Order of Aetherion

Order of Aetherion
Type	Student organization (formerly occult order)
Founded	Pre-1900s (Boston); reconstituted at ETC c. 2000s
Leader	Unknown
Headquarters	Eastern Tsuga College, Verdant, Connecticut
Affiliation	None established; outside the Pantheon Pact
Members	Unknown; ETC students
First appearance	Making the Grades: Allie's Descent

About

The Order of Aetherion at Eastern Tsuga College is a student organization whose members use an ancient name without any knowledge of what it means or where it came from. The organization reconstituted at ETC in the 2000s, decades after the original Order of Aetherion collapsed with the death of Elias Roarke in 1929. Its current members have no idea their organization was once a Boston occult order dedicated to industrializing magic, no idea that their last real leader died in the town they attend university in, and no idea that The Darewright Jar, an artifact the original Aetherion created, is currently circulating on the ETC campus.

The Order of Aetherion operates entirely outside the Pantheon Pact, consistent with the historical organization's status as an outsider that never aligned with Verdant's established occult infrastructure.

The name

The modern organization uses the name Aetherion the way people use inherited words they have stopped understanding. No current member is known to have investigated the name's origins. The historical Order of Aetherion was a Boston occult order founded before 1900 whose philosophy was that magic should be industrialized and bound into portable artifacts rather than tied to bloodlines or natural forces. Its primary goal was the acquisition and weaponization of The Hemlock Veil.

The modern ETC organization shares the name and nothing else.

History

The original Order of Aetherion was founded in Boston before 1900 and operated under Elias Roarke's leadership through the 1910s and 1920s. After Roarke moved to Verdant in 1925 and was killed in 1929 by Marguerite Delacroix, the organization collapsed. It fractured through the 1930s and dissolved entirely over subsequent decades.

By the 2000s it had reconstituted at Eastern Tsuga College as a student organization. The mechanism of reconstitution, whether someone rediscovered the name, whether the organization traced a lineage, or whether the name was simply adopted independently, has not been established in canon.

Modern organization

The modern Order of Aetherion is a social fraternal organization at ETC. It operates off the Pantheon Pact framework entirely, meaning it has no access to the Pact's tribunal system or accountability structure and no formal relationship with the six organizations that do.

Known activities include themed social parties. In Making the Grades: Allie's Descent, member Marty Cavendish invites Allie Branigan to a "Dogs and Cats" themed party, described as an attempt to broaden attendance after previous themes had alienated students. Cavendish himself had suggested an X-Men theme; he was overruled.

Known members

Marty Cavendish

Martin "Marty" Cavendish is the first named member of the modern Order of Aetherion to appear in any SSU work with a speaking role. He is an ETC student who hosts a novelty and comedy music show on Hemlock Veil FM inspired by Dr. Demento. He has been pursuing Allie Branigan since freshman year, having misread a Weird Al Yankovic concert invitation as a date. He invited Allie to the "Dogs and Cats" party in the events of Making the Grades: Allie's Descent. Whether he has any knowledge of the Order's deeper history or the significance of the name has not been established.

Connection to the broader SSU

The modern Order of Aetherion is one of the SSU's most significant slow-burning threads. The organization carries a name with enormous historical weight, operates in the same town where its last real leader was killed, and has no idea any of this is true. The Darewright Jar, an artifact the original Aetherion created and deployed, is currently circulating on the ETC campus as a drinking game. Whether anyone in the modern organization will begin to realize the name means something, and what happens when they pull on that thread, is an open development question.

Distinction from the historical Order

This page covers the modern student organization at ETC. For the historical Boston occult order, see the history section of Elias Roarke and Nathaniel Ashmore, and the Order of the Hemlock page for context on the ideological conflict between the two organizations.

Canon notes

The full membership of the modern organization has not been established
The mechanism by which the organization reconstituted at ETC has not been established
Whether any current member has investigated the name's origins has not been established
Whether the modern organization has any functional connection to the original's occult history has not been established
The organization's house or meeting location at ETC has not been specified