The Wand Peasantry
From Summoner
The Science Clubs, The Alchemists, the Researchers, the Shudra
He didn't know. His flesh burned. His eyes turned to dust. His tongue peeled away like an onion. He changed. And then he was done. From a distance, she watched. She recorded. She sighed. She looked where he looked, and she changed. Her flesh bronzed. Her eyes grew sharp. Her tongue spoke in every language. She knew.
There is one need that must be met, before the Self can flourish: knowledge. By the oath of the Wand, the Alchemists must classify, categorize, and understand the Mirror. Only through understanding it does it gain any semblance of limit. Man became the Namer not to say what something is...he became the Namer to decide what it was NOT. The Mirror responds to human knowledge, and feeds on human ignorance. Not just for their own advancement, but for the World, the Peasants must know.
The Wand Peasantry officially came into being during the Victorian Era, spreading around the world with the British Crown. Similar orders have risen and folded for centuries, however. The Peasants hardly seem to mind, and pay little interest to their own history. The Mirror is their true record, and if anyone is likely to be able to travel its depths and survive, it is one of the Researchers.
On the topic of demons, as with everything, the Wand Peasants hotly debate. Some see themselves as a research and development think tank in a war against demonkind. Others fear that destroying Demons can only lead to the destruction of thought itself. What if every demon is an Alter Self yet uncalled? What if the Mirror represents a true Collective Unconscious left untended or driven mad by man's self-isolation? They simply don't know enough to draw a common conclusion. But they are just determined to find out.
Membership: The Wand Peasantry is an eclectic bunch, to say the least. From intrepid dungeon delvers to bookish librarians, the Wand doesn't look to appearances much, if at all. The common truth of their membership is a thirst to know. Knowledge is the exercise of the mind, and while not every Peasant is smart, every one of thoughtful in their own unique way.
Icons: The Peasants are perhaps the least likely to express their affiliation. Walking sticks, extendable batons, or other symbols of the Estate are common travel tools, however. They are often carrying equipment of some manner, and when they do bother to show some symbols to other Summoners, it is something simple and clear, to better carry over the information in a uniform manner.
Exams: The Wand Peasantry doesn't have exams, per se. Or at least it didn't. The more formalized branches of the Estate actually have a written exam circulating, that is graded by an elder member of the Researchers. The point is not the answers (which are invariably impossible to prove.) The point is the process and the reason displayed in their answers, and in the explanation they are expected to give when the failed exam is thrown in their face. Similar testing methods exist across the more liberal parts of the Estate as well.
Art: The Art of Wands
Stereotypes:
Sword Nobility: Huh? They want to do something now, you say? Great. There's a month of work, and a real solution down the drain.
Cup Clergy: We need them as much as they need us. If only they realized that.
Coin Merchants: They give us money. We give them knowledge. And they think they're the ones paying too much for what we have to offer?
Vampires: What a fascinating expression of the soul? Is there even a soul in there? I shall have to capture one.
Werewolves: Their knowledge of their own frontiers is laudable. Too bad they're more like to snap than to share.
Mages: I want one. No, I want two. The second to fix the first once when it breaks down.
Prometheans: I'd love to harness whatever makes them tick...
Changelings: They have so much to learn. A pity that they let the experiment control them instead.
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