Taubitha poured over the many scrolls available in the Blandian archives, searching for any indication or explanation regarding the strange seal that she'd found under the possession of the knight that had come to slay the gnomes in the cavern she and Princess had been hiding.

All the while, Princess had been standing guard beside the slaughtered bodies of two Blandian archive guards, their heads exploded not unlike mashed mosquitos strewn across the marble floor. Taubitha noted that she was starting to become a little afraid of Princess. Princess was generally the same as she'd always been - that is to say that the fony was grumpy, and always huffing, and also seemingly always prepared to kill something; however, Princess had also started to change. Her wings had gotten bigger, more glittery, and her eyes were big and reflective. If Taubitha didn't know better, she'd think her fony had become cuter and less threatening even though in truth the beast was a bit of a blood thirsty murder machine. Tabutiha guessed that this appearance was part of an evolutionary tactic or something similar at least specific to fonies - it wasn't like she'd seen a lot of fonies in her life to confirm this, though.

Regardless, there didn't seem to be any documentation on the strange seal of an eye with creature swimming inside the iris that Taubtiha now carried with her. Still, there had to be some definite meaning of this! What was it? Taubitha flapped her wings a little in frustration - which was a bit of a bad habit she'd picked up as of late - and knocked a coupled of bookshelves over. Soon, scrolls littered the floor of the archives, strewn about and unfurling in every which way. It was at this moment a scene of true chaos.

However, after much deliberation, a copious amount of Oh my gods muttered under her breath, and indeed a couple of just plain old screams, Taubitha caught sight of something that made it all worth it.

It was a scroll entitled On the Theory and Infiltration of Nomachiattan Secret Societies, Fifth Edition. The best thing? This scroll lead with an image of an emblem not at all dissimilar to the one Taubitha was presently attempting to identify. With this, she dropped all the property damage and destruction, pulled up a nice easy chair, folded up her wings, and started reading. Much of it seemed, for one reason or another, terribly irrelevant to her current situation. The whole scroll was a bit of an anthology, written by a number of different taumans each with a differing perspective. Finally, she ran into a passage worth reading. A passage on something called 'The Order of Ahw Gizer.'

What findings I have to add to this text will perturb the normal tauman soul, but require at once that they be recorded, lest they be otherwise lost to time itself, that great irrelevant, immaterial concept that is yet so omnipresent that in many ways it rules our lives. But, let me begin at the beginning - and by the beginning, I mean my beginning of understanding regarding what it is the Order of Ahw Gizer actually does.

Before my initiation to the Order, my name was Ghary Gharfunkel. It is still Ghary Gharfunkel, mind you, but it was that before I joined the Order as well. This was one of the few things that did not change on my joining, one must note. See, a large component of the Order of Ahw Gizer is the understanding that, at least in the eyes of Order members, your past self dies to allow the creation of a new present self when you join the Order. This allows for a cleansing of actions and thoughts that may have previously encumbered you.

Of course this lis all figurative, and honestly I find myself considering it a bit of hooey, but in general the thing of it is is that the Order of Ahw Gizer expects those chosen tauman that join it to somewhat recreate themselves in its image. Now, what is the image of a member of the Order of Ahw Gizer?

Perhaps understanding who Ahw Gizer was will clarify. Back in the way before, back when tauman society was first being formed, there were many a warring faction. This is, of course, widely known. What is not widely known is that there were a number of secret organizations that formed around this same very time with the goal of controlling the uncontrollable, of creating a structure where there was not.

These happenings actually have sociological theory tied to them. See, what the organizations were, were essentially shadows of the warring factions. Whereas on the outside, people were ultimately failing to come together, there became a need for a shadow effect. This is somewhat related to the concept of shadow selves for those into deep meditative practice. Just like people can have shadow selves, so can societal organization have shadow organizations, and that is what these were.

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Now, as they were but shadows of endless collections of warring factions, many of these shadow organizations were themselves warring and unstable. Back in the day, you could join a secret society and get killed for it within twenty hours or less, people said.

Ahw Gizer was a person - so they say - who saw all through this. They realized secret societies for what they were - echoes of a world in chaos. With that, Ahw Gizer had what was at the time a revolutionary idea. They would create one sole secret society, so well oiled its machinations, so organized, so complete, that the society it was mirroring in shadow would one day reflect it. That is to say that, the idea of the Order of Ahw Gizer is the idea that that which turns the head of a mighty dragon may not be the mind of the dragon at all, but instead it may be the subconscious concept of the dragon that truly pulls the strings. With that, the goal of Ahw Gizer's Order was and is to in this understanding benevolently pull the strings of society away from chaos and endless warring and into peace, prosperity, and an ultimate oneness with the global self.

Of course, nobody is perfect. Ahw Gizer, during their life, committed what many people consider to be an absurd number of slaughters and tragedies galore, that I will presently refrain from going over in detail for the purposes of this scroll. That being said, it is important to note that dark things did happen by Ahw Gizer's hands. They never denied this, either - it is not necessarily a sore subject, but it can be uncomfortable to realize for those not mature enough to understand that the Order can have a spotty past and still be a net good for tauman society.

These concepts and goals tied around the Order were imbued permanently in its iconography. The imagery of a large eye, its iris teeming with fish, exists to signify to members of the Order of Ahw Gizer the reflections of their actions in the shadows coming to light in wider society. The fish in the iris symbolize the light caught and then recreated, manifested even, by their actions.

See, Ahw Gizer was a light elemental.

Taubith scoffed a sighed. A light elemental? That explained everything. Still, she was happy to have read this scroll - she finally felt she at least understood what she was looking at when she beheld the seal of the Order of Ahw Gizer, although she did think some of the Order's beliefs were a bit silly. Then again, if the Order was still around in the present day, there was a part of Taubitha that wondered whether some of the ridiculous statements in the scroll held within them an iota of truth.

"Like, Princess, what do you think?"

Princess huffed predictably, and then she melted a bookcase about the history of Blandian literacy into a liquified puddle, never to be recovered.

"I like totally agree, Princess - we need to find somebody from the Order and convince them we've joined!"

Princess huffed and sighed at this direct contradiction to what she'd intended to indicate.

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Luckily for Taubitha, Blandia was not known for being a region of Nomachiato where dark things such as crime or secret societies were looked down upon. Had she been in Gifflenberg for the first time, she might've had to befriend someone and spend a week or two getting to know them in order to hear a word about the Order. Here in Blandia, Taubitha found herself invited to a large dinner hosted by the Order within about fifteen minutes of walking around the downtown area.

And indeed, all she had to do was show up with Princess to this finely seasoned dinner - possibly too finely seasoned dinner - and the recruitment representative from the Order of Ahw Gizer was chatting her up like nobody's business. For a fleeting moment, Taubitha wondered - or perhaps she hoped - whether or not this was going easily for her because the representative found her attractive.

"So, like, I can totally join the Order of Ahw Gizer today? It's that easy?" she asked with excitement.

"Oh, yes, of course!" said the representative, wiping sweat off his brow with an Order of Ahw Gizer branded handkerchief. "See, here in Blandia the Order is well known and celebrated. It is not some secretive, closed off thing here like it would be in, say, Gifflenberg. So with that, please do know that you are more than welcome to join us. And, the best thing about that for you is that you can join chapter meetings in Gifflenberg if you would like using your membership here."

"Like, oh my gods, that's so totally convenient. It's almost like a loophole or something!"

"It almost is indeed, miss," said the representative with a toothy grin through his living wood face. "It almost is indeed."

And so it was that Taubitha signed her papers, paid her dues and joined the Order all within about fifteen minutes or so. Just as soon as she thought she was in the clear to learn clandestine secrets, however, the representative inviting her into the fold stopped her briefly.

"Now Taubitha, there is one more thing you must learn before you are truly a member of the Order of Ahw Gizer," replied the representative. "Everyone in the Order knows this, so do not be afraid. However, I must tell this to you, or you will never be a true member."

Taubrthia gestured for him to continue. And when he did, when he told her what she needed to know, Taubitha's jaw dropped a far open as possible.