Order of the Canted Circle

The Order of the Canted Circle was a fraternity on the planet Coruscant, which was one of the oldest and most exclusive social orders in the galaxy, whose members included the most powerful, influential and wealthy beings. Gaining membership was a rare privilege, as on average fewer than a dozen new members were invited each decade, an infinitesimal fraction of the list of waiting elite.
==History==
Founded by a group of influential and wealthy beings on Coruscant during the chancellery of the Galactic Republic's Supreme Chancellor Tarsus Valorum, the Order of the Canted Circle was established as a secret society which observed arcane rituals and gathered in secret to discuss politics and galactic goings-on. During the formative years, the founding members purchased a towering monad in the center of the Fobosi District, which was said to stand in the middle of a volatile lake bed. Seismic activity had tilted the building; while the structure was sound and later restored, the tower's pinnacle chamber floor remained tilted. This "canted circle" that served as a floor would eventually give name to the Order.
Rituals, considered arcane and allegorical, were overseen by a Grand Mage, the leader of the Order. Numbering no more than five hundred members at a given time, inductions of new members were limited to a dozen beings each decade, far short of the number of applicants. Some nine hundred years after its founding, the leader of the Order was a male Gotal Mage who courted the wealthy Muun leader of Damask Holdings, Hego Damask, in an attempt to get him to join which ultimately failed; however, Damask kept an invested interest in the Order and attended many ceremonies, as well as inviting the leader to the secret Gatherings on the Hunter's Moon.
During the Chancellorship of Thoris Darus, Damask was in attendance at the Order's lodge on Coruscant in 52 BBY at the initiation ceremony of Damask's colleague Larsh Hill of the InterGalactic Banking Clan. As the attack commenced, Hill and the other Muuns were decapitated by spinning disks while Damask lost his jaw and a portion of his neck. Drawing on the power of the dark side of the Force Damask, in truth the alter ego of Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Plagueis, managed to hold off the assassins until his apprentice Darth Sidious arrived to end the assault.
After the attack surviving members of the Order kept quiet about the deaths, refusing to speak with investigators or Jedi. Rebuilding, the Order moved its induction ceremonies to the nearby Skydome Botanical building and persevered through the Clone Wars and the rise of the Galactic Empire; even Galactic Emperor Palpatine was inducted into the sacred Order. Reflecting the preferences of the New Order towards male Humans, the Order no longer allowed for aliens to join. Emperor Palpatine used the Order to collect the officials, dignitaries and officers who had proved themselves most useful, continuing the Sith tradition of using the Canted Circle as part of the Sith power struggle. His hand pushed first Rufaan Tigellinus and then Thrawn ahead of the well-regarded leaders waiting in line; Palpatine-sponsored invitations pushed the number of new members to fourteen in just seven years.
After the collapse of the Empire, the Order continued to operate, although its deep ties to a number of high-ranking former Imperial officers made it the target of close observation by the New Republic's secretive Alpha Blue division.
==Rituals==
Many of the Order's rituals were based on Sith rituals, though its members were unaware. Other rituals could be seen as allegorical while others still were as mundane as secret handshakes or code words. During an initiation ceremony, members wore midnight-black velvet robes and were welcomed officially into the Order over the canted circle. A private affair, the ritual was held in the Imperial Palace or Skydome Botanical Gardens during the Galactic Empire. Members bore a pendant of the canted circle that marked their membership, although the group was small enough to make it more of a status symbol than a functional identifier.
==Appearances==
*Darth Plagueis 
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==Sources==
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==Notes and references==
Category:Secret societies