Master thy demons, boy, lest they master you.
The Clavicularius, or the Keepers of the Keys, have a reputation as power-mad mages who delve into demonology and the darkest recesses of their own minds. They flirt with madness and the Left-Hand Path at every turn of their enlightenment. Perhaps most damning of all, they cannot claim that reputa- tion as untrue, though it is myopic.
Mages who embrace this legacy certainly do engage in Goetia, and are highly interested in the deepest mysteries of the human mind, as it pertains to wickedness, vice and weakness. Many who seek to master their inner demons stumble from narrow, treacherous discipline and find themselves walking a Left-Hand Path.
Nevertheless, the Clavicularius Legacy offers great rewards for mages who have sufficient will and courage. Elder Solomonists become mages of great and terrible power, tall bastions of the kind of virtue that comes not from denying evil within, but from confronting it, defeating it and forging it into a weapon — something that the mages control, rather than being controlled.
Clavicularii consider themselves modern-day inheritors of King Solomon, the virtuous king who summoned demons to build a great temple and palace in which he ruled in wisdom. The Clavicularius mage follows the lessons Solomon left behind. The mage, having confronted her own vices, feels qualified to confront the sins of everyone else. As a result, some initiates of this Legacy seem fearsomely judgmental; others take a softer, more compassionate approach but, nevertheless, do not permit other people to compromise the initiates’ morals.
A Clavicularius initiate often seeks to bring out the best in those around him. The concept of ordering an infant cut in half in order to flush out which woman is really its mother is archetypal of Clavicularian thought: force a moral crisis in order to expose deception. At any given time, a Clavicularius may work on a “pet project,” putting a Sleeper through a crucible with the intention of strengthening her, by whatever means necessary. A corporate executive who finds she must deal with a business crisis and the debilitating illness of a child at home may be going through such a crucible. A Clavicularius rarely uses his magic for the overt good of a person he tests; most of the time, the Clavicularius alters the world around the one he seeks to strengthen, forcing his subject to find the strength to overcome her vices and weaknesses of character.
A Keeper of the Keys delves deeply into her own psyche, seeking out her greatest weaknesses; such a mage usually knows her personal Vice. Indeed, not only are Clavicularii aware of their Vices, but the Solomonists make a point to carry out dialogues with their Vices, through their mastery of Goetic magics.
These mages make extensive use of the Keys of Solomon, a system of sigils, pentacles and seals meant to invoke, control or banish demons that correspond to the moral and psychological weaknesses of humans and mages. Sleeper occultists believe the Keys themselves have power. The Awakened understand the true meaning of these symbols. The sigils are not mystic in and of themselves; rather, they are a shorthand description for demons that personify different sins and desires, codified by Goetic mages of long ago. Mages can use these sigils, and the devils to which they refer, as “standard forms” when the mages want to wrestle or evoke their inner demons. The Legacy’s most popular oblation is the Rite of Castigation, wherein a demon that embodies a mage’s Vice or derangement is symbolically invoked under a Solomonic name, punished and banished,
reaffirming the mage’s power and will.
Orders
- Fully a quarter of the Key-Bearers were not originally Mastigos, but found their way into the Legacy through their membership in the Silver Ladder.
- Members of the Adamantine Arrow initiated into the Clavicularius defend the Awakened and Sleepers alike from the depredations of demons and the Scelesti.
- The Legacy’s implications for psychotherapy interest the Free Council, who usually deal in Goetic demons with a distinctly modern cast.
- Guardians of the Veil initiated into the Clavicularius respect the heights of virtue to which this Legacy aspires.
- Mysterium members who find their way among the Solomonists are usually drawn by the promise of secrets; these mages are amply rewarded for their dedication.
Attainments
- Goetic Projection
- Goetic Bulwark
- The Binding Seal
Solomon's Lesson
Epee, a member of the Solomon's Lesson Cabal, has created a new, second attainment. He has not attained a third as of yet. His second attainment is allowed on a case-by-case basis.
- Light a Candle, Custom Attainment 2. Required: Gnosis 5, Mind 3. Keys to the Supernal Tarot page 103.
