Good Gaming: Living In These Modern Times Pt. 3: Three Hidden Masters: Wesley Harlan, Sweet Clara Harlan, and Shi’loung Wei.
”If I were to serve under any man, it would be General Harlan.” –Gerdun Vex, Shadowkind Outlaw, 1851.
“Though the men who came from across the sea were foul creatures, there are a noble few. Wesley Harlan, may his soul rest in peace in the land of his fathers, was one of them.” –Allocated to an unknown Choctaw Warrior eulogizing Harlan in 1883.
“Loyalty, Knowledge, and Inner Strength; the Harlan family’s motto. Few would know that, but you see it any time you put on your uniform. Honor the man who created our Company by living up to his bloodline, and finishing the job he left for us.” – M. Sgt. Jonathan Halberstein, shortly before the Battle of the Forest of Knives, 1913.
When one establishes a Modern Fantasy setting, there are certain questions which need to be asked. One of the largest of these questions is: how exactly do governments and individual organizations around the world perceive the Shadow, magic, and its use in their everyday affairs? Along with the help of a group of players in a Gaslights game I ran, I helped to establish just that for the United States government.
There have been several different groups to hold to this; the Weird West of Deadlands has the Texas Rangers, which I find to be one of the better published interpretations of a lawful organization to monitor the comings and goings of things that go bump in the night. For my own campaign, there was Harlan’s Guard, which would later be established as the Five Companies, or colloquially as the Rainbow Companies.
Wesley Harlan was your standard gentleman soldier; raised in the Tidewater of Virginia, he made frequent trips to the then newly established capital. In 1817, at the age of 14, he was said to have his first glimpse of the Shadow, and from then on he became hooked. Learning as much as he could about the Mystic Arts, he soon found the Tidewater was filled with practitioners of different practices. Learning African traditions alongside some from various vagabonds who found themselves on American soil and seeking to make a buck, Harlan had become a competent practitioner by 1830, 10 years into his stint as a commissioned officer in the United States Army.
Sent South for a year, Harlan was commissioned as a leader in the forcible removal of the Choctaw from their ancestral holdings. Finding some members of the tribe familiar with magic he had never seen before, Harlan approached a wise woman and asked her favor, explaining his predicament. The women denied his request, cursing him as the march continued.
It was at a place which became known as Harlan’s Gap that Wesley proved himself worthy of their teachings. Hemmed in by a pack of strange beasts, the soldiers in the contingent began to turn and run. Harlan, asking for aid and succor from the tribal elders, devised a ritual to turn the beasts away, making them clear to all those around them. The basic ritual, which would become known as Harlan’s Eye, was one of the first European rituals to incorporate Native and African magical traditions in its use. Esoterica (Arcane Lore) scholars proclaim the Skirmish at Harlan’s Gap to be the start of the Foxfire mystical tradition*, which would become the fama vitae of the Rainbow Companies until the adoption of the Germanic MAGMA tradition during the Second World War.
Sweet Clara Harlan, a Choctaw maiden studying the mystical traditions of her people, became close friends with Harlan over their trek, and it was through her influence that many Choctaw were protected and given aid by the Army soldiers with Harlan. When the Choctaw tribe arrived in Oklahoma, the elders of the tribe embraced Harlan as one of their own, and for fifteen years he stayed in the Indian Territories, learning from various tribes and those men and women of the Art who passed through on their own sojourns into the wilds of the pre-expansion West. Harlan was granted a small garrison of troops at a city first known as Hadrian (renamed Harlan after his death) and had four children.
Sweet Clara, who esoteric historians claim was a far more able practitioner than Harlan, helped Wesley to train several Choctaw, Cherokee, and other tribe’s talented but unlearned practitioners in the ways of the Foxfire tradition. When word spread, a Shadow group known as the American Foreign Exchange sent several of its own men and women of various races and species. Many of these men and women were granted commissions through Harlan (then an undersecretary to the governor of the Territories and leader of its military arm) which would have been impossible for them to gain by normal (some would say legal) consent of the US Army during the period.
In 1853, this group petitioned the US Congress and the Office of Indian Affairs to force the US Army to grant de jure commission to the so-called
”Black Guard of Oklahoma, currently under the command of Undersecretary Wesley J. Harlan”. A large amount of quiet negotiation occurred, and as of 1854 the group, to become known as Harlan’s Guard during the Civil War, came into being.
The Guard, a group of integrated male and female spellcasters, was the first of its kind in the Western World. Though all paperwork was handled in a non-challenging manner (Sweet Clara was noted as “S. Clarence Harlan” in all documentation from the period) there were many in power who found the cost of such a small group of soldiers to be prohibitive. During the Civil War (officially proclaimed a ‘Starless’, or non-magical, war through the Protocols established by the European Convocation of 1543), Harlan’s Guard served on both sides, preventing either from utilizing spellcasting or conjuring to any great effect. Once the War was over, Harlan’s Guard served during Reconstruction in more of an advisory role.
It was also during this time that Harlan’s Guard gained Shi’loung Wei as a member. A young Chinese immigrant, Shi’loung was a talented spellcaster, and took to the Foxfire tradition without any great difficulty. Serving as an elegant (if somewhat strange for the period) spokesperson for the Guard, Shi’loung helped to coin the term ‘Rainbow Company’ when the group was expanded to include Shadow-aware soldiers of the Army and Navy who could utilize some technology and ballistic advancements made by the Guard to combat Shadow threats.
In 1871, Harlan found that Shi’loung Wei was involved with a large-scale conspiracy with several Chinese traders, and had been leaking information on US government secrets garnered through discussions with Harlan and his high command. Though not the iron-sided magus that he used to be, Harlan challenged Shi’loung to a traditional mystic’s duel, with Shi’loung being granted the choice of battlefield. This event, known to Esoterica scholars as the Duel of the Fiery Sky, caused the death of Harlan and the unveiling of Shi’loung as an allegedly long-dead dragon of Chinese legend. Honor-bound, Shi’loung walked away from the battle disgraced, and it is said went back to the organization allegedly founded by the drake, now known as Shi-Lung.
Now, I know that that probably read like history to you… and I don’t blame you. However, I am trying to display just how setting dynamics are formed, along with introducing the concept of the powers behind the scenes. In my setting, Harlan (just like Aleksei) was/is an important individual. A few of the items created by his family (including the Honors, enchanted cavalry sabers granted to officers of the Rainbow Companies) are seen from time to time, and Foxfire is a tradition which is alive and well. Shi’loung is a perfect example of a monstrous Hidden Master; dragons have a traditionally long lifespan, the ability to change shape, and a mastery of magic. This, combined with powerful intellects and charm makes the dragon a great creature for a founder of a mystical tradition, a historian, a sage in some distant hillside town in Scotland… you name it.
Hopefully next article we’ll get into some of the unique challenges of doing Hidden Masters, and how to allow humanoid types of creatures into your games. It’s going to be fun, but until next time, as always . . .
Good Gaming,
Slainte,
-Loonook.
*The concept of Traditions (found in Elements of Magic - Mythic Earth) in Modern really is one of my favorite systems of magic. It took a lot of poking and prodding (along with someone actually purchasing the book for my stubborn behind) for me to read and see the interesting nature of the skill-based magics presented therein. However, there are only a handful of traditions; I think that there should be more, and with a wider focus. Thus, I would love to publish another add-on; however, I have no idea exactly how to do all of the OGC/OGL rigmarole of dealing with the book’s work. If anyone knows how to do so (and would like to actually see some more interesting traditions like Foxfire and MAGMA done in a nice, cozy PDF format) please throw me a line @yahoo.com.
”If I were to serve under any man, it would be General Harlan.” –Gerdun Vex, Shadowkind Outlaw, 1851.
“Though the men who came from across the sea were foul creatures, there are a noble few. Wesley Harlan, may his soul rest in peace in the land of his fathers, was one of them.” –Allocated to an unknown Choctaw Warrior eulogizing Harlan in 1883.
“Loyalty, Knowledge, and Inner Strength; the Harlan family’s motto. Few would know that, but you see it any time you put on your uniform. Honor the man who created our Company by living up to his bloodline, and finishing the job he left for us.” – M. Sgt. Jonathan Halberstein, shortly before the Battle of the Forest of Knives, 1913.
When one establishes a Modern Fantasy setting, there are certain questions which need to be asked. One of the largest of these questions is: how exactly do governments and individual organizations around the world perceive the Shadow, magic, and its use in their everyday affairs? Along with the help of a group of players in a Gaslights game I ran, I helped to establish just that for the United States government.
There have been several different groups to hold to this; the Weird West of Deadlands has the Texas Rangers, which I find to be one of the better published interpretations of a lawful organization to monitor the comings and goings of things that go bump in the night. For my own campaign, there was Harlan’s Guard, which would later be established as the Five Companies, or colloquially as the Rainbow Companies.
Wesley Harlan was your standard gentleman soldier; raised in the Tidewater of Virginia, he made frequent trips to the then newly established capital. In 1817, at the age of 14, he was said to have his first glimpse of the Shadow, and from then on he became hooked. Learning as much as he could about the Mystic Arts, he soon found the Tidewater was filled with practitioners of different practices. Learning African traditions alongside some from various vagabonds who found themselves on American soil and seeking to make a buck, Harlan had become a competent practitioner by 1830, 10 years into his stint as a commissioned officer in the United States Army.
Sent South for a year, Harlan was commissioned as a leader in the forcible removal of the Choctaw from their ancestral holdings. Finding some members of the tribe familiar with magic he had never seen before, Harlan approached a wise woman and asked her favor, explaining his predicament. The women denied his request, cursing him as the march continued.
It was at a place which became known as Harlan’s Gap that Wesley proved himself worthy of their teachings. Hemmed in by a pack of strange beasts, the soldiers in the contingent began to turn and run. Harlan, asking for aid and succor from the tribal elders, devised a ritual to turn the beasts away, making them clear to all those around them. The basic ritual, which would become known as Harlan’s Eye, was one of the first European rituals to incorporate Native and African magical traditions in its use. Esoterica (Arcane Lore) scholars proclaim the Skirmish at Harlan’s Gap to be the start of the Foxfire mystical tradition*, which would become the fama vitae of the Rainbow Companies until the adoption of the Germanic MAGMA tradition during the Second World War.
Sweet Clara Harlan, a Choctaw maiden studying the mystical traditions of her people, became close friends with Harlan over their trek, and it was through her influence that many Choctaw were protected and given aid by the Army soldiers with Harlan. When the Choctaw tribe arrived in Oklahoma, the elders of the tribe embraced Harlan as one of their own, and for fifteen years he stayed in the Indian Territories, learning from various tribes and those men and women of the Art who passed through on their own sojourns into the wilds of the pre-expansion West. Harlan was granted a small garrison of troops at a city first known as Hadrian (renamed Harlan after his death) and had four children.
Sweet Clara, who esoteric historians claim was a far more able practitioner than Harlan, helped Wesley to train several Choctaw, Cherokee, and other tribe’s talented but unlearned practitioners in the ways of the Foxfire tradition. When word spread, a Shadow group known as the American Foreign Exchange sent several of its own men and women of various races and species. Many of these men and women were granted commissions through Harlan (then an undersecretary to the governor of the Territories and leader of its military arm) which would have been impossible for them to gain by normal (some would say legal) consent of the US Army during the period.
In 1853, this group petitioned the US Congress and the Office of Indian Affairs to force the US Army to grant de jure commission to the so-called
”Black Guard of Oklahoma, currently under the command of Undersecretary Wesley J. Harlan”. A large amount of quiet negotiation occurred, and as of 1854 the group, to become known as Harlan’s Guard during the Civil War, came into being.
The Guard, a group of integrated male and female spellcasters, was the first of its kind in the Western World. Though all paperwork was handled in a non-challenging manner (Sweet Clara was noted as “S. Clarence Harlan” in all documentation from the period) there were many in power who found the cost of such a small group of soldiers to be prohibitive. During the Civil War (officially proclaimed a ‘Starless’, or non-magical, war through the Protocols established by the European Convocation of 1543), Harlan’s Guard served on both sides, preventing either from utilizing spellcasting or conjuring to any great effect. Once the War was over, Harlan’s Guard served during Reconstruction in more of an advisory role.
It was also during this time that Harlan’s Guard gained Shi’loung Wei as a member. A young Chinese immigrant, Shi’loung was a talented spellcaster, and took to the Foxfire tradition without any great difficulty. Serving as an elegant (if somewhat strange for the period) spokesperson for the Guard, Shi’loung helped to coin the term ‘Rainbow Company’ when the group was expanded to include Shadow-aware soldiers of the Army and Navy who could utilize some technology and ballistic advancements made by the Guard to combat Shadow threats.
In 1871, Harlan found that Shi’loung Wei was involved with a large-scale conspiracy with several Chinese traders, and had been leaking information on US government secrets garnered through discussions with Harlan and his high command. Though not the iron-sided magus that he used to be, Harlan challenged Shi’loung to a traditional mystic’s duel, with Shi’loung being granted the choice of battlefield. This event, known to Esoterica scholars as the Duel of the Fiery Sky, caused the death of Harlan and the unveiling of Shi’loung as an allegedly long-dead dragon of Chinese legend. Honor-bound, Shi’loung walked away from the battle disgraced, and it is said went back to the organization allegedly founded by the drake, now known as Shi-Lung.
Now, I know that that probably read like history to you… and I don’t blame you. However, I am trying to display just how setting dynamics are formed, along with introducing the concept of the powers behind the scenes. In my setting, Harlan (just like Aleksei) was/is an important individual. A few of the items created by his family (including the Honors, enchanted cavalry sabers granted to officers of the Rainbow Companies) are seen from time to time, and Foxfire is a tradition which is alive and well. Shi’loung is a perfect example of a monstrous Hidden Master; dragons have a traditionally long lifespan, the ability to change shape, and a mastery of magic. This, combined with powerful intellects and charm makes the dragon a great creature for a founder of a mystical tradition, a historian, a sage in some distant hillside town in Scotland… you name it.
Hopefully next article we’ll get into some of the unique challenges of doing Hidden Masters, and how to allow humanoid types of creatures into your games. It’s going to be fun, but until next time, as always . . .
Good Gaming,
Slainte,
-Loonook.
*The concept of Traditions (found in Elements of Magic - Mythic Earth) in Modern really is one of my favorite systems of magic. It took a lot of poking and prodding (along with someone actually purchasing the book for my stubborn behind) for me to read and see the interesting nature of the skill-based magics presented therein. However, there are only a handful of traditions; I think that there should be more, and with a wider focus. Thus, I would love to publish another add-on; however, I have no idea exactly how to do all of the OGC/OGL rigmarole of dealing with the book’s work. If anyone knows how to do so (and would like to actually see some more interesting traditions like Foxfire and MAGMA done in a nice, cozy PDF format) please throw me a line @yahoo.com.
. However, in summation of the previous discussions of Hidden Masters, there are a few basic types:
.
