Coalition of Enlightenment

The Coalition of Enlightenment is a leaderless but united community that includes scientists of every people and culture throughout the realm.¹

Aims

The coalition seeks to replace magic with technology, as a less feared alternative. It also works to secure resources for the study of nature, to make science itself a power in a world where research is done only for the sake of power, and to build solidarity among research guilds.¹

To reach these goals it must pay a price, such as designing siege weapons for The Empire.¹

Members

Prominent members include Professor Maverick Galevan, who set out the Galevan Law, named after him, in his book Temporal Deteriorations of Spells, and the author of Virtues of Emberstone and Underground Lakes and Their Uses.¹

Controversy

It has been argued that some members of the coalition have pushed scientific research beyond the bounds of ethics and law.¹

Named in the same company is Doctor Gilderoy Von Rossca, who tried to make medicine from the regenerative properties of troll flesh to replace healing spells, and caused unspeakable suffering. For all his privileges and wealth, he was executed in his own home by a nameless inquisitor's bullet.¹

In Yeni Dünya

In the campaign Yeni Dünya ("New World"), the Coalition is a fellowship of scientists, alchemists and academic researchers drawn to the secrets of the New World. In Aquila it keeps a large laboratory on the Merchant Road, beside a small guest house where Professor Maverick Galevan stays when he is in the city.²³

The warming stone

Miro, a researcher who works for Galevan, introduces himself as a member of the Coalition. He says its figures show thousands of families suffering from the cold each year, and he studies the warming Alaztaşı, noting that stones with the same properties as some precious gems can be made with the help of science and magic. He would not take the patent for himself, and meant the income to go to the Coalition's research. By his account the Coalition handled the transport and security of the stones, while the mine only brought them to its gate, and it chose to send researchers and persuasion rather than take the stones by force or kill for them.⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹

Purses bearing the Coalition's arms were later seen in the mine foreman's safe; why they were there is not explained.¹⁰

Friends and partners

The gnome engineer Finli asked to become an independent researcher of the Coalition, and the professor agreed. The physician Bruno Rossi says that he works with the Coalition from time to time but is not their man. Fauna's family is on good terms with it because it gives free medicine to the children of the nearby tribes.¹¹¹²¹³

Finli describes the Coalition as a place where researchers from the Empire can study the technologies of the continent and turn them to uses other than war.¹⁴

When the band carried an ancient inscription back towards the city, Sesil, an agent of another party, argued that it would cause strife if it fell into the hands of the Coalition or of either church.¹⁵

Spoiler: Later eventsRevealSpoils: Yeni Dünya #5.5; Yeni Dünya #6; Yeni Dünya #21 · Say what you have read

When that inscription was taken from a cave beneath the Coalition's building in Aquila, six of its researchers were found dead there, their bodies burned and melted. Galevan said they were valued graduates of the imperial colleges. Afterwards he meant to scale back the Coalition's work in the city and go on with the Alaztaşı research while drawing less attention, and named a Mr Levin as the way to reach the Coalition.^1617181920

Later a woman of the city told the band that she had tried to send word to members of the Coalition, and had heard that after those unpleasant events many of them had to leave the city.²¹