Ahl-i-Batin

Ahl-i-Batin

Sobriquet – Subtle Ones

The Ahl-i-Batin, or Subtle Ones, are living embodiments of the highest accomplishments of Muslim culture - philosopher-naturalists who seek the hidden Unity that underlies all things. Masters of the intricate patterns that make up God's creation. The Ahl-i-Batin fulfill a variety of functions in their native lands: scientists, explorers, diplomats and even assassins when necessary.

The Subtle Ones use their remarkable understanding of connections to move about as few mages can, seeing and doing things that others can not. Possessing knowledge of interest to all who have magical power, the Ahl-i-Batin are never the less shunned and viewed with suspicion, sometimes even among their own peoples. Their vision, which transcends the here and now and seeks to find commonality in all things, sparks the very divisiveness the Subtle Ones strive to overcome.

No one - not even the wisest sages of the Ahl-i-Batin - knows how old the sect truly is. Tradition among the Batini holds that their history stretches back untold thousands of years into the past. There is no proof of such vintage, but it is held nonetheless for the Subtle Ones believe that the current incarnation of the sect is the re-founding of a much older one that died out millennia before.