“Tear the Storm asunder.”

The Babylonian Library spends their resources learning about the world before the Cataclysm, while also embracing magic. The Hall of Transcendence embraces magic, but considers the Old World and its knowledge blasphemy.

Then, there’s Halcyon, an organized group of radicals concentrated in Dyon that believe that it is possible to reverse the Storm by destroying magic, and by extension, Legends.

Halcyon was previously a disorganized and easily disregarded gathering of terrorists in Dyon that simply had it out for City Authority for whatever mismatch of personal reasons they might have had. Normally unarmed and magicless, and infighting occurred constantly. “Attacks” from this gathering were simple to put down and often not even bothered by the Authority, leaving the surrounding Associations and corporations to deal with the issue.

However, things have changed recently. A woman referred to by members as Vanguard "Natalia" completely changed the game Halcyon plays: either die or become one of them. The organization of Halcyon happened so quickly that the Authority and corporations were scoffing at reports of “red armband wearing individuals tearing down small Associations” until they were confirmed by intel.

The West Association and The Babylonian Library occasionally make small contracts with Halcyon, typically destruction contracts where Halcyon’s scorched-earth policy lines up with the end goals of either association or corporation. Though making deals with a organization that could eventually destroy the corporations is dangerous, Halcyon is highly effective at destruction and losses are replaced by the prisoners that they take in from the expeditions. Halcyon has been reported destroying Inquisitions sent by the Hall, with Vanguard “Natalia” sometimes making a personal appearance.

Coordination

After Vanguard “Natalia” pulled the reigns in on Halcyon, coordination of rallies and violence is done through a complex, sometimes fallible network of social connections. This is sometimes done through word-of-mouth, but low-profile Halcyon members might conceal physical information to reduce the amount of physical meetings done in coordination. For organizations across Dyon, Halcyon has “network professionals” that have repurposed old and esoteric internet protocols of the world pre-Cataclysm that the current-era “Network” can still support. This includes a novel layer of encryption that is currently under study.

The tactics that Halcyon uses for communication and information control resemble old, now foreign methods of espionage: hiding notes in public places, or sneaking decode-able messages in otherwise benign-looking letters or messages. They have even been reported to swallow suicide pills or bite their own tongues off to escape prosecution, interrogation, or probing.

Rallies and Raids

Most gathering of Halcyon members happen outside of the eye of the The locations will change constantly, with many of the organizers with books called “rainbow tables” of locations that the next location can be discerned with algorithms where communication is not even necessary. Vanguard “Natalia” will often make appearances at these rallies, but a rally occurring does not mean she will be there.

They will also stage raids, though the definition of raids in Halcyon is any use of force justifiable by sending a message or making a statement. In the outer slums of Dyon, stabbings with Halcyon calling cards will occur. Large-scale raids with Vanguard “Natalia” also occur that often end in assassinations, though none of these have particularly disrupted structure in Dyon yet. Sometimes, these raids are organized contracts from the West Association or Library, where occasionally the goals of Halcyon line up with the contract.

Rallies and Raids will never take place in Warrens, partially because of the lack of contingencies against Oneirum exposure, but also because of the Storm Disease embrittlement that Halcyon members are exposed to. They sometimes take place under ground level, though.

Armaments and Uniforms

The uniforms of Halcyon are often limited to a simple red armband around the right arm for simple identification of friend and foe. The armband carries the insignia of Halcyon on it in dark-black ink.

Because every combatant under Halcyon is magically-disabled, they typically resort to ranged weapons, including bullet-loaded guns, to dole the destruction. Some of the weapons are enhanced by Oneirum, but this is fine as, according to Halcyon, “Oneirum was only ever designed to stay in the machine, and the machine was only ever designed to stay below humanity.”

Thunderrhine

The particularly strong and implant-enhanced members of Halcyon will sometimes opt to use a blade that disrupts Oneirum presence around its arcs, similar to how Vertassin Academy’s Oneirum containment fields operate on their surroundings, in order to weaken targets and allow the masses of armed Halcyon members to overwhelm targets. The pitch-black weapons created for this purpose are known as Thunderrhine blades, named after the bright, yellow arcs the weapons create when swung through cold air.

Thunderrhine blades do not disrupt the magic of creatures that are wounded by the weapons. They’re mostly used to cut apart objects and phenomenon that are held together by Oneirum, like blasts of fire from a pyrokinetic, or electric arts from a electrokinetic.

Vanguard “Natalia”

In a sea of information and knowledge, there lived a whale. The whale consumed knowledge. But no matter how much knowledge the whale was surrounded by, it was never satisfied.

It continued to swallow the knowledge of the sea, passing the inklings through its many wide maws, and the knowledge would only pass through the other side, changed irreversibly. The things that passed through the whale could no longer be called information. Yet, it continued to pass the knowledge through itself in vain, hoping that eventually, some amount of information would satisfy the black beast.

Thoughts, ideas, concepts, dreams, aspirations, desires, all would not be spared of the hungry mouths of the scaly beast, and all would come out the exact same way; black tar of destroyed information.

The whale was in no danger of hunting or destruction, as it existed deep in the brine of collective knowledge. Albeit slowly, it continued to eat away at the knowledge, hoping its selfish desire would finally be fulfilled.

A woman dressed in tatters and with a head of dirty-silver hair. The red armband with the insignia of Halcyon on it is said to be the first, made out of a ripped piece of a hood and ink. Though her clothes have aged, the armband is just as red and bright as the day it was created. She’s a horned Aberrant with a thin, black scaly tail with a fin on the end, sometimes using the tail as an extra appendage.

Particularly well-known across the City for her ability to rally and maintain morale (literally Ahab?), but she’s also a formidable combatant that have faced Inquisitions. In each of her appearances, she fights twohandedly with a dark zweihander known as the Linebreaker, a sword riddle with cracks and age marks, but has never lost effectiveness. She often makes public appearances in rallies, so her face is well known as a terrorist, but she continues to evade prosecution.

Though Halcyon has intense feelings against magic, Natalia is the exception; she has the ability to permanently destroy magic. The method is unknown to the public, but ex-Halcyon members have said they had their Legend taken from them in a ceremony that indoctrinates them, one that Natalia personally runs for every member that wishes to be “cleansed” by her hand.

Mangled Legends

In fact, what Natalia’s magic does is “mangle” Legends, rendering them unusable, but not effectively converting humans and Aberrants to Legend-less equivalents. This has an obvious and immediate fact on magic, but it has a latent, much more dangerous effect on physiology. Often, those that undergo this ritual do not feel anything physically, but the transformation has already drastically changed the way these “mangled Legends” interact with Oneirum:

• Almost certainly disabling their use of magic.
• Makes them more susceptible to Storm Disease. Background Oneirum exposure in the cities is not enough to overcome the threshold of development still, but even light exposure like near Warrens entrances is enough to rapidly develop the disease.
• Any method of interacting directly with their legend becomes incomprehensible and unpredictable.
• Aberrants tend to be affected by this magic in bizarre and malign ways.
• When Storm Disease turns these people into The Possessed, they instead become Collapsals.

Collapsals

Though almost every case of late-stage Storm Disease can develop into a non-lucid monster with powers often beyond the normal human, Collapsals are beings that, without a well-formed Legend, develop into eldritch shapes and often times do not become threats. They typically die instantly, some of them become completely benign, but some develop powers that elude any sense of the word “sense” at all and rage, sometimes in agonizing pain.