Mějaiyüt

The Mějaiyüt - also known as Speakers of the Arcane Tongue - was an Ancient Lizardman organization, considered to be the spiritual predecessors of the Mages Guild by many - which is contested by many, as the Mějaiyüt included more than just magicians - their ranks also included philosophers, theologians, poets, archeologists and historians, and during their actual existence, they were characterized more by than their practice of Arcane Magic. Despite this, the group somehow still came to be (arguably mistakenly) remembered by future generation as pioneers of magic education and predecessors of the Mages Guild.

Name
The organization was known by several names, but the most widespread one was Mějaiyüt, which varied accross the ages:
 * Me` Dzrai Ut (Archaic Lizardman)
 * Mě Jai Ywüt (Early Classical Lizardman)
 * Mě Jai Ywüt (Late Classical Lizardman)
 * Mě Jai Yüt (Common Continental Lizardman)

The three words literally mean "secret-language-people" or "arcane-language-people" - or more precisely, "People of the Arcane Language". Though, the meaning of the first two words, "me`dzrai" / "mějai" eventually morphed from "arcane language" to "(the art of) magic" - thus, it could be argued that "Me`dzraiut / Mějaiywüt / Mějaiyüt" was also used to mean "people of magic", or just "magicians". Despite its name, the organization wasn't particularly secretive - it was open to inquisitive recruits, and many influential people within the empire came to be publicly known as its members during the group's height.

Philosophy
The Mějaiyüt's philosphical and religious views are best described in opposition to the established religious zeitgeist of the time: most Lizardmen were polytheistic, believed in an opposition between chaos and order, associated deities with either order or chaos, and usually believed in a balance between order and chaos. In contrast, the Mějaiyüt had a belief best described as a hybrid between monotheism and pantheism. Instead of a constant divine struggle between order and chaos, they believed in a struggle between light and dark - however, instead of choosing one side, they too believed in a balance between the two.

The Mějaiyüt believed split the spirituality into "dark" and "light" aspects, associating struggle, selfishness and passion with darkness, compassion, group identity and altruism with the light - however, instead of picking one side, they decided to "embrace the best of both worlds", creating a "superior gray morality". They promoted the idea of "teaching man to fish instead of giving man fish", transcendency and self-sufficency. While they did not completely deny altruism, they were against cheapening the struggles of others, under the belief that struggle builds character, and one struggles hard for what they truly love. Still, they also opposed senseless violence, and believed that co-operation and group identity is what sets the superior man apart from animal.

Eventually, the Mějaiyüt splintered into three parts, with three different philosophical outlooks:
 * The Green Mějaiyüt - the weakest group of the three offshoots - kept true to the principles of the original Mějaiyüt philosophy, even in the face of circumstances making it harder and harder to stay true to them.
 * The Yellow Mějaiyüt decided to embrace the light, operating charities and helping those afflicted by war in the declining Lizardman Empire. They embraced altruism and selflessness, and believed that ego death was the only road to transcendence.
 * The Purple Mějaiyüt decided to embrace the darkness, rejecting altruism and fully embracing passion, egoism, will to power and utilitarianism. They were also early pioneers of Necromancy.

Foundation
The Speakers of the Arcane Tongue officially came into existence in 5153 BEKE, founded after a rather large group of Lizardmen attended a council in the capital city of Qassam. This council was attended by people of a diverse variety of professions: magicians, dissident clerics, soldiers, philosophers, even some common folk. They were united by religious dissent and distaste towards the religious establishment, which - from their points of view - failed to provide adequette answers to the changing world. After the council, the order was officially formed, with the majority of attendants becoming founding members and agreeing to financially contribute to the creation of a guild hall, where they could all come together and discuss religious and philosophical matters.

After its founding, the order began quickly recruiting: in the stagnating empire, many found this alternative philosophy attractive, and thus, even several influential politicians and noblemen came to be members of the organization. And its pre-revival height, the order was so popular, that even the Emperor was sympathetic towards them - though, he still refrained from making their religious views part of the state religion, out of fear of offending the establishment, which still accounted for the majority of imperial souls.

At several points, the Mějaiyüt clashed with the establishment, which at multiple times attempted to suppress the group. Despite the order having no intentions of violently overthrowing the religious establishment, its members often faced harrassment, and violent altercations between those loyal to the stablishment and those following this new path were somewhat common. But even that could not stop the spread of the new way, as they built closed churches protected by trained battlemages, where they could congregate and pray in peace.

Decline and revival
Eventually, the original Mějaiyüt lost its steam. For unknown reasons, people came to lose interest in the order's philosophy, or people simply became disinterested in being actively commited to such a group. Over the next centuries following their first peak, the order gradually faded into obscurity, as most members became lapsed, losing thier interest in active commitment. While the group was never officially disbanded, it became a shell of its former self, until it was revived.

Around three centuries before the order's final dissolution, it was revived, with a rather bad timing: the order was conveniently revived during a time of high sectarianism and religious dissent, with many people becoming completely disillusioned in the religious establishment, thus looking for answers in the form of religious cults: new and old alike, such as the revived Mějaiyüt.

Golden Age
And thus, the order's true Golden Age was roughly between 3700 BEKE and 3650 BEKE, when its membership was at its peak, easily outcompeting just about every religious cult in the Empire at the time - including the religious establishment. However, even during this supposed Golden Age, decline of the Empire had its effect on the group, with cracks starting to form.

Fragmentation and decline
In the closing decades of the 37th century BEKE, the group suffered major divisions - while previously, they could keep members commited to a balance between light and dark, many were starting to believe, that it was not good enough anymore. A lot of members believed, that in those dark times, the light needs to embraced, along with its altruism and unity, to preserve the Empire - others believed that the correct answer to the Empire's ills was to embrace the will to power of darkness, and crush all opposition violently. Those who sought to preserve the original, authentic philsophy of the Mějaiyüt were in minority - thus, a three-sided civil war broke out between three offshoots of the original Mějaiyüt:
 * The Green Mějaiyüt - the weakest group of the three offshoots - who insisted on keeping true to the principles of the original Mějaiyüt philosophy, even in the face of circumstances making it harder and harder to stay true to them.
 * The Yellow Mějaiyüt - the strongest group of the three offshoots - who decided to embrace the light, operating charities and helping those afflicted by war in the declining Lizardman Empire.
 * The Purple Mějaiyüt, who decided to embrace the darkness, rejecting altruism and fully embracing passion, egoism, will to power and utilitarianism. They were also early pioneers of Necromancy, and were led by Khardung the Destroyer.

This civil war led to the deaths of many members of the old group, much bloodshed in Lizardman cities, further weakening the Empire. The Green Mějaiyüt were completely eradicated. The Purple Mějaiyüt were defeated by the Yellow Mějaiyüt and thus expelled to the Insular Lizardman Empire, but the Yellow Mějaiyüt didn't linger on for much longer either, as it was eventually eaten up by various rival sects who blame the empire's decline on them.

Dissolution
By 3622 BEKE, the Green Mějaiyüt, the Yellow Mějaiyüt were capitulating and arranging their own dissolution, while the Purple Mějaiyüt decided to reorganize under a different name. Thus, by 3622 BEKE, the Mějaiyüt ceased to exist.

Caught between in the crossfire between the Yellow and Purple, the Green Mějaiyüt were completely eradicated at least a few decades before 3622 BEKE. The Yellow Mějaiyüt were eaten up by various rival sects who blamed them for the decline of the Empire. The last remnants of the Purple Mějaiyüt who fled to the Insular Lizardman Empire reorganized under the leadership of Khardung the Destroyer, but they rejected their Mějaiyüt heritage, and picked a new name for themselves: the Order of the Bone.

Legacy
3755 years after the organization's dissolution, their legacy would be largely coloured by their association with the Mages Guild - the guild claims that the Mějaiyüt were their spiritual predecessor, and the Mages Guild claims that it continues the Mějaiyüt's mission of spreading knowledge of Arcane Magic and teaching how to use that power responsibly. However, they did not embrace all of the Mějaiyüt's heritage and legacy - while the Mějaiyüt were a diverse order that also included amongst its ranks poets, philosophers, historians and theologians, the Mages Guild decided to focus almost completely on magic, expecting all members to have at least some aptitude with the arcane, even if they decided to serve the order as chroniclers. Additionally, the Mějaiyüt was characterized the most by rather than the practice of magic - the Mages Guild elected to merely superficially embrace some portions of the Mějaiyüt philosophy, as most of the defunct organization's philosophy was clearly at odds with the religious views of the various Elven peoples who founded the Mages Guild.