could become any animal whose
spirit she controlled. The witches could
also force the ancestors to prophesy, or
to reverse their protective powers and
instead lay curses. Denied the Order by
the vengeful Birna, this magical tradition
was gradually wiped out by the civilizing
forces of Charlemagne’s Empire, expanding
Christianity, and the secret pogroms
of House Bjornaer. The last remnants
of the Goths were assimilated into the
Slavic people of the region, and the
shapeshifters are believed to have been
eradicated shortly after the Schism War.
Unbeknown to the House, the descendents
of this magical tradition — the
witch-women and their skin-changing
people — still exist in secret in the forests
of Pomerania (and perhaps elsewhere).
he was ridiculed and became the laughingstock
of the House.
The Schism War
At the Gathering of Twelve Years in
999, concerns were raised that the Order
of Hermes was in danger of fragmenting
due to internal confl ict. The non-Latinate
Houses of Diedne, Ex Miscellanea, and
Bjornaer seemed to be in particular danger,
as the traditionally Roman Houses
banded together and openly attacked
magi from “primitive” traditions in fl agrant
disregard of the Oath of Hermes. House
Bjornaer became paranoid and insular, and
many retreated to Crintera. When the
wholesale attacks against House Diedne
began in 1004, the last few members of
House Bjornaer joined their sodales in
Crintera. Some Roman Houses feared that
House Bjornaer would side with House
Diedne, but instead, none were seen for
nearly15 years until the Schism War was
well and truly over.
9
They bear a deep and abiding resentment
for the great traitor Birna, whose name is
reviled in stories transmitted from generation
to generation.
saga seed: tHe
secret eneMy
The Gothic shapeshifters gain a
charismatic chieftain who unites some of
the tribes under one banner. This leader
becomes suffi ciently motivated to try to
eradicate House Bjornaer, possibly due
to actions performed or witnessed by
the player characters. These people do
everything in their power to wipe out
every last one of the Bjornaer followers,
even at the expense of their own lives.
They are magically weak compared to
Hermetic magi, but they are physically
strong, highly loyal to each other, and
fanatical in their task. More about the
Pomeranian witches can be found in
Guardians of the Forests, page 99.
When House Bjornaer emerged
from Crintera they were lead by a primus
called Salmo, a descendent of Ilfetu.
He had a clear vision of the future of his
House, the foremost aspect of which was
to integrate themselves more closely with
the Latinate Houses. Under his guidance,
House Bjornaer kept a low profi le,
and its members gradually became more
similar to the standard Hermetic magus
in a deliberate attempt to prevent itself
from becoming a target in the event of
a future Schism War. Whilst it retains a
House structure that preserves features of
its tribal past, the average member of the
House Bjornaer of today is as civilized
and cultured as any other magus in the
Order.
Another consequence of the Schism
War was the increasing popularity of
the teachings of Hérisson. They were
attractive to the post-Schism House, primarily
because they espoused a policy
that attracted less attention from the
Quaesitores. The more traditional members
of the House started to call themselves
“Wilderists” in response to these