The Circle

The Circle is the institution this archive concerns. It was founded in the late summer of 309 BC in the town of Pella, in the kingdom of Macedonia, by four people whose names the institution has not made public. The institution does not maintain a public history. The compiler of this archive disputes the institution's preference.

The Circle has existed, in some form, for twenty-three centuries and thirteen years. It is organized into five factions: the Scales (judgment and account), the Architects (structure and continuity), the Ledger (record and trade), the Veil (concealment and absence), and the Ember (renewal and the necessary fire). Each faction holds one or more seats on the Inner Council of seven. The factions have changed names occasionally across the centuries. The structure has not.

The Circle is governed by what its records call the Seven Laws, the first six of which have been recovered in fragmentary form. The seventh has not. The institution does not, by its own preference, refer to the seventh in writing.

The Circle has, by every measurable indicator, never lost a member to an outside force. It has, by the same measurement, lost members to itself.