I have beheld the future that you would, in your ignorance and greed, create and, by the grace of the Oracles, I am here to stop you.
Self-appointed interpreters of the ineffable “will of the Oracles,” the Stewards of the Celestial Orrery are prophets whose methods are decidedly colored by the forceful ways of the Aether. Not content merely to witness things to come, these willworkers feel called to involve themselves in the futures they witness, whether to facilitate a just and wise outcome or to thwart a dark and hubristic one — as the Stewards themselves reckon such things, of course.
While some few of the so-called “Augurs” hold theirs is a Legacy that reaches back to the days of Atlantis itself, more pragmatic historians among them concede the present incarnation of the Celes- tial Orrery likely began sometime during the early Renaissance, among the Italian city-states. At that time, heavenly bodies were simultaneously objects of both scientific and mystical scrutiny, and even the most learned perceived no paradox in studying the motions of the stars as a scholar while also reading them for omens of the future. But the Stewards, as they are known today, were not, it seems, the creation of any renowned astronomer or celebrated mystic. Rather, they are the descendants of a mysterious and virtually unknown Theurgist who went only by the name Valeria. Modern Augurs, unfortunately, have no surviving records by which to know whether this was her real name, her Shadow Name, or merely an alias; only a scant few notes and that one name. Attempts by Stewards to study Valeria with the Time Arcanum have invariably met with failure, however, suggesting she may have gleaned secrets never handed down to her students.
The Augurs and the Silver Ladder were a natural fit for one another and the Stewards of the Celestial Orrery were soon absorbed into the order almost completely and without complaint on either side. The Legacy’s devotion to the ineffable “will of the Oracles” was admired by many other théarchs, even those who found its members’ implicit belief in their superior access to Supernal truth a bit off-putting. Those few Stewards who opted to go into other orders were closely watched (especially those who chose the Guardians of the Veil), but were permitted to go their way in peace. If any Augurs accepted the path of the Apostate, there exist no records of the Legacy to tell of them, and such sad hermits, if any, likely lived and died as nothing more than unsung historical curiosities.
The years following the Renaissance were good ones for the Stewards, whose knowledge of the flow of time enabled the Silver Ladder to make some meaningful gains throughout Europe’s great age of colonization. The théarchs of one or two particularly old Consilii in the New World claim the visions of the Augurs directly led to the settlement of Awakened colonists in the area. Some Stewards, calling upon their knowledge of the essential energies of magic, learned how to bring to life ancient machineries crafted by willwork scattered here and there in the places conquerors and missionaries first trod upon unknown shores. By the time the era of exploration began to draw to a close and the nebulous edges of the map became firm and inviolate, the Augurs were scattered all over the globe, following their prophe- cies and seeking to discern the inscrutable will of the Oracles of Atlantis.
As the 19th century drew to a close, however, an event the Stewards of the Celestial Orrery did not foresee came to pass: the creation of a self-proclaimed “new order” in the Great Refusal of 1899. Mentors and students sought one another out, over even vast distances, and old colleagues corresponded on the contentious subject. In the end, none could explain this singular aberration, and the Augurs collectively determined the so-called “Free Council” was the direct result of a temporal error, the product of flawed causality, effectively, an idea that had no right to exist. The confidence of the Silver Ladder in its prophets was shaken, however, and the Stewards were thereafter no better or worse regarded, overall, than any other Legacy within the Vox Draconis. Still, the efforts of individual Augurs have, in the intervening years, greatly benefited cabals, Consilia and, occasionally, Awakened society on a wider scale, and so these willworkers are still esteemed for their divinatory powers, even if the Silver Lad- der is no longer willing to take their predictions purely on faith.
Attainments
- Skein of Heaven
- Celestial Diagram
- Supernal Clarity
