Conclave

Many hands make light work, and Samson over there has seven of them!

  A Conclave is a group of Ascendants, united by bonds of comradery or united purpose. A single Ascendant is mighty enough, but where a Conclave travel, the storms of change go with them. In practical terms, a Conclave traditionally has five Ascendants in it, sometimes with retainers and retinue to support them. Anymore than that, and ambitions begin to clash and raw material become spread too thin for consumption. The fewest members a Conclave can have and still it such is three, and when they have four, the fifth position is ceremonially held by the Prosperity Engine itself.   Forming a Conclave requires a rite of passage where each member consume a part of the others and manifest a combined mutation as a mark of belonging. This mutation often becomes the badge of the Conclave, sometimes their name, and to willingly defile it breaks a member from their Conclave.   Such a rite is just one of many that belong to the Conclaves and is unique to them. They can awaken spirits of hunger that function as a totem for their Conclave, seed land with marks of ownership and mutation, and more. Each Conclave inevitably develop their own rites, unique to them, and they become as much a marker of identity as their common cause or mutation.   Conclaves inevitably become important parts of where-ever they settle, though many keep wandering. They're too powerful too ignore or crush, but usually beyond simple ambitions like greed or social status. Conclaves makes life complicated for the powers that be... Some of who were Conclaves themselves before settling down into a more mundane existance.