GATHERING SPOTS:
        Beijing?  Peking?

        NUMBERS: The Red Dragons have just under 100 magi, and there are three to five other societies of Oriental Ceremonialists, a few with around 20 members, one (the Wu Lung) with around 40, and one with around 10.

HOUSE ARI: The LIONS of JUDAH
        Lavim Knesset Yisroel, "Lions of the People of Israel".  Hasidic Hebrew Qabalists, society of guardian magi, formed in 1185 due to severe persecution of Jews.

GATHERING SPOTS:
        PALESTINE
        SAFED -- Perched high above the Sea of Galilee, became Kabalistic center in the 1540s... strove to be the ideal community... walk out into the fields before sunset on Friday, they sing greetings to Shekhinah to welcome the Sabbath...
        JERUSALEM -- Ecstatic Kaballah
        BARCELONA --

        NUMBERS: There are around 25 members of House Ari in the world
 

HOUSE AZOTH / OUROBOROS: The CHILDREN of KNOWLEDGE
        Alchemists once known as the Solificati, or "Crowned Ones".  In the last century this small society of Ceremonialists has fractured into two factions: Traditionalists who demand a return to the devout old ways and disciplined old sciences, and Reformists (usually younger magi) who utilize hallucinogens and modern ecstatic methods of achieving purity and Enlightenment.  Four of the Traditionalists, Masters accorded the title of Solificati, are members of the 12 Solificati who held together after their society disbanded in the 1500s, and they have more than a few allies among the Hermetic Masters.  Aside from these four, however, few of House Azoth follow the old ways.   The Reformists' attempts and spreading alchemical enlightenment throughout the Sleepers was highly influential in the 1960s and again later in the 1990s.  House Azoth has nothing, however, to do with the illegal drug trade, loathing substance abuse as much as the Ecstatics do.  House Azoth has occasionally had dealings with the Oriental alchemists of the Wu Lung.  Like the Technomancers, magi bani Azoth cannot discard their foci.  These magi seek, among other things, a way to reconcile science and magick.  They see themselves as the paradoxical answer to the war of realities between the Order and the Union, and have developed a distinct arrogance from this self-perception.
        Incidentally, those Solificati who joined the Order of Reason in the late 1500s often worked with magi of House Golo who had left Ex Miscellanea, and together they eventually formed the Electrodyne Engineers, from whom later sprung the Ether Scientists and the Virtual Adepts.

        Spheres: Matter, Mind
        Foci: potions, powders, pastilles (tablets set aflame), unguents... possibly astrology, music, light patterns, chalk symbols, special inks

        "Smart drink" bars, nightclubs
        Beta inducers (tech. and Azoth)
        New Age supply stores (workshop/altar in back rooms)
        head shops (workshop/altar in basements)

GATHERING SPOTS:
        SAN FRANSISCO, CA --
        NEW YORK, NY --
        PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC --

        NUMBERS: There are about 100 magi bani Azoth, though many of them reside in the paradisical realm known as Aequipondium.  Only the Masters and Adepts know of this realm, however.  The "Solificati" are well-hidden with help from their Hermetic allies (Bonisagi, Guernicus, and Shaea), but some magi bani Azoth are calling for the Masters to allow the existance of Aequipondium to be known by all magi bani Azoth in order to strengthen the realm's defense and support.  Many Masters worry, however, that the church-mages would hear of the House's continued existance and seek to wipe them out.

 
HOUSE AMBROSIUS: FOLLOWERS of MERLIN
        Claim their magicks are descended directly from Merlinius Ambrosius, through the water-faerie Nimue.  They are split between those who commune with the Great Dragon (a sort of totem for all Britain), and those who use alchemy and blacksmithing to pull the Sword from the Stone (alchemical symbolism for pulling Iron from Ore, a great secret of ancient alchemists in the Bronze Age, and holding yet other secrets of self-Transformation).  Many of the latter faction of the magi bani Ambrosius work occasionally with strange blacksmith faeries on the Isle of Skye, faeries who claim a connection with the sorcoress Scathach, and who have an immunity to cold iron -- unheard of among the fae.  Some Ambrosius magi hint that Nimue imprisoned Merlinius in his Crystal Cave for a good reason... it is said that the Archmagus became such a powerful figure that he somehow threatened the very stability of the earth.

GATHERING SPOTS:
        WINCHESTER, ENGLAND --
        SKYE, SCOTLAND --

        NUMBERS: There are about 15 members of House Ambrosius, 10 of whom work the spiritual paths of The Dragon, 5 of whom work iron on Skye.