Inner Mysteries
The "Inner Mysteries", (PROSE: "In the Briton camp" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"In the Briton camp","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) also referred to as "the Mysteries" (GAME: "The War Chief" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"The War Chief","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) or "the War Chief's 'mysteries'", (GAME: "Non-Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"Non-Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) were a mystery cult instituted by the War Chief in 43 AD Britain as part of his plot to take over the Roman Empire.
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
Recalling how impressed he had been with the Roman soldiers during the War Games, the War Chief decided to try to take over the Roman Empire itself, and then boost its capabilities with advanced technology so as to take over the entire Earth — hoping to go from there to the rest of the universe. He considered various possible Roman Emperors he might turn into puppets and settled on the weak-willed Claudius.
Ruling that his best shot at discreetly abducting Claudius would be in the chaos of a carefully-orchestrated military operation in the context of the Roman conquest of Britian, he used refitted, hologram- and rho wave-projecting Sontaran recon drones to appear to various Briton leaders as a "divine vision". Posing as a sorcerer, "war god", or both, he created a cult-like alliance of tribes who in established history had not been involved in the fighting, centred around his TARDIS, disguised as a sacred oak tree in the Sacred Wood. Important leaders were "initiated into the Mysteries", where the War Chief subjected them to hypnotic processing which "made them see their surroundings as he wished, and left them unwilling to question his pronouncements", (GAME: "The War Chief" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"The War Chief","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) preventing them from seeing the various hypnotised Roman captives he also kept by his side in the Woods. (GAME: "In the Briton camp" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"In the Briton camp","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"})
Princess Branimandua, however, was never initiated into the "mysteries", (GAME: "In the Briton camp" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"In the Briton camp","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}, "Non-Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"Non-Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) as the War Chief had not realised how much of a following this "princess of a distant realm" had among other leaders, nor how willful and inquisitive she could be. (GAME: "The War Chief" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"The War Chief","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) She learned of the holographic messages through her sister, who was betrothed to one of the Briton leaders who received personalised messages, and journeyed to the meeting place with her own warriors, eventually sneaking into the Sacred Woods and discovering the truth. (GAME: "Non-Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"Non-Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}, etc.)
Eventually, however, the pulse-wave caused in the Time Vortex by the energy the War Chief was redirecting from the Eye of Harmony to power the hypnotic equipment was detected by the TARDISes of one or more Renegades, who may have included any of the Third Doctor, the Colonel and Leora, as well as their various companions. With the help of Roman Tribune Marcus Cornelius Falco and Briton princess Branimandua, the time-travellers eventually uncovered parts of the War Chief's scheme. Eventually, they made their way to the Sacred Wood, only to be captured by the War Chief. However, he tarried in subjecting the humans to the hypnotic process, giving them time to mount an escape. In the ensuing fight, they managed to destroy the hypnotic controls, releasing all the War Chief's brainwashed soldiers from his control and freeing the imprisoned Vespasian. In all likelihood, however, the War Chief himself managed to escape, either making it back to his TARDIS after narrowly escaping a gunshot from the Colonel's companion Roderick Mitchell, or else being cut off from his TARDIS's control but escaping in a SIDRAT he had stored in one of its rooms. (GAME: The Legions of Death [+]Loading...["The Legions of Death (game)"])
