@part(sceptre, root = "/mit/abstract/Characters/sheet.format")

@subsection(The Order of the Sceptre)

With great power comes great responsibility.  And as everyone knows,
the power of magic is the greatest power there is, and the
responsibility of rulership is the greatest responsibility there is.
It is inevitable that the two be combined in the hands of one group.

Of course, it is only to be expected that those who currently hold the
offices that govern the Realm are unwilling to acknowledge this fact;
after all, they @i(are) only human, and you can't expect them to be
willing to give up their luxurious positions, even if it would be best
for the people they claim to be representing.  Politicians are like
that.  So it has fallen to you, the Order of the Sceptre, to prove
your point by using your own power to take over the responsibilities
of leadership from them.

What @i(is) surprising is how successfully the politicians have
managed to dupe your fellow mages into supporting them.  It was over
two decades ago that the original Order of the Sceptre was formed.
When it became clear that the bulk of the Wizard's Conclave was not
willing to accept the responsibilities that were associated with their
training and powers; the original Sceptre mages took the job onto
themselves.  But they didn't expect the Conclave to turn upon their
own, to aid the politicians in defeating their fellow mages.

You, the new Sceptre, will not make that error.  Knowing the
proclivities of the mages you once counted as brothers in the Art, who
cast you out and excised you from the power-giving Orb of Nairaphi,
you no longer count on their support and have indeed come to consider
them your enemies.  Now you are the only ones with the vision and the
foresight to do what is necessary, despite the dangers inherent in
your plans.   

There are currently only three of you on the Castle, the remainder of
your Order having been trapped on the surface when the teleport
platforms stopped working.  Luckilly, they are the three most
important to your plans.  The SceptreHolder, Ezakiel Leah, is here,
along with Leannot Hiram, whose position as Advisor to the Table of
Peers has aided immeasurably in the Sceptre's political undertakings,
and Annanim Issachar, who has through the Sceptre's magical
machinations taken on the role of Mahalael Jeremiah, son of the Peer,
Enoch.

Hiram has presented a bill to the Table of Peers that, if passed,
would place magic under the category of licensed professions, thus
putting it under the House of Guild's supervision.  You have no doubt
that by allowing mundanes ultimate control over the functions of the
Conclave, you shall seriously weaken their capacity for organized
action, as well as encouraging resentment between the Conclave and the
Peers.  This will become crucial when your eventual takeover occurs.

Which, it appears, may have to be soon.  Both Arpachshad Seth and
Mahalael Enoch were opposed to the magic licensing bill, and they
were both actively lobbying against it; thus it became necessary to
deal with them.  Since the Sceptre's plans involved an eventual
takeover of the Peers anyway, this was the time to do it.

Hiram has been made responsible for dealing with Seth, and seems to
have succeeded admirably; the Peer has gone senile, apparently
entirely due to natural causes, and his influence on the Table is
minimal.   Meanwhile, the Sceptre has taken a completely different
tack with Enoch, having had indications that he was planning to
retire; rather than deal with the Peer himself, you targetted his son
Jeremiah.

After some rapid research and some hurried planning, the decision was
reached to perform a powerful spell of mind and body alteration on
Issachar.  The nature of the spell was such that appearance, voice and
many subtle subliminal cues were transferred on to the target, so that
Issachar is now the spitting image of Jeremiah.  The only current
problem is the question of whether the Symbol of the Peers will be
transferred to "Jeremiah," now that the real Jeremiah is dead, and in
order to determine that for certain you need to find the spell that
created the Symbol in the first place.  Unfortunately, you've all been
hurried enough in the execution of your plans that that has remained a
mystery.  Surely the older Peers would know.

If you can arrange for the Symbol to transfer, the next step is to do
away with Enoch (it would have to appear to be natural causes, of
course) and put "Jeremiah" in his place.  If not, then the Symbol will
transfer to Enoch's next of kin -- but as far as you can establish he
has no other offspring.  What will happen then, you aren't certain of;
it's never happened before.  In either case, by that point Hiram will
likely have been successful in steering Seth's son Chaim over to your
cause and you'll be able to get Seth kicked off the Table (it would be
rather suspicious if he, too, suffered a mysterious accident, but
senility at his age should cause no comment).  With nearly half of the
Table and one of its advisors under your influence, you will be in
good shape to impose your views on the rest of it, as your
predecessors did with King Rashid.

In the meantime, of course, you don't intend to be remiss in other
duties.  The Wizard's Conclave has been suffering numerous problems,
and while you haven't been responsible for any of it, that doesn't
mean you can't take advantage of it.  The death of their current
candidate for the Heirophancy will undoubtedly create friction between
the Orders and their representative mages, which can only be to your
advantage.

On the other hand, the presence of the Justiciar and the Guard of the
Realm is unexpected and rather startling, and is likely to put a crimp
in your plans unless you figure out what it is they're after.  If they
really are just studying the mass slaughter that occured a few days
ago, then they shouldn't be anywhere near your trail; besides,
everyone thinks the Order of the Sceptre was destroyed during the
Sceptre Uprising.  By the time they discover otherwise, you will have
successfully infiltrated the Table of Peers and weakened the Wizard's
Conclave.  Once you achieve that, the establishment of a proper
manocracy in the Realm is practically guaranteed.