Manuscript

## Manuscript Society

Motto

**Manuscript** is one of the Houses of the Veil and is depicted in Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House. Founded in 1952, Manuscript was Yale's seventh landed senior society. It specializes in mirror magic, illusions and glamors. It's alumni include many famous people related to the arts, film and TV, but also political advisers and some of the greatest minds in neuroscience.

## Book Information

The following information is found in the final pages of Ninth House provided by Leigh Bardugo.

* *Motto*: Dream delivers us to dream, and there is no end to illusion.
* *Teachings*: Mirror magic and glamours.
* *Famous Alumni*: Jodie Foster, Anderson Cooper, David Gergen , Zoe Kazan

### Magic and Influence

Manuscript specializes in mirror magic, illusions and glamors. Their power derives from the manipulation of a person or persons' perception, rather than actual reality bending or transformation. Mirror magic is particular in that it's about reflection and perception, requiring Manuscript to siphon the small acts of deception that occur at a college Halloween party to power their rites for the rest of the year, as charisma and glamor spells need constant maintenance.

It's alumni include Oscar winners and television personalities, but also advisers to presidents, the curator of the New York MET, and some of the greatest minds in neuroscience.

### Tomb

Located on 344 Elm St, New Haven, Manuscript's tomb was built in the style of mid-century architecture (clean lines, lack of ornamentation, open floor plans) that belies its mystery and magic. It's street-facing exterior is described as a grubby white brick wall, with its only ornamentation being a circle only visible in certain angles and light. Despite it's seeming simplicity, the society house has eight subterranean floors and houses one of the best collections of contemporary art in the world.

A lot of Manuscript's traditions is centered within Chinese mythos. Eight in China is the luckiest number, thus the eight secret floor levels. The descending staircase to all eight levels represent the divine spiral. The upper secret levels are set aside for the purpose of culling people's enjoyment of the illusions and are subject to change to Manuscript's whims. The lowest levels (levels 6-8) are where the rites are conducted and maintained. At any given time they have five to ten magics working internationally. The fifth floor marks the central point between the culling rooms above and the ritual rooms below. Discounting the use of illusion magic, the fifth floor is larger than the others, actually stretching under the street and the surrounding houses.

## History

### 1900's

Manuscript was founded in 1952, relatively recently compared to Yale's other landed societies. It is said Manuscript is also the one who has best adapted to the modern times. They built their tomb on a corner of Park and Elm Street, on a church parking lot that was on top of a nexus. This was the result of the consumption of Colina Tillman's soul in 1952, the inherent violence of the act causes a nexus to form.

At some point, Manuscript had enchanted a condom into an object of compulsion, which had convinced a philandering Swedish diplomat to hand over a cache of sensitive government documents.

In 1982, a girl at their annual Halloween gathering ate a drugged food and her mind/consciousness was altered to make her believe she was a tiger. She currently still acts as a tiger. Her behavior was explained away by a mental breakdown, however, Manuscript paid for her care and was suspended for semester from all activity.

### Ninth House

At Manuscript's annual Halloween party, Darlington and Alex Stern walked past the first four floors of the tomb. The first floor resembled the VIP section of a nightclub. The second floor was a green forest that seemed to go on forever. The third floor took shape of a cathedral with a painted high-ceiling and there was a mass orgy, through the aisles and on pews. The fourth floor was a mountaintop arbor, with eternal golden-hour light.

On the fifth floor, the pair met the gathering's Lan Caihe, who identified as a woman. She expressed her disappointment with Lethe's choice of Dante. In a serious breach in rules regarding no society interference against Lethe's representatives, Darlington was drugged by the mist of a fog machine. According to delegation president Mike Awolowo, the intended prank wasn't decided by the delegation as a whole, but because one of the alumni had a grudge against Darlington. Alex eventually agrees to say the drugging was an accident in return for a later favor. As a result, Manuscript had faced nothing but a fine, when otherwise they would have been suspended.  Alex would call on this favor from Mike Awolowo later when she asks him to obscure an explicit video of Mercy Zhao from people's awareness by reversing the Full Cup.

It was discovered that Manuscript delegates sought out a cheaper and less restricted source of Merity. Kate Masters, a member of Manuscript, partnered with Tara Hutchins and Lance Gressang, particularly Tara, to see if they could use the temperature-controlled greenhouses of the university to secretly grow Merity. Unwittingly, Lance would sell the plant to Blake Keely, believing it was bad weed. Manuscript's illicit activities were discovered by Alex Stern after the death of Tara Hutchins. Dean Elliot Sandow planned to punish Manuscript by stripping them of their tomb and giving it to St. Elmo's.

## Magic

* Mind Control
	+ **Merity**, the drug of service. Indicated by a purple tongue from ingesting the substance, it takes a person's will, making them highly suggestible and willing to do whatever requests the giver of the drug makes.
	+ **Starpower**, also known as Astrumsalinas
	+ **Coins of compulsion**, real gold coins enchanted to allow one to control the actions of the coins' receiver through simple commands and make a subject eager to please. Any object can be enchanted this way.
		- Commissioned by Lethe, the coins took a tremendous amount of magic to generate, thus they were kept in tight supply. As Dante, Alex was allotted two coins of compulsion.
* **The Full Cup Ritual**
	+ Society members gathered naked in a huge copper vat, chanting as it filled gradually with wine from beneath their feet. Requires at least four society members to 'build momentum for projects.

### Traditions

At each gathering, a Lan Caihe is chosen and made anonymous to outsiders through the costume of celadon silk robes and golden headdress that also acted as a half-mask. Through the mask, the eyes of chosen Caihe turn white, allowing them to see past every glamor. Lan Caihe is an immortal from Chinese myth who could move amongst genders, allowing both men and women to be Lan Caihe.

### Halloween

The delegation holds an annual gathering in its tomb every Halloween in order to perform a 'culling' that allows them to store energy/magic from the party. Lethe representatives are expected to attend Manuscript's Halloween parties in order to supervise and later report the siphoning of power at Manuscript's nexus.

During the Halloween gathering, the upper levels are designed for subjects to enjoy/ get lost in the illusion magics. These are subject to change. For example, while the second floor was a verdant wood in the events of Ninth House, Darlington notes it was a high desert mesa the year before. While some outsiders are allowed in the first floor, the second floor to the eighth are restricted to alumni and current members. One needs to be wary of ingesting, breathing in, or even touching substances that can be absorbed through the skin, or risk getting drugged or spelled.

The fifth floor contains a long table set up with a banquet. A vast circular mirror nearly two stories high takes up the north-facing wall, which was the vault of the magics collected. The partiers on this floor are masked.

## Known Members

* Kate Masters
* Doug Far
* Mike Awolowo, Manuscript delegation president.

### History

* Founded in 1952, Manuscript is considered a "landed" society, since the alumni trust owns the society's meeting place or "tomb".
* Manuscript was one of the first of the senior societies to offer membership to rising female Yale College seniors.
* Each delegation is selected by consensus among Manuscript alumni, trustees, current delegates and significant others, unlike other Yale societies where undergraduate members more freely select, recruit, and initiate their society's next delegation.
* The Wrexham Foundation is the society's alumni arm. Since 1956, the foundation has underwritten a scholarship in the humanities for a "senior who shall be judged to have written the best senior essay in the field of the humanities." Administered by Yale, it is given in memory of Wallace Notestein, M.A. 1903, Ph.D. 1908, Litt.D. 1951.
* Manuscript is part of a four-society "Consortium" with the Aurelian Honor Society, Book & Snake and Berzelis.
* It holds the number 344 to be sacred.
* The Society holds Enlightenment ideals, and the sun and sunflowers are both important symbols to members.

### Architecture

Designed by King-lui Wu, Manuscript's tomb is mid-century modern, unusual amid other societies' elaborate mid-to-late-19th century buildings. It appears from the outside to have only one level, yet conceals several subterranean floors. The tomb holds a vast collection of notable modern and contemporary art. Wu said that he designed the building "for privacy, not for secrecy." Dan Kiley was responsible for landscaping and Josef Albers for the brickwork intaglio mural.

### Trivia

* Manuscript briefly played host to the 1991-92 classes of Skull and Bones, who were temporarily locked out of their own tomb by alumni who objected to its undergraduates' decision to offer membership to women.

## Trivia

* Leigh Bardugo changed some of Wolf Head's history.
	+ “Most notably, Wolf’s Head built their first hall on Prospect Street in 1884. The new hall on High Street was built more than forty years later"

## Gallery

Manuscript tombDrawing of Manuscript Society House by architect King-lui WuManuscriptJosef Albers' secret circle

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 *Ninth House* Chapter 9 (Winter) - Lethe Days Diary
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 *Ninth House* Chapter 10 (Last Fall)
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 *Ninth House* Chapter 3 (Winter)
4. ↑ *Ninth House* Chapter 31 (Early Spring)
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 *Ninth House* Chapter 15 (Winter)
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 *Ninth House* Chapter 24 (Winter)
7. ↑ Ninth House Chapter 30 (Early Spring)
 Manuscript on Wikipedia
9. ↑ Ninth House Acknowledgements section