New Sorcerous Societies (CShaH)

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There is nothing to say that the societies listed here are the only ones in the Land of Fate. There may be countless others, hiding in the shadows or acting from behind a facade of mundane respectability. The Brotherhood of the True Flame may actually be a number of separate groups, all working together to mask their true numbers. Anything is possible, and the guidelines that follow will help DMs bring those possibilities to life within their own campaigns.
In designing a new society, make sure that you have a clear idea of the goals and philosophies the group is going to be based upon. Most societies have a very definite goal that they are trying to accomplish, and it is this goal that helps to hold them together. Other societies are representative of strict ideals, codes of behavior, or simple beliefs. Whatever binds the society together, make sure you understand what caused the society to be formed in the first place.
Once you know what your group is to be based on, come up with an organizational scheme that reflects the nature of the group. Fanatics tend to have smaller bureaucracies, as they are driven by the need to complete their goals or adhere to an ideal, and no leader can stimulate them more than their own fanaticism. Groups based around complex goals will have more complex structures, usually a main leader or leading body and at least one set of assistants. There will be a number of support personnel that work with the group, and you should decide the relationship here as well.
If the group's goals are the motivating force behind the society as a whole, then half of the next step is already done for you. Decide what the group is up to and how they are going about it, and spend a few moments noting these things. The more complicated the goals of a society, the more in-depth your notes should be. Remember, the sorcerous societies' goals should reflect their reason for being. It makes little sense for a society that is devoted to the tending of flowers to have world domination as one of their goals.
It should be remembered that elementalists are formed into groups that are always fanatical in their devotion to their cause. These groups are bound together by ideals and a desire to understand a certain elemental province. These groups will have goals and ideals that are not easily understood by outsiders (such as Servitors of the Zephyr). They make the perfect "inscrutable wizards" for campaigns, and their societies will reflect this. Elementalist societies should be harder to find and to reason with than standard sorcerous societies; their ideals can cloud their thoughts and make them act in seemingly irrational ways.
If a sorcerous society is associated with a holy slayer cult or a group of farisans, make sure to note this in your description. A small group with an affiliation to a large group of holy slayers is much more dangerous than a larger society that has no such allies.
Perhaps the most important consideration when designing a sorcerous society is the degree to which the society hides itself. The larger the group, the more well known it should be. As the size of a group decreases, it becomes more obscure and harder to find. This degree of secrecy can play an important role in the interaction of PCs with the sorcerous society. The more secret a society is, the less often they should enter play. While they may be in the background, societies with a high level of secrecy should rarely be brought out into the open. These organizations make perfect ongoing nemeses for groups of characters. The characters may spend years of game time trying to find out who is behind the plots they stumble upon, climaxing with a shadowy battle with the society itself. Even then, the society may not be gone forever, having managed to hide the location of their leaders in order to regroup and strike again when the PCs least expect it.
More well-known groups may have occasional contact with a group of characters, either as enemies or allies. Even here, these groups will not be common. As soon as they become too well known, the mystery of the group is lost and they should be removed from play. This can occur in a number of ways. The society's contact with the characters may result in a security leak. Their enemies will then descend upon the members of the group with a vengeance, removing them from play. Or, the group may decide to come out of the closet, foregoing secrecy in favor of a larger membership. In any case, once a sorcerous society becomes well known, its role changes—and not always for the better.