1.  Kor looked like a Vejhonian god; chiseled and sculpted with just enough wear to look real.  His fierce complexion sliced through the jungle; trusty spear in hand, while glistening beads of sweat flew from his wavy jet black hair.   The menacing cold fusion of his fiery blue eyes penetrated an observer's innermost thoughts.  The guilty always looked away. 

2.  He had climbed every tree, scaled every cliff, forded every stream and river, and knew every inch of his forest like he knew his own body.

3.  He was now 18; unencumbered by society and duty; the absolute master of his forest kingdom and those invited were his subjects.

4.  Most shellans were not lucky enough to glimpse Kor glide tirelessly through the forest.  Those who did witnessed his power proceed him and knew resolutely that his spirit would never be tamed.  He was mysterious to many and an enigma to all.

5.  Everybody who knew Kor wanted to be part of his legacy.  Everyone sensed that he would become a great leader.  Kor was keenly aware of his admirers, and knew that his body provoked passion.  Although humored, he regarded their lust as a strategic advantage.

6.  Egomainiacs deflated in the shadow of Kor's unbridled energy.  You could look, but not touch -- dream from a safe distance.  Legends would have paid a small fortune to recruit this one.

7.  Someone like Kor had not existed in this Dan; in pulp fiction, yes, but not in real life.  Yet… there he was, the living embodiment of someone destined for immortality.

8.   That destiny was precisely why Kor kept to himself.  Shellans are deceptive and insincere no matter where they live.  Even though thoughts are transparent, its impolite to acknowledge what isn’t offered.  Everyone wanted to be a part of Kor's legacy, even if in a small way.

9.   It was the Secret Society that would benefit the most.  They knew that Kor was fast becoming their long awaited river card; that one God-like kid who would replace their weakness with his strength.  

10.  Kor was not naïve, but had played into the Society's agenda because his strength was their joy; his resolve their backbone.  The Secret Society had become Kor’s surrogate family through Mantra, his mentor.  If the Society needed a poster boy – Kor considered it a worthy calling.

11.  To Kor, the Society was the only entity on Vejhon that was genuine. 

12.  His life in the Society began when he was 6-years-old.

13.  It was rumored that ‘the old man of the forest’ lived in a psionically concealed cave behind a waterfall.  His name was Mantra.

14.  From afar, Mantra observed Bri and Kor and noted something gloriously unique about Kor.  Kor could do things that were unnatural and Bri thought nothing of it.  When the boys ventured beyond the safety of their woodland home, Mantra made sure that no harm came to them.  

15.  From an early age, the boys began to display an increasing disdain for each other until Kor eventually started trekking alone, inviting Bri only on rare occasions.

16.  Bri became preoccupied with shell events and political affairs; lecturing passionately on jurisprudence and intergalactic commerce to his mother, who was certain that her son would one day become president. 

17.  Kor thought that Bri was chasing fish in the watershell and told him so.  As Bri was inclined to travel abroad, Kor attended Society events closer to home.  Eventually, it seemed like both boys were never home. 

18.  Sometimes Kor would leave his mother's favorite flower on her nightstand, but otherwise came and went unnoticed like a shadow.  Bri would stay longer in between academic and extracurricular events.          

19.  When Mantra thought it was time to introduce himself to Kor, he placed himself in Kor's path near a shallow brook and pretended not to notice Kor observing him, while he distorted physics with his mind. 

20.  Kor could not read Mantra without a lot of exaggerated effort.  Until that encounter, everyone had been transparent to Kor.  Mantra’s tricks were genuinely curious too – the perfect lure for a strapping 6-year-old boy. 

21.  "I see you, young Hunter," Mantra said with parental affection.   Besides El Sha, Kor did not sense sincerity in people but Mantra was an exception.   "Are you the old man of the forest?" Kor asked. 

22.  "I used to be," Mantra replied kindly, "but I'm afraid that job is yours now."   Mantra knew how young Kor's mind worked.

23.  From there, Kor with his spear and painted face began prying Mantra for everything he knew.  Mantra stepped seamlessly into the father-role since El Sha had mated for the sole purpose of having children and not to acquire a man. 

24.  Kor kept his discipleship under Mantra a secret because he didn’t want Bri or his mother to trivialize something that was very important to him. 

25.  After several rendezvous in the forest, Mantra showed Kor the wonders hidden inside his cave.  Kor was utterly entranced with Mantra’s mystical artifacts and learned the history behind each item very thoroughly.

26.  Kor absorbed Mantra’s teachings so completely, that Mantra created a syllabus-style pace, so that he didn’t reveal too much too fast or to take too long.  Within a short time, the bond between Kor and Mantra became unbreakable.    

27.  As Kor mastered everything that Mantra could teach, it became time to introduce him to the Society at large.  If Kor thought Mantra was exciting, the entire Society was a sensory overload.  Kor was taken with each new discovery and kept all of it in his heart.

28.  Most important, was that the Society had kept records since the dawning of time.  To Kor, the Secret Society represented everything that was great on Vejhon:  Maybe the members weren’t perfect, but the Society was.

29.  Kor relentlessly impressed the Elders to such an extreme that they allowed him to see the library where the fabled secret scrolls were kept: Their very existence was denied to ward off psionic curiousity. 

33. Those who preserved the records, assumed the function of Priests and removed themselves from society to devote themselves to the mysteries contained.  They absorbed thousands of years worth of wisdom with a single truth:  “He who adheres to wisdom adopts the experience.”   

34.  The scrolls said, "Those so drawn, from Shell would spawn;" those called would administer and preserve the sacred teachings.  Some will heed the call, but one would be ‘the chosen.’ 

35. It was taught that nobody could absorb the content of the scrolls even if they dedicated their entire lives to the task.  The scrolls, however ancient, were comprehensively more advanced than modern art and science -- much of the latter-Dan content was not easy to understand.

36. The scrolls were designed to accelerate the learning curve at each new dispensation, by allowing the new Dan to stand on the shoulders of the old.  The fundamental flaw with wisdom and truth is:  When people lose sight of "why" -- they soon forget "how."   Ritual without purpose is meaningless.       

37. Society Priests assumed the function of embedding ancient truths in society.  In the context of proselytizing, the Priests were psionic missionaries. 

38.  Prospective Society candidates would recognize the truth, even without evidence.  In a psionic world, those who know the truth without evidence are easy to find.   

39. When the day came to approach a prospect, the seed had already been planted.  Then these mysterious Priests suddenly appear at your doorstep and answer all of your most puzzling questions… questions that you never asked because you didn't think anyone was really listening.  There were things you believed to be true, and nobody to talk to about it. 

42. In earlier dispensations, when the ancient Priests began to accumulate too much information, the non-clerical elements in society became suspicious.  The gulf between wisdom and illiteracy widened irreconcilably and forced the Priests underground.  Nobody noticed because the misunderstood element vanished from society.  Out of sight was out of mind.  Careful guardianship was outside the psionic junk realms. 

43. As the Psionic Guard became the means to achieve political ends, the Secret Society evolved to preserve spiritual integrity.  The hatred between them grew so intense that both sides fail to see themselves as two halves of the same paradigm.  Instead, they became definitive polarities within the strata; arch enemies, diabolically opposed, bent on annihilating each other. 

44. Membership in the Society is not about embracing new ideas.  It is a way of life that unveils unchanging machinations in a constantly changing Universe.   Inner peace is derived by accepting one’s place in the Universe as part of a higher consciousness.   

45. Unlike other theological schools of thought, one accepts or rejects the Secret Society, and once in -- always in. 

46. The first lesson that an adept learns is an 8-word litany: "Life through Light and Death, Beauty and Savagery." 

47. When an adept understands that litany, the adept keeps the inscription on their person at all times.  It was written during the first dispensation.  Even when a Society member is arrested, the inscription does not provide the police with clues beyond superstition.  If the arresting officer is a Society member, that officer will quietly release the suspect and expunge their record.       

48. The Society is considered an Art in practice, and personalizing one's "Art" is an expression of higher consciousness.    

49. Many of the Elders, if stripped of their basic tenants in common might wonder if they believed in the same things.  Aside from the core litany and hard facts, the rest is personalization.  The freedom to feel, whatever it is that you feel, is an attractive selling point.  

50. When the rift between spiritual and political factions became violent, the Priests kept political records alongside ecclesiastical events.  That enabled future dispensations to abridge political events with spiritual history.      

51. The library's contents is generally harmless, but some texts, if found in the wrong hands, could potentially alter physics.  For that reason, the library’s existence is denied and special credentials are required to see it.  High rank alone is insufficient.     

52. As a matter of Vejhonian lexicographical significance, there is no etymological difference between "cyonics" (concentrated light) and "psionics" (exosensory attentuation).   Lasers are banned because they can potentially harm the watershell (eco-terrorism).  But transversing the watershell is not a complicated process: You simply enter and exit through a State-controlled checkpoint, and you don't even get wet.       

53. Onimex, on the other hand, prefers the bath.