| Mage society has a modern history that is decidedly Hellenistic. The trappings of western philosophy and society have, for better or worse, found their way into the character and conduct of the majority of the global community of the Awakened. But that is more a curiosity caused by the advent of written histories supplanting oral traditions, not because cultures outside of the Mediterranean lacked awakened will workers. When the first white colonists touched foot in the Delaware Valley, a consilium already existed within the region. It spanned the length and breadth of the region's river valleys, as far north as Ontario and as far south as Maryland.
The culture war that erupted as unapologetic colonizers such as Gaveston, an Obrimos Thearch, attempted to supplant the Lenape consilium with the Hellenistic hierarchies of the Diamond, was both lengthy and bloody. It gave rise to one of the longest standing enactments of the precept of war the region had ever seen. The weight and resources of colonization pushed the Lenape westward, displaced Shackamaxon, and in so doing erased almost entirely the oral traditions of the Lenape consilium that once shepherded it. The erasure of cultural memory was so total, that the true name of the Lenape consilium is lost to time. It is remembered by the name Tukihëla, a Lenape phrase meaning "Wake up".
A legend persists from this time, that an archmaster of the Lenape invoked the Right of Hospitality and Crossing and sought an audience with Gaveston, who had by this time become the Hierarch of the nascent Hellenistic consilium. The invocation was allowed, and the archmaster was welcomed before the council of the diamond orders, and granted all the respect and Emeritus rights due her. At length she spoke passionately of the plight of her people, of the slaughter and suffering settlers were inflicting upon her people, and appealed to the Wisdom of the council to put an end to the practice.
Gaveston, in the end, betrayed her. He reached into the Lex Magica, citing precedent and silver law that forbade the intercession of archmasters into the affairs of the fallen world so directly. Gaveston called into question her own wisdom in so violating this practice, and inquired if she was aware that the punishment usually reserved for such meddling was death.
Some say what transpired thereafter was the ascension of an enlightened soul. Some say it was suicide, some murder. Some say she made good her escape using high level space magics, if indeed she had been there in soul and flesh to begin with. It is said she began to sing, and her song gave birth to a tree. A tree that grew out of her being, that reached deep into the earth, and burst out of the roof of the consilium hall. The archmaster, whose shadow name is itself lost to time in the tradition of her people, simply vanished from the earth.
The council, save perhaps Gaveston himself, were so in awe of what they had witnessed, and so humbled by the perceived sacrifice of the archmaster, that they overruled their hierarch and found in favor of her petition in absentia. The consilium came to view the Lenape as equal partners before the Lex Magica, and gave the Unnamed a seat at the table almost a century before the Free Council Assemblies of Europe would win it for themselves.
Today's consilium hall is built around that tree, and its fruits continue to supply the region with riddles and mysteries born of the sacrifice of the region's first known and last Recognized Arch Master.
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| The Martyr's tree grows in the courtyard of the consilium Hall, walled in on four sides by the shelter of the consilium itself, and domed over with imbued glass that forever keeps the courtyard at a pleasant temperature, humidity, and light level. The tree itself is ancient and gnarled, and has been almost from its birth. It does not seem to grow or age, existing in some timeless state of forever fruiting and forever shedding its leaves. Buds will appear on branches, even as others seem to wither away and die, only to appear upon the next viewing heavy with fruit.
The location is now a hallow, and one overseen by the Martyr's Tree Consilium under the oversight of the Mysterium's Curator. For the fruits that the tree periodically bears, while tass in their own right, are each one a proper Mystery. Mysterium Savants have made a career out of doing nothing more than studying and cataloging the epiphanies provided by the fruit of the tree. Local cadres compete for the privilege of acquiring a fruit to study on their own, and the consilium itself often rewards a single fruit to those who have achieved great things in the name of the consilium. Tapping the fruits for potentia is almost unheard of, as is drawing from the hallow that supplies the fruits. It is widely considered to deny the world the insights of the Archmaster who spawned it, and is sometimes viewed as a violation of Hubris. Given that a full half of the fruit is reserved for the Lodge of the Unnamed Nation, the competition over the remainder has on spawned more than one Duel Arcane.
The tree is under constant surveillance both mundane and magical, as even the act of scrutiny if done carelessly can mar the resonance of the tree and occlude the study and inspection of more learned investigators. What is widely known is that being in the presence of the tree fills one with a sense of calm and purpose, that the fruits produced are varied and strange, rarely appearing like any other fruit known to have grown from it prior. There are some who claim to know someone who tasted a fruit, but few claim the same flavor. Some say sweet, others like ash, some bitter, some sour.
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