Secret Societies in the Wend Wall

There is a saying in the Empire . “Nothing is hidden from the eyes of the crow”. ‘The Crow’ being the colloquial term for the variety of entities conducting surveillance in the Wend Wall on behalf of the imperial monarch and his government. Among the upper classes of the Wend Wall this saying is taken more as a challenge than as a warning. The creation of and unravelling of secret societies is the most popular risk sport of the Wend Wall’s aristocracy .   The people of the Wend Wall are heavily surveilled by the imperial regime at every moment. At least this is what the regime wishes the populace to believe. How heavily a population of several million can be surveilled by a state apparatus of some few thousand people is up for debate. The addition of so-called gods and their powers may help in this respect, but most of the attention nevertheless tends to fall on the upper classes. The initiative for rebellion rarely comes from the poorest and meanest class of people. The Emperor and his cronies well know this. Local leaders, ministers, priests and other ‘big men’ receive the regular attention of the Crow.   The upper classes of the Wend Wall are aware of the attention afforded them by their peers and betters. As a response they regularly participate in a multitude of secret societies. Why they do this varies. Mostly it’s an upper-class diversion. A bit of daring in an otherwise dreary life of paperwork and minor bureaucratic rivalries. For others it’s a small form of rebellion with little actual danger attached. The punishment for participating in one of these societies are rarely excessive for those involved. So long as no actual oppositional activity took place. Still others participate because they have something to hide or wish to pass on a message or conduct an affair in secret. For most members the societies serve as a form or risqué networking. They are a place to see and be seen. A place where one might meet people of superior or inferior rank, and converse with them outside the bounds of formality. They also serve as a place to hear news and rumours, and a place where forbidden texts can be found.   Most of these secret societies are quickly discovered and dissolved by the Crow. The various intelligence agencies compete to be the first to discover the latest societies as quickly as possible. It is said that Guānchá the Watcher and the Emperor himself sometimes even participate personally in unravelling such groups. Those involved are given a slap on the wrist if they are of low rank and are ignored if of particularly high rank. It is said the emperor has a list of those who have been involved in secret societies on hand in case he needs an excuse to execute one of his servants. Only those found in possession of illegal material, or who can be proven to have conspired against the government are given stricter sentences. After all, most people join the societies for the fun of saying cloak and dagger phrases and to meet exciting and masked social peers behind closed doors. This is hardly a threat to the Empire. There are always rumours of more nefarious societies. Some say that the The Apex Republic funds anarchist societies. Others claim the The Cobalt Order funds hidden orders of knights. There are rumours of The Sundar societies teaching ‘high magics’ and of Ordering societies conspiring to replace the Emperor with a more loyal god. There are few reasons to put stock in these rumours however. Although it is impossible for the emperor to see all, he will inevitably find out what he wants to know about any one of his subjects on whom he turns his sight. That is the belief at least, and history seems to cast little doubt on it. The radical press in Apex may hope that these societies will form the nucleus of a rebellion to overthrow our enemies to the east. But I fear these are idle hopes. So long as the Emperor is believed to be omniscient these secret societies will remain little more than social clubs for the young and dumb in the Emperor’s demesne.