Bridge Builders Cabal

The Bridge Builders Cabal (橋架結社) is a hidden group of powerful magicians, centered around Alice Anotherbible.

Principles
The Bridge Builders Cabal dwells in the hidden part of the world, and is made up of powerful magicians, each capable of rivalling the regular Magic Side on their own, who have gathered in order to collectively decide how to make the world a better place.

Transcendents
The cabal's members are potent magicians and magical entities from various backgrounds, who refer to themselves as Transcendents (超絶者).

Transcendents have been described as each being powerful enough to rival the regular magic side on their own, such that the Anglican Church and the Roman Catholic Church could not stop with them in the usual way (though the Bologna Succubus briefly noted that some of them might be closer to what the Russian Orthodox Church was used to dealing with).

While the exact nature of their power differs, they are each capable of destroying or changing the world in their own way and each have their own reasons to want to change the world. However, it would much easier for them to wreck a world than creating or protecting one, and if they destroyed a world they wouldn't be able to remake everything they had destroyed afterwards (as a fully-fledged Magic God might be able to do), which is why they gathered together to discuss and agree on how the world needed to change before actually making the changes, so their efforts wouldn't be jeopardized.

They have been described as those who have passed down and provided guidance in magic, a collection of myths and stories that present knowledge at its simplest (which is apparently why their power is strangely missing from records such as those kept by the Anglican grimoire library), and monsters who do not fall purely into the human categories of Science Side and Magic Side. They have been described as each having a legend on the same level as Anna Sprengel, with one reigning above the rest. In a conversation between Anna and Aradia surrounding the subject, letters and notes, texts from correspondence lessons, urban legends, coded, analyzed and rearranged texts, were talked of.

At least some of the Transcendents use 'common tone creation' (共通トーン作成) to translate and synthesize their speech into unfamiliar languages.

During his analysis of the cabal, Aleister Crowley came to the conclusion that the Transcendents were all linked to the Secret Chiefs or Holy Guardian Angels in some way - some by receiving their grimoires or knowledge, some by allowing one to reside in their body, and some by controlling them. Aleister also noted that some of them (e.g. Alice, Aradia and Trismegistus) were connected to his system of Magick, as well as Aleister and Anna's connection to Aiwass. While considering the Transcendents' seals, he noted that they could be a human magician who acquired a spell most wouldn't even consider due to its risks, might never have been human to start with, or in Anna's case, be a cunning priestess who could safely draw on such an abnormal being's power.

Plans and Rules
According to Aleister Crowley's analysis, the Bridge Builders Cabal's ultimate goal and their strategy to achieve it can be grasped through an understanding of his Magick system and the Aeon of Horus, with the gathering possibly meant to create a special existence. Similar to how the position of the moon affects the tides, the precise positioning of the powerful Transcendents may be meant to create something with an otherwise impossible deviation. The Book of the Law states that "every man and every woman is a star" - everything in the world has meaning and is intertwined, and when everyone in the world acts according to their meaning, the world will turn at maximum efficiency. An alternative interpretation mentioned by Anna Sprengel is that anyone is capable of creating a monster or becoming a 'god' (though this would change the definition of the word). Accordingly, if each Transcendent (including Alice) stands at their proper position in their ceremonial ground with a perfect understanding of their role, they can collectively act as a complex device to create something extremely powerful, though the ultimate end result is currently unknown.

Tyrant Alice
When Aradia was guiding Anna Sprengel through their base in an introduction to the group, she told her she was free to do what she wanted, so long as she followed a simple rule - to not upset Alice.

As if simply explaining what she saw as a basic universal law and perfectly reasonable, she advised Anna against the contrarian urge of a magician to do something they were told not to do, not to restrict them or test their courage but out of legitimate concern, saying that there was no point in listing and comparing specifications, and that she could not defeat Alice on a more fundamental level. She also alluded to an incident where Alice got upset and start throwing her things around, somehow leading to water and traces of life on a planet dozens of light-years away which was subsequently discovered and being talked about by the public, describing reality as fickle. Alice was described as pure and innocent but capricious, cruel and violent, such that no one could predict what she would do next.

If Alice wanted something (such as a giant duck), the brilliant magicians in the group would gather, plan and make it, as though critically important regardless of its actual nature. Prioritizing Anna greeting Alice, Aradia said that if Alice gave permission for Anna to stay, the others would not take issue, but also said not to think that she could avoid detection if she did.

Killers and Rescuers
On December 29th, on the suggestions of newcomer Anna Sprengel, Alice visited Kamijou Touma. Her time with him resulted in a change in her which was detrimental to the cabal's plans. The group became divided over how best to address the issue, and as a result became split into two factions; the Killers (殺害派) and the Rescuers (救出派).

The Killers simply wanted to kill the source of the change in an effort to return Alice to normal as soon as possible. The Rescuers wanted to keep Touma alive, at least for the time being, and monitor the situation, deeming it too risky to eliminate him as they didn't know how his death might influence Alice.

Aradia and Trismegistus were on the side of the Killers, while Good Old Mary and the Bologna Succubus sided with the Rescuers. Alice was kept in the dark and didn't learn about the Killers until Touma accidentally let it slip on January 2nd.

Anna Sprengel herself, having instigated the situation and secretly intending to bring down the cabal, did not side with the Rescuers or the Killers. Her manipulations of Alice, aside from impeding the cabal's plans by affecting Alice's behavior and not showing proper respect to Alice,   also revealed the hidden cabal to the world, with Alice's appearances during events on December 29th and the subsequent actions by Aradia two days later. The effects of these appearances, coupled with the Kotatsu Syndrome that Anna had spread, led to the cabal being seen in a negative light by others. By the time of January 2nd, the cabal had decided to immediately execute Anna (at the time sealed away by Anna Kingsford and in the custody of Aleister Crowley) for her betrayal,  with Shrink Drink spiritual items, intended to diminish a Transcendent, prepared and granted to the cabal's execution specialist, Mut Thebes.

Bases
The group's base has been determined by Alice's whims and what has caught her interest, with no other real reason for its form or the group having a single base. In the past, perhaps influenced by an American drama, Alice had created a remote island prison and had been having fun in it until a time still recent when Anna arrived, and Aradia remarked that she might say she wanted an elf forest or a magic school next.

Their current base at the time of December 29th is located in the middle of a rainforest, in one of the few secluded areas still considered inviolable, upstream of a river winding across several national borders. It resembles a modern stadium, with countless bookcases set up in the tiered stands and the central interior flooded, with a 100m cruise ship floating in the middle in which the group lives. There is at least one giant yellow duck roaming around. Rooms in the ship include a kitchen and a bathroom.

At the very bottom of the ship, where modern cruise ships might have a pool or a theater, there is a circular colosseum, with the scents of old paper and a strong oily smell like from animal hide parchment. At the center is a giant throne of gold and red, meant for Alice, with a back likely more than 3 times its intended occupant's height and elevated such that her feet would not reach the floor.

At the start of the new year, following Alice's wishes for a 'secret base' in Academy City (and near Kamijou Touma), the Transcendents used the purchase of the Condroniard Republic and some bureaucratic weaknesses to establish a consulate in School District 12.

The consulate is a white marble building, an uneven mixture of a Western-style mansion and a castle, with a garden and extensive grounds.

The consulate's design draws on elements from, mainly the castle of the , which Trismegistus gave as a highlight of the story. The garden has artifical roses, which like in the story, were originally white but have been painted red. There are out-of-season honeybees present in the garden and grounds, brightly colored yellow and black, as well as teacup and teapot-styled vases and ornaments.

There is a crest on the front of the consulate building and its gates, consisting of a white shield with red hearts of varying numbers in its four quadrants, with a golden knight's helmet and branches on top and a teapot on top of them, a golden lion to the shield's left and a white/silver unicorn on its right, and a banner below it.

Aside from the consulate, the cabal had other hideouts across the globe and can travel freely between them, with not all of its members at the consulate at the time.

Background
Not much is known about the group and its past, though until recently Alice had been having fun in a remote island prison she had created, and an incident in which she got upset was responsible for water and traces of life on a planet dozens of light-years away, which was subsequently discovered and being talked about by the public around the time that Anna was introduced to the group.

Anna Sprengel's comments, coupled with the way R&C Occultics was modelled after the cabal and run to gain a deeper understanding of her target, described as a harmful organization that had taken root in hidden part of world, suggest that the Bridge Builders Cabal may have caused similar harm in the past, either on one of Alice's innocent whims or to advance the Transcendents’ interests, though not so openly cruel as R&C Occultics so the harm remained hidden below the surface.

Los Angeles Arc
On December 26th, around the time that R&C Occultics was destroyed, Anna Sprengel was with Aradia. The two talked about the sacrificial pawn and the change that this would bring about in the new age, along with a brief reference to Alice, before Aradia told Anna that "everyone" was waiting.

Post-Handcuffs Arc
On December 29th, Aradia brought Anna to the group's base, in a cruise ship in a submerged stadium in the middle of a forest, acting as her guide, passing by Good Old Mary snacking on ham in the kitchen and the Bologna Succubus humming on her way to the bath, but was dismayed to find Alice absent when she was going to introduce Anna to her.

Unknown to Aradia, Anna had approached Alice before she was invited and told the bored girl of Kamijou Touma. As a result, Alice had travelled to Academy City and snuck into Touma's home, into his blanket while he slept. She accompanied him during the day's events, and brought her power into play when he was caught up in the Overhunting crash and the subsequent prisoner escape, but ceased after Touma realized what she was doing and told her to return things to how they should be.

After the events surrounding the prison train and the battle in the Vanishing Tunnel (both resulting from the events of Operation Handcuffs) were resolved, with Touma having persisted in not relying on Alice's power, Alice was picked up by Anna and returned to the group's base, where the group were dismayed to find that Alice wouldn't use her power in the way that they hoped she would, due to Touma's influence. Aradia angrily realized what Anna had done, but being restricted by the rule that the group had set, reworked her plan and turned her attention towards Touma as the first problem to deal with.

New Year's Eve Arc
Following the events of December 29th, the cabal was divided as to how to approach Kamijou Touma and the change in Alice, becoming split into two factions; the 'Killers' who wanted to kill the source of the change in an effort to return Alice to normal and the 'Rescuers' who wanted to leave him alive and monitor the situation. Anna Sprengel, the cause of the situation, sided with neither.

On December 31st, Aradia attempted to kill Kamijou Touma, with the Bologna Succubus and Good Old Mary attempting to save him. In the resulting struggle between the Transcendents, which led to people in Shibuya being induced into clashing as witches and witch hunters, the Bologna Succubus received mortal injuries but was saved, while Aradia was eventually defeated by Touma.

Anna was present in the aftermath and tempted to cause more trouble, but before she could do so, she was sealed away by Anna Kingsford, reanimated by Aleister Crowley, who then interrogated her about the Bridge Builders Cabal and Alice Anotherbible, whom he recognized as a product of Magick.

New Year's Arc
By January 1st, in order to fulfil Alice's wishes for a 'secret base' within reach of Touma, the Bridge Builders Cabal, having purchased a small Central American country known as the Condroniard Republic, had exploited a bureaucratic weakness to establish a consulate within Academy City's School District 12. That day, Alice went to greet Touma as he was making his New Year's shrine visit, escorted by Good Old Mary and H. T. Trismegistus.

The next day, having snuck in Touma's bed again during the night, Alice brought Touma, his friends and their captive Aradia to the consulate, still being completed. Being greeted by Mary and Trismegistus on arrival, and after a brief outburst from Alice after learning about the Killers, Touma's group learned about the cabal's intent to immediately execute Anna Sprengel for her betrayal (something which didn't sit well with Touma), presenting Mut Thebes and the Shrink Drinks. The guests stayed for dinner and the night, with several encounters and talks with some of the Transcendents.

On January 3rd, after Aradia was persuaded by Othinus that Touma met her conditions, Touma started to look for a way to convince the cabal not to straight up execute Anna Sprengel. However, they ran into and failed to convince Trismegistus, another one of the Killers, who subsequently decided to kill Touma, striking down Aradia before moving on to the boy, aiming to eliminate him before Alice could notice.

Although Trismegistus managed to behead Touma after pursuing him through the house and garden, enough time had been bought for Good Old Mary to arrive and resurrect him, Touma meeting her own conditions. The two Transcendents then fought at full power, before Alice intervened, intending to punish them both.

Touma's subsequent intervention to prevent her from killing the two and a misunderstanding of intentions led to a falling out between the two. Around the same time, Touma's allies in Academy City were on the move, either moving to save his life or moving against the cabal, with Accelerator having found a loophole in the consulate's legal protections through an organized relocation to School District 1.

The events that followed led to the revived Aradia and then Touma encountering Aleister's group, who had been analyzing the Transcendents on their end, and the sealed Anna Sprengel, who was promptly released and dragged away by Touma, outside the consulate not long afterwards. With the three effectively on the run for the time being, Touma released Aradia's bindings and Anna summoned Aiwass.

Trivia

 * It should be noted that a similar yet different term has been used previously to refer to certain other powerful beings, such as Holy Guardian Angel Aiwass, Great Demon Coronzon, and the Secret Chiefs, referred to as transcendent beings (超越存在).
 * Aleister Crowley would later deduce that the Transcendents were all connected to the Secret Chiefs in some way.


 * In the afterword of , Kamachi Kazuma mentioned that he designed Aradia, the Bologna Succubus and Good Old Mary so one could compare them and make good guesses about the average and basic specifications of the standard Transcendents. He also suggested that after such a comparison, it might be fun to imagine how extraordinary Alice was compared to them for what she did, and what the difference was between a standard Transcendent who could use their charisma to start a cult or riot and Anna Sprengel who created a giant IT company to mess with the world.
 * Additionally, he mentioned how compared to a Magic God, who would be satisfied in creating their ideal world on their own, one could see how the Transcendents had basically ed their diffusion and destruction skills, being capable of destroying everything with ease but being unable to remake it all afterwards, to their irritation. He added that this made them reluctant to play their one and only card when Othinus destroyed the world (as if they killed her in the Black World, they couldn't remake the world like she could) and they were caught up in it and killed as a result.
 * In the afterword of , Kamachi Kazuma mentioned how the Transcendents' idea of mechanically deciding to save anyone who meets their set conditions was the complete opposite of Kamijou Touma, who would reach out his hand even without a reason - something illustrated in the volume itself, in which Kamachi felt he focused more on what makes them unusual, having used examples in Volume 6 to give a baseline for their strength.
 * Kamachi also mentioned, after talking about healer Good Old Mary and her differences compared to Heaven Canceller, that since the cabal was a gathering of Transcendents who carry tremendous destructive power but whose bodies weren't necessarily sturdy enough to withstand that power, that he thought they would have more accidents than a regular magic cabal, and considering Mary's subsequent value to the group.