The Round Table Group

The Round Table Group is the 21st century incarnation of a secret society which goes back to the 14th century. It uses the archetypes of Arthurian myth as a source of occult power, consciously re-enacting aspects of the legend in order to appropriate Arthurian myth to use as a weapon in the Secret War. OOC, we are an RP-focused Templar guild with an open membership and officer policy.

=The Roots of the Cabal= In the early years of the 20th century, roughly a hundred years ago, a British politician and mining magnate founded the Round Table, a secret society whose goal was nothing less than world conquest in the name of the British Empire. (No, really!) Cecil Rhodes named his organization after King Arthur's famous Round Table, but he was not the first person to tap Arthurian myth and legend in the Secret War.

Three centuries earlier, John Dee was advisor to Queen Elizabeth I of England, owner of the greatest library in the English world, and a practicing magician. (No, really!) Dee discovered the magical language of Enochian, he spoke with angels through a crystal, traveled Europe and invented the phrase "British Empire"; his plan was to bring Elizabethan England to dominance over all the world ... not through military might, but through the power of its legends. Cooperating with the Queen herself, Dee assigned Arthurian "roles" to every member of the court, including the Queen (Arthur) and Dee (Merlin). In this way, Dee intended to use the Elizabethan court as a magical ritual which would make Elizabeth ruler of the known world, just as Arthur himself conquered all of Europe and was eventually crowned Emperor in Rome. Dee's "Occult Imperialism," global conquest by means of magic (No, really!), failed only after his library of books was destroyed in a fire and he lost the favor of the Queen.

As important as he was, Dee still was not the first to attempt to recreate Arthur's glorious Round Table for political gain. By the 14th century, French nobles had already been re-enacting the Round Table, adopting the personas of Arthur, Lancelot, Gawaine and the rest. Using catalogs which detailed the heraldry of Arthur's 150 knights, the lords of France engaged in what we would today instantly recognize as 14th century cosplay, dressing up as the knights and pretending to be them. (No, really!)

The cabal known in the Secret World as the Round Table is the direct heir to all these groups and traditions. According to the records of the cabal, French heralds who organized the 14th century re-enactments were magicians in the employ of the Temple. Dee and Rhodes were both continuing this tradition, the first openly, the second secretly. The current cabal is the 21st century incarnation of a Temple operation that has been in existence since at least 1350.

Why Arthur?
Why would a cabal base itself on the Round Table to such an extreme degree? The question is a legitimate one. The answer lies with magic. Arthur's myth has grown into more than a simple story, or even a historical truth. It is a legend, one known around the world. The Sword in the Stone, the Lady of the Lake, Merlin, Excalibur ... these are symbols recognized wherever mankind walks, and feared even by some things which do not fear humanity.

The Round Table adopts the personas of Arthurian characters as a source of personal mystical power. It makes them more resilient to enemy magic, it helps them focus their own natural powers, and it makes it easier for them to restore their anima when gravely injured. Individuals who wield an archetype of the Round Table may have awakened anima powers. As a group, the Round Table is far stronger than its individual members. One knight, even the King, can be slain, but the Round Table remains, and the mystical power inherent in the symbol is passed from one generation to the next, eternal.

=The Current Incarnation= Little has so far been revealed about the activities of the Round Table Group in recent decades. What is known is that, in the first years of the 21st century, the cabal was large, thriving, influential and highly active in the Secret War. Its size was capped at 150 agents, a traditional number based on the number of seats at Arthur's Table, according to Malory. Each of these agents had a role chosen from Arthurian myth: King Arthur, Merlin, Galahad, and so on. Many figures who were not originally part of the Table -- such as the Ladies of the Lake, or characters like Morgan le Fey -- were represented in the cabal. The cabal operated out of a secret headquarters somewhere in Washington DC and was known to have a storehouse of magical artifacts and other treasures.

All of this ended in the Tokyo Event. Much of what happened in Tokyo is still unknown, but the Round Table responded in force. The entire cabal appears to have been killed. No contact has been had with any members of the Table since their involvement in Tokyo. Some Table members must have remained out of Tokyo, but they too appear to have vanished. The current theory is that enemies of the Round Table used their sudden vulnerability to "finish them off." The Washington DC headquarters was leveled with a massive demolition charge, currently blamed on the Illiuminati.

This left the Templars without one of their premier cabals, and in the wake of the Tokyo Event the organization included a rebuilt Round Table Group as one of their priorities. A search was made for suitable candidates and a promising young Templar agent, Jacqueline Boulogne, was chosen to fill the role of King Arthur. Other Templars were offered membership and some new recruits seemed to arrive on their own.

The new incarnation of the Round Table is fragile, with none of the cabal's former resources. But it is backed by the Templars as a whole and the individual members are personally powerful; by adopting the archetypes of Arthurian Legend, their anima awakens and they can wield new magical abilities. Whether or not this source of power is enough to turn the tide in the Secret War remains an open question.

=Organization and Membership= The Round Table is noted for its organizational structure, which is based on the court of King Arthur. Every member of the cabal has an assigned role in the court: typically a knight, but also including prominent kings, queens, ladies and even magicians. A member keeps his office for his entire career in the cabal; it never changes, and he cannot be replaced until he leaves the cabal or is forced out. The members filling the roles of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere are ultimately responsible for the cabal's operations, but the equality symbolized by the Round Table holds sway in most other circumstances. Every member of the cabal swears the oath of the Round Table, found in Malory's Morte d'Arthur. During formal meetings, which are rare, members dress as their Arthurian counterparts. It is common for members to refer to each other by their Arthurian role, rather than by name.

In previous centuries, it was a given that every knight was a man, every queen a woman, and so forth. In the modern version of the cabal, however, these rules no longer apply. The Round Table has gone multicultural and metrosexual. Any office may be held by any individual, if the leaders of the cabal and the new candidate can agree on it.

Members do not "act" like Arthurian characters as a rule. They tend to look very modern, and when in public they use ordinary names and avoid reference to the Secret War which is, after all, Secret. They have their own lives. You could pass a member of the Round Table cabal on the street -- you could take one out on a date -- and never know that, secretly, your date holds the title of Sir Gawaine and is part of a centuries-old conspiracy to take over the world through the power of legend.

Current Membership
For a complete and up-to-date list of the members and Roles, see our Members page on our home site. Members who have wiki pages include:
 * (Sonja) Jacqueline "Jacky" Boulogne: King Arthur (Cabal Leader)
 * (WanderingPenitent) Aidan "Bleddyn" Percy: Sir Percival
 * (Arden Cross) Arden "Paragonn" Cross: Sir Bors de Ganis
 * (ladycavendish) Nathalie "Alie" Cavendish: Sir Kay
 * (masterkai) Alexiss "Aylien" Reinhold: Sir Gareth Beaumains
 * (Carroll) Charles Patrick "Carroll": Sir Galahad

OOC: How to Join
We do not require interviews. When our website goes live, we will ask you to fill out a brief application, but this is mostly so we all get to know you a little, and so we are sure you have registered for the website. Until the website goes live, post on our TSW-RP thread.

Once we've gotten your application, we can send you an invite to the cabal. You should have a Role chosen by this point. We will save it for you for two weeks, during your trial period. The trial period is for all our sakes: You want to make sure we are the guild you are looking for, and we want to make sure you are in the right guild. If we are wrong for you, it's usually because of one of two things:


 * We are RP focused. Our guild channel is IC. If you only want to RP casually, or find the idea of an IC guild channel to be too much, we are probably not the guild for you.
 * We require you to stay up to date on our forums. This is how we communicate across the guild. If you don't like checking forums, we are probably not the guild for you.

Once a couple of weeks have passed, if it's clear you are roleplaying and are keeping up with events, and there are no ugly surprises, and you are sure you want to join us, then you will be made a full member and inducted into your Role.

=OOC: FAQ=

How big will the cabal be?
It seems too soon to speculate on size; I will say only that a cabal should be large enough to form groups easily. TSW's level-less system makes this easier, so we can get along with a smaller cabal if necessary. But I believe recruitment is a constant process and I expect all officers to help recruit by simply RPing in public places and answering the inevitable questions you get when doing a great RP job where you can be seen doing it.

I would be perfectly happy with 12 active members; this is the size of the Round Table in some of the oldest texts. Malory says the table seated 150. Chances are we will be somewhere between these two extremes.

Do you have a website
We will have an Enjin website by launch day. Until then, this page serves as a source of information while our thread on the TSW-RP forums is for communication and questions. When the game launches, registering for the website forums will be mandatory. No one will get an invite to the cabal until they have registered with the website and know where our forums are. We will use the forums to coordinate activity across the cabal.

What are your policies regarding alts?
Because every character in the Cabal has an Arthurian counterpart, seating is limited. Each player can have only one character in the cabal.

Likewise, important and high profile offices (Lancelot, Merlin, Galahad) should be filled with characters you intend to play regularly. Basically this applies to any Arthurian character who is star of their own story. If you do not expect to play your Round Table character regularly -- in other words, this is an alt -- I ask that you select as your office a character who is a supporting cast member. Pick Agravaine instead of Mordred, for example. Governal instead of Tristan.

Are you looking for officers?
Always. As a guild leader, I am a delegator by instinct. I like to ask all new members to tell me what their role and duty in the guild will be, and then I like to stand back and let you do that thing. Not everyone has to be an officer, but if you want to be an officer, and can think of some way to help the guild, then you can be one. As guild leader, my job is to handle problems between members and coordinate things between officers.

I will need an officer specifically to handle keeping track of the membership and to work with me on recruitment policies. I would like an officer to supervise crafting. I would welcome one who would like to mastermind our PvP efforts, because I do not PvP. I would like a webmaster. All of these duties would be OOC, but would be represented IC as a title and IC officer status.

That was a non-exhaustive list, by the way. In the past, I have had members who became officers by volunteering to serve as historian (taking pics at events and posting them to our forum), by organizing weekly book clubs and chats, by organizing weekly dungeon delves into instances, by serving as the lore expert for the guild, and so on. Think of a potential job for yourself, and I will make you an officer.



Are there activity requirements?
Alas, yes. The restricted nature of the cabal's Arthurian cosplay means that, to be fair, if you don't log on your title can be given away. If a player has not logged in for a month, you will be put on Inactive Status. If a new member wishes to fill the office of an inactive player, that office will be granted. Note that members cannot change offices once they have one, so there's no trading allowed, and if you are inactive but no one wants your office, it will stay with you until you return and you will not be kicked from the guild.

Are you only looking for bright, shiny, honorable and virtuous characters?
The Round Table is full of shady characters. Sir Gawaine, the King's own nephew, plotted with the other members of his family to murder two fellow knights of the Table out of vengeance for his father's death in battle. Lancelot infamously carried on an affair with the Queen under the eyes of the entire court. One knight of the table tried to murder Sir Gawaine with a poisoned apple, framing Guinevere for it. Knights frequently fought one another, sometimes to death. Many members of the Round Table began as enemies to Arthur, but by force or persuasion became his allies. Arthur himself is guilty of awful crimes; he may have an excuse that he didn't know the truth when he slept with his own sister, but he has to accept responsibility for ordering the male heirs of every nobleman in England to be gathered up, put on a boat, and killed.

You don't have to be chivalrous, noble, virtuous or pure to be a knight of the Round Table. You do need to swear an oath to good behavior. Whether or not you obey that oath is your call.

What is the cabal's 'Content Rating'? Do you have policies regarding language, sex or ERP?
TSW is rated Mature. The NPCs use harsh language so I see no reason to have any special policy for the cabal. ERP is your own business. I will only note that GMs are unlikely to look favorably on public sexual acts, and there are no private spaces in TSW except for instances, all either one-use only or dungeons. I therefore suggest explicit sex be kept to a private channel.

What sort of stories does the cabal engage in?
We have so many stories to make and tell and choose from, it's almost funny. We can quest for relics of Arthur like the Holy Grail or the Spear of Destiny (Excalibur is already in TSW). We can try to solve the mystery of the previous incarnation of the Cabal, finding its weapons, tracking down survivors, and getting justice for their deaths. Individual knights might swear oaths to hunt down monsters, demons, or other bosses. The King or Queen might send the Table off on a grand quest or mission. We can go to war, as the Knights often did. We need a new headquarters. We might throw a tournament.

Much of this I hope to leave to members. It was very common for Arthur's knights to just jump up and vow to go do something, often prompting other knights to try and beat them to it, or to swear rival vows which proved their own strength. But we will also have cabal and faction-wide stories to tell.

Who are you, anyway?
I'm an English teacher with an interest in the Elizabethan Renaissance and the Medieval period, especially Arthurian lit. Big surprise, I know! Whenever I say I am an English teacher, people always say "You're going to hate my spelling." I correct people's spelling all day for money; I don't do it in games for free. As long as you are -trying- to spell, I don't even notice. If you try to type in game the way we text people, however, this is probably not the right cabal for you. I do not consider "r" "2" and "u" to be words.

=OOC: Choosing Your Role= Many people have written to ask, “I am interested in your idea, but I don’t know much about Arthurian myth and I don’t know who my TSW character would ‘play’.” This section is for you. It has three parts:

“You know you are Sir Lancelot when…” This section begins with character traits. Scan through them and see if any of the traits sound like your character. Each trait is partnered with some suggestions for your role in the Round Table cabal.

One-liners This is a simple list of characters, broken up into categories of Knight, Lady, Magician, and Everyone Else. Each character gets a one sentence thumbnail description.

Beyond Wikipedia Resources for players who want to learn more on their own.

If your character is … You should play…

 * Using Fist Weapons -- Balin was the Knight with Two Swords and Fist is TSW’s double-wield weapon.Dominotable.jpg
 * A musician -- Tristan was famous for his skill at the harp. In some versions, Bedivere is the last survivor of Camelot and is charged with spreading the legend afterwards. Eliot was Mark’s minstrel. Taliesin is a famous Arthurian bard and even Thomas the Rhymer has Arthurian connections.
 * A ladies man -- Gawaine is the premier womanizer on the Round Table
 * A bounty hunter or tracker -- Pellinore, the Knight of the Questing Beast, was on a lifelong quest to hunt a bizarre demon named Glatisant
 * Funny -- Dagonet was the King’s jester. Kay was famous for his biting sense of humor. Sir Dinedan was famous for his sense of humor. Maybe you should play Brave, Brave Sir Robin or Tim the Enchanter ?
 * Wicked -- Mordred and Agravain were wicked knights of the Table. Meliagant was a knight of the Table who kidnapped Guinevere. <font color=#CDBE70>Mark was a rival king who gave Arthur political trouble. <font color=#CDBE70>Carados was an enemy of Arthur who later joined the table
 * From Europe -- <font color=#CDBE70>Sir Sagramore and <font color=#CDBE70>Sir Alexander were Greek; <font color=#CDBE70>Sir Urre was Hungarian; <font color=#CDBE70>Fenice was the daughter of the German emperor
 * Muslim -- <font color=#CDBE70>Palomides and <font color=#CDBE70>Priamus were both Saracens.
 * Scottish -- <font color=#CDBE70>King Lot was king of Lothian and the Orkney Isles; his sons <font color=#CDBE70>Gawaine, Gaheris, Agravaine and Gareth were all scottish
 * French -- There is a large contingent of French knights, beginning with <font color=#CDBE70>Lancelot and including his cousins <font color=#CDBE70>Lionel and Bors (who achieved the Grail) and their fathers <font color=#CDBE70>Kings Ban and Bors.
 * Irish -- <font color=#CDBE70>Anguish was King of Ireland. <font color=#CDBE70>Sir Marhaus was his champion and a knight of the Table. <font color=#CDBE70>Lanceor and <font color=#CDBE70>Patrise were Irish knights. <font color=#CDBE70>Bragaine was Iseult’s Irish handmaiden.
 * A female knight -- <font color=#CDBE70>Britomart was the daughter of one of Arthur’s enemies but wore armor and fought with a magical golden lance. <font color=#CDBE70>Avenable pretended to be a man and became seneschal to the Emperor of Rome before Merlin outed her.
 * An assassin --<font color=#CDBE70>Sir Garlon was the Invisible Knight and liked murdering people in cold blood; <font color=#CDBE70>Sir Pinel le Savage poisoned another knight of the Round Table with an apple meant for Gawaine
 * Into wolves -- <font color=#CDBE70>Sir Garrok was a werewolf knight of the Round Table. No, really.
 * Into lions -- <font color=#CDBE70>Ywaine is the Knight of the Lion and had a pet one who followed him around; <font color=#CDBE70>Sir Lionel (Lancelot’s cousin) was named after his lion birthmark and <font color=#CDBE70>Leodegrance (Guinevere’s father) had a lion on his shield.
 * Into birds -- <font color=#CDBE70>Tristan and <font color=#CDBE70>Ywaine are associated with ravens, <font color=#CDBE70>Gawaine with hawks
 * Into foxes -- <font color=#CDBE70>Mark was King of Cornwall and called “King Fox” because he was a lying coward
 * Has a favorite color -- <font color=#CDBE70>The Green Knight (two of those), <font color=#CDBE70>the Red Knight (three), the <font color=#CDBE70>Black Knight, the Brown Knight, and Sir Persant of Inde (blue).
 * A healer -- <font color=#CDBE70>Isoud of the White Hands was famous for her healing gifts; <font color=#CDBE70>Lancelot cured Sir Urre of poisoning; <font color=#CDBE70>Lynette was also a surgeon.
 * Married with a big family -- <font color=#CDBE70>Morgause was Arthur’s sister, queen to King Lot of Orkney, and had five sons, all knights of the Table
 * Poor or an Orphan -- <font color=#CDBE70>Sir Tor was raised by a farmer and his wife and didn’t know the truth of his parentage until Merlin revealed it
 * Old -- <font color=#CDBE70>Ulfius and <font color=#CDBE70>Brastias were knights of Arthur’s father, Uther, who continued to serve the young king as the veterans of the court
 * Has a magic sword -- <font color=#CDBE70>Gawaine, Galahad, Pellinore and Balin all had magic swords
 * Liked by everyone -- <font color=#CDBE70>Guinevere was the social glue at the center of Camelot
 * Taking care of the HQ -- <font color=#CDBE70>Kay was Arthur’s seneschal, charged with taking care of the castle. He was also Arthur’s brother
 * A crafter -- <font color=#CDBE70>Lady Lyle made Excalibur, <font color=#CDBE70>Vivian made Lancelot’s magic shield, <font color=#CDBE70>Morgan le Fey made all sorts of enchanted things
 * Religious -- <font color=#CDBE70>Dindrane was Percival’s sister, Galahad’s platonic love, and instrumental in the Grail Quest; <font color=#CDBE70>Bors attained the Grail along with those two knights; <font color=#CDBE70>Baudwin was bishop of Britain during Arthur’s reign. <font color=#CDBE70>Pellas was the Fisher King and guardian of the Grail.
 * An officer of the cabal -- <font color=#CDBE70>Bedivere, Kay, Brastias, Lucan and Baudwin all had official duties in Arthur’s court
 * A supporting character -- <font color=#CDBE70>Bragaine was Iseult’s handmaiden; <font color=#CDBE70>Governal was Tristan’s squire; <font color=#CDBE70>Eliezer was Gawaine’s squire
 * An enchantress -- <font color=#CDBE70>Dame Brisen, Morgan Le Fey, Camille, Sebille, Seraide, Vivian, Nimue and Lyle are all magic-wielding Arthurian women. <font color=#CDBE70>Ganieda is Merlin’s sister.
 * The ideal knight -- <font color=#CDBE70>Gareth, Erec, Cliges, and Lancelot all work very hard to do the best possible thing at every possible instance. It doesn’t always work, but they try
 * Wearing the same jacket all the time -- <font color=#CDBE70>Sir Breunor ’s nickname on the Table was <font color=#CDBE70>La Cote Male Taile, which is literally “the evil-shaped coat.” It was ugly and fit poorly because it bore the death-wounds of Breunor’s father, whom the young knight swore to avenge.
 * A magician -- <font color=#CDBE70>Gwenbaus was taught magic by Merlin; <font color=#CDBE70>Taliesin is a famous Druid and bard
 * In love with someone who doesn’t love him back -- <font color=#CDBE70>Sir Pelleas famously had this problem, as did Palomides

One-Liners
I’ve not done this part yet.

Beyond Wikipedia
Christopher Bruce’s Arthurian Name Dictionary is the first, best place to go. Once only available in an out of print academic hardback, Bruce has since authorized the publication of the entire text online at the Celtic Twilight site. Find it here

Bruce’s dictionary is complete and thorough. Names are often spelled in a variety of ways, so if you can’t find the character you want check the end of the dictionary where all the variant spellings are listed. He’ll give you all the character’s appearances and summarize what is known about the character – this is usually all you will need to portray the character during Round Table meetings.