Dear Grey,
Now that you have learned the history of our world, we would like to introduce you to the structures of our organisation in preparation for your continued work with us.
The Arcane Hierarchy is a group of kin that strives to collect and preserve the magical history of our world. We do not practise magic as it poses great risk to the health and safety of our fellow kin and we operate under the strict protocols laid down by the ruler of Firefly City, Storm.
The head of our organisation is known as the Monochrome and their identity is a well-guarded secret, as are the identities of all other members. You will have noticed that we address you only as “Grey” in our lessons. All members of the organisation are referred to as greys and individuals do not give their common names to each other, out of protection and privacy. High-ranking members have numbers added to their “Grey” designation (ex: Grey 1132) to help dispel confusion. In rare instances, a letter or “initial” may be added as well, such as in the case of the member who directs these communications to you (ex: A. Grey). It is a grave breach of trust to reveal the common name of any member of the organisation and we encourage you to keep yours private as well.
Our history is rooted earlier in the Sixth Age where we were once called “The Aphreal Hierarchy”. We dedicated ourselves to the pursuit of magical knowledge to help our fellow kin survive during the Ruin. During these times, we pursued the active practice of magical arts as passionately as the theoretical and historical knowledge, but these gave rise to many tragedies and the loss of many of our members. We were arrogant and the death toll was so great that we were all but destroyed when Storm took an interest in us. A magician loyal to her was designated as our new Head, the Monochrome, and we were restructured and renamed as “The Arcane Hierarchy”.
Now, we restrict our studies to the gathering and sharing of knowledge, and never the practising. As a group, we organise both educational experiences and exhibitions for our fellow members to support their studies and perform other tasks as required by either the Monochrome or Storm. It is our hope that in the future, our species may once again practise the arcane arts to their fullest glory but that day is far off. Until we are able to defeat the Ruin, we must be vigilant and careful, lest we bring greater suffering upon ourselves. We will safeguard the knowledge and pass it on so that kin in the future may learn their history and the benefit of what we have treasured.
We thank you once again for your diligence in your studies and look forward to cooperating with you in this great work.
Sincerely,
/agrey