The Schiffer cabal - Traditionalist factions in Mage: The Budapest Urbancrawl, part 1

This is part one in a series of high-level overviews of the 4 main Traditionalist factions in my Mage: The Budapest Urbancrawl campaign.

Spoiler alert

For those not playing with a collaborative world-building kind of troupe style, there might be some traditionally GM-only background material in this post.

Schiffer cabal

The Schiffer villa, the cabal's headquarters

A moderate 'Realpolitik' faction that is attempting a balancing act, forging compromises with both the Technocratic groups, the anti-magic city administration, and the more radical Traditionalist elements, be they native or visiting.
Their chantry is located very close to the Andrássy Rifts at 19 Munkácsy Mihály street - the Schiffer villa that the collective takes its name from, which is a marvellous art deco palace on the inside, and a nondescript little museum building on the outside.
The collective centres around a mechanical Node - essentially a big steam-engine style machine that manufactures Quintessence in an easy-to use solid form. The Node Machine is the invention of an Etherite who was until a recent major falling-out, best friends with the collective's Hermetic leader, and whose own cabal nominally still shares the chantry with the Schiffer group. The high-energy blocks are harvested by dedicated Enlightened and mundane engineers with a 24-7 rota, and distributed as a political favour among mages in the city.
The collective's apparent success at cautiously assertive diplomacy hinges on their leader, a prestigious and world-famous Hungarian composer, who enjoys the full support and all the benefits of the worldwide Order of Hermes magical network.
They also have a non-Enlightened support network to call on - acolytes and servants who run and maintain the villa and the grounds, as well as civil rights NGOs (with non-Enlightened lawyers and activists who are sympathetic to the mystic cause) that are trying to help mages in the city by lobbying, offering legal counsel, and the like.
As might be expected, the collective is widely regarded as wishy-washy sellouts by other Enlightened folk, especially transient 'tourist mages' with no real understanding of local circumstances.