Cult of the Hawk

Cult of the Hawk

(Organization)

Scope

International

Members

Qadiran and Osirian mystics and traders

Source: Qadira, Jewel of the East, pg(s). 18 (1E)
Absalom, City of Lost Omens, pg(s). 16–18 (2E)

The Cult of the Hawk is a poorly understood group of mystics and traders who hail from Qadira and Osirion, but have claimed powerful positions in Absalomian commercial enterprises over its history. They were one of two major foreign organizations (alongside the Taldan Blue Lords) to effectively rule Absalom during nearly a millennium of the city's Age of Excess, from the 20th to 30th centuries AR.

History

Little is known about the origins of the Cult of the Hawk.

Proxy Laws

By 1997 AR, the nobility of Absalom's Grand Council had increasingly refused to involve themselves in the governance of Absalom, considering it and the common folk of Absalom to be beneath them. To avoid this work, they begin hiring out their voting and labor to foreign contractors.

Led by proxies who were part of the Cult of the Hawk—and of the Blue Lords, a group composed of minor Taldan nobles—Absalom's Grand Council then enacted the Proxy Laws that same year. These laws required the city to employ outside professionals to perform the acts of governance and municipal labor, practically handing governance of Absalom over to the Cult and the Blue Lords. This era became known as the Age of Excess, during which Absalom's population descended into a state of perpetual indulgence while foreign powers effectively raided its wealth.

Age of Excess

Their rise led to the "Mount Absalom" construction boom, during which many new buildings were constructed atop existing buildings to literally raise Absalom's profile. The Cult's influence led to the Keleshite architectural trend of large windows, open courtyards, brightly colored domes, awnings, and sheltered porches to spread across the city. The trend peaked from 1920 to the end of the Age of Excess.

The Cult also minted the silverhawk measure to celebrate the end of Absalom's second millennium and exported it in an attempt to pay off Absalom's debts. Many were melted down centuries later, and the few that remain are prized among coin collectors.

Siege of Krakens and Kings

Conflicts continued to grow between the Cult and the rival Blue Lords, which culminated with the Siege of Krakens and Kings in 2502 AR, a proxy war of mercenary troops hired by each side. The Blue Lords commissioned Counterfeit Peak, a magically elevated siege castle of earth for siege engines to target Cult forces, but an attack by the Cult forced the wizards performing the ritual to rush to an unstable completion.

This caused a thinning of, and eventually a planar rift in, the barrier between the Plane of Earth and Universe, allowing earth elementals and other creatures from the elemental plane to overtake both armies and reshape the hill, which was soon abandoned. The Foreign Quarter of Absalom also suffered extensive damage in the conflict.

Decline and withdrawal

In the early 29th century AR, the Cult held a minority on the Grand Council against a Blue Lords majority, and the Blue Lords ordered the 2820 AR Radiant Festival—traditionally held in Absalom—to be moved to Oppara. The decision was unpopular in both Absalom and Taldor, and Absalomians rioted in protest.

In 2850 AR, Absalom's primarch ordered the executions of many Grand Council members and replaced them with hand-picked sycophants. Dissatisfaction with both the Cult and Blue Lords led to the unsuccessful Conjured Siege, led by Arclords of Nex affiliated with the Arcanamirium.

Earthquakes in 2920 AR caused widespread damage in both Taldor and Qadira, and many of the Blue Lords and members of the Cult of the Hawk withdrew from Absalom overnight to focus on their homelands. Absalom rescinded the Proxy Laws in the following year. A subsequent audit of Absalom's treasury found that much of its wealth was gone, and attempts by remaining Taldan and Keleshite landowners and guildmasters to take advantage of Absalom's suddenly desperate workers led to the Red Wealday Riots that ended their remaining influence on Absalom.

Legacy

House Menhemes, originally of Osirion, came to Absalom as part of the Cult of the Hawk, and it remains an influential—if lesser—noble house in the Westgate neighborhood.

The Low Council of Absalom still reserves one at-large seat each for the Grand Ambassadors of Osirion, Qadira, and Taldor, a tradition that has persisted since the Cult of the Hawk and Blue Lords ruled during the Age of Excess. To remain popular with the people of Absalom, these members almost always abstain from voting.