The Cabal of the Monkey King - Traditionalist factions of Mage: The Budapest Urbancrawl, part 3

This is part three in a 4-part series of high-level overviews of the Traditionalist factions in my Mage: The Budapest Urbancrawl campaign. See previous installments here and here.

Cabal of the Monkey King

Is he really the Monkey King?

The Monkey King (Majomkirály [ˈmɒjomkiraːj] in the original Hungarian), as he (or she?) calls themselves, is by far the most mysterious magickal inhabitant of the Budapest city state - no-one is really sure of his/her sex or gender. Every mage has heard of him/her, but there have been very few verified sightings. He/she spends most of their time in the Umbra, guarding the Rudas Bath Horizon node, and, some say, the city as a whole from malevolent incursions. His name is, of course, not far from the lips of the thousands of Chinese descent living in Budapest - he is revered as a patron saint of sorts by the Chinese community, and might be a reason the minority isn't treated too badly by the otherwise quite nationalist council administration or the public.
In my game, he is THE Sun Wukong, 'The Great Sage, Heaven's Equal', but I've limited his legendary abilities to the Near Umbra and beyond so as not unbalance the game - my players only met him once, and on Earth he's just an immortal Akashic master:)
There is only one other member of his Budapest 'cabal' (he might have several others going on all over the world, who knows) is Hegedűs [ˈhɛɡɛdyːʃ], his real-world representative, an actual academic. She's a materials scientist shaman whose paradigm is that the Umbra isn't 'outer space' but the magnified microcosm of stuff - when she awakens objects' spirits (a popular pastime) and communes across the Gauntlet, she uses microscopes and heavy-duty magnifying glasses, and delves into the gap between the barbs of feathers.

Hegedűs

The 'cabal' as such, then, doesn't really have a Budapest chantry, but Hegedűs can usually be reached at one of the Százados Street Artist Colony houses - strictly for diplomatic business to be passed on to Majomkirály.

Those who need to know will recognize this place.