A Thesis on Crypto-Brooking with the Five Courts

[ArchBrooker]

Copies of an unassuming book find their way to the quieter places of the disk. The Creep below Ephia's Well, under the stairs of old ruins along Giant's Road, under the chairs of passenger caravans, and within caves frequented by smugglers and vagabonds. The book is penned in a steady hand, with an author who claims himself by the moniker "Arch-Brooker"

[ArchBrooker]

A Thesis on Crypto-Brooking with the Five Courts

Dictated by the Arch-Brooker, penned by a hand with no owner


Preamble

    This manual serves as a guide to the art of Crypto-Brooking, a practice your author has studied for many a year unbeknownst to his peers. Through this art I have risen to the upper echelons of society, infiltrated and secured a seat of power for myself within the Fifth Court. Let this literay work serve as an example for proper brooking technique for achieving power beyond the scope of the sensibilities of the common man, but also navigating the dangers of brooking safely in a way often disregarded by the common brooker.

    I author this work in hope of ushering in a safer future, that forward thinkers with the practiced care required to guide civilization through its uncertain future have the tools necessary to overcome the challenges that shall befall them. Crypto-Brooking, while it helps mitigate the dangers of the five courts, is still a perilous practice not to be undertaken lightly. To let your guard down for but a moment can spell your doom, and the undoing of all you have worked to achieve.


The Five Courts


The Court of Earth and Flesh

    The most infamous of the courts, a common second contact for the inexperienced brooker. A corruption of the element of earth, and equally do they corrupt the bodies of their hapless victims. Bones, sinew, and flesh are there bricks and mortar of their terrible citadels. Their servitors are the remains of victims ripped apart and rearranged. A terrible curse to draw the attention of this court, but a most useful asset to the crypto-brooker. Servants of great strength and destructive potential can be bound for a variety of tasks using a bridge to this court.

The Court of Fire and Blood

    Another well understood court, the court of Fire and Blood is exactly as their name suggests. A corruption of the element of fire, the souls of their victims are reported to burn for eternity and bound to service as slaves, assassins, or worse. The horror they present is simple to articulate, but terrible to behold all the same. An experienced brooker might call upon great winged furnace-like beings that spill forth boiling magics upon his foes.

The Court of Air and Shadow

    A corruption of the element of air, and perhaps the second most powerful court known thus far. Little is known about this court, but these things are certain. Witness accounts report their servitors take a variety of forms. Inky black tentacles grasping at travelers in dark places underground, shade-like figures that possess their victims own shadows to attack them, and devil-like valkyries that wield sword-sharp winds to battle their opponents. Take great caution when dealing with this court, and study the Shadow Brooker well to learn of their mistakes before you make them yourself.

The Court of Water and Light

    The most mercurial of the courts, the Court of Water and Light is a corruption of the element of water. Fae-like and short tempered, but not always as cruel as the other courts. Do not misjudge them as being the safest court to brook with. Rumor goes that priests of B'aara brook with them in secret to enable their rituals and miracles, and their servitors may hold great value if their unpredictability can be mastered. Common folk often fail to identify these beings as djinn, a fact taken advantage of by some brookers. However, most pact-makers quickly go insane due to their maddening influence.

The Court of Law

    The most common brooked with court, and certainly the most dangerous. The Court of Law is the court of mortals and corporeal reality, a corruption of true Axiomatic Law. The crypto-brooker should treat them with the exact same caution and respect as any of the djinn courts, for once you have gained their attention by breaking their laws they shall hound you until the end of your days. They are the greatest enemy to the crypto-brooker, but with great care and patience can be made useful, and made to serve ones aims. All crypto-brookers hold pact with the Court of Law, escaping their influence is impossible, and all activities must be performed knowing their gaze may be looming. Their servitors are janissaries, legates, and their magistrates. A clever crypto-brooker may infiltrate their hierarchy as your author has, pose as one, and command them at their whim without need of conjuration or otherwise. Make full use of them, but beware that the majority of brookers come to an end by their hand.

[ArchBrooker]

The Brooker's Mark

    Physically, what separates a brooker from a crypto-brooker is the brooker's mark. For the brooker, this mark is their physical connection to the djinn court. A bridge between physical reality and the djinn unreality. It also binds the brooker permanently to the court, forever dooming them to its service. Most of these marks are visible upon the brookers body, and take on some element of the court itself (for example, a mark may drip oily black shadow-liquid for a brooker of air and shadow) while also granting them the ability to draw power from their court. The cost is an expectation of service to said court, and the powers of that court have the ability to withdraw any boons and punish the brooker for failure to obey. The exception to this is the court of law, whos brookers mark is the trappings of civilization (fine clothes, well groomed hair, cultured mannerisms).

    Most brookers are bound to two courts at once (for purposes of this text, those bound only to the Court of Law shall not be called "brookers"), typically one of the elemental courts plus the Court of Law, which almost universally ends in disaster. To brook with a court is to make it ones master, and one cannot hold two masters without conflict for long. Indeed there are wild beings such as the nazaru whos tribes are in pact with but one of the elemental courts, whom exist in relative stability compared to the more traditionally known brooker. Eventually, the brooker shall have to betray one court for the other, but they shall remain marked by both. Unable to escape either court, they shall find themselves destroyed by one or the other eventually.

  However, taking power from multiple courts presents many advantages. The Crypto-Brooker holds the solution to the danger is an able to take full advantage of the many courts different boons.

Repurposing the Brooker

    The Brooker's Mark is a bridge between the brooker's physical body and the realm of djinn, but it is not the brooker and djinn alone that controls this bridge. Enter the crypto-brooker, who through subtle and careful minnistrations may too gain power from these connections between worlds. From the living brooker, the boons recieved directly by them may be used and stolen by the crypto-brooker. The knowledge the djinn imparts upon the brooker may be shared upon the crypto-brooker. The power over the world the brooker holds may be stolen in part by the crypto-brooker without suffering the pact or the wrath of any court.

    Even when the brooker is eventually destroyed by their recklessness, the bridge severed and constricted, it still remains in our world much as the brooker's body does after death. Through careful transmutations it can be reshaped into a form that allows a demi-pact of sorts to be formed. One in which the crypto-brooker repairs the connection to the djinn unreality, but this time under the crypto-brookers control rather than the courts. Pacts made are always to the advantage of the crypto-brooker, always at their convenience, and severed any time they wish. Provided of course they are of sufficient skill and care. It is not a process without danger, and the wrath of the courts is always a possibility to the careless crypto-brooker.

Crypto-Brooking

    Crpyto-Brooking in simplest terms is brooking without detection, brooking with impunity. All things are better when done with impunity. To take all you can and to give as little as you can back. To fool your peers into believing you are generous when you are infact greedy. This is the essence of making favorable deals, and especially important for the crypto-brooker. Taking from multiple courts is an act of greed, and is punished harshly when detected.

    While the brooker cannot escape detection, because the evidence of his actions is upon his very being, the crypto-brooker remains unattached to them. They remain clean of the consequences of their actions, and they remain free of the wrath of all the courts. The key thing to remember is that each court has wildly distorted perceptions of reality. This is true even for the Court of Law. Learn the ways in which they are blind, and in these ways hide your brookings with the other courts. The crypto-brooker maintains their advantage by being able to discard their connections to the other courts, always being able to reduce the pacts they maintain to just one or in some cases even zero, whereas the common brooker is stuck with their conflicts to their own doom. In this way, by carefully regulating ones interactions with the different courts, the crypto-brooker operates indefinitely, and the boons they recieve far outweigh that of the common brooker many times over. The highest reaches of power from each court become available at ones leisure, while never fully committing themselves to one exclusively.