The Sisters of Hecate

The Sisters of Hecate is a country wide group of witches who meet, usually in a group for each county, to gossip about people and spells, drink and dance around naked (this may or may not happen only in the minds of excitable old scholars - the Sisters have never commented). Recently they have begun admitting men, on the basis that it is better to give them the support, and control, of the Sisterhood than leave them to their own devices.

The Sisterhood are a great force in keeping Albion going, playing a role in both transport and agriculture. In the Pennine strip they can be found encouraging the mountains to grow enough food to sustain the people making a living there, and ensuring the herds kept breed and prosper, along with the villagers. There are places for them on the channels, too – the seas are much easier to travel if your boat it towed by pikes or dolphins, and spirits keep the waters calm.

Noble membership of the Sisterhood is limited, and grudgingly accepted though looked down upon. The advantages of shared knowledge for developing land, and communication with the creatures of sea and air mean that there are a few nobles openly members of the Sisters, and rumours that more have made quiet arrangements.

If you are a commoner, then being a respected witch would give you a reason to be in Court. It would also give you quite a lot of power, particularly in the north. If you are a noble, then you may want to slum it with the commoners for a while and see how they live, want an advantage when trying to gain the friendship of a dragon or get the most out of your land.

Being a member of the Sisters is a great advantage if you're a witch, as it means you have access to more spells than most anyway and will often be able to find a spell that does what you want by asking around, rather than having to try and find something that works yourself. It also means you will hear plenty of gossip - most will be about commoners, but there may be the odd piece about a noble who asked for a Sister's help in dealing with a particularly embarrassing personal problem.

Requirements: Must be a witch

You are either a noble dabbling in witchcraft who is barely accepted by the Sisters, or learning witchcraft from one of the more experienced witches. You won't be told much of what's going on, but won't be expected to do anything complicated either and may get help if you're in over your head.

Note: This isn't going to provide adequate reason to be at Court if you're a commoner.

Requirements: Must be a female witch with the Commoner quirk

You are accepted as one of the Sisters of Hecate, and will probably be in charge of looking after a small local coven.

Note: This is not going to be good enough to get you into Court, so you'd need another reason to be there (King's Favourite, Patron, etc).

Requirements: Must be a female witch with the Commoner quirk and either Rank 2 plus in Diplomacy or either be a magical adept or expert.

You are a respected member of the Sisters of Hecate, and probably oversee things in a county or large city. This means you are trusted to keep your mouth shut, so generally the person nobles in need of healing will turn to.

Note: This is enough to explain why a commoner's in Court.

Affiliation with the Sisters can be either public or private, but generally nobles should have it as private and commoners as public.

Little has been recorded about the history of the Sisters - there seem to have been similar organisations existing on a local level for a long time, with them shifting to a country-wide recognised organisation within the last 100-200 years.

It is only in the recent past that we may notice significant changes to the Sisterhood. The flooding of large areas of Albion in 1607-1616 made land, and food, scarcer, and nobles far more willing to ask the Sisters for help publicly, as they were invaluable assistants to cultivation and transportation as well as when it came to taking care of personal problems. This has allowed nobles to belong to the Order openly, though there is still a great deal of social stigma attached to this.

The admittance of men into the Sisters is largely attributed to the persecution of them by the Scots during the Civil War, where it was judged that tradition should take second place to preservation of life and talent. Men are still a rare sight, however, and regarded as “not really one of us”.

Officially there aren't any, but there are a few witches who seem to know everything that's going on, and whose words are almost always heeded.

The leader who isn't will usually inhabit a cottage in Shipley, an area on the northern arm of the Bay of York, which is rather more alive than the rest of the land. It also possesses a rather large concentration of ravens and bees. The current occupant of the cottage is Madame Selene, a herbalist.

The Sisters are, in fact, sorcerers bent on teaching everyone to worship demons.

The Sisters dance naked but you'll never see them - they have special charms to stop Peeping Toms seeing any of the good bits.

The Sisters rule the Pennine Strip.

The Sisters rule Albion.