Rise of the Triumphant/Contents
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Rise of the Triumphant
A Brief History of the Philosophers of the Knife in the Modern Era
By Jessalyne Anlorma
Amazingly, a profession defined by its sociopaths is not generally one of brotherhood and loving understanding. The Necromancer is not your brother and not your friend, though she may occasionally be your teacher. So I endeavor.
For most of the century since Kigot's death the entire body of Philosophers held steady at around a hundred adherents scattered primarily across Zoluren and Therengia. Beyond the founding principles binding them, they had little to no association with one another, as this was no fellowship or closely-knit cult. Rather, it was a disparate group of men and women with their own discrete and scattered resources, many of whom could not so much as stand one another. An observant man in current times could argue very little has changed, but, if nothing else, most of our gatherings seem to place an emphasis on the 'restrained' bit of 'politely restrained hostility' now.
In 393 AV Lyras the Devourer corrupted and crossed the Great Barrier to begin her assault on the provinces of Kermoria, causing untold amounts of destruction both physical and metaphysical. This is, of course, in addition to the loss of a full third of the continent's population to the might of her undead and the famines and disease which followed. Though she was eventually destroyed with the combined power of a mysterious application of Empathy, raw divine might, and a ritual enacted by the Philosophers of the Knife to suppress her powers, Lyras' conquest lead to a renewed fervor in the hunting and extermination of necromancy and its practitioners.
The Temple was quick to seize upon the calamity, using Lyras to justify and garner public support for renewed bloody campaigns. Here, they said, is the perfect example of the inevitable result of the path and practice of necromancy, and its practitioners are not only damned but are thralls of mindless extraplanar evil, doomed to be a demon's puppets in a tireless campaign to snuff out all of creation.
Despite these justifications, no cult was more viciously hunted than the Philosophers of the Knife, whose adherents are neither demon worshippers nor particularly inclined to raising massive apocalyptic zombie armies. The reasons for this focus on a seemingly less than 'model' group of necromancers are complex, but stem primarily from both its founder being a former agent of the Temple, and the ethical model he espoused being all but tailor-made to attack the supremacy of the clergy and the foundational principles of divine right. In short, it was personal, and the Philosophy of the Knife teetered on the brink of extinction as Philosophers were hunted down one by one and annihilated.
During Lyras's campaign and the Temple's subsequent pogroms, Zamidren Book came out of his long seclusion. Book was once a Warrior Mage of modest skill with a greater than average knowledge on the subject of necromancy, and had established himself as an expert on the subject, along with the methods of fighting it, through authoring several books. It is not known when exactly Book came to the Philosophy, but it was some time after traveling west to research the Great Barrier, at which point he became adept enough at the arts of the knife to preserve Dwarath, dead from a necromantic poison, as a relatively intact Risen.
By the time the Barrier fell, Zamidren had claimed a significant amount of power and influence among this motley group, enough that when the Temple came calling and had nearly wiped out what remained of Kigot's brood, he was able to use it to his advantage (after a fashion) and rise to the vaunted position of Triumphant. This title is a reference to a passage in Kigot's own work, half-decree and half-prophecy, which asserts that the Great Work will never progress and the Philosophy will never reach completion until one man capable of Transcendence unites all others under him. The validity of this claim has been argued to death among Philosophers, but it nonetheless manages to strike a certain mythological chord among a group of people who are, for all their pretense at being scientists, deeply superstitious people.
Book was recognized by guildsmen as authorities on the subject of necromancy and frequently volunteered information to those who came calling, ostensibly to help against Lyras. His true cause for revealing himself, however, was to set into motion plans to begin drawing the Philosophers together, whom at that time had already begun to be hunted once more to extinction. To accomplish this, he used the guildsmen's interests and inclination to gossip to his own ends by inscribing various bloody symbols on walls around the city of Crossing, opaque in true meaning to outsiders but sending a clear message to Philosophers: The Great Work risks failure. We must come together to survive.
The ploy worked. Positioning himself to guide the investigative efforts of guildsmen, he successfully misdirected the Inquisition to a false safehouse in Dirge that had been quietly constructed with the aid of his associate Xerasyth. The Inquisition and guildsmen alike congratulated themselves for snatching up a handful of hapless Necromancers seeking profane power in their raid. Zamidren used the misdirection to quietly murder the last of his remaining opposition, as the rest either saw the pragmatism of his proposals or, not wishing to be on the wrong end of a knife themselves, at least claimed as much.
With nearly the entire greater body of remaining Philosophers now cowed into submission and their numbers whittled down to a mean dozen or so, Book began consolidating their power and resources to ensure their safety and the continued survival of the Philosophy.
Despite these successes, Dwarath's state as a Risen was discovered soon after and Book was outed as one of the very things he had pretended to help hunt. In the ensuing chase, Zamidren barely escaped the clutches of the Inquisition, while Dwarath was captured and destroyed. Fortunately, the monastery itself had already been established by this time -- its wards erected and its true nature concealed by sophisticated and extensive Corruption magic, and Book was able to sequester himself safely out of the reach of anyone that meant him harm.
The monastery was a complete coup and is the physical embodiment of the unprecedented pooling of resources by the Philosophers. Though the Order of Inquiry was at one time a legitimate group, it had long been a front for the nervecenter of Book's operation, and through the monastery he arranged to begin recruiting from the peasant classes: the commoner, the unskilled laborer, those unguilded and without the formal ties to bind them to the great and grand organizations that largely sought his end.
The way this is set up reveals some of Book's canniness: far from seeking and selecting for genuine talent, he has attuned dozens or hundreds of little nascent monsters destined for little more than the business end of an Inquisitor's pike, and only a fool would believe this is not by design. This so-called third generation is left to live or die on their merits, and, though it is for the better of us all if the Great Work is advanced in some way, if all they do is act as a living wall between Zamidren Book and his second generation contemporaries and a screaming death at the hands of the Temple they have served a purpose. Indeed, it's hard to envision a scenario in which he loses, which seems to be exactly how Book prefers his games.
In the years since Book's influence and, by extension, the reach of the Philosophers has only grown. We have footholds and safehouses in every mainland province and our curriculum, such as it is, is codified and taught by powerful men and women that, though they may not wholly agree with or particularly like Book, nonetheless deign to allow themselves to fall within his dominion, if only nominally.
Now, we of the third generation, as we are called, are let to test our mettle and make worthy ourselves. Whether you love the man or hate him, wish him dead or fawn on him like a pious sycophant, it would be unwise to deny the reach, the power, and the resources of the man that has gathered us all and teaches us, even if it is by proxy. I pray (hah) that this text soon dates me, and that we all quit the night and make irrelevant these tedious and exhausting politics that propel us.
May you reach exaltation by violence.
Jessalyne Anlorma
Philosopher of the Knife
Gratitude, acknowledgement, and curses in equal measure go to Nimaltesh Oakenfalcon for my introduction to and education in the Philosophy and its history, and more to Marsin Anlorma for transcription and editing of this work.