The Ravens’ Club (Club des Corbeaux) is an esoteric society of thirteen members in Uchronic Paris that records in its ledgers what the official chancelleries refuse to admit into their archives. Its motto is Veritas in umbra latet (“truth lies hidden in the shadow”).
Description
The club meets in an inner Parisian room at a long dark table. Members wear black coats and black ties with dark feathers, the tie serving as emblem. A large ledger lies open, written in iridescent raven ink, beside smaller volumes, a raven quill and candles. A large stained-glass window shows a single raven on a dry branch under the number XIII. Two small plaques flank the room: CLUB DES CORBEAUX and VERITAS IN UMBRA LATET.
Practice
The Ravens do not conspire; they record. Their doctrine: what official power does not record, someone must.
The number thirteen
Thirteen members are attested. The number echoes the thirteenth seat of the Game of Shadows, the vacant throne (in attesa del tredicesimo), and the thirteenth tarot arcanum, Death. Arkos holds, as his own thesis, that the Thirteenth of the Central Black Throne and the Club’s thirteenth member are the same.
Relationships
- Anarchy Café — its counterpart: one table conspires, this one records.
- Corvino — counterpart in the avian trade of Paris: the Club records in raven ink, Corvino dispatches by pigeon what the chancelleries do not control. Both are houses of the 18th arrondissement.
- Lady of the Ravens — a shared name, a different operation.
- The Regulators — possible contacts; no direct meeting is confirmed.