The Council

Leaders of the council gather

**The Council** is a secret society and paramilitary organization based in Academy City and plays a major role in *A Certain Magical Divinity.*The Council is a secret organization which is made up of powerful figures such as businessmen, scientists, politicians and other high-ranking figures in Academy City with the goal of overthrowing the Academy City Board of Directors of which all its members believe are holding back Academy City and its true potential.

## Background

On March 4th (year unknown), an unknown scientist had been doing private research free of supervision by Academy City's government which lead to the board of directors shutting his progress down. The scientist had made his plea and was able to make the right case that he was innocent and that his research was completely legal but still lost despite having the necessary steps to win. In response, the scientist had later rallied other people in similar situations and other prominent figures who all believed that the board of directors was corrupt and thus they had all formed the council with the scientist now calling himself The Director.

## Overview

### Organization

The Council is a secret society and as a result, the organization is lead by a very strict set of rules. These rules keep the organization secret and make sure that all known members of the council are kept secret and off the grid with members having limited public exposure.

### Membership

The Council has a very strict set of rules and guidelines when it comes to membership. In order to become a member of the council, the person must be approached by an already active member after being surveyed by the council's leaders and intelligence office. Once the person has joined, they then go through a series of tests and challenges and if they complete them, they take an oath and thus obey all the orders of their superiors. This means that members are dictated what school to attend, place to stay, and people to be during their public exposure and if anyone defies these orders, then the council sends out an enforcer to deal with insubordinate members and is tasked with either killing them or bringing them back depending on what the defector has done.

### Leaving the Council

Once someone joins the council, there's a limited period of time that they have if they are to leave without being killed or branded as a traitor. This time period is usually during the recruitment trails if someone wants to fail, or during their time in school if they fail or decide to drop out. If anyone leaves the council during either of these time periods, then the council will send out spies and enforcers after former members to keep them silent and make sure they don't reveal the organization's existence. If former members do so, then current members are sent in to them and they kill the defectors in response. The only time this isn't the case is if former members are unaware that they joined the council and never knew of its existence such as the case with Ichirou Itsuka and Yumiko Kirishima as they never knew of the council until Aya Kirishima had informed them in secret.

### Hierarchy

The Council has a very strict hierarchy system with many ranks. The highest rank is that of the director who leads the council and is co-lead by councilmen who act as secondary leaders. These men comprise of the Inner Circle, the group of council members who lead the organization from the shadows. Other ranks include executives who act as the overseers of all lower-ranking council members and also manage and run businesses and companies owned and controlled by the council. Below them are the military forces which include enforcers and assassins and below them are other random low-ranking council members.

## Ideology

The Council has a very extremist and militaristic ideology. They seek to eliminate the Board of Directors and are willing to use lethal force to do so. This puts them alongside the Luminous Path in terms of ideology but they disagree on how the council remains secretive and works in the shadows while the Luminous Path is more public and is known to the general public. The Council seeks to reform Academy City and only focus on removing the board of directors and having their leaders take over instead. This means that the council will accept board members simply resigning to the point of the board being forced to dissolve so they can take over while the Luminous Path wants to use military force to take them down.