The secrecy inherent among the Seers results in a strong spiritual import being placed on those times when the Seers set secrecy aside. Communication between cults takes on a highly formalized and ritualized cast, even between pylons within the same city (unless those pylons are extremely closely allied). This ritual not only confirms to the Seers that those they communicate with are indeed who they claim to be, it also eases the inevitable tension that builds during tense negotiations.
Communication between Pylons
Pylons typically communicate through their Voices, Seers appointed expressly for that purpose (see p. 129). The Voices inundate themselves in Seers ritual, learning as wide a variety of methods of Seer communication as possible.
They memorize hundred of code phrases and secret signs, many of which are incorporated into the mudras of the order’s rotes. Voices typically utilize disguise, and meetings between two Voices always occur in secret — only those two Seers know the time and locale of the meeting until after each Voice returns to her cabal to report. (Voices do customarily leave details of the meeting in a sealed container with the Augur. If the Voice fails to return, the Augur knows where to begin looking.) The Space Arcanum often assists in communications between Seer pylons, but Voices never open Scrying windows for this purpose within the pylon’s Sanctum.
Seers do not usually communicate with members of other pylons through Fallen means such as the telephone or Internet save to arrange meetings. Such interaction cheapens the communication and heightens the likelihood of discovery by Sleeper authorities.
Communication within Ministries
Ministry communication often occurs in many of the same ways as communication between pylons. Whereas the Voice of a pylon is responsible for communication with other groups, Ministries typically contain two other offices with similar duties. A Quirinus essentially serves as a Voice for a tetrarch, while a Secretary handles communication on the part of her Minister master (though Secretaries typically hold the position of Augur in pylons of their own, in which case that pylon’s Voice handles the actual communication).
Seer envoys make much greater use of Space magic at this level, as the individual being communicated with may be a great distance away. Luckily, the hierarchical nature of the Iron Pyramid assists in this, allowing two Voices who know the appropriate rites and the title of the individual they are attempting to communicate with to claim a Known sympathetic connection with one another, even if they have never met. This applies only when both parties attempt to reach out to one another at the same time.
Conversely, occasionally a master must display her displeasure over the actions of a subordinate. In these instances, a superior Seer may utilize a combination of impressive magic to send an unexpected message directly to an underling. Space is almost always used (though Shamans often utilize Spirit and Life to send a physical or ephemeral messenger to the disappointing Seer), and the Seer combines it with Forces (for a booming voice or flaming words scrawled across a wall), Matter (to melt a statue into words or to animate it in conjunction with another effect), Death (to animate corpses to deliver the missive) or any other similar spell. Such magic usually has the desired effect of causing awe of the divine and terror at the power of the experienced Seers.
The Conclave
Ministries hold regional conclaves (typically called by the tetrarch of that Ministry) to discuss business related directly to the Ministry. Members of other Ministries, regardless of pylon, are neither informed nor invited to a conclave, save in instances when the conclave is organized to recognize a promotion in rank (see above), in which the gathering remains open to the entire order. Conclaves serve the tetrarchs as a powerful tool, allowing them to gather their followers away from prying eyes, especially in regions where the other tetrarchs apply too much pull on a lesser Ministry.
Conclaves involve much of the ritualism mentioned above, especially in regard to secrecy, costume and ven-eration of the Exarchs. Conclaves sometimes witness the sacrifice of a human to the Exarchs, though that, like so much about the conclaves, varies with Ministry. A
Panopticon conclave involves more than the usual amount of secrecy, perhaps even involving the members taking hotel rooms throughout the host city and utilizing Space to open a Scrying window through which to participate in the proceedings. Praetorian conclaves, on the other hand, cannot be opened until each of the invited participants stands with the others, dressed in uniform and baring a signifier of rank. If one of the invited has not arrived, the Praetorians organize a pylon to go and fetch him (often resulting in harsh punishment for the offender).
The Conference
Conferences dwarf the other forms of Seer gathering in terms of attendance, often necessitating the purchase of a large home or rental of a conference center for the dura-tion (always through proxy, of course). The conference is a regional meeting of a tetrarchy, called by the tetrarchs in the face of some threat or other concern to the whole of the tetrarchy. Conferences tend to be more open, especially in terms of information, than most senior Seers find entirely comfortable, so they are rarely called for. Furthermore, conferences, perhaps owing to their rarity, lack the same level of complex and overarching ritualism that marks so many other Seer endeavors. This usually yields a low level of chaos, another facet that senior Seers find distasteful.
For younger Seers, conferences are a rare occasion to cut loose and “really get to know” their fellow Seers. Of course, Seers use false names (neither their Shadow nor their True Name) for the duration of the conference and often invent wildly elaborate falsehoods about their lives, but the sense of camaraderie remains. Various cult lead-ers, both appointed and unofficial, take the conference as an opportunity to perform their sect’s rites for anyone interested. Debates of theology break out regularly, occa-sionally devolving into mild violence. Drugs both natural and unnatural spread among the congregants, and sexual liaisons of varying size occur in hotel rooms, bathrooms and isolated corners of private gardens alike. Throughout all of this, the tetrarchs attempt to resolve some matter of business, sending their Janissaries and Quirini to restore order whenever necessary.
In many ways, one Seer once observed, a conference bears some resemblance to a gathering of a Pentacle’s consilium, if that consilium met only once every few years.
The Summit
The summit, on the other hand, is both the most common and most secretive of Seer gatherings. Summits generally
occur when the tetrarchs responsible for dominion over a given tetrarchy gather to discuss business. Such meetings, secret affairs involving only the tetrarchs (none of whom share Ministry affiliation) and their closest advisors are necessarily tense. Yet these are the meetings where the vast majority of the initiatives of the Seers of the Throne are set into motion.
Each summit remains a highly ritualized affair for the entirety of their length. They begin with a prayer to the Exarchs and a sacrifice, preferably of a Pentacle Awakened.
Some summits include a performance of the Communion during the course of their opening rites, but such is not universal. Each tetrarch then has a given period to speak, after which each of the other tetrarchs has a ritually ap-pointed period in which to respond. After the other tetrarchs have spoken, the first tetrarch makes closing remarks, and a vote is taken. Due to the highly formal nature of the discussion, tetrarchs typically discuss such business prior to the gathering of the summit, so that each may consider solutions beforehand. Saving a particularly damning piece of information until just before the vote is taken, of course, is a favored tactic among tetrarchs.
A Minister occasionally calls a summit, in which case as many of the tetrarchs within his Ministry who can (virtu-ally all of them) are expected to attend to the Minister.
While these summits open in much the same way as the regional gatherings, their attendance is significantly higher.
During these summits, the tetrarchs, some of the most powerful mages in the world, are rendered mere audience to a discussion of global import between the Minister and his Secretaries. By the time a Minister has decided to call a summit, he has already discussed the important matter at hand with his advisors, communed with the Exarchs, and come to a decision. What the tetrarchs see is highly scripted and entirely for show. While the tetrarchs might find such a use of time wasteful, the opportunity to hobnob with other important tetrarchs and even listen to the wisdom of the Minister keeps their complaints unspoken.
A summit called by a Minister inevitably involves one of the tetrarchs deciding that the Minister is not as impressive as she expected and resolving to overthrow him. This usu-ally causes some dissension within the order over the next few years until the matter is resolved. Ministers remain well aware of this probable series of events, which serve to a great extent the reason they so rarely call summits (and generally maintain a distance from their tetrarch followers).