The Circle of the Serpent is a conspiratorial faction of the uchronic cosmos, active from before 1901 into later chronomantic arcs. It is an operative brotherhood that recruits among decadent nobility, diplomatic agents and figures of ambiguous power.
| Type | Faction |
| Symbol | Silver or golden ouroboros |
| Bases | Paris, Bucharest, Belgrade, Serpent Island |
| Opposed by | Time Bandits, Palace of Time |
| Spanish entry | El Círculo de la Serpiente |
Description
Its rituals gather hooded initiates around a round stone table with a silver ouroboros at its center; the initiates bear astrological sigils on their palms. No face is shown: initiates must not recognize one another outside the chamber. In its doctrine the ouroboros stands for Time consuming itself in an alchemical, not apocalyptic, sense: the cosmos digesting itself under control. An older map depicts the Circle as an ink octopus embracing the world from the north, one tentacle per sea.
History
Paris
The Circle manipulated Prince Vivescu: “the Serpent” (a single figure or a collective) offered him riches for information and for the murder of the Serbian vice-consul. It tried and failed to poison the Time Bandits in a tavern, and controlled its agents through dosed substances and promises. Its field allies were the underworld thugs Cornablue and La Salud, with unknown others in Serbia and Bucharest.
Bucharest and Belgrade
In Bucharest the cell was run by the vampirized Apis and Natalia Petrovna; in Belgrade, Apis was held captive. The Circle recruits vampires as senior agents and admits the undead despite the doctrinal cost.
Serpent Island
Its last identified stronghold is Serpent Island, a Mediterranean island absent from official charts. There the Lighthouse-Monolith hosts rituals joining Serbian and imperial Russian interests, drawing on shared Orthodoxy, Slavic language and pan-Slavism. Nagas guard the access; chants in Russian came from the upper floor as the group approached.
Relationships
- The Palace of Time, through its Prefects, investigates the Circle on suspicion that “the Serpent” grants time travel in exchange for services, without authorization.
- The Black Hand is a kindred faction; a doctrinal merger is possible.
- The Simultaneous Circle operates above it.
- It is linked to the Kosovo–Sarajevo 1914 chain, a documented temporal transition.
Open questions
- Arkos records a hypothesis: the serpent’s shed skin as timelines “molted” when the Circle acts.
Gallery
