The Council of Echoes

🏛️ Basic Info

• Type: Transplanar Cabal / Multishard Conspiracy

• Purpose/Mission:
  To manipulate events across multiple Shards simultaneously, nudging timelines and realities toward an outcome only they seem to understand. The Council believes singular truth is a cage, and that existence should be shaped through convergence — where the contradictions of all possible versions are embraced as power.

• Headquarters: Unknown; members appear in different forms across multiple Shards. Some believe their central gathering space exists in a stabilized Echo fold outside linear time.

• Notable Members:

  • "The Unraveled" – Possibly a fragment of Alkharin the Frayed
  • “Saevra in Reflection” – Appears differently to each viewer, always cloaked in mirrored sigils
  • “The Twin Who Was First” – Only seen in overlapping timelines; both child and ancient at once

• Allies/Rivals:

  • Allies: Whisper-Mongers, radical Echo-aligned artificers, some hidden cults in the Tiseresch fringe

  • Rivals: The Veilbinders, RoB Governance (particularly containment branches), Order of the Still Reflection

📖 History

• Founding Story:
  The Council is not believed to have been founded but rather coalesced. First mentioned in conflicting texts discovered simultaneously in Druvenhal and an unrelated ruin in Merenvegy, they are referenced as those who remember contradictions — beings who exist not just in broken timelines but because of them.
  Early theories by Veilbinders suggest the Council formed after the First Echo Collapse, when temporal fragments of individuals remained sentient beyond their own deaths.

• Major Conflicts/Involvements:

  • Believed to have seeded false prophecies throughout the Echo Collapse of Quintoria

  • Suspected of influencing certain Shardborn splinter sects, encouraging anti-linear philosophy

  • Accused of infiltrating Begoestian governance records — specifically in the Redscript Division — by inserting policy drafts no one recalls writing

  • May have had a hand in the disappearance of several Echo-sensitive archivists from Druvenhal

• Current Status:
  The Council is active, though few admit to encountering them directly. Their influence is felt more than seen — in forgotten directives, mirrored dreams, and contradictory personal histories. Some suspect that high-ranking officials or scholars may be Council “echo-forms” without realizing it.

🔗 Related Topics

• Leaders: Unknown; possibly no hierarchy. Some say the Council is a single being refracted through identity.

  • Key Locations:
  • Whisperspine Tower – A rumored meeting point in a reflection of Nauvein
  • The Folded Hollow – A planar rupture hidden near the edge of the Veilscape, said to be "hosted" by the Council

• Artifacts:

  • Mirror-Touched Veils – Cloths that show not your reflection, but an alternate self’s thoughts
  • Inversion Tablets – Texts that rewrite themselves upon reading, forcing moral contradiction
  • The Iridescent Scar – A reality-bleed wound said to speak when two versions of the same person approach it

🌐 Interaction with the Wider World

🧭 In Eladris at Large

The Council of Echoes is viewed with suspicion, awe, or outright fear. Scholars debate their reality; clerics call them heresy. Yet their influence remains undeniable: contradictions in historical records, dual sightings of the same individual, or cities briefly existing in overlapping variations are all attributed to them. Their philosophy — that truth is malleable, and all selves are valid — appeals to fringe Echo theorists, dreamwalkers, and identity-dissolved wanderers.

They are most powerful where the Veil is thin, and in Shards with weak Resonant stabilization. Some see their work as existential sabotage. Others believe they are preparing the world for something that already happened.

🏛️ In Begoestia

Begoestia views the Council as a clear metaphysical threat, particularly within its academic and arcane policy circles.

• The RoB Governance has quietly classified Echo anomalies believed to be Council-related and actively redacts conflicting historical reports.

• Certain factions within the Republic have tried to recruit counter-philosophers — mental defense agents trained in identifying and neutralizing “identity drift” associated with Council influence.

• Within Druvenhal, the Archivist Ascendancy and Inkguard actively monitor and contain potential Council references. Some whisper that Arch-Lexicon Thariel Vos herself once encountered a Council fragment — and lost a piece of herself in the process.

• Despite public denouncement, Council rhetoric has subtly infected free-thinker enclaves, Echo-afflicted districts, and renegade arcanists frustrated by the Republic’s control of sanctioned truth.