Appendices for Rage Series

Appendix I: Abridged Glossary

amp/amp up- word or phrase used by Bloody Hands to describe the process of purposefully using their rage-induced state of hormone-fueled strength, focus, and pain management.

Awakening- a process of making a Lost Homo esoterica aware that they are a member of the greater Homo esoterica civilization and preparing them to choose which Society they will join. Anyone needing to go through the Awakening process is called a “Lost child” until they are completely Awakened, no matter their age. This is a delicate process usually handled by the elders of the Society from which the Lost child comes or a Loremaster who specializes in this process hired by the child’s genetic Society. Poorly conducted Awakening processes can result in the Lost child being killed, either by sapiens or the Black Guard, due to their unwillingness to believe in or join the Homo esoterica civilization and live by the laws.

chosen Society- the Society a Homo esoterica chooses upon reaching their majority at age twenty-five or completing the Awakening process. Usually, this phrase is only used if the chosen Society is different than the genetic Society.

closed Society- a Homo esoterica Society that does not admit members that were not born of at least one parent who was a member of that Society.

esoterica- shorten form of Homo esoterica usually used in everyday conversation.

genetic Society- the Society from which a Homo esoterica‘s parent or parents come.

Lord/Lady- title given to Society elders in many of the hierarchical or clan-oriented Societies. The Lord or Lady of a given Society in a given area is usually considered the Society’s sovereign for that region and permission must be sought by other members of the Society to move through or dwell in that region.

Lost child- a Homo esoterica that grows up outside of the Homo esoterica civilization for one reason or another. Most Lost children are born of Silken Dark parents or parents of other Societies who are killed beyond the reach of their Society and leave an orphaned child behind for sapien authorities to place in foster care or adoption.

open Society- a Homo esoterica Society that admits members from any Society due to a skill set that matches their criteria for membership.

rage- state of heightened awareness and immunity from most pain that envelops a Bloody Hand during battle. It is called rage because anger is the emotion the Bloody Hands use to purposefully trigger the condition, but any fight-or-flight situation will cause the Bloody Hand adrenal system to flood their bodies with the hormones that cause the state.

sapiens- shortened form of Homo sapiens usually used in everyday conversation to refer to humans. Can be used pejoratively by some Homo esoterica.

NOTE: The following is an abridged guide to the major Societies of Homo esoterica, meaning those that have global or near global presence and/or influence. It by no means encapsulates all that those Societies are nor their often colorful and varied histories.

Appendix II: Societies of Homo esoterica

Acquisitionists- This is a Society that tends to produce highly skilled merchants, middle men, facilitators, and thieves. They have an inborn acquisitiveness that is almost ferret-like, leading them to excel at commerce and allow them to hoard valuables and amass large quantities of money. They have an innate sense of the value of an object that borders on the supernatural, allowing them to get the best of any deal, a compulsion that does not allow them much in the way of charity or sense of fair play. The Acquisitionists are a younger society, having coalesced out of the remains of several other mercantile Societies that were destroyed or dispersed in the late Roman period or early Medieval period. Acquisitionists are rarely found together and do not interact well with each other, carving out territories in the mercantile capitals of the world. They maintain ties primarily for protection from sapiens and other Societies and self-interest.

Aesculapians- This Society is made up of healers, doctors, and nurses of the highest caliber owing to the fact that their breeding over the millennia has gifted them with superhuman abilities in the area of medical diagnosis and a minor empathic talent. They are also gifted with an ability to increase the body’s natural healing by a slight but measurable percentage. The Aesculapians are generally a closed Society, meaning they do not accept members who are not born of at least one Aesculapian parent. Exceptions have rarely been made to this rule and usually only for highly gifted individuals of other Societies that show remarkable medical skills. They are generally very hierarchical and divide themselves even further by their medical specialty. The Aesculapians were founded in Ancient Egypt and flourished during the Golden Age of Greece, when they spread their influence around the world.

Alchemists- Alchemists are one of the older Societies, having been around for as long as there have been people on the planet who experiment with various substances in an effort to learn more about them and to expand their usefulness. They are chemical engineers and chemists who have an inborn gift in the sciences, specifically chemistry, mineralogy, and herb lore. They were early pioneers in pharmacology, giving Homo esoterica advanced medicines long before sapiens, and also tend to be very good bakers and cooks. This is a closed Society with a fairly rigid hierarchical organization with members in most big universities and large cities.

Artisans- Artisans, also known as Tinkers, are a closed Society made up of inventors, manufacturers, and skilled tradesmen. They have a natural affinity for metals and woods and all have an almost superhuman mechanical ability that allows them to fix or make just about anything with whatever is at hand. More recently, they have been sarcastically dubbed the “MacGyver” Society by some of the younger esotericas. Artisans are usually transient, moving from place to place as need for their talents warrants and often hire themselves to sapien corporations to sort out manufacturing issues or to troubleshoot problems in research and development of new products. The Artisan Society is sub-divided by specialty in an almost formal guild system within their own ranks.

Black Guard- The Black Guard is a Society that was formed millennia ago, when leaders of Homo esoterica began to realize their breeding scheme had separated them from their sapien subjects. The Black Guard was established to protect humanity from esotericas’ scheming and bad behavior. The task of keeping Homo esoterica secret was added when esoterica leadership decided to subsume their civilization within humanity’s. To that end, the Black Guard recruits from all Societies in an effort to maintain their neutrality, though they recruit most heavily from the Bloody Hands, Ronin, Hidden Thorns, Psy-Blades, and Chi Witches. The identities of Black Guard members are secret and all members of that Society are still believed to be members of the Society from which they were recruited except those who were Lost. This serves the purpose of keeping their activities and identities secret from other esotericas and allows the offspring of any Black Guard member to choose their Society freely upon reaching their majority.

Bloody Hands- This Society is an old Society made up of warriors of legendary strength and skill in battle. Their breeding over the millennia has given them an adrenal system that allows them to enter a state of focused rage in battle. This state erases most pain from their perception and allows them to continue fighting until either they are dead or their enemies are. Most are excellent tacticians and have either peak or slightly above peak human strength. Bloody Hands will also heal from almost any damage that does not kill them and rarely contract fatal illnesses of any kind. Founded sometime shortly after the Celtic tribes invaded the island of Eire, they are and have always been highly egalitarian and territorial, their leaders (known as Lords or Ladies) not tolerating another Lord within their territory without extensive negotiations and limits on their stay beforehand. The Bloody Hands became a global Society during the Monastic Period of Irish history and have always been a closed and highly clannish Society.

Chi Witches- One of the oldest Societies (probably along with the Kingmakers and the Exiles), the Chi Witches are believed to have emerged in early Ancient Egypt and quickly spread throughout the world. They are a closed Society of healers and arcane martial arts masters with the ability to manipulate their own chi (bioenergy) and that of others to heal and perform seemingly impossible acts. They are a tight-knit Society broken into Houses or Schools that act like clans or tribes. Chi Witches are often contracted as intermediaries or ambassadors between Societies or between a Society and certain sapien governments, organizations, or corporations due to their almost militant neutrality.

Children of Tammuzi- Once believed to be the descendants of the Babylonian vegetative god Du’uzu, the Children of Tammuzi were founded during the spread of agriculture in ancient times in the Fertile Crescent. They are a closed Society whose members are born with a psychic affinity for plants and fungi that allows them to be masters at breeding plants and edible fungi. The Children of Tammuzi have large, extended clans and rarely interbreed with other clans of their own Society, never mind other Societies.

Cupidaeans- This is a closed Society made up of matchmakers of the highest caliber. Cupidaeans are born with an empathic ability, especially for positive emotions like love, lust, and attraction. They also have a psychic ability to instill trust and acquiescence in those who come to them to find mates, either for themselves or their relatives. Cupidaeans also have an eidetic memory for all of the blood lines of Homo esoterica back to the founding of their Society in the early decades of the rise of the Greek city-states as well as certain prominent families of sapiens to whom they also offer their services. Cupidaeans are individualists who tend to carve out their own territories near the larger cities of the world.

Cyphers- Cyphers are linguists of the foremost ability, born with the capability to learn any language with a few minutes of hearing or reading it. This includes computer languages, which has led the Cypher Society to become some of the world’s foremost hackers. They have parlayed this ability into a shadow industry of industrial espionage, black hat hacking for hire, network security, and encryption of both cyber and real world communication. The Cypher Society is a closed Society with origins or locations unknown. Like the Bloody Hands, the Cyphers are fiercely protective of one another and very tribal even within the Society with cyber wars and blood feuds between members or groups of members of the Society common.

Erinysians- The Society most revered by Homo esoterica are the Erinysians. Made up solely of priests and judges, the Erinysians function as both a rudimentary justice system and a church for the other Societies. There are very few Erinysians, compared to the other Societies, with only a few members found in the larger cities of the world. Erinysians have eidetic memories with a limited emotional range that usually only allows them to manifest mild happiness, mild shock, mild annoyance, and intense intellectual curiosity. They are well-versed in the legal and religious history of the esotericas and have the ability to elicit truths from anyone, whether that person wishes to speak the truth or not. It is a closed Society that is very hierarchical and is led by a Chief Magister and a High Priest, both of whom reside in New York City. The leaders of the Erinysians usually dwell in the biggest or most important city in the major world power at any given time and moved to New York from London shortly before World War I started in 1914.