The Seminar(Abridged)

Chikyuu Sabbath (Common name: The seminar Sabbath)

Representative Baphomet: Techno mistress Chikyuu Ha (Chikyuu Ha Shuchou Chi Ta, the 'earth claimed')

Activity details: This Sabbath branch is dedicated to the research, reverse-engineering, and cataloging of ancient technology.

Typical races: No particular race, although Gremlins and Hakutaku are seen in great numbers.

To "you": Come! Come! I have such wonders to show you! Do not worry if you think you cannot feel, for, I shall help you weave the tapestry of magic!

The Chikyuu Sabbath, more commonly known as the Seminar, came to be with a singular Baphomet that was born under an aliment. The inability to cast any spells, rendering her magically sterile.

Undeterred by this, this Baphomet went to search high and low for alternatives while making usage of her impressive physical might in close-quarter combat. She has found this in the shape of arcane artifacts. Her scythe provided this partial cure, deepening her hunger for what was a technological prototype from a few Gremlins.

The same who followed her as she went searching for more ancient technology. Or, at least, scraps. Moved by her undeterred optimist despite her ailment, they swore to help her, lending any knowledge accumulated among them. This attitude soon blossomed into empathy.

Empathy largely cast out toward humans who. Unlike her, who was met with open support from her brethren, they did not have the same mindset. So many had no prospect of magic. And those who did, ruled over them, claiming to be blessed, henceforth, the better of the more average folk.

It was her eventual husband that finally convinced her to establish her Sabbath, outraged at the sight of his status as the 'black' sheep of his family. Only because he wasn't born with the magical talent of his brothers and sisters.

He was the first to be their willing experiment, wandering far from home. Day and night, they tolled in research and study all the while Chikyuu Ha Shuchou Chi Ta taught him about mana and artifacts.

It was amidst their countless attempts that they found the perfect match to his recovery. Ancient technology. The man had magic swirling at the tip of his finger for the very first time. A sensational feeling, even while it was possible only by the arcane of the machines he wears.

However, unlike her and her subordinates, Amun was affected to a greater degree. Whatever they managed to recover and re-build worked in enhanced ways when used by him. Almost as if it was designed specifically for him and his kind.

A theory came about the validity of 'heroes' being more common back then. It seemed more like they had managed to find a way to shatter the locks to their restrains and applied it to the largely mundane citizenry.

Chikyuu Ha was jubilous, ecstatic to feel so close. This, alongside the man who she fell in love with, pushed her to finally establish her Sabbath at the edges of frontiers yet to be explored.
---
The Chikyuu. A Sabbath dedicated to understanding and reverse-engineering the technology of ancient civilizations. They scour the uncharted lands in search of abandoned temples, ruins, or otherwise and return with what they have through hundreds of stations.

Inside, they study the artifacts, however their conditions, and set about re-building them for further tests and anything new to learn.

With every data compiled, they then archive the item to their catalogs situated at the heart of the Seminar's beginning somewhere in a city made comfortable for the resting members and their spouses.

Eventually, comfortable with one artifact, they begin making it for themselves and other Sabbaths. Being of special amicability with the Greilia Sabbath due to their dedication to the research and well-being of their patients, the Chikyuu Sabbath funnel many of their fruits to them in priority.

Of course, this is but the surface of what they do. This dedication to recovering the ancients' marvelous crafts is but a side effect to the true nature of the Chikyuu Sabbath.

Many people see them picking up men of no prodigious backgrounds, these men, never to return from their gleaming city of light and metal. Many rumors come about what they do to these men inside, not knowing that they are no longer in the city, but somewhere in a station far away, made to their liking, where they learn from one of the Seminar monsters.

Many of the other Sabbaths think that the Seminar's members are an odd group. Mostly due to the occasional visits they receive from the scientists of the distant branch. Despite the radiant desire as any monster, they avoid acting out in it, keeping their calm demeanor tightly on their person.

Having been asked over and over again why they all have been replied in one response: 'He is not ready yet'.

This often mistakes them for anything but monsters. A mistake regularly made. As they inevitably get close up and personal in the teaching they give to the men under their wing. At the limit of what they endure, their devotion turns to intimacy through the endless lesson in his sake. Inevitably, the man, astonished by their efforts, falls in love with them.

They confess to them, feeling like it's the right time, confident in the new knowledge they have learned. Unsurprisingly, with the way the teacher is unprepared for a blatant confession, pounces at him, letting all of their pent-up desires flood him.

 Is it no surprise that the duo settled on one of the many Chikyuu Ha institutions come back as a married couple. With the teacher unwilling to change students, they go to the other branches, leaving the teaching side in constant flux.
---
Arboreta:
The Chikyuu Sabbath, as mentioned, has many Arboreta encompassing its internal structure. The main three are of the Pedagogy Arboretum, the Industrial Arboretum, and the Excavation Arboretum. Many tertiary sides branch out from the trio, too many to count. However, rumors say that the city of Rita has them all cataloged by the representative and her most ancient members.

Pedagogy Arboretum:
This Arboretum is simultaneously the most and least populated of them all. This is the recruiting branch where the soon-to-be teachers go about seeking out men to become their students. They teach them everything about mana and its relationship to spells, tools, runes, and others more.

Originally, they were supposed to train one each session. Only, a big glaring elephant stared right at Chikyuu Ha's face. Well, according to outsiders.

All of her subordinates tended coming back married to said man. And no mistake could be made about them 'consuming' the marriage as the ex-teachers would often be overjoyed, holding their new husbands by the hands.

Chikyuu Ha Shuchou Chi Ta simply decided to make service in the Pedagogy Arboretum temporary. As such, it is always in flux.

Under the Pedagogy Arboretum are much smaller branches looking over the subject of studies, be it mana, magic, spells, items or others.

Industrial Arboretum:
This is where they replicate the technology they salvage. Either in full for or from the knowledge of their findings.

They take them from the Excavation Arboretum and subject all prototypes to strict testing and procedures as they are, of course, tinkering ancient technology back to life.

Part of the Industrial Arboretum is also dedicated to manufacturing the advances they reach as to spread it to their members...of course, after re-fitting them to suit demonic mana simply because of the overwhelming majority of equipment they can recover being suited to humans.

The men in this branch are particularly apt to work like a horse on this modification. Overly eager spouses looking to make sure their wives can share in this as well.

Excavation Arboretum:
Where it all begins. It was fitting that the Chikyuu Ha Sabbath ventured so far into the less known regions, rich in abandon treasury, not of gold, but technological wonders and knowledge.

This is Excavation Arboretum's main task. They search and build networks of storage and stations to properly transport whatever they uncover, so long as it is not overly large.

Not only do they recover artifacts to send to one of the Industrial Arboretum to study, but they also explore and research the very walls that housed the broken technologies. Curious about the way the walls were built, they often take interest in them, assigning a team to study them.

More often than not, the teams are made up of two Seminar members. Namely, a monster and her husband. As with the Industrial Arboretum, precaution is a priority when exploring the ruins, to the point where they will outright wait for reinforcements if they feel one temple too dangerous for them alone.

Sometimes, they make use of earthen magic to dig up any building that has been swept by the earth over its discarded millennia. These excavations gather many teams into a large group carefully digging the rusted architecture. However, with how brittle the old buildings are, they often encase them in stasis magic as to avoid unintentional damage while a team explores inside.

Rita:
Rita is the city where it all began. Near a city where Chikyuu Ha Shuchou Chi Ta laid eyes on the man who would become her husband, scorned and rebuked as the black sheep of his family of wizards. Unlike them, he was magically inept. Unlike them, he enjoyed no position of fortune, a shame upon his brethren.

Brazen in displaying her arcane 'sterility' to them, it is said that she challenged each one in a magical duel and defeated them using the mastery over her newly constructed scythe, the Excambium(Compensation). A woven gift from her subordinates, allowing her access to her mana through its usage.

Fear struck them as they were forced into the shoe of the insignificant toward what looked like a supernatural force impacting them. None of them contested the request to take the man, Amun, far from this family.

People from his homeland were pondering of his fate, the bravest, daring to enter the distant city of glistening metal and azure and violet lighting. Of those who went to satiate their curiosity, none returned, giving off an ominous aura to the distant city as a place where the bold die.

Until, years later, a man was to walk back. Amun, the black sheep of his family, changed. Brimming with magic. Glimmering entombed inside an exotic attire yet unseen of stone and luminescence. His gaze was no longer that of a runt, discarded because of his ineptitude to magic, but a learned man.

Still reeling from the defeat of the Baphomet, they lashed out at him, only to become victims to his arcane devices. They fell to his feet, on their knees, once again, tasting the dust of defeat. He uttered no word, the sight, more than enough for him.

Looking at his city, his eyes softened to many, many others before returning, leaving his once-family in disgrace for a second time. Returning to the ominous buildings far in the distance choked in glint, never to return.

Soon enough, more of them came dressed in stone fashion and impossible shapes, their shadows encroaching the city...
---
Rita is the very Capital home of the Chikyuu Ha Sabbath. The city of science and measured arcane. Its buildings are made of metal translated into the debut of ancient structuring. Metallic. Sleek. Every piece constituting them is honed in a potent protection spell, lining the very skyscrapers into a personalized energy shield.

Moreover, metal trees are sprouted all around the buildings. Their lengths vary to the structure they hug, but, anyone nearby can feel them fall of mana. These are literal Arboreta, metal trees decorating the buildings they hug.

Built from ancient techniques, they act as power sources to the house they cling to, enabling anything magical in the walls without the need for someone to activate them.

A few more stand in specific spots in the open, waiting to be touched by passing citizens. These are dedicated to replenishing mana to anyone touching their metallic bulks, whether human or monster.

Monsters, however, largely avoid the usage of these, leaving almost all of them to the humans living there. Why would they make usage of an alternative when they have a spouse willing to share their much more scrumptious mana?

The city is also self-sufficient, as expected with any land governed by monsters with the sight for a permanent stay. Districts of food, drinks, supplies and anything in-between are present among the more leisure shops, appropriately themed after the science that the Sabbath practices. More traditional shops are present, mostly built on the spot with the blessing of the Seminar to allow distant companies to offer their wares.

Its light is the bright dawn of a green demon realm. Usually, demon realms, bright or not, are difficult for humans to live in. The Seminar regularly hands out amulets capable of making this struggle non-existent until the wearer decides to no longer wear it. It is included in their 'welcome package'.

The Black Mass:
Once a year, every member of the Chikyuu Ha Sabbath is called back to its fold. It is a gathering for new and veteran members to meet and share experiences as well as the occasion to meet the Baphomet who started it all. They may occasionally receive convoys from the other Sabbaths looking to partake in what breakthrough they have to offer.

This assembly is as much a Black Mass as they allow, uncharacteristically themed after the innumerable breakthroughs they project one-by-one. Most of it is a preview to the work of the main Arboreta and a pitch for potential recruits.

Of course, more than a few hundred members are often spotted taking their spouses with a few plates of Sabbath plates toward a nearby inn of numberless rooms, longing to spill their devotion toward their husbands over the presentation. A trait that gains in momentum as the day gives way to the night...

Attire and clothing:
When Amun the 'gray Sheep' walked out to his home city, he promised Chikyuu Ha Shuchou Chi Ta that beyond one glance toward those that sorned, he would have no more resentment.

 Although, that wasn't all true, as any resentment had evaporated as soon as his entire family had fallen to her feet. He wondered out in the very first prototype attire, all tailored according to the murals.
---
The Seminar members wear what he does, clothes molded-in materials fine-tuned to impossible degrees. Stones as silky as thread while retaining their resilience.

One of their first successes, the Chikyuu Ha parades itself in the abundance of these new uniforms, boasting special abilities among their stylish appearances.

Each one is elegantly ornate in symbols. The trees that decorate their buildings also decorate the sigils of their top and bottom as the most popular, symbolizing the shared knowledge among them

There are others, like the hexagons mapping the stony fabric, representing the tower shields that cling to their homes and those that defend them.

Others still are of the scientific smoothness of lines shaping their attire, looking onward to what they have yet to recover and the progress they have made.

Yet, whichever the Seminar may take, all of them are more than the eye can see. For, beyond the stony impossibility, beyond the metals that afflict them, their outfits conceal another secret. Bioluminescence.

Their clothes are more than mere esthetic, as they can flare up in bioluminescence, a natural light inactive until one of them puts on the uniform.

Whether they're human, or monster, the shine they take is of blue and purple. With colors vibrant as these, their uses come in defense, offense or utilitarian.

Many would think to compare these to the runic armors shared between high-ranking individuals. The sorts that come with incredible protection against physical or magical attacks. These, however, have none of the restrictions that either warriors or mages often deal with.

As of now, the stone is the only material they can convey into such useful clothing, the concept of molding metal as finely, far from being a reality. This effectively makes their clothes as short batteries as stones have little ability to properly conduct the mana in their veins.

Humans in the Seminar:
A curious sight for outsiders is to note that the human men and women who are affiliated within the Seminar often come down under partial unfettering rather than the usual transformation into monsters of incubi. This comes giving words to the theory that humans always had their power bottled inside, waiting to be cut from its shackles.

This is remarkably common in the Seminar, though to be attached to the frequent use of the recovered technology.

The more they use them, the more they understand, like a muscle slowly learning to be used again. A joyous Sabbath yearned to learn more from their resurging comprehension, to help them recover their heritage, however long it may be, however the many steps they have ahead. Perhaps like this, they could become equals. Perhaps with this, they could avoid the mistakes of the past...

Monsters in the Seminar:
Another curious sight for any outsider looking at the Chikyuu Ha would be the monsters within the Sabbath. Their reluctance to pounce to their yet-to-be husbands when traveling back to the more known realms is not the only oddity many have seen about them. Nor is the reason for this bottled restraint, stating that 'they are not ready yet'.

This oddity is not only a mental one but also, a physical one. A quirk that has been picked up overtime over the progress they have begun making. Their bodies seem to somewhat mature, to a limited degree. While their height remains the same to that of early teens, their physiology becomes more akin to that of individuals known as 'petite', adult women who have remained relatively small for their age.

As expected, this makes them deviate from the standard shape of Sabbath members and thus, has had them looking into this peculiar quirk afflicting them. Their spouses have all expressed no issue at this gradual shift of tone, shape and overall, change, which would make them reluctant to reject this change.

However, they also understand that the other Sabbath might be worried at this prospect as it would go against their edicts, hence, the exploration to the source of this quirk through the most ancient of their numbers. Chikyuu Ha Shuchou Chi Ta has is personally looking into this matter, exploring the possibility of negating this change for the sister Sabbaths looking to utilize the fruits of their ongoing labor.

Fortunately for the worrisome, there seems to be a limit cap on the change, meaning that it is unlikely to push them any further. Still, the Techno Mistress is staunch in her experiments, most of it looking to point toward the nature of their work. The knowledge of the ruins they explore appears to have this effect upon them, absorbing into their bodies much like how it looks to mutate the humans into partial unfettered.

Notable spell:
The Seminar has had a few spells born out of the nature of its work. Surprisingly, two are the most utilized among the growing pool of technological incantation, hence, the most detail out of them all. The rest remain in nothing more than murmurs and hearsay.

Translatio:
Translatio, meaning 'Translation' is a spell derived from the need to catalog the ancient language of the ruins and inscriptions on the artifacts salvaged into one of the many infrastructures, as well as a general scan of said item. This incantation, while capable of being uttered by the monsters of the Sabbath, is more easily make active by the staves and scepters they wield.

Pointing toward the object of their desire, the caster's eyes briefly illuminate as a beam of incandescent light washes over it. Any information concerning the object is, over time, displayed toward the caster in his or her preferred language in ethereal shapes flat as paper. The more complex the object they translate is, the longer it takes for the spell to compile the results.

It remains present for however long the caster wishes it to take notes. Should the caster use it again toward another object, the current information will disappear from the line of sight, replaced by the newest scan. Seminar staves and scepters are built specifically to absorb any information not yet known to their archives, later to be processed and accepted into updates to said archives.

An interesting note about this spell is that it also works toward living creatures. Some have been surprised to learn of their spouses through Translatio, although it remains only to the most basic information such as their age, condition, preferences, and dislikes.

A theory is that ancient humans employed more advanced versions of Translatio, which is how they managed to replicate the spell inside a particular set of ruins. Perhaps they sought to understand one another more deeply as to proactively mend those that were ill, physically, mentally, or emotionally. The murals depicting the frequent usage of this spell toward the more ill-looking individuals sounds like confirm this hypothesis.

It is no surprise that the Chikyuu Ha Sabbath is so actively seeking out to advance this spell through salvage or research as they are not the only ones who see the humans they choose as their mates' reluctance to their choice as depreciating. So often they have heard the rant of monsters sighing at the constant doubt from their husbands judging their reasoning.

'Why did you pick me, a worthless peon compared to him?'

'I have nothing to give you. You're better off with someone else.'

'I'm not magically inclined like you, why are you wasting your time here?'

'I'm nowhere as smart as you are.'

'I'm not as strong as you are, I can't spar with you.'

Words they've heard all-too-often from even their spouses at their debut as recruits. Their words spat with no reason behind them, judging them from human standards. Were they to scan them, see why they judge themselves at such shallow levels, they could offer rebuttals as to quell the perjuries at an earlier stage. With this, it would be possible to save the monsters many aching hearts toward the husbands spitting venom at themselves.

Morbi Lucido:
Morbi Lucido, meaning, Bioluminescence is the art of coating the caster in a layer of energy, or the particular uniforms of the Seminar. As mentioned before, the first successes of their excavations and research have yielded them the grasp of a few ancient manufacturing manners. Morbi Ludico is one of them.

It can be enabled whether by a short incantation or, if one wears proper attire, flickered alive by the pulse of their mana. Lights spring alive throughout either their bodies in the shape of sparks or, in the case of their specially crafted uniforms, condensed into fey lights coursing between the metal linings.

From there, Morbi Lucido can act in three distinct ways. If used offensively, the layer will briefly flare up, sending part of its immaterial layer to fuel either the mana used for a spell or the muscles moving for an attack, recognizing the complex movement as attacks. However, without the peculiar attires, it is prone to wither with time, forcing the caster to summon another one as Morbi Lucido has nothing to anchor it to the caster. Those who do will find the task of the mana upkeep to be greatly enhanced, with many stating to forgetting how little it consumes while active.

In a defensive maneuver, the spell undulates in idle form, only to harden and flare up if an attack is made against the caster. It is quite literally a body-side shield that will negate any damage made toward the protected to a certain degree. Of course, as the spell is made to be worn alongside the Seminar clothes, those without them will find it somewhat less effective as if would lack the layers of metal to properly anchor on the caster. Mages with a great amount of mana can negate this flaw through a higher commitment of the life source to keep it awake.

Those who do, however, will find its strength bolstered without the need to burn more mana into it. Not only is the quality of the raw defense increased, but it will also counteract the nature of the attack as to lessen the blow, physical or magical before even committing part of itself to absorb it.

The third use of it, however, is ironically the most usage the Seminar has toward the spell. Which is, in essence, a mobile power source. Whether to flicker magical lanterns, doors objects or runes, Morbi Lucido is an all-around mana supplier. This does make it seem ironic that the members have still decided to install metallic Arboreta throughout the city of Rita while they are a moving source of power.

It would be, if not for the majority of non-members of Chikyuu Ha living inside said city who have no reason to adorn themselves in the uniform of the Sabbath...