Tradition Info: Verbena

Verbena in Myths & History
In Europe, during the Mythic Age, one of the primary divides was between the wealthy and formally educated members of the Order of Hermes and the Celestial Chorus, and the Verbena, who were generally poorer and had less access to formal education.

Both during the Mythic Age and during the first centuries of the Order of Reason, members of the Order of Hermes and the Celestial Chorus talked about the difference between their own High Magic and the Low Magic of the Verbena, and other supposedly "primitive" traditions like the Dreamspeakers. The magic of the Verbena was characterized as "hedge magic" "folk magic" and in many similar ways.

However, far more recently Mages outside of the Verbena have realized that the reality of this Tradition is far more complex. The first Verbena seem to have been Mages who drew their power from the power and the mythic threads related to the Fae, the Hedge, and Arcadia. Some of the most ancient Verbena rotes share similarities with the Contracts used by Changelings and the Gentry. However, since this time, the Verbena have also accumulated a wealth of similar knowledge. Some of it is derived from interactions of Changelings and the Gentry, the rest largely comes from stories and myths.

In many of the earliest human stories, the difference between Witches and the Fae were exceedingly unclear, and the Verbena became these Witches. Just as the power and magic of stories is associated with Arcadia and the Gentry, it is equally associated with the power of the Verbena. Members of the Order of Hermes and the Celestial Chorus saw the Verbena as the Mages of the common, uneducated people in large part because the stories of magic that gave power to the Verbena largely came from tales told by these same common people.