Editing Illumian (section)

==The Cabals==
Illumians live in isolated strongholds known as cabals. Each cabal forms a support and training network for the machinations of the senior leadership. Equal parts fortress, monastery, college, and way station, the cabal is the center of illumian life. Almost all illumians grow up within the cabal’s walls, learn a profession from the cabal’s instructors, and strive to earn a seat at the “Black Table” where the cabal’s leaders rule.

The day-to-day life of an illumian is dictated by the needs of the cabal. Younger illumians spend their time in training, while their elders act on orders from the Black Table. Depending on a particular illumian’s station and abilities, the Black Table’s directive could be anything from “Operate the cabal’s pottery kiln” to “Summon a powerful elemental and bind it to the cabal’s service” to “Assassinate the mayor of the human town to the north.”

The main social bond a typical illumian feels is to his or her cabal. Because the cabal raises its children together, bonds of family aren’t nearly as important as they are to other races, but loyalty to the cabal is reinforced each and every day within the walls of the enclave.

A cabal consists of between one hundred and three hundred members. At any given time, more than 90 percent of a cabal’s members live within the walls of the cabal’s fortresslike enclave. There they study, raise their children, provide for the cabal’s defense, and hatch plots for use in the outside world. Some illumians never leave the safety of their cabal’s enclave, although most journey beyond its walls on missions from time to time.

Every cabal has its own structure, but most adhere in general terms to the structure of the first cabals established by Tarmuid when he created the illumian race and bade them spread across the world.

A council of elders known as the Black Table rules each cabal. They set broad objectives for each of the cabal’s directorates: groups of several dozen illumians led by a director. The directors make the day-to-day decisions that keep the cabal running, from how to acquire provisions to which magical experiments to attempt.

A cabal might maintain directorates for defense, child rearing, magical research, espionage, internal loyalty, resource acquisition, and religion. The Black Table assigns all adult illumians to a directorate, and the director who leads that directorate assigns daily tasks that further the directorate’s (and by extension the cabal’s) goals. Most cabals include a few nonillumian members, but these individuals rarely interact with the culture of the enclaves, instead acting as go-betweens or long-term spies in larger communities near the enclave. Members of other races fi nd long-term residence among an illumian cabal to be stifl ing and monotonous. Short-term visits are another matter. Illumians tend to be hospitable (to invited guests, anyway) and accommodating, so those who have spent a week or two within the walls of an illumian enclave remark more on its orderly, peaceful nature than on the regimented, driven aspects of cabal life.

'''Black Table:''' The original cabals set nine seats at the Black Table, although the size of this ruling body can vary between six and twelve. Illumians and only illumians sit at the Black Table, and they do so for life. When a vacant seat opens at the Black Table, those who hold seats send an invitation (often but not always to a current director) to someone satisfactory to at least two-thirds of those currently seated at the Black Table. By custom, the oldest illumian at the Black Table acts as a chairperson when the group meets, but each seat at the table has an equal say in the affairs of the cabal. The youngest illumian at the Black Table functions as a liaison between the ruling body and the rest of the community, issuing decrees and taking matters of import back to the Black Table for consideration. The other illumians who sit at the Black Table remain aloof from the rest of the cabal, preferring the company of their fellows and relishing the deference that other illumians show them.

'''Director:''' While those who sit at the Black Table can be aloof, mysterious figures, the directors are the hands-on leaders of the cabal and the most well-known (if not always the most popular) members. Cabals have between six and twelve directorates, each with dozens of members. Some directorates handle mundane tasks required to keep the community functioning, such as gathering food, maintaining the enclave, and caring for children. Other directorates handle more dangerous or difficult work: protecting the cabal from attack, keeping rivals under surveillance, or conducting magical experiments. Directors serve at the pleasure of the Black Table, and they can be removed or reassigned by decree of the ruling body. In practice this happens only when a director’s ethics or competence is called into question, because bad directors reflect poorly on the Black Table that appointed them. Directors suspected of wrongdoing or guilty of frequent failure are summoned before the Black Table long before the rest of the cabal knows of a leadership crisis. The directors of large directorates empower sub directors to make decisions on minor matters. For example, the director of a large cabal’s defense directorate might have subdirectors for day watch, night watch, magical defenses, strategic reserve, and training. Directors can hire and fire subdirectors as they wish.

'''Arbiter:''' Almost every cabal has a justice directorate, which in a small cabal consists of just one illumian: the arbiter. An arbiter is the judge and jury for crimes committed within the walls of the cabal’s enclave—he or she orders arrests, questions witnesses, decides the case, and metes out punishment. If the cabal has more than a few dozen members, the justice directorate will be filled out with subarbiters who act as investigators and court officers for the arbiter. Subarbiters can make arrests, question suspects, and research illumian case law, but only the arbiter can render judgments.

'''Lorekeeper:''' Lore directorates are also common among illumian cabals. The director, referred to as the lorekeeper, functions as the head librarian for the cabal. Lorekeepers are expected to have great familiarity with the tomes in their keeping, and as a result lorekeepers are great sages and researchers. Many illumians aspire to the position of lorekeeper because of their love of language. In some cabals, the lorekeeper is more highly regarded than the illumians who sit at the Black Table.

'''Final Seed:''' From the earliest days of the illumian race, cabals have sent one or more capable members to live away from the enclave. These members, known as the final seed, have only one duty: rebuild the cabal should misfortune befall it. Final seeds are given copies of key illumian texts so they can start a new library if they have to, and they know how to contact friendly cabals for aid. While illumians agree that being chosen as a final seed is a great honor—they are considered paragons of the cabal’s ideals—many accept the honor only with great reluctance. A final seed must live apart from the safety of the cabal, visiting it only briefly. For illumians who have grown up in the structured environment of their enclaves, the outside world can be a lonely, bewildering place.