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+--- Thread: CHILDREN OF MERLIN (/showthread.php?tid=122)
CHILDREN OF MERLIN - Kieran - 11-09-2021
CHILDREN OF MERLIN
The founder and leader is my OC and I'm writing him.
They are not evil. They do not wish to kill anyone or start a war. They desire to create a new, better world and opt to use radical, questionable and sometimes criminal means to achieve their goal. They understand that the more worthy people there are when the final stage of their plan is ready to be executed, the better it will be for the future. So whilst they work towards that they're genuinely--and anonymously--trying to get people to stand by their cause whether members or not.
Each member is to choose a code name for themselves and by default everyone knows each other only by that name. But they are not allowed to hide their faces from other members, as the leader's policy of sincerety and having everyone on the same line when it comes to the risk factor. However, they are allowed to change their appearance slightly for a group meeting so that they don't necessarely appear exactly the same they do in everyday life. It is up to each individual member how much personal info they want to reveal about themselves to other members. Of course, the leader himself knows more than most about each member but even his knowledge varies. Only the leader knows all members and allies, so that no one can betray every single one.
The founder and leader is a charismatic and powerful muggle-born wizard in his 60s who grew up in United States during the Grindelwald Era as in had to live his formative years in a world torn by the Global Wizarding War and the Second World War. After Grindelwald and Hitler fell, he moved to England to escape the backwards laws the USA had about wizard-muggle relations. Only to discover that the British Ministry of Magic is horribly selfish and corrupted even if not thoroughly rotten. Then he witnessed the rise and fall of Voldemort, and finally had enough of the wizardkind's general lack of responsible use of their power and their unwarranted superiority complex.
Between 1982 and 1984 he secretly gathered like-minded people to join him in his cause. As a muggle-born he of course isn't really a descendent of Merlin and he has told that to the most trusted members but not to all. Some of them believe he is at least half-blood and truly related to Merlin. Mainly he intents that claim to gain their cause more credibility and a positive sounding name.
He owns a part of an ancient parchment dating back to the 15th century and the earliest Witch Trials in Britain, that documents one of those trials. The woman accused of witchcraft confessed to being a witch in order to avoid execution. She offered to brew a potion that can kill magic in anyone and anything, in hopes to not be imprisoned for life and to save lives because then the authorities wouldn't have to kill people but could just take away their magic before they do something bad. The parchment includes a recipe but part of it is missing, making it incomplete. The ingredients which can be read are genuinely those used by the wizardkind in potions, making it likely the accused woman really was a witch or a relative of a muggle-born. Whether she lied or just wasn't allowed to brew it remains unknown, and therefore what the potion actually does remains a mystery. But he wants to believe it's what it says it is.
All members know about it, but not everyone has seen the recipe part of the document. Not everyone has access to it. Only the most trusted members are allowed to know its contents and even them only in need-to-know basis as in if their role in the group requires that knowledge. There's only two copies of the recipe, both always in the leader's possession by default. Also, only the most trusted inner-circle members know that the leader is an Animagus.
The founder & leader: Zachary James
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Their Focus and Morals
The Children of Merlin mostly work towards figuring out the missing ingredients, gathering all of it, and brewing the potion successfully. Both individually and together at the headquarters where they also meet once a month to discuss matters and plans, and the leader assigns further missions and tasks. Non-potion related missions and tasks can be spying on the Ministry to gather intel on what the government is up to when it comes to opposing them, or recruiting new members and allies, and doing something in preparation for a statement. Members are tasked differently based on their strengths and/or position in the wizarding society, and based on how well they've proven their trustworthiness. Their blood status doesn't matter at all.
Occasionally they make statements such as burning down the most popular wand maker's shop (after ensuring that no one was inside it or any of the neighbouring shops.) Players are free to suggest things like that for me to add to the timeline. They never intentionally harm children even if their families oppose their cause, but on the contrary they attempt to take advantage of young and developing minds and world views to get them on their side and against the established government. Though they wish to influence children's minds, no one under the age of 18 is allowed to join them.
This is all Stage 1 of their operaation. The second Stage would have been systematically targetting government officials and other important people with the perfected potion, and then eventually any wizardkind person not yet proven themselves sincerely supportive of their cause. This has been shared with some of the inner circle but only to that extent. The leader never got around to sharing those plans In more detail or even have time to finish them.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
The Headquarters
An old and large abandoned farm house in the rural area of North England. Its outter doors are always locked and magically protected against lockpicking. They can be opened by simply using the Alohamora spell. No passwords are needed, because it has been hidden with the Fidelius Charm and the leader made himself the Secret Keeper. Because of that only official members can see and find it after they've been told about it and its location, but even they can't bring with them anyone but another official member. No one other than the founder/leader is allowed to use the headquarters outside of a group meeting.
There's no common way to get there. Everyone arrives in whichever way they can and like to. However, apparation and disapparation is not possible inside the house or anywhere on the farmland. Portkeys don't work either. And the house is not connected to the Floo Network or to any private fireplace either. Of course, one can always use those magical travel methods to a location near the farm.
Group meetings are not regularly held. They are called for only by the leader and he does so whenever he feels such is needed and sends a message about it to each member personallyy via owl post. Not all members are requested to every single meeting, so that no one can ever learn exactly how many members there are. If one's absence isn't because of something they've been assigned by the leader they should let him know in advance or through another member why they won't be there. The leader doesn't ask for details unless the member behaves suspiciously or is absent often.
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Communication
The leader and members communicate through innocent seeming, coded messages published in the Daily Prophet's Readers' Column whenever there needs to be a message everyone must know. To ensure that the messages get published and remain unedited, the leader himself is one of the editors of the Daily Prophet tasked with, among other sections, with that Column. He worked in that position long before any of this started and never argued against the Ministry's demands of not publishing anything related to the initial letters. So he has never been a suspect in the Ministry's eyes. One-on-one communication happens in coded letters through owl post.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Secrecy
The leader made himself the Secret Keeper so that no one he lets in can totally betray him; no one can reveal his identity, or that he's an Animagus, or where the secret society gathers together, nor any specific details about their secret weapon. Those less loyal may leak some information and betray other members but nothing that could immediately destroy the operation. There are certain trusted members tasked with recruitment, but due to the charm they can't make a membership official nor lead anyone to the headquarters. Only the leader can do that. He will meet with potential new members in person, but always in disguises using Polyjuice Potion and changing his appearance every now and then to throw off any Aurors who may be trying to catch him in the process. The only people who know for sure what he genuinely looks like are those who have been approved as official members. The leaders' real name is known only by members and allies who are his personal and old friends. Most members also don't know very much about the leader's private life or past, they learn things about him on need-to-know basis.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Joining & Leaving
If you didn't make your character a member or an ally already in their application for this site, you may still have them become such later. It depends on what kind of character you created, so you'll need to contact me first to discuss it and what your plans are for them. Not all characters can be made a member or a trusted ally, but I will always try to work out something and am open to suggestions. Characters joining the cause as a member or an ally always must meet with my leader OC before it can be official. We don't necessarily have to write them out as threads.
In-universe, to become a member one must show genuine enthusiasm to actively work for the cause. One can also offer to be simply an ally rather than a full time, inner-circle member. No one is forced to commit crimes in the process of helping, but anyone wanting to associate must be okay with other allies or members choosing to do so.
The most trusted inner-circle members are the ones acting as spies or preparing and participating in criminal statements or getting access to the recipe. They are some of the oldest members and/or ones that have somehow proven themselves as fiercely loyal and genuinely brave. No random newbie would ever be tasked with those. Less trusted inner circle and outter circle members do have important tasks and missions but nothing that risky.
A member or an ally is free to leave at any point but if they don't provide a valid reason for it and proof of that reason they won't be allowed to come back, and in some cases may be subjected to have memories of the secret society obliviated. The same if they just disappear for months and suddenly reappear without giving a good reason and proof of what happened.
Because even though he has cast the ultimate protection to secure the secrecy, he does not want to take unnecessary risks of someone somehow finding a way around it. If a member betrays another member to the Ministry they will be marked down as one of the first to go once the potion is ready for use whilst the one betrayed and possibly their family gets to live at the headquarters if they have reason to fear Azkaban or torture. Everyone knows that as long as they're inside the headquarters only the leader has the ability to lead the Ministry to them and naturally he would never do that.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
How to Play A Member or An Ally
I hope to give you relatively free hands to write about such characters. You don't have to ask me in advance or write a thread with me and my leader OC every time you want your character to have a mission or do something--as long as what you vision is within the framework I've provided in this thread and in the plot details and takes into account the leader's personality. But you can ask/discuss it with me in advance if you'd like or are unsure about something. In any case, I do need you to let me know about the mission or task you vision, so I can log it.
But some things need to be discussed in advance:
- Any face-to-face meetings with my leader character.
- In general if you want your character to do something that greatly impacts the whole group or another player's character.
Our Discord server has a dedicated channel for these kind of discussions. Should go without saying but I'll say it anyway; if you want to play a character who is a member or an ally of Children of Merlin in a deeply involved position, you must be interested enough and able to stay reasonably active on Discord for related discussion and possible announcements. Even at times when you can't do any RPing. You don't have to be extremely active in the actual discussion just as long as you keep an eye on it and take part when you're needed.
Or, at least be considerate enough to give a notice if you need to totally go away for a while. Depending on how long that while is we may need to work out what to do with your character in relation to the group. There are many ways to write a character out without completely removing them, so you can do what you need to do IRL and then pick up where you left off if that's what you want to do when you return.