Scroll & Key

## Attributes

### Motto

Have Power on this dark land to lighten in, and power on this dead world to make it live

### Known for

Portal magics

Motto

**Scroll & Key** is one of the Ancient Eight. It is the second oldest society and was established in 1842. Members of Scroll and Key are colloquially called the Locksmiths. They specialize in *duru dweomer*, or astral and etheric projection and portal magic.

## Book Information

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

* *Motto*: Have Power on this dark land to lighten in, and power on this dead world to make it live.
* *Teachings*: Practices Duru dweomer, portal magic. Astral and etheric projection.
* *Famous Alumni*: Dean Acheson, Gary Trudeau, Cole Porter, Stone Phillips.

### Magic and Influence

The Locksmiths specialize in *duru dweomer*, or astral and etheric projection and portal magic. The Locksmiths historically have used portal magic to travel big distances or enter secure buildings.

The origins of the Scroll and Key's magic, portal magic, was stolen during the Crusades from Middle Eastern sorcerers. This issue is debated by scholars the Locksmiths themselves, who argue that they have come by their magics by honest means. In any case, they generally disregard their magics true origins, referring to their branch of the arcane as *duru dweomer*, a term derived from Middle English; d*uru* meaning door or opening, and *dweomer* from *dweomercræft*, roughly meaning magic or sorcery. Portal magic as a general craft is very versatile, allowing one to summon object(s) from far away using a telescope portal and even summon a person's body to an early version of itself.

### Tomb

The exterior of the Scroll and Key tomb is influenced by Middle Eastern architecture, an homage to the true origins of their power. The exterior architecture consists of golden Moorish screens and dark-striped bands against light-colored stone that emphasized symmetry. In the Scroll and Key courtyard, there were enchanted orange trees that bore fruit year-round. These trees were taken from the Alhambra, the fortress palace in Andalusia, Spain and monument to 13th century Islamic architecture.

In contrast, the interior of the tomb is dedicated to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round table. As part of their homage to Arthurian legend, there are inscribed quotes all around the tomb from Lord Alfred Tennyson's series of poems "Idylls of the King." There is even a round table at the heart of the tomb. The table said to be from Avalon, while others claim the Temple of Solomon and some say Stony Creek, Connecticut. The society's motto, also inscribed on the tomb, originates from the first poem, The Coming of Arthur.

## History

Scroll and Key was founded in 1842. The violent consumption of Paoletta DeLauro's soul in 1869 created the nexus on which the Kingsley Trust Association constructed tomb of Scroll and Key.

### Ninth House

It is agreed by Lethe affiliates that the magic of Scroll and Key has been waning for some time. Lethe has speculated that portal magic as conducted by Scroll and Key is so disruptive that it has been eroding the power nexus their tomb is built on.

Scroll and Key tapped Colin Khatri at the start of his senior year. Colin and other Locksmiths would set out to solve the problem of Scroll and Key's waning portal magics. Utilizing his connection to Blake Keely, Colin breaks society rules by recruiting outsiders Tara Hutchins and Lance Gressang to make psilocybin in Yale's greenhouse—creating a drug that could facilitate the opening of portals. Tara found success where Colin couldn't, distilling the mushrooms and creating working portal tabs. However, the portal tabs still depended on the use of Scroll and Key's nexus to travel big distances.

The Locksmiths hid their actions from Lethe House, at Alex Stern's first encounter with Scroll and Key, the society would purposefully fail their attempt at a portal to Budapest, Hungary, even go so far as to cancel a scheduled Thursday ritual—much to Darlington's suspicion.

## Known Members

* Colin Khatri
* Robbie Kendall

## Real World Information

### Scroll & Key Society at Yale

The Scroll and Key Society is a secret society, founded in 1842 at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut. It is one of the oldest Yale secret societies and reputedly the wealthiest. The society is one of the reputed "Big Three" societies at Yale, along with Skull and Bones and Wolf's Head. Each spring the society admits fifteen rising seniors to participate in its activities and carry on its traditions.

### HISTORY

Scroll and Key was established by John Addison Porter, with aid from several members of the Class of 1842 (including Leonard Case Jr. and Theodore Runyon) and a member of the Class of 1843 (William L. Kingsley), after disputes over elections to Skull and Bones Society. Kingsley is the namesake of the alumni organization, the Kingsley Trust Association (KTA), incorporated years after the founding.
 Lyman Hotchkiss Bagg wrote that "up until as recent a date as 1860, Keys had great difficulty in making up its crowd, rarely being able to secure the full fifteen upon the night of giving out its elections." However, the society was on the upswing: "the old order of things, however, has recently come to an end, and Keys is now in possession of a hall far superior...not only to Bones hall, but to any college-society hall in America."

### TRADITIONS

* At the close of Thursday and Sunday sessions, members are known to sing the "Troubadour" song on the front steps of the Society's hall, a remnant of the tradition of public singing at Yale. The song (written in the 1820s by Thomas Haynes Bayly) was recorded by Tennessee Ernie Ford on his 1956 album, "This Lusty Land", as "Gaily the Troubador".
* In keeping with the practice of adopting secret letters or symbols such as Skull and Bones' "322," Manuscript's "344," and the Pundits' "T.B.I.Y.T.B," Scroll and Key is known to use the letters "C.S.P. and C.C.J.".
* Members of the society sign letters to each other "YiT", as opposed to Skull and Bones' "yours in 322".
* Outside of its tap-related activities, the society has been known to hold two major annual events called "Z Session"

### Trivia

* Gifts to Yale :In addition to financing its own activities, Scroll and Key has made significant donations to Yale over the years. The John Addison Porter Prize, awarded annually since 1872, and in 1917 the endowment for the founding of the Yale University Press, which has funded the publication of The Yale Shakespeare and sponsored the Yale Younger Poets Series, are gifts from "Keys".

## Trivia

* Darlington likes the architecture of Scroll and Key the most.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Ninth House Chapter 21 (Winter)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Ninth House Chapter 16 (Winter) Lethe Days Diary
3. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/duru#Old\_English
4. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dweomercraft
5. ↑ Ninth House Chapter 7 The Il Bastone Library works with a telescope portal
6. ↑ Ninth House Chapter 10 (Last Fall)
7. ↑ *Ninth House* Chapter 29 (Early Spring)
8. ↑ *Ninth House* Chapter 24 (Winter)
9. ↑ *Ninth House* Chapter 6 (Last Fall)
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Wikipedia:Scroll and Key. Retrieved on 2021-07-03.