The Grand Thaumatic Order of Theurgists

The Grand Thaumatic Order of Theurgists, or The Thaumaturge, is a loose confederation of archmages whose existence has been an open secret for several decades. The common folk regard them as a fairy tale, as The Thaumaturge spends much of its resources keeping their existence secret. The Thaumaturge is by its nature the greatest opponent of the Castinellan theocracy. They paid little attention to this emerging threat at the start, thinking such fanatical zealotry would simply self-destruct. But when it became obvious that there was no serious opposition to the rise of the Emptyreus theocracy, and their hard-line attitude against spellcasters was sincere, the Thaumaturge sent its investigators to evaluate the threat. No one exactly knows what the Thaumaturge is up to, but the most imaginative rumour is that an expert illusionist wizard has infiltrated the Castinellan Provinces, taking the appearance of clergy members to give contradictory orders and cause confusion. Rumours grew from there—there had been an escape from the Arcanist Inquisition Headquarters; the headquarters had been infiltrated; it was all the doing of a mysterious wizard known as the Fiendish Mask. Taking the rumours seriously, the Inquisition offered an incredibly high reward for his capture. That is also the moment when immolation became the immediate punishment for almost all suspects of magical impurity...