According to legend now authenticated by discovery of the Sattva Codex, humanity's quest for truth before the Butlerian Jihad had degenerated into a passion for accumulating and storing facts and data. This obsessive activity was encouraged and implemented by the machine mentality which dominated the times. With machines for testing veracity, men no longer searched within themselves for the eternal verities, the reality behind the illusion that is the phenomenal universe. In reaction to this soul-parching tendency, the Holy Council of Nine was formed as a sacred body of Reverend Mothers whose command of trulhtrance imbued them with the power of Truthsayers. The Truthsayers were to represent the spiritual school of the Sisters, acting as their heralds and as the guardians of the Sacred Way to Truth. These holy Reverend Mother Truthsayers were responsible for the restoration and preservation of those qualities, characteristics, and objectives identified with the human cause. The Nine were to investigate the nature of humankind continuously, its customs, practices, societies, passions, weaknesses, and instincts, as well as to assess its cosnlic destiny. To realize so monumental a task, each member of the Council had to have concentrated imagination, auda- TRUTHSAYER TRUTHSAYER cious conception, savage intention, unbridled psychic sensitivity, and iron will, qualifications then tempered and honed to suit the objectives of the Council The special abilities of the Truthsayer supposedly were inherited through Mother Jehanne from the Great Mother (who was reputed to know all dungs in themselves) Accordingly, only a Thithsayer could properly identify those qualities m one of her Sisters, since the art of divining falsehood was vouchsafed only to a handful of the Elect Reverend Mothers at any one time, led by die Holy Mother, Head of the Cogita Vent Council The Mater Cogita Vera, who retained the privilege of naming her own successor, served as Patroness of the Council and acted as the model of excellence and integrity, an example of dignity and the triumph of grace and intelligence Since the call to become one of the Council was a heavy burden of responsibility, placing inordinate demands physically, mentally, and spiritually on a woman, the Patroness also served as arbitrator, moderator, and adjudicator, and counsellor Though, ideally, these members would be without malice and envy, joined as they were in a mission requiring cooperation and obedience, in fact mere were occasions when the Patroness would be required to intercede Whenever she detected untoward ambition, her responsibility was to redirect it, all the while encouraging and deepening each Truthsayer's dependency on her leadership All documentation relating to the Council of Nine blurs the occasional defection of a member, whether that desertion was attributable to psychological instability, pol