Silver Sigil

The Silver Sigil is a fraternal organization of officially recognized, trained, and accredited Strategists, alternatively called "Sigil Bearers" by some. Strategists are specialists who have been trained as administrators or advisers in the philosophy called "The Doctrine of Warfare". Candidate Strategists are trained by the fraternity's Masters, or "named" members. The training of these Strategist falls into three phases. Confirmation, Education, and Reflection (all outlined below). Once a candidate Strategist has completed their training, they are assigned to a guild, order, or military organization to hone their skill with experience, and after they have been recommended by their direct superior to their Master, they are given their name, whereupon they become a Master of the Doctrine of Warfare themselves. Currently, most members of the Silver Sigil work and reside at the War College of Boralus, in Kul'Tiras. Some notable members of the fraternity who currently work with organizations on the mainland are Davrin Wallcroft and Gregory Alberdain.

History of the Silver Sigil
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Organizational Hierarchy
The Silver Sigil is organized in a manner such that only merit is taken into account. Due to this design, senority has little bearing on the organization of the Strategists, and their leadership council is frequently staffed by younger individuals that would be expected of most organizations.

Prospective Candidates:
The Silver Sigil accepts the applications of prospective candidates, occasionally referred to as "hopefuls", without discretion. Any can choose to apply to become a candidate Strategist, however very few will ever be selected for training.

Prospective Candidates are required to pass a series of trials before they can even be considered for training beneath a Strategist. This is done so that the crucially sensitive information in the many books of the Doctrine of Warfare are not needlessly spread to those with dangerous potential. The trials they must pass address their understanding of themselves, of the world, of others, and of the delicate balance that must be maintained in politics and war. Prospective Candidates are given their trial assignments immediately, and have a limited frame of time to complete them. Hopefuls can only ever apply for the selection process once in their life, so the Silver Sigil's teachers in the War College often advise would-be applicants to gain experience in war first and reflect on their recklessness in youth before submitting their applications.

Candidate Strategists:
Men and women whose applications are accepted by a Master can then begin their study of the Doctrine of Warfare under their Master as a would-be vocational apprentice. Almost immediately after their acceptance, Candidate Strategists are made to take their Oaths (outlined below) to ensure their training does not lack direction. During the process that follows, a Candidate's days can include many forms of rigorous training: from philosophical studies, to etiquette instruction, to rigorous memorization from the Manuals, and even to arms training or sparring. The expectation of this training is to produce humble, clever, and cunning Strategists who may then go on to prove themselves in an actual military institution.

Unlike the process of the Hopefuls during their trials, Candidates may take as long as they require to become Strategists. They may resign their candidacy themselves, or may be permenantly dismissed from their training by their Master.

Strategist:
After a Candidate has gone through an amount of training deemed sufficient by their Master, they are invited to either serve at the War College or to join an official organization of some sort on the mainland in order to prove their newfound skill and knowledge. These Strategists may work for any sort of Order they choose with the exception of criminal organizations, and can progress to the next phase of their training once their superior in that Order sends word to their Master that they are satisfied with the work of their Strategist.

Master Strategist (aka Named Strategist, Sigil Bearer):
Upon being called back to their Master from the College or an unaffiliated organization, the Strategist is proclaimed finished with their formal training. They are given the title "Master", they are given their ornamental hat and cloak clasps, all adorned with the Silver Sigil's emblem, they are given the right to train a Candidate Strategist, but perhaps most importantly (and symbolically) they are given their name. Their name proclaims them as a brother/sister to all members of the Silver Sigil, and serves as their epithet as it would a Knight. It is in this regard that Master Strategists are often referred to as "named strategists" or "sigil bearers" as opposed to simply being self-proclaimed.

The Circle:
The Circle is the leadership council for the Silver Sigil. It appoints its own members and has no maximum capacity. The Circle was originally called the Council of Masters, but was given the name by Sigil Bearers as an honorary nickname. They refered to the actual shape of the fraternity's sigil itself, claiming that the interwoven triad was held to balance by the circle that runs through it. This nickname became the official name of the council two years before the start of the new calender (P.C.), just before the Dark Portal was opened.

Seated members of the Council decide on nothing more than internal policies and rules about application procedures, since all Named Strategists are given almost full autonomy in how they conduct themselves after their training. However, were the Council to request that a member of the Silver Sigil do something in particular, it would be unheard of for their request or counsel to go unheeded.

The Doctrine of Warfare
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