Followers of UmbraX°

The Followers of UmbraX°, also known as the Summer-Baldwin Cult, "Seekers of the Tenth Degree of Shadow", and the "Selective Hypocrites of God", were a strange, ritualised family cult, mostly composed of certain members of the Summer and Baldwin families from Worcester, Massachusetts. They were known as devout Catholics to most, but in fact had a secretive, strangely polarising second-life as dark magi, whose goal it was to try and seek and then find ways of resurrecting the body of a one UmbraX°, also known as "Umbrax" and "He, the Tenth Degree of Shadow." As such they were directly linked to, but remained a separate and private group to Dawnshadow.

### **History**

It's uncertain how far back growth of those involved in the current cult goes, but guesses by runaway gunmage Jane Baldwin may point to the 1960's, with the marriage of Moira Summer to Edward Baldwin; Jane's grandparents, in 1961, the two were from strong Catholic backgrounds, but also magi, although not particularly well-versed in any form of magic, in any case with their faith repressing any desire or nod towards their potential to learn real magic.

When Moira and her brother Steven, who was not a magi himself but interested in the Summer family's unusual hidden collection of books, began researching the dark stories of a one "Umbra the Tenth Degree" or UmbraX°. At first Moira forbad it, but Steven took a secretive interest in it too, with an urge to try out at least a basic spell that he discovered in a grimoire. The spell wold allow the mage to create a shadowy helper, at their command, but Edward soon discovered that simply speaking it did not make it so and Steven was, apparently, without any tuning potential and so could not actively preform magic. He had to learn more about what tuning was, his and his wife's potential and learn to sense mana. As this took years, Edward mislead Moira as he practiced and studied with Steven in an abandoned boathouse on the edge of a dried-up lake the woods; eventually Steven became his best friend.

In 1965 Edward finally learned to summon a shadow construct at his command out in the nearby woods, however the imp would not do as he asked, and it attacked and almost killed Steven, but managed to banish it to lifeless shadow once more using a counter-spell. When Moira asked how this happened, Steven told the truth, but asked him not to blame Edward.

At first Moira excommunicated Steven and was furious with her husband, especially considering that by then they had a one-year-old son, James.

But Moira's father Joe Summer, also demonstrated the same spell, however his imp was stable and controlled; Joe explained he believed the gift to tune was from God, and the 'demon' he summoned was no more than natural shadow given substance by the universe's mana and 'life' from a portion of Joe's own aura. Nevertheless it was later Tabitha Baldwin, Edward's cousin, who was not herself a magi, who was more fascinated with what she called the "Book of Umbré" the dark mage's own Grimoire that was used by the Dawnshadow Coven to commune with "Gods" and help them seek immortality

Finding this idea deplorable, Moira acted for a swift divorce of Edward, but the family's bonds had already been formed.

TBC