Editing Verbena (section)

== History ==
The Verbena consider themselves the progenitors of some of the most ancient magics known to mankind, inheritors of a truly esoteric art that was perfected by a race of beings referred to as the Wyck. The Wyck were the shapers of the old world of magic and might. While they were all explorers, conquerors, pranksters and medicine people, their common ground was living life as fully and as magically as possible; after which they either fucked off somewhere or ascended, leaving their offspring; the Aeduna, to do that work in their stead. The Aeduna became the nature priests, philosophers, and record keepers of the ancient human world, finding a decent balance between their need to commune with nature and commune with Jocephus from Thebes. Of course, once Rome came through and decided it was time to go a-conquerin' all of the barbarians that were in their way, the Aeduna had to run for the hills. Regrouping in Britain, they set about creating the fall of the Roman Empire, which was eventually hastened along by the proto-Choir, and ultimately gained them their vengeance...which lasted about as long as realizing the Cult of Hermes was now effectively free to do whatever the fuck it wanted, and the Choir thought of them as Heretics to compete for followers, causing them to have to go into hiding again. They tried shacking up with the Hermetics, but that did not go well at all, and most Verbena still hold a grudge about it.

The Inquisition happened, which emboldened several Templar orders to begin a mass purge of all who remained true to the Old Faith; razing any pagan communities they could. The Aeduna tried to raise armies in defense, but the sheer might of the church (and especially all that Cold Iron) made it near impossible to fight back meaningfully, culminating in the destruction of Baerwald; their last major stronghold. It really seemed like that was the end for the Children of the Wyck, right up until a survivor of one of these many purges; a witch named Nightshade, happened upon some glowing stranger named [[Cult of Ecstasy|Sh'Zar]], who pleaded with her to come meet with the rest of the mystic traditions to broker a peace. She was understandably a bit cautious, but was inevitably convinced, and had to go gather the Aeduna together again in order to gain their agreement. It was there where she met yet another survivor of the Burning Times: William Groth. Groth and Nightshade were instrumental in bringing the tradition together for one big ritual, where they went from the Aeduna, to the Verbena we know today.

Of course, they still had to deal with the rise of the Technocracy, ultimately chosing to disappear from the prying eyes of the Order of Reason for good; becoming a slowly moving, generational Tradition run by families passing down "family recipes" and "grandma's special bible" and all that for generations, allowing them to largely go unnoticed...right up until World War 2, where the hasty grouping of myriad groups back in the middle ages came to rear it's ugly head in the form of the Iron Circle; a group of various scandinavian, britainnic, and germanic rune-crafters who never really agreed with this whole thing and ultimately helped back the rise of Nazi Germany, seeking to take vengeance on all those who had opposed them. This, naturally, caused a ''lot'' of issues with the Verbena; creating a massive civil war within the tradition over whether or not they agreed with the Iron Circle. This left a lot of gilgul'd and dead Verbena, and the stain of that never left the few Rune-Crafters who stuck on the allied side.

The modern day has actually been pretty alright to the Verbena, as the 60's were just as good to them as it was the Ecstatics, and allowed them to ultimately network better and become less insular, letting in different culture's interpretations of Verbena ritual to boost their ranks, and seek to continue to build and reclaim the natural world from the overexploitation of the Technocracy. Of course, they know they're on borrowed time, so they work their rituals faster and with greater fervor than before.