[Guildbook] Solicitors By J.

Edward Tremlett "If you greatly desire something, have the guts to stake everything on obtaining it." - Brendan Francis

Ghost Story: The Turning of the Wheel Introduction "What's Your Pleasure, Sir?" "Why are we here...? Hmmm. It's been a while since anyone's asked me that. "I'll tell you why we're here. You see that guy, there at the bar, back in the real world? The one with the ACT-UP pin? I've been watching him for a long time. He's well in his cups, by now, trying not to let anyone see him cry when they play 'Fernando.' And he's thinking of someone he loved and lost a long, long time ago... all over one, silly day that he'd give anything to take back.

"Somewhere else, there's a wage slave I know. And I know that he's working late in the office, tonight, all by himself. He thinks his promotion's only a matter of time. Just one more project. Just one more day of sliding his nose up his boss' ass. Just one more thing. It's so close he can taste it. He wants it as bad as Christmas. "Somewhere else there's probably at least one kid outside a toy store's window, staring at a brand new bike and not noticing that his mom's told him "no" a hundred times. There's probably at least one woman at the beach, looking at Adonis and knowing he'd be perfect at everything - perfect for her. "And let's not forget that guy looking at his best friend's girl, up there at the altar, and thinking 'Damn, she used to be mine.' Imagining what her neck smelled like when he kissed her. Remembering how she looked at him. And thinking he'd give anything - anything at all - just to be the guy up there saying "I do." "Desire is everywhere. Men and boys staring at wank magazines or new cars. People imagining themselves in the experiences they're sold on TV. The toy your mom threw out when you were six. The past, the present, the future: without Desire to help you fondly remember, or goad you on, or give you something to focus your energies on, life is meaningless, isn't it? "And that's the key word here, 'life.' Those people, back in the meat world? At least they can still try to get what they want. No matter what the odds, there's a chance, at least. "That's not so easy here, now is it? "So you can imagine how much more painful Desire's sting is for the dead. But then, I don't think you have to imagine it. You can feel it for yourself... can't you? "'Why are we here,' you asked? Let me turn the question around, friend: why are YOU here? "And how can I help you?" Blackmailers, blackguards, backstabbers and snakes - that's the Solicitors, to hear the tales the others tell. They are not trusted. They are not loved. Most Guildwraiths would rather pretend they just don't exist at all. They moved in the shadows long before the other Guilds were outlawed. They were considered bad well before the Mnemoi fell. In all the dark corners in all the Necropoli of Stygia, they have been lurking... waiting for some poor soul to tread into their web. Waiting for you... But yet they have their uses. When something needs doing, and no one else can seem to achieve it - or convince someone it needs doing - they are there, ready to make it happen. When someone really needs them, he'll find them waiting patiently... almost as if they knew he was coming...? That's the trouble with them: no one really knows whether the idea to use them was their own idea, or an idea a Solicitor gave them. To use them is to be used, and to be used by them is to be lost - this is as well-known as anything else in Stygia. Yet the Solicitors have never wanted for customers, then or now, and that is a very frightening thought. But there are more frightening things to speak of, here. As bad as their reputation is, the truth about the Solicitors is worse. Much worse.

For they are not a small group of wraiths hiding in the corners of Stygia's ruins. They are a worldwide brotherhood, working towards a goal that can only be as dark as the methods used to achieve it. They are in contact with something they claim to be more powerful than anything imaginable. And they are in possession of a certain understanding that has made them the kings of this dead world, but has also seen the best and brightest amongst them fall to a fate worse than Spectrehood. They say that ignorance is bliss, but it's much too late for that now. The Book is open, and now you will read it... What's Here That Must Be Read Part I: A History of Desire and Hir Children covers the illustrious history of the Cabal, seen both from within and without. Its shadowy origins are alluded to, its more tangible past is laid bare, and its recent movements are discussed. And it's all true, even if it never happened... Part II: The Kings of The World explains - or lies about - how the Cabal works, and why it does what it does. Its organization is highlighted, as well as what it thinks of - and does to - other organizations in Stygia, and all over the Shadowlands (perhaps). Part III: Spinning Wheels and Grinding Gears covers the mechanics of the Cabal in some detail. New Intimation Arts, Merits and Flaws, Artifacts and Backgrounds await your gaze, as does an explanation for why there are so few old, bold Solicitors. But don't let deter you... Part IV: The Hands of Desire presents sample characters, Solicitors of note, and some places of interest to both. What You Must Keep In Mind Believe it or not, the Solicitors are the good guys. At least, that's what they'd like you to think, provided they wanted your wraith to know anything about them at all. But then, that's what the Solicitors truly believe. That's what they tell their Apprentices and hammer into their Novices. That's what the Masters tell themselves when they do things that would make you want to crawl under a rock and die just to watch. Their hands might be getting dirty in the here and now, but their eyes are on the horizon, staring off at some grand future that only they can see. And that future they see - however darkly - is one that will make what happens today seem very well worth it all. That is one thing that should be understood about these wraiths: they are as fanatic as any Heretic could ever be. They are willing to sacrifice everything - even their own sanity - to bring their grand designs about. That's because Solicitors know they're right. They have always known that they were right. They know what the truth is, because it's cut them as sharply and deeply as any knife. But, as with any truth, there are numerous interpretations. Portions of Guildbook: Solicitors are presented in a number of voices. Some of them may seem insane, sadistic or a little suspicious. They might also contradict one another at times. The truth lies within them, somewhere, but you'll have to decide for yourself what the Solicitors truly are. After all, they can't all be right... can they...?

For Your Own Good... This netbook has been written from the perspective of Wraith Revised material on Ex Libris Nocturnis, which picks up from the events of Ends of Empire. If you're not following that metaplot, or you haven't read what I've written there, some of what's here might not make sense. You should go read it first, if you haven't already. The movies Hellraiser and Hellraiser II are excellent inspiration. Avoid the third and fourth movies. As diametrically opposed as they might be, Bester and Mr. Morden from Babylon 5 would make wonderful Solicitors: Bester for his self-righteous and self-serving fanaticism, and Morden because... well... watch it again and you'll know what I'm talking about. Avon from Blake's 7 is also a wonderful, self-serving rogue to emulate. If you want a modern study in desire gone wrong, or the bizarre things it makes people do, you can't do much better than to read books and short stories by Yukio Mishima. This Japanese author surrounded himself with a private army, tried to overthrow the post-war government, and then committed ritual suicide when the revolution failed. Anyone who wants to run a Kindred of the East game should read him. The Sailor Who Fell From Grace From the Sea is a great place to start. In this day and age, anything written about fanaticism, charismatic leaders and cults, shadowy business deals gone awry and things of that nature would be of use. Given how much of that is going about lately, you hardly need to read anything outside of the paper or news magazines. But, given that such things are aimed at the lowest common denominator - which you are not - it wouldn't hurt. ~ I. A History of Desire and Hir Children ~ Ancient Mythology "The woman answered the serpent, 'We may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden, except for the tree in the middle of the garden; God has forbidden us either to to eat or to touch the fruit of that; if we do, we shall die.' "The serpent said 'Of course you will not die. God knows that as soon as you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like Gods knowing both good and evil.'"

My dear Apprentice: With this note, which I am quite sure you were not surprised to find in your room, I give you my congratulations. I made it quite clear to your group that they should do well to look both left and right, for only one of you would remain here when the week of testing was finished. That one, this time, is you. To get this far means that you have not only excelled in the what the Cabal would expect from one such as you, but that you have impressed even me. And that, I do not mind telling you, is a feat worth its weight in gold. It is also a bar that I expect you to continue leaping over.

To celebrate this moment, I have a gift to you. Soon, you will be read to from The Book. However, as with most esoteric works, it can provide a number of problems for the beginning student problems that might hobble and restrain an otherwise-extraordinary talent. I find that a bit of preparation can make the difference between full comprehension and mere hearing of a complicated text. So, in the hopes that they will aid you in your goal to serve the Cabal, I present to you these introductory notes to The Book, as they were presented to me by my instructor, all those ages ago. I would urge you to take the first half of this day to study them, and then meet me in the main hall when you feel you can speak of them at length. Onward and upward, my pupil! The only way out is something your former classmates know full well of, now. To hear we Solicitors tell the tale, our intricate dance of desire and fulfillment was going on well before Stygia even existed. And it is no mere fairy story with which to soothe nervous enfants and scare wayward Apprentices. It is the truth, and that truth is the cornerstone upon which we base our labors. That would make us the first Guild, surely, but we take great pains to distance ourselves from that name. You have been taught as much by now. We allow others especially the Guildwraiths to think of us that way, because it makes for such a wonderful camouflage. But a Guild? No. Our concepts of doing things were ancient long before the mercantile notions of "Guilds" ever came into being. The Guilds play at hoary antiquity to lend some sense of ritual to an otherwise straightforward working arrangement, but we do not play at such things. We are. Here, in our inner sanctums, where the truth can be told without fear, we insist rightfully that we were the first group of Wraiths anywhere. And though the names used to describe us might have changed, we ourselves have never changed that much. What we are now, we have always been: a Cabal of tireless guardians, watching over a trusted secret that must not fall into the wrong hands. We are the watchers of the world and the wardens of the heart. We are the keepers of the sacred fire that burns in the secret places. We have a thousand eyes and a thousand hands, and perhaps a thousand thousand names, but one true purpose. The knife that cuts the hand that holds the skin that bleeds the blood that stains - we are the Solicitors. And this is our story. (pause) Riiiiight... "Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire." - Jean de La Fontaine What you're about to read is going to sound really out there, to say the least. Old Gods? Ancient religions? Secret Societies? Mind-blasting secrets known only to the restless dead? That, 3 cents and a tinfoil hat'll get you a cup of coffee at O'Tolley's, right? But here's the catch - the Solicitors believe every word of it. This is their reason for existence. This is how they justify what they do, provided they don't groove off of that sort of thing, already. This is what they tell their Apprentices, and only those who nod along and believe or at least put up a good act get to become Novices.

These are the beliefs of the Solicitors, and they hold them very close to their hearts. It might not be anywhere near what really happened, but as far as the Cabal is concerned, it's nothing less than the absolute truth. And one thing you never, ever, ever do is tell a zealot he's wrong: especially a zealot with Intimation... In The Beginning In The Beginning The first stirrings of our Cabal came long before the Sundering, back in the days when the Old Gods walked amongst us. The world was simple, then. It was a simple thing filled with simple ideas. The Old Gods were the first gods, and they, like the world that gave birth to them, were simple beings. They arose from immediate human needs and fears: primitive concepts given form and voice, crackling with the untold power of a new world. Food and Fire, Sex and The Darkness, Hate and Pain and countless others. For untold aeons of prehistory it was they who oversaw this world. One of these Old Gods was Desire. Desire was one of the first of their number, perhaps the child of Life. And S:he, in turn, gave birth to the twins of Agony and Ecstasy, who attend Hir still. Now, Desire was the most powerful of all the Old Gods. Every other concept that arose from need could feed into Hir domain, and the satisfaction of desire was rarely denied in those days. The inadvertent worship that merely living gave Hir provided Hir with enough power to move Heaven and Earth. In fact, it is said that S:he often did. The Nature of Desire The Solicitors say that Desire is no less than a God, and that Hir very presence created Hir coGods Agony and Ecstasy. These three went about Their business in the worlds of Spirit and Man, charged - like all the Old Gods - with a Great Secret. In Their case it was the secret that the Solicitors call the Dread Secret: the one that Desire is said to have given the Center of the Wheel; the same one every true Solicitor learns. Desire is portrayed as a beautiful, androgynous figure. S:he could be either male or female, and is depicted in such a way that the onlooker is rarely certain of anything but her own desire for Hir. Agony and Ecstasy are also beautiful androgynes, and seem to be identical twins. However, while Ecstasy is portrayed as being permanently enraptured, like a child who's been granted its fondest wish, Agony wears a permanent scowl, as though Hir each and every longing had been cruelly turned in on itself. One might wonder what place Gods have in the modern world. Some of the Cabal claim that they have seen Desire Hirself while undergoing the Induction Ritual. Others claim to have caught elusive and enticing glimpses of Hir while doing Hir will. Agony and Ecstasy tend to manifest Themselves more subtly, in the form of coincidental pairings, but there are those who say that They have also been seen.

(As to what they really are, or if they really exist within the framework of the World of Darkness, such calls are up to the Storyteller as befits her own game.) Legendary Complications: But as man changed, so did the landscape. Men became more complex, and so did their Gods. They grew proper names and distinct personalities. Pantheons were constructed and mythologies were scribbled down. Empires conquered one another and absorbed the strangers' gods into their own. And so the Old Gods were either swept aside and forgotten, or else changed over time to fit the new faces their worshipers imagined them wearing. Some are still with us to this day, though they would scarcely recognize them, and many are no longer of consequence. But Desire remained Desire. Though other Gods and Goddesses might have been chosen over Hir, or instead of Hir, the power S:he gained from Hir nature more than made up for this abandonment. Indeed, how could S:he be abandoned? Who did not ever feel Desire? And besides, S:he still retained Hir temples, direct worship and followers in these dark lands of the Dead. For, unlike the other Old Gods, whose need for propitiation often ended when a man took his last breath, Desire followed well past then and into the next world. And even when mortal men no longer remembered that S:he was more than just a powerful emotion, those who had crossed the barrier between worlds which was much less of a barrier in those days continued to sing Hir praises, attracting new followers as they did. We were the Initiators, and we were the guardians of the Dread Secret. What is the Dread Secret? Even though every Solicitor who makes it past the Induction Ritual knows - and, worse, understands - it word for word, there is a great deal of debate amongst the Cabal as to what it really is. Some say it's a spell. Others say that it is a form of 'higher science,' like a mathematical formula whose concepts cannot be easily grasped. And still others say it's Desire Hirself made manifest in words: a little piece of Hir, fashioned in such a way that S:he can reside inside someone's mind for all time to come. This is, most likely, the piece that was given away to mortal man, thus sparking the war of the Old Gods. They say that only the Center of the Wheel fully understands its nature, but all attempts to ask have been deemed counterproductive by those who could do the asking. And that is most often the end of that line of thinking. (On a more OOC note: if a player actually wants to know what the Dread Secret itself - as in, its wording - write the words "Sure! It's (Unintelligible Concept)" on a piece of paper, fold it up, hand it over to her, and grin like a motherfucker.) As for the rather logical question of why the Solicitors should need to guard the Dread Secret, if Desire wanted to give it to mankind in the first place, file that under "moves in mysterious ways" and don't ask the Gardeners.

Creating the Wheel Of the Center of the Wheel, you need to understand that this is truly the one who leads us. Indeed, the Center of the Wheel is the one who has always led us. Without a center, a wheel goes nowhere, and so it is with us. Long ago, when Desire sought a prophet, the Center of the Wheel was that prophet. When Desire sought to give the Dread Secret to mankind, the Center of the Wheel was the first to receive that gift, thus becoming Hir first prophet. And when Desire thought that there should be a way to place that gift into writing, along with many other things, the Center of the Wheel was Hir scribe. The Center brought others to Hir service, and so was the world maintained. The Center of the Wheel spoke to us of great things that would be. The Center spoke of a time of peace that would be shattered by a terrible enemy - one who would come with a Great Lie that would threaten the order of Desire. The Center spoke of a time of conflict, when we would have to do many things in order to overcome that Great Lie. And the Center spoke of the peace that would come after we had triumphed over our enemy and his damned lies. These things were spoken of in the days when we were the Initiators. From our great temples and ziggurats, we held court. We were called upon to make things happen. We began things that needed beginning, and saw them through to their end, just as we ended things that needed ending and saw them through to their beginning once more. The knife that cuts the hand that holds the skin that bleeds the blood that stains - a perfect circle.

Ziggurats? From the sounds of things, the time of the Initiators was back in ancient Mesopotamia. This could be anywhere from the first stirrings of the culture circa 5000 BCE up to the formation of Sumeria around 3500 BCE. (By comparison, Charon is purportedly from the Mycenaean period, which ran from about 1550 to 1100 BCE). Not much is truly understood about Mesopotamia, given what little has survived and what little can be gleaned from that. There are many dark suggestions, though, and if the Solicitors had their genesis there, then some of those suggestions might have some basis in fact. Those wanting a look at what sort of nasty goings-on were about in the Mesopotamia of the World of Darkness are steered towards Dead Magic, for Mage: the Ascension. Those curious to unravel the mysteries of The Book may find more answers there than they'll know what to do with...

Spreading the Word

There were lands outside of man's cradle that had yet to know of Desire's true words. The Center of the Wheel walked far over the land where it had all began, but just as the center of a wheel must stay in its center, so did the Center of our wheel have to stay in its center. Those who the Center had gathered together needed the leadership that the Center alone could provide. The Center of the Wheel bade that eight trusted followers should attend Desire. These were given copies of The Book and sent out in straight lines to the eight corners of the world, that they might instruct others as to their worth. Each day they walked as far as they could, spreading the words of Desire to those who would listen. And each night they turned right around and spoke in the direction of the Center, and the Center gave them their instructions for the following day. They walked for ages, and then, when they had gone so far, the Center of the Wheel bade them stop and build a shelter for The Book. And when they had built that shelter, the Center of the Wheel bade them to gather others to hear from The Book. And when they had gathered those others, the Center of the Wheel bade them to lead those others in Hir name. And so, to this day, in any place you go in the lands of the dead, you will find one of us there. We have many names and many faces, but one true goal - to serve Desire. Here, There and Everywhere This part of it - claims to have sent people in straight lines notwithstanding - is quite true. While they might be operating under different names and have agendas that seem contradictory, perhaps even in competition with one another, most of the Dark Kingdoms have Solicitors in them, and in cases where Stygia overwrote a Dark Kingdom, there were "Solicitors" already there. More detail on Solicitors outside of Stygia can be found in the "Outside Relations" section.

The Coming of The Great Lie: For ages, there was peace and calm. Things proceeded as Desire bade, and Desire was followed. Things were as they should be. But in the lands of the great sea, upon the Isle of Sorrows, came a threat to our order. An upstart whelp calling himself Charon - a lap-dog for a nameless, soothsaying witch from the distant past founded a militant order of frauds, all based on the idea that it was possible to will yourself away from this ghostly state. They called this lie "Transcendence," and many foolish Wraiths were caught up in their spell - paying exorbitant fees to be shown "the way," or taken off to some false paradise, far away from the lands of the living. The Book speaks of a deadly falsehood: one that promises all and gives nothing. This Great Lie enslaves the mind and soul, and turns one from the true path of Desire to the meandering labyrinth of foolish superstition, meaningless contemplation and a negation of one's true feelings. It makes a mockery of the things we hold most dear. And truly, the doctrine of "Transcendence" could be no other than that same Great Lie that Desire, in Hir wisdom, spoke of.

At last we had met the enemy that Desire had prophesied. And so we devoted a great deal of our time to meeting this enemy head-on, and destroying the work he had set out to do. Desire willed it thus, and so it must be... Why the Animosity? The Solicitors distaste for the notion of Transcendence is total - sometimes all-consuming. They hate the Heretics and, by extension, the Ferrymen with a passion... if you'll excuse the phrase. It almost borders on mania. But you'd wonder why they wouldn't try and turn the situation around to their advantage? Surely, given the religious nature of their beliefs, they could understand - and pervert - the Heretics' workings to their own ends? Why have they let their hate blind them so? The real point of contention, as a Solicitor who could compose herself enough to say as much could tell you, is in those ends. THE end, to be precise. The Solicitors believe that there is no end save that which you make of it. Paying fealty to the notion of leaving the Underworld by sheer will alone is counterproductive, and does nothing to improve the Wraith's immediate situation. Why spend ages pining away for a miracle? It's far better to work in the here and now, and think of what could be, than to hang your dreams on something as alien as hope. Seen in that light, the Solicitors consider the Heretics to be sorry charlatans: cheats promising things that they know they cannot deliver. Meanwhile, through Desire, Hir namesake can be made real. And when you've got your finger on the truth, those who make claims to also have it - but obviously don't, since they don't share your beliefs - are rather annoying...

Recent Mythology Good afternoon, my child. How goes your day? Ah, yes... busy. I would expect no less, now that you have been introduced to The Book. And I suppose you must be just now embarking on a study of what the Cabal has been doing since that venerable tome left off? Of course. And you are full of questions, I presume? Yes... I thought as much. Ever full of questions. This is a good thing, I think. But your master could, and perhaps should, be the one to answer them for you, don't you agree? Oh... a second opinion is what you're after? Well, I suppose I could spare some time. I am, as you see, otherwise engaged in nothing at all... save for enjoying the peace and beauty of the Garden. I suppose that I should warn you, though. I cannot promise what I will have to tell you will be the readily-accepted version of how things happened, or why. My memory is not as it was, and perhaps the official history has been rewritten around me as I sit here in contemplation.

But I am old enough and well-regarded enough to be allowed my few, nonconformist ideas. You might be well off waiting a time before you mention my views, or where you heard them from... You will not be detered? Excellent. I thought I saw much of your Master in your eyes. Come then. Sit down here with this old man and his ill-made memories, and ask what you will. Questions are harmless, after all. It's what you do with the answers that gets you into trouble... The Infiltration of The Republic What can I tell you about the earliest days of the Republic... It is true, as The Book says, that we recognized in Charon and his Ferrymen the very quintessence of The Great Lie. But by the time we became fully aware of it, it was already too late to deal with it in a forthright manner. He'd already gone to the Labyrinth and found Lord Nhudri, traveled to the Far Shores and been given his precious Seven Signs, begun to build the great city of Stygia upon the Isle of Sorrows... all that pompous, ignoble rot. But we went to the Isle of Sorrows, at any rate. And we did so openly, I should add. We laid down our case to the Wraiths who were already milling about, there, waiting for their chance to be escorted to the Far Shore of their choice, and tried to explain to them that they were all being set upon a fool's errand. What a sorry lot they were! They were completely bewildered and amazed, having been sold a pack of lies in their lives, and now being quite uncertain of what strange fate their false Gods had set upon them. And yet they accepted another, equally ludicrous pack of lies from Charon and his Boatman's Society the moment they were taken from their Cauls and escorted to Stygia! We did our best to convince them of the truth of the matter, but they would not listen willingly. They had lost too much and were clinging to this one, small shred of hope with both hands... if they still had them, considering the damned tithe. It was not too long before our activities gained the notice of the Ferrymen, and, through them, Charon himself. What happened next has guided a great deal of our Cabal's activities from here on out. Yes... a great deal, indeed... Oh... what happened? Well, I would that would be obvious, my dear. We were thrashed quite soundly and made to retreat. I'm quite sorry to say that we underestimated the man. We thought him a mere puppet of some antiquated witch... one for whom dying and being denied the paradise promised her was not enough to turn her hand or make her see reason. But this was a man who had done amazing things in his time. He had poled through and explored the byways of the Sunless Sea, entered the Labyrinth and walked out - instead of fleeing - and had made many other, impressive achievements. He was not just some puppet with undeserved authority... at least, not by that time. So, after he grew enraged at having his death's mission questioned at length by the leader of our emissaries, he commanded us to be silent. He said that we should go on our way, with our truth, and leave his charges to go find theirs on their own. I'm sure he said something like that...

something terribly relative and lacking in ultimate truth. And when we refused, he nodded and said "so be it." And then he furrowed his brow behind his mask... or so I imagine him doing... and used Siklos to do something rather thunderous and spectacular to our leader. I can remember nothing of what he actually did - only the utter fear and amazement that the effect engendered within us. And so, one by one, we turned and ran from his sight. We quit the Isle of Sorrows, then... never to return... At least, not openly. The next time we went back we did not announce our presence, nor seek a direct confrontation. We met in secret, and worked our craft amongst the populace, focusing on those ones who had decided not to try their luck with the Far Shores, but to instead remain on the Isle of Sorrows and seek their fates and fortunes there. And so we flourished, right under the nose on Charon's mask.

The Society of Desire In time, another opportunity came for us to be more open about certain things. And we did, indeed, take advantage of it. As you know, all Wraiths share as their deathright the powers of the dead. Arcanoi, as we call them. And it became eventual that those who shared a particular Arcanos would band together for mutual aid, protection and some sense of community. The earliest of these groups were known as the Societies. Perhaps they were borrowing the notion from the Boatman's Society, though the Ferrymen were banded together for an entirely different reason than to protect esoteric knowledge or cheap conjurings. But there was also the Society of the Hammer, the Society of Purifiers, the Society of Dreams, the Society of Fear... several of them, in truth. Some of them yet remain to this day, as Guilds or other organizations, while others have disappeared into the mists of time and are no longer remembered at all... Do pardon me. I just remembering one of the lost ones. There is a reason why the Spectres can do things we have no clear understanding of, you know. But I think the less that is said about that, the better. So the Center of the Wheel, in Hir wisdom, bade us to resurface and become the Society of Desire. And so we did. We took as our symbol a star with eight points: the same one you have doubtlessly seen echoed in many aspects of this Cathedral, as well as many other aspects of our calling and vocation. Our chief purpose, at least so we advertised, was to engender and rekindle strong feelings in those who were finding their sense of purpose flagging over the ages. As you might expect, this was a service that many would pay a great deal of coin, for. And we were considered useful by Charon for this... if you can imagine that irony. The joke was, indeed, on him. As we did our service, we spread our philosophy and found many willing takers, right under that metal nose I alluded to, earlier. We also expanded our network of Clients and Marks under that very same nose.

Did we have a hand in the creation of the so-called Renegades? No. I believe it was... oh, who was it that said "I love treason, but hate a traitor?" Ah yes - well done. He spoke wisely, and that has always been a hallmark of our Cabal, my dear pupil. We may not have created them, but we did find them useful, both then and later on... much later... And did we have a hand in Charon's decision to call himself the Emperor of the dead, thus alienating those damnable Ferrymen and sending them away from the Isle of Sorrows? That is a very good question... one that I am, perhaps, not certain of. Oh, I should think so. Who would not want such an outcome? But the exact details of how we may have done it escape me. The Ferrymen were always difficult to directly manipulate, and Charon just as much. But those around them - and the events they could have set into place - were not so untractable...

The Great Rout Of course, you may have heard that we were broken down and exposed by the Magisterium Veritatis a few centuries after the First Great Maelstrom, and subsequent founding of the Empire. It is entirely true... at least, so far as they needed to know, anyway. Their "victory" was more of a feint on our part than anything else. That episode, which we like to call The Great Rout, started when the Magisterium became rightfully suspicious at the way things were going in Stygia. People would suddenly change their minds on important matters, claiming a change of heart or mind or, sometimes, unable to say why at all. Programmed individuals would do the craziest things, like try to assassinate a Deathlord, and then have no idea why, either. For a few years, it was not an uncommon thing for many people to behave very, very strangely... Now, you should recall from your official history that the Magisterium Veritatis were Charon's elite watchmen, created to enforce the Proclamation of Reason. What you might not have known was that their senior and founding members were old, turncoat Ferrymen - the ones who had not turned their backs on Charon when he appointed himself Emperor. They were, like their loyal brethren, not only resistant to our methods, but very well-schooled in recognizing them. So it did not take them long at all to realize that the Society of Desire was behind this. By carefully following the trails from act to initiation, they were able to track us. And by spending quite some time just watching, there in the shadows, they were able to see just how much of the Empire we controlled. To say that this scared them was an understatement. I do not mean to brag, but it is safe to say that a perhaps half of everything that happened on the Isle of Sorrows - and, then, the Empire itself - had our hand in it somewhere. We even had one of the Senators... excuse me, I forget. They were Deathlords then. Yes. One of the Deathlords was a Client. That was how far we had gone. So you could understand that Charon was livid when the Magisterium Veritatis brought their

evidence before him. The Emperor bade them to move without let or hindrance, and not stop until our entire network had been smashed underfoot and our leaders broken on Nhudri's forge. And so they did! I must give them high marks for their zeal. They rousted every last one of us they could find and went to work trying to undo the damage they had done. They even found the Center of the Wheel - all eight members of it - and had them tortured for hours, just to get every last scrap of information out of them... Oh, yes, I see your confusion. Have no fear - this all makes sense in the end. After their showtrial, the Center of the Wheel were paraded down the Way of Iron and fed to Kyklops, there to be made into whatever took Lord Nhudri's fancy that day. Bricks. Swords. Maybe a helm or two. Charon sat triumphant on his throne, satisfied that justice had been done, and the Magisterium lapped up his praise like stale manna from a far-off, false Heaven... Of course it was all misdirection. How could we be here, otherwise? We spent more than two centuries constructing a false network of dupes, patsies and fakes. All of these Society Members in name only were controlled from the shadows without ever once seeing their masters. Mnemoi... well, they were the Society of Memory, then... I think... Well, it matters little. Memory-shapers we had bent to our will implanted false memories into those ones, just as we changed their desires to fit those new remembrances. And then, we needed only arrange the sloppy incidents. This ensured that their web was seen. We even gave the Magisterium the directions to find the Center of Wheel, all cackling in glee at how evil they were... the melodrama was a bit much, I think, but it served its purpose well. And while the Magisterium was busy rousting dupes and programmed patsies from their boltholes, the real event was happening all the way across the Isle of Sorrows. A number of upstanding members of the various Societies, worried that the deals that their lessers had made were about to come crashing down about them, desired to meet with those of us who remained. And this time, they, so desperate to hold onto their power, were willing to meet with us in person, rather than sending lackeys. These fools became Clients, in the true sense of the word. Some of these Clients have been with us for the ages since. And they have been very, very useful... as we will get to, later... So Charon gained nothing but a wonderful show of Imperial might, whereas we gained everything that we have enjoyed to this day. The Clients were merely the... what do you say these days, the icing on the cake? Yes. The icing on the cake. The best thing we gained was a terrible reputation. Before the Great Rout, we were looked upon as another Society with something to sell. Any Society's Arcanos could be used for good or ill, depending on the temperament of the individual who used it. You should see what some of the Sandmen and Songbirds do for coin... But we made ourselves look utterly and totally evil. And this not only made us seem more frightful than we truly are, but made our own Arcanos seem to be corrupt in and of itself. This meant that no one in their right mind sought out instruction in it. So we were no longer besieged with requests to share what we knew with our "equals" in the other Societies. And, as a result, the Great Secret was preserved.

Our disgrace also set us apart from those Societies. They did insist on calling us a Guild when the names all changed, though. And we did go along with it - misdirection, again - but only as it served our ends. We remained in the shadows, where they were happy to have us be, and that suited us just fine. But one of the best things that our criminalization did was to make what we did three times as valuable. This was due both to its rarity and our seeming scarcity. Before we were disgraced, what we did was regulated and bound to certain measures. But afterwards, we could ask whatever we wanted, and - as it was illegal to deal with the "remnants" of our Society - no one could complain if we charged too much.

The Crusades and the Proclamation of Reason One small detail I should mention is that of the Crusades. As you know, when the European forces entered the so-called Holy Lands, they were repelled, but the dead of Stygia stayed on. However, to this night you will not find any Solicitors - at least, not as you might understand them - within that area. No. The Order of Two, which includes what is called the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent and a few other places surrounding and in-between, is not open to us of the Order of Three... or indeed any of the Orders which operate in Stygian territory. The Center has denied us access to these lands, and we have obeyed. Why is that way, there, and different elsewhere? I am not certain, my dear, but I have the feeling that Desire has something special planned for that area, and we should leave the matter to Hir best judgment. S:he does work in mysterious ways, after all. Yes? The Crusades did have another, even less-pleasing effect, though. The dead knights came across the Shroud and were reaped into The Fishers. And these became a force for the Great Lie - one that threatened much of our work... You have not heard much of The Fishers? Good. That means that what was done was done well. Still, they were a direct threat to us... whoever would have thought a dead carpenter could start so much trouble? The Fishers were a problem back when the names started to change, once more. The Empire became the Hierarchy, the Legionnaires became Knights, slaves became thralls, the Societies Guilds... and us a "Guild" with it, I might add. But, again, what is a name? Yes, true - "Heretic" has a nice ring to it. I see you are anticipating my points! Well done. The Fishers were troublesome - both to us and to their fellow seekers of the Great Lie. Their numbers were immense, and they were of the belief that numbers, alone, made them worthy of much more than they deserved. A more self-serving and greedy lot you could not have found outside of a Monitors' Family. What did they do? Well... they tried to make Charon see things their way, based on their zeal and strength of numbers. And all for what? For gold. Their Temple was fattened with treasure and their coffers were filled with ill-gotten coin, all gained from playing to the false aspirations of the deluded Quick and the venal Dead.

Yes... as I said: a rather self-serving, greedy lot, even for servants of the Great Lie. Of course, as you've read the Official History, you know what came to pass as a result of their greed. Their Archbishop came to Charon and demanded - not asked - for a lessening of the tithe. His greed got him a doubling of the fee, as well as an order to disband their Crusader-Knights. They attacked the Onyx tower in retaliation, Charon thundered up to their temple and saw that had been withheld from him, within, and things proceeded apace from there... right up to the glorious Proclamation of Reason. What you might not know, or at least have suspected but had no true confirmation before now, was the hand we played in it. I do say I think it was one of our finer moments. What was our action? Well, consider that the Arch-Bishop was a greedy man, but not stupid, in spite of his adherence - perhaps not very strong, in truth - to the Great Lie. It was a simple thing, really, to make a greedy man just that much more greedy... Exactly. Why would he be so foolish as to go to Charon, just after a major emergency - the Second Great Maelstrom - and demand a lessening of their tithes? Some would call it the worst timing imaginable, and it was... for them. For us it was perfect. Yes... we could have engineered their fall at any time we'd wanted. really. But we waited until Charon was in a mood that was quite unforgiving of backtalk or counterdemands. And here was this upstart, making demands of him at a time when every coin was needed to rebuild... Perfect timing, indeed. And so was the Isle of Sorrows cleansed of the Fishers, the Shining Ones and all spoken word of the Great Lie. It was, indeed, one of our finer moments. I only wish that Charon had chosen to behead instead of banish: the natives of the New World could have been spared the Flaying. Now, I have a hard time remembering if it happened before or after the Great Rout... perhaps I am starting to grow somewhat feeble in my dotage. Perhaps I should keep a journal? Ah, quite true. Written journals are a foolish thing, here. Consider what lines the walls and beds of this fine garden of ours. I think some of them may have kept journals as well...

The War - And Revolt - of The Guilds So we had won a major battle, my dear. We had not only seen the banishing of the Shining Ones - now known properly as Heretics - from the Empire, and seen Charon's own, previous mandate cast aside. So there was but a hollow shell, waiting for us to try and take it over. Unfortunately, the matter was not so simple. I am certain they have told you what went wrong, next, but perhaps not truly why. And this is a thing that must be repeated, lest it come around to vex us once more when our next big chance comes. Now, consider the Guilds. We masquerade as one to this day, wrapping ourselves up in stolen clothing and pretending to be what they are, even as they pretend - in their own, fumbling way - to be what we are. The irony! In a slight way I do wonder what might happen if those who favor revealing ourselves

before The Day get their wish. The look on the faces of the Guildmasters... Ah, but I hold not with their lot. And neither should you, my dear. There are good reasons why we remain aloof and apart from them. Theirs is a cold, squabbling and mercantile philosophy... at least amongst those who command the true powers of Industry. And if there is one thing I know about the power of industry, is that it very rarely forgets a slight, sling or arrow. We should know: we supplied many of them, ourselves, during the War of the Guilds. I knew that you would know of it, my dear. And I am certain that you know its genesis lay in both power and greed. The competition with one another to see whom would be their leader was a decidedly avaricious endeavor. No surprise, then, that it was the Artificers who initiated it? This War of the Guilds... well, I should state that it was truly more of a treacherous, protracted struggle for power than an open battle. True fighting was very rarely seen: more often it was ruse, counter-ruse and assassination that ruled the day. It reminded me something of the great intrigues of the Italian courts, where to show one's dagger in anger was unacceptable, but one might poison an entire banquet and yet be called a Pope. The Artificers started it, but they have, over the ages, come to blame it on the perfidy of the Masquers, or the greed of the Usurers, or the basic nature of the Monitors. And it is very true that, once engaged, those individuals had no qualms about responding in kind. And the others - even the Pardoners and the Harbingers, or all people - were well-enmeshed in the matter, right up to their black hands and smoky eyes... Of course, this was an excellent opportunity for us, but the question was to what end? You know that the Center of the Wheel, in hir wisdom, does not give us to clear of a map to follow. Decisions are handed down one step at a time, and advice given rarely, if ever. So there was some question as to whom the Center preferred to come out on top: the Hierarchy, or the Guilds? Those who preferred to work within the Hierarchy, and knew that a unified body of Guilds - under the watch of whichever heavy hand won the battle, as it were - would mean a direct challenge to the Hierarchy, said that the War should be crushed or exposed. Meanwhile, there were those who said that the Hierarchy was a finished relic from an older, more dishonest age. And it was their opinion that the Guilds should take it over and remake it in their image. This was - to them - the most logical conclusion... not to mention one that several had been highly banking on for some time. Thusly, confusion reigned. Orders were not carried out, Cabal members schemed against one another, and the unity for which we are ever-grateful was thrown out like night slops from a chamber pot. It was a shameful period of time for us... very shameful. It all came to a point once the War was won, and the Artificers - as you know, I am sure - came out the winners. No sooner did they achieve supremacy over their fellows than they decided to march on the Hierarchy. And that, my dear, was the moment of truth for us. Whom should we back? The decision was finally given to us straightaway by the Center of the Wheel. We were to engage the Usurers to leave the fray at a critical moment, thus causing others to leave, thus causing the end of that revolt. The Statists had seen their opinions verified by the Center, and that was all there was to it.

Yes, the Usurers' leaving was our doing. They made the mistake of hiring some of our number Grand Master Don Salazaar, in particular - to make certain another Guild would do what they wanted. And when that meeting happened we changed a few, critical minds. Indeed, we've had them in our hands ever since... them and the Artificers, both, I might say... But perhaps that is too much said and not enough shown. The Guilds were crushed, but in name, only. The Hierarchy stood, but only because Desire had seen fit to leave it standing. And so things continued on.

The Flaying, The Counter-Injunction and Stygian Outreach Again, if we look at the official history, we are reminded that the Revolt of the Guilds was one of three, great Abominations which sparked the Third Great Maelstrom. There is some debate as to whether that is true, and I must confess that my researches have led me in an entirely different direction than others' Shadowlands. So I cannot say for certain, or even have a few, justified suspicions in the matter. But suffice it to say that the Flaying did occur. A monstrous, terrible crime committed against an entire Dark Kingdom. I have spoken with those who serve the Order of Six, and they tell me that when the dead wind curves just right, one can still hear the screaming of the doomed, and smell the burnt corpus. The rivers there still run with blood, all spilled by the servants of the Great Lie... I apologize, my dear. I was lost in memories, once more. Memories... and regrets. But enough of my old travesties! Those done by the servants of the Great Lie - the truly-named Heretics - dwarf mine as a flash flood does a spilled goblet. The tragedy was total and absolute, and for a few more reasons than the Hierarchy has ever suspected. You will recall from your lessons from The Book that the Center bade eight servants tread outwards, to take the word of Desire to all lands? Well, those of us who followed the Quick to their so-called New World discovered the truth of that, just as we had discovered it earlier in the Holy Lands. There, in the dead cities of the natives - all now being forcibly converted to yet another version of the Great Lie - we found traces and clear signs of our brethren having been there, once. No doubt they were slaughtered right along with the others. Now, Desire abhors a vacuum. When one hand falls, another must pick up the knife and carry on. So it was that a group from the Order of Three was sent to re-establish our presence in the New World. This was to cause some problems, due to the Injunction. Could these fellows no longer speak with their old leaders, cohorts and lessers, now that they were apart? Who would look after their affairs at home, and how? The answer was slow in coming, as Desire works in mysterious ways. However, after some time it was decided that those Orders who were a part of one so-called Dark Kingdom could parley with one another, so long as they spoke not a word to one another about Cabal policy or goings-on. This would come into play when matters between the Western reaches of the Old World and the Eastern side of things came to blows, as it so often does. And it was applied once Stygia began

to take an interest in the dead of the Northern reaches of this New World. Of course, what happened in Southern and Central areas was not repeated in the North... at least, not right away. Our emissaries did, indeed, encounter Solicitors in what is now called North America. But they stayed well clear of us, and we of them. And in those cases where our actions could not help but coincide we did our best to look out for one another, but yet not speak of it. When Stygia started its so-called "Indian War" against the Dark Kingdom of Flint - hardly much of a Kingdom, truly - we went along with them, trying to aid our cousins. This was at the request of the Center, and we did the best we could to make certain that some places, people and things were never discovered by the Legions. We were under no circumstances to slow the expansion of Stygia, but we were to safeguard our cousins as best we could. In the end, it came to naught. The Dark Kingdom of Flint is no more, and our cousins from there are absent. To this day, the Order of Seven warehouses great, extensive museums of things recovered from caves and holes in the Tempest, or hidden Temples in the Shadowlands. They are kept in secure vaults, tended by Gardeners who have been sworn from looking at what they hide... What lies there? Oh, I should think these are things that Desire wants us not to contemplate. Yes? As for the Antipodeans... there is a strange matter. Stygia holds a part of that territory, but every group of emissaries we have sent has never returned. Desire does not bid that we stop trying, but yet S:he does not explain what has happened, either. It is a matter of some debate, and I feel that it is a matter best left alone. Those who feel otherwise often find themselves... oh, what do they call it... 'Transported'?

The Great War and The Big Decision The next notable schism in the Cabal took place in a time that most Stygians cannot remember all that well. And, as a result of it, a practice that has guided our hands to this day has come about. One you would do well to remember, and one I wish many of our Cabal would do as well... Tell me... when you were amongst the sheep, did you ever hear them speak much at all of the Fourth Great Maelstrom, or was it just notable only for being the second-to-last? Yes? I thought as much: that means that the Mnemoi have done their task well enough. I still wonder how long that effect might last... Oh. Yes, I suppose you would be puzzled. An official task for the Mnemoi? Were they not the quintessence of evil? The ones who are feared even more than ourselves, to hear the Hierarchy tell it? The Hierarchy tells lies, my dear. The entire banishment of the Mnemoi has been a deception, from start to finish. The truth is somewhat more terrible, and yet inspiring. And it is only because we have bent some of the Mnemoi to our will over the ages that we even know of it, so effective has Charon's policing of information been... Yes: Information. They say that souls are power, here, but that is only a half-truth. Information is

the true power, and who controls it controls souls, armies, the populace... everything. It all comes back to the Emperor, Charon. As you have seen, the Emperor went through several different swings of mood over the ages, and as he as done so, our estimation of him has changed. At first, he was a duped slave who sought only to serve, and whom we sought only to destroy. But over time, as he became more sensible, he started to understand that the Empire was not the means to an end, but the end itself. And once he understood that, he understood that the Empire needed to be preserved at all costs. So, of course, in order to preserve that Empire, things needed to be done. Information is power, we have said, so he needed the information to be truly his information. In other words, he needed someone to adjust the truth for him from time to time. And when I say adjust, I mean that quite literally: the Mnemoi can do just that. It is for this that they are rightly feared. And who knows how often the truth may have been adjusted in antiquity, or even now? So much for the Lux Veritatis, eh? Yes... at some point, early in Charon's reign, there came a time that the Emperor began to achieve a state of total awareness... which is to say total paranoia, perhaps. But there is little wrong with that so long as it is tempered by the will, and not allowed to usurp it. He realized that the tricks he used on others could just as easily be used on himself. It was a bit late in coming, I suppose, but better late than never. So Charon decided that he no longer wished to have any other august Wraiths using his own memory trick against him. He ordered the leader and founder of the Mnemoi - King Minos, whom some say was a living contemporary of Charon, himself - to create an elaborate ruse to drive his own people underground. No one would dare approach the Mnemoi out of fear of what they could do to them, and so the Emperor's truthmakers would work for none but him. The ruse was a fairly simple matter. Minos made it seem as though what was whispered in Stygia - the Mnemoi taking bribes to alter the memories of those who stood trial - was the actual truth. And then he set up a few troublemakers to taste the Soulfire in order to give the fall the flavor of authenticity. It was a messy fall, though: we understand that far too many of their number were needlessly culled. We also understand that the ruse worked too well, and that Charon's men continued to root them out with no let or hindrance, and the group was all but decimated as a result. Still, Minos was rewarded for his trouble and sacrifice, as were all the upper echelon of that Guild, and they were all hidden well for when Charon needed their aid. Such a time came during the 4th Great Maelstrom, when Charon took one of his many "long walks" without bothering to tell anyone where it was he was going. After a while, one of his Deathlords decided not to wait at the door, anymore, and instead placed himself on the throne. Thus began a terrible period when the Legion of the Grim enslaved the leaders of the other Legions, and tried to take hold of the whole matter. It was called The Insurrection, which is exactly what it was. And we were caught quite unprepared by it. We knew the Smiling Lord was an ambitious fellow, and we knew just how deep it ran, but we had no idea how reckless he was willing to be... So, of course, the usual arguments bubbled forth. Should we back the Smiling Lord, or the other Deathlords? Should we back Charon, if he was not, indeed, lost to the Maelstrom as the Smiling Lord claimed him to be? Should we urge the Guilds to take over the entire thing, like they tried to do so long ago? And what of the Renegades?

Just as we were during the Revolt of the Guilds, ours was a house divided upon itself. It is well the situation was resolved without much help or hindrance from us! Charon came back to power, the Maelstrom was fought off, the Smiling Lord dealt with for his perfidy, and then - as he had done in the past - Charon went to King Minos to adjust the truth. Oh yes... the truth of there ever having been an Insurrection was leached from the minds of every Stygian Wraith, cleaned away just like the Quick might use a towel to clean a spilled drop of wine. Charon decided it must be this way, in order to let the Empire heal. And Minos, being the servant that he was, did it. It was quite an amazing project! We, too, might have been affected had we not been warned in advance by our all-too-tractable Mnemoi friends. In the space of only a few months, every last Wraith who'd taken part in the mess found themselves forgetting large periods of what they'd done during the 4th Great Maelstrom. Yes... an amazing thing. Impressive. It was also a lesson to be learned from. We saw, then, that Charon was the strongest and most worthy leader the Hierarchy could ever hope to have. We might not have liked him, nor truly called him a friend or ally, but a man who would go to such a lengths to make certain that the Empire would stay together was a man you could respect. Not like, nor love, but respect. From that point onwards, the Center bade us take steps to make certain that Charon remained in power... at least, until Desire had no further use for him. We reinfiltrated the Hierarchy as best we could, making certain the Empire was maintained from within and putting down any and all serious rebellions that we could. We were not always successful, and we were not always unified in this, but as a whole you can say that Charon had us to thank for helping maintain the Empire. Even if Charon, himself, no longer exists to sit upon its throne...

Charon's End and The Hierarchy's Security I remember this fairly well. I may have forgotten quite a bit else, but I think I will forever remember the sight of Charon poling his reed boat out to meet Gorool. Their fight is etched in my mind, and the gigantic whirlpool that they both entered, never to return from... Yes, a sad thing. By this time, as I mentioned earlier, we had gone past looking at him as an enemy and instead looked at him as a necessary evil... perhaps a necessary detail, if you wished to avoid value judgments. I know what is stated in The Book, my dear. All that about the coming of the servant of the Great Lie... how much that has gotten us into! But there are those of us who question whether the best to fight this one would be with force of arms or force of will. And the Center is not quite as forthcoming with advice on that matter as some would like. Oh... I just state what others have stated, so that you might be aware that it exists, were you not already so well-informed. No more than that. No. Since that time, it has merely been the Deathlords... all squabbling for scraps at their rotting roundtable. They cannot be said to possess one fraction of Charon's charisma, gravitas or sense of mission. All they can do is argue with one another, scheme in the darkness and try to avoid

undoing too much of what they have done. But yet the Hierarchy remains. And it does so because we have been ordered to keep it together. And one day, I suspect we will be given the order to take it apart. Oh yes... I know what I said earlier, my dear. But remember that plans can change. Once Charon was our enemy, then a force to be redirected, and then someone to be well-considered... if somewhat rebuked. And so it is with the Empire. Having said that, it has not been clearly stated that the Hierarchy is what we should be focusing our primary attentions towards keeping. We may one day be faced with another difficult choice, as to whether to keep the state or those who would overthrow it, or remake it in their own image. For now, all we can truly agree upon is that the way of the Heretic - the mind-crushing weight of the Great Lie - must be fought at all times. Perhaps even more strongly than Oblivion, Itself.

And there we are, my dear... right up to this very day, in this very garden, where a very old Gaunt and a not-so-very young Apprentice speak of times gone by, and what we did to help them along. I am sure you have more questions, but I have some duties to perform, so you must excuse me... at least for today. However... because you are, indeed, one of my favorite pupils, and I wish that you would go far within our Cabal, I shall let you in on a little secret. Can you guess what that might be? Excellent. I expected no less of you! Now tell me... how much of what I just told you was a lie? A quarter? Two-thirds, perhaps? A half? Ha! I shan't tell you. If you wish to know the truth of things for yourself, you must go find it for yourself. The pieces are all there, my dear. Go forth and assemble them on your own. And come talk to me again when you think you know what they have told you.

Regretfully, I never got the chance. Of course, if I had, my answer would have come in the form of a honey-worded betrayal through a third party, much like what this entire session really was. It's just as well that the next wave of purges took the old man down with it. To this day I am puzzled as to why he singled my Master out for such an elaborate revenge. I have my theories, but I have chosen to keep them to myself. While there were many great lies and slight distortions in his tale, he was not joking about the flowers. In fact, I still visit the garden every so often, just to bid the old liar 'good day'...

The Beginning from the End ~ II. The Kings of the World ~ What is Done in Hir Name, and Why "It is the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it." - Aristotle

So here we are, then? I must congratulate you on finding us. It was not an easy task. I know this not because I have surmised as much, but because I was watching your investigations every step of the way. You have been watched for some time, you see. Ever since one of our agents placed our name in your ear, you have been monitored to see which way you would go. That I find you here, before me, is most pleasing. A number of others we place the test before do not recognize it for what it is, much less make it this far. Far too many give up far too easily, and this is just as well as they are useless to us. And then we have you. You are not bound by anything. The room you sit in is not a prison, and yet you cannot make yourself get out of that door. This is our doing as well. A simple statement was made: "you want to sit and wait." And so you have sat, and so you have waited, and you will continue to do so until you no longer find this room to be quite so fascinating. By the end of that time we will have reached a decision, you and I, on what is to be done with you. In truth, I shall be the one who makes the decision, based on the answer to a timeless question. I pose it to you rhetorically now, but the final answer must come from within yourself. 'Are you Desire's master... or its slave?' WHAT HOW (These are partial notes from a transcribed lecture by Grand Master Elizabeta Dresden - late of the Order of Three - with parenthetical annotations by later commentators. In spite of her later fall from grace, her wisdom in certain, other matters has been considered worth keeping. She was, after all, a formidable architect of espionage webs in her day. It is just as well her heresy was uprooted and dealt with when it was.)

I will begin this lecture with something of an object lesson. I want each of you to look to the person to your left, and then to your right, in turn. Study their faces, their movements. Consider one another well. Now, ask yourselves... how well do you know that person, truly? Perhaps you have worked together on something minor? Perhaps you were in another class before? Some of you may even consider one another to be friends. But, in truth, I am certain that most of you have no idea who one another truly is. And, just to prove it to you. I will say this, now: one of us in this room will be revealed to be a Mark. At some point during the lecture, he or she will try to do something very foolish, and someone in here will suffer for it. I do this to underline the nature of what it is we must be prepared to do. Everyone is disposable. No one is sacrosanct. Nothing is off-limits. And everything is permitted... so long as it serves the Cabal's interests. To that end, we must consider the following. Subversion. Coercion. Subornation. Sedition. Blackmail. Brainwashing. Infiltration. And, yes... Intimation. These are the eight tools of we Solicitors. Any canny member of the Cabal should know them all by heart. Those who have risen to the top most likely know even more, or else are extremely skilled at one or more of them. And their uses are legion, as I shall demonstrate.

"The "Crutch" of Intimation One might wonder why the Cabal stoops to using such things - other than as exercises in pure sadism, of course. Don't they have Intimation? Why don't they just use it? Of course, they have Intimation, but Intimation in the hands of a Solicitor is like a gun in the hands of a soldier. It's a great tool to do your job, but not only do you have to be prepared for situations where you might not have it, but you have to recognize that not every situation is best handled with it. After all, Intimation, by itself, is not always as effective as the Solicitors might make it sound to outsiders. What happens if it doesn't work? What happens if the effects run out before the Solicitor sees the Mark again? And what happens if - Desire forbid - the target is somehow immune to Intimation, or manages to shake its effects off and take precautions against it? And then there's always the matter of how much energy one wishes to expend on a target. Pathos does not grow on trees, and Angst can sometimes be gained in return. And there is also the ever-present danger of Desire's Whiplash... For these reasons, as well as cultivating a sneaky and crafty mentality in their charges, elder Solicitors go out of their way to school their pupils in the many, non-Intimatory means of getting a Mark or Client to do what you will of them.

They're time-tested and true. And, best of all, they're free.

Infiltration One of our best - and oldest - methods is to join up with a larger body and do the Cabal's work from within. This is done both to rise in its ranks, or move others into position, and to be on the lookout for potential marks and clients. Not only is this the oldest method, but it is quite often the easiest. Often, we only have to keep our new recruits where we found them, instead of suggesting they leave. Many of you still report to your old masters and consort with your old fellows, and this is why. Every so often, we have to remove someone and impersonate him. But it is so much better to just make that someone a Client through various means. We shall get to those means in short order. When it comes to an actual disguise, either for the long or short term, we often pose as Chanteurs. As I am certain you know, the Songbirds are often hired to attend business negotiations and make certain that one or more of the attendants is not using Keening to make the deal sound better, or guarantee a sale. But unless anyone at the table knows the rudiments of our craft, they will never even suspect that their sudden change of heart was due to an entirely different Arcanos. Another, more dangerous trick is to pose as a Pardoner. Some of their number consider their profession to be much like that of a Priest: dispensing advice and suggesting penance while scourging the Shadow. Tipping the right idea in the right ear at such a time, when its owner is the most vulnerable, is child's play. The only problems are learning enough Castigate to effect such a disguise, dealing with the Angst gained from the transaction and, needless to say, facing the wrath of the real Guild should you be uncovered. You might wish to speak to a Purger if you are interested in this method, but I should warn you that they jealously guard what they have discovered.

("And how. I remember being inspired to try this, but the Purgers would not even hear of it. They claimed I did not have an honest enough face! Still, I hear tell of what happened to one that they accepted: his Shadow ate him alive in a few short months..." - Master Johan Hilden) Blackmail Everyone has at least one dirty little secret. Perhaps they abscond from work to visit a Fetter. Perhaps they Skinride. Perhaps they have double loyalties... something we should all be familiar with, were our true loyalty not to the Cabal. Or perhaps they lied to a superior, stole an item of value, betrayed a colleague, and so on... Once a person crosses the line between ethical and unethical behavior, he makes himself vulnerable to anyone who happens to know about it. And it does not always matter how long ago the line was crossed, either. This is where we enter the picture. By finding out these sources of shame, and threatening to go public with them, even the most powerful of Wraiths will jump to your fingerclicks. They would

have to be insane not to: centuries worth of enemies will hound them into a second grave if certain vulnerabilities come to light, would they not?

("This is very true. We Wraiths can live forever if we maintain ourselves. How many mistakes can one make in one lifetime? Multiply that by hundreds, and you have the secret life of a Gaunt. And if your superior will always be your superior unless he is removed, then every Wraith of ambition will rise to demand his removal should a truly nasty secret bubble forth." - Grand Master Lucinda Ximenes) Losing Your Secret's Worth In the past, Solicitors in Stygian territory tended to focus on the use of "banned" or "illegal" Arcanoi as a primary piece of leverage. However, with the fall of the Hierarchy, no one really cares who practices Shroud-rending Arcanoi, anymore, other than to ask for their help. As a result, a number of Marks and Clients were lost. Also, a proportionate number of Solicitors were soundly disciplined for failing to secure other means to salvage the matter. "Soundly Disciplined" meaning that the Gardeners had a field day... The lesson is to make certain that the real goods on someone is not only offensive to one group, but to many. Either that or have several secrets, each one cause for problems with a different group, on the same person.

Subornation Having said all that, sometimes people have no secrets, or else their secrets are so mundane and pedestrian that there is little point holding them over their heads. It may be hard to believe that a target could be so clean she would make soap look soiled, but some targets are so new to the Underworld, or so ethical, that such a challenge may appear before you. As such, the surest way for a you to make such a mark is to trick him into doing something he normally would not, and then approach him with the evidence. This can be done with Intimation or without it. And I would recommend that, this early in your service, if you use our craft, you use it subtly.

("Ah yes. She was always a bit off-putting on the new blood when it came to our use of that Arcanos.. doubtless to covert the goods all for herself! I remember speaking to her about this, time and again, but she would not change her ways. I think she did it to spite me. It is well I have her where I can keep an eye on her, now." - Grand Master Don Salazaar) Coercion We Wraiths are fragile things, in spite of our toughness. Without our Fetters, we are lost to the Shadowlands, and banished to the Tempest. And in the times of Great Maelstrom, this is often a second death sentence for Wraiths who have yet to distinguish themselves and earn a place on the Isle of Sorrows.

Keeping that in mind, you could learn at least the basic rudiments of the Monitors' arts, so as to study the Fetters of those you deal with. Those of you that cannot learn them must either force the hand of a Monitor or else rely on simple observation and guesswork. But never underestimate the power of those two: they will aid you more often than not. After you have mapped the target's anchors, you might wish to let the target know that you have done this. Sometimes, informing a mark that you have his precious things in your sights is enough to make him comply. You might also leave a note of sorts upon one of his largest ones: the location where he can find your demands, perhaps? But if he will not do what is commanded of him, or else you suspect him too powerful to ply with such a ploy, then do away with a small one. A Harrowing frightens everyone, after all. Learning more of the Monitors' arts is instrumental, here, but if you haven't the time or the aptitude for it, you might wish to learn the arts of the so-called Spooks, instead. If you cannot rip them away, you might at least be able to smash them from a ledge. Then, when the target comes back, you let the target know, through one means or another, that the Harrowing was courtesy of yours truly. That and that any future falls to the Labyrinth can be avoided by doing the following... at which point you both state your demands and a command to keep silent.

("This does work, but, with all due respect to the late Grand Master Dresden, she never mentioned the real danger of trying such things: namely, running afoul of the Monitors, the Spooks, or even the Proctors. Anyone worth getting under our control has almost certainly been in their sights - or under their control - for some time. ("That's not to say that I fear any other so-called "Guildwraith," but those who are just starting out in the Cabal should be guided towards less dangerous means as a matter of simple security." Master Daniel McWhitterfield) Subversion Another, more advanced technique is to do what one of our number liked to call "cultivating flowers of evil." One simply creates or exploits a needed - and, by necessity, illegal - behavior in a target, and then simply lets them go on their own way... perhaps with the occasional change of course, courtesy of yourself. Why? Because, every so often, it is a good thing to have a random factor in the mix. Not only do the results of such a thing surprise us, they sometimes teach us something new. And, should you ever need to do something with what you've cultivated, it may have more resources to bear than you could have ever dreamed of. It also adds a layer to your deception. Who can say you were the one who brought this wraith so low? If you only gave them one little push, and the rest of the journey downhill was entirely their own, then they might not seek your hand in it, nor be as likely to find it. All I suggest is that you give yourselves a lot of time before trying such a thing. A badly-cultivated flower may choke the garden, as it were.

("It only sounds foolish and illconsidered. Once, I managed to trick a humble Centurion into Skinriding. It went badly, and he was guilty and afraid. However, rather than blackmailing him, I decided to play around a bit and convince him - all without the Art, mind you - that he actually liked the fact that he was ruining the lives of the Quick through his actions. And then I just let him go on his own way. ("By the time I'd caught back up with him, five or so years later, he'd risen in the ranks of the Hierarchy by disposing of his rivals' Fetters, joined the Puppeteers and done more or less the same thing, and managed to work out a situation where he could play one group against the other and benefit from it. And this was all his doing - all on his own initiative, just because he didn't want to get caught doing what he now loved. ("It was almost a shame to have him wreck it all. Almost. - Master Fredrick Feldman) Sedition Another advanced technique is to instigate a full-scale mutiny in one organization or another, or else change their operational goals to meet your own. This is easily done: simply find the most charismatic members of that group, determine which one is the least resistant to our methods, and then either convince him to take full advantage of his charm to get the group to do what he that is, you - wants, or blackmail him into encouraging others into doing our bidding. Groupthink is a terribly easy thing to manipulate, wouldn't you agree? Some of you might be relishing the idea of having your own private army via this method. However, you should keep in mind that this technique is best-used as a one-time-only tactic, such as when you wish to create a diversion using disposable pawns. You would wish to maintain more control upon it than, say, a "flower" you just twisted and left to grow, and with so many people to keep track of you might find the whole thing rather taxing. But please! Don't let that discourage you...

("I wish she had! I was rather keen to give this a try, and all but begged my Masters to let me have a go. So I was assigned to whip up a particularly noxious batch of Renegades into a fighting force - one that could be kept on "boil" for a few months and then let loose on particular Citadel. ("The exact reasons why I was having them do this escape me at the moment. What will probably never escape me, on the other hand, is the horror of finding out that the moment I turned my back, the body of the Renegades decided that their leader - my Mark - was not revolutionary enough for them! ("By the time the blood purge was over, half of their number remained, and they struck out to take over the entire Necropolis much, much too early. Needless to say, I had a lot of explaining to do, and the Gardeners were all ears for days on end..." - Master Jovis Fortunado) Brainwashing I have saved the notion of so-called "Brainwashing" for next-to-last because, unlike the other methods I have spoken of thus far, it cannot be done without the use of our Arcanos, as well as that of the Mnemoi. As such the most contact that you will have with it, at this stage of your service to the Cabal, is to aid an older, more experienced member in shepherding the end result to fruition.

However, just so you are aware: it is well within our means to take a Wraith and completely rewrite his memories and desires, to the point where very little of the original personality yet remains, and what little remains is ours to control. It is, of course, quite possible to implant small, simple instructions into others, but this is something entirely different, much more time-consuming and much more dangerous. But you might well wonder how many officials, Guildwraiths, Renegades and others are not quite what they seem. Some times it is not enough to impersonate another, or merely play with another's desires. Some times we must have a person who is completely of our making in a particular role, waiting for the right moment to embark on a course of action that they have no choice but to fulfill, and no regrets whatsoever for doing it. Of course, once their role is fulfilled, such a person is spent and useless. And this tends to be one reason to avoid such a thing. It is very costly to spend all that time and effort for such a thing. It is much better to have a Client or Mark that you can use time and again. But if Desire commands it thus, then thus is must be...

("I remember running into one such individual, long ago, when I was just a Journeyman. Needless to say, none of us had any idea that this one Hierarchy official was ours. Then, one day, we were ordered to have our Clients all change sides, steal everything they had access to and gave it to the Renegades. The Necropolis burned, Stygia sent troops to quell the disorder and punish the officials who'd been so lax as to allow this to happen. By the time they left, the official in question was an Overlord, and quite clearly the power behind the Anacreon's throne. ("It was then that my Master let me in on the joke. I was quite amused. And now I am the Grand Master, and my Master is long since-gone, and yet the straw man is still the power behind the throne..." - Grand Master Lucinda Ximenes) The Manchurian Legionnaire Yes, this is true: a combination of Intimation and Mnemosynis can be used to "rewrite" a Wraith, and the Solicitors have done it before. It is not commonly done due to the complexity of the process, as well as the time needed to pull it off, but if the Cabal thinks that someone needs to be remade from scratch, they can - and will - do it. No system is provided for this: Storytellers are free and clear to either figure it out on their own, or else leave it as something that happens that player characters have no business knowing how to do. However, STs might want to keep the following considerations in mind: * In order to rewrite a Wraith, you have to delete and add on large portions of "history" to the wraith's memory. This is a process that only the Mnemoi are well-versed in doing, and for all their claims to have gotten the secrets from that Guild, the Solicitors don't know everything there is to know about it. So what happens when the Wraith starts remembering things that "never happened"...? * Passions and Fetters need not have a lot to do with one another, but often times they do. A Wraith must have Fetters to remain in the Shadowlands, and must tend them in order to avoid

Harrowings. A rewritten Wraith might start to wonder why it is he's looking after a baseball field in Des Moines if he was "born and raised" in New York City, and has Passions revolving around it. (This can be shortcut by rewriting wraiths with no Fetters left, but it limits their range of action) * And then there is the Shadow. While Intimation Arts can - and must - be used on them while totally rewriting a Wraith, the "mind" of a Shadow is a tricky thing to get ahold of. Ideally, the Shadow is reformed to the point where its destructive impulses are tempered somewhat, just so it doesn't do too good of a job destroying the Wraith before the Wraith can do the task it was rewritten for. But when has dealing with a Shadow ever gone according to the ideal? So, it goes without saying that rewriting the Shadow will at least be somewhat flawed, which leads one to wonder what the Shadow might do when it realizes what's happened. Some Shadows might really resent having their own, personal paths to Oblivion redone by those shinyeyed bastards, and try their best to shake the Wraith back to 'reality.' Others might just roll with the punches and try to turn the situation to their advantage, realizing that engineering a huge personality crisis could shortcut the route to nonexistance by more than a few years.

Intimation And then, finally, we come to the hallmark of our Organization... our Cabal. The fruits of the Great Secret. The power of Desire, Hirself. Intimation. What I could tell you of this power would take years, and fully supplant much of what your instructors are teaching you at this time. So I will not duplicate their efforts, nor give you for free what it took me countless ages to learn, myself. Instead, I will merely give you some advice, so that when you are given more practical tests, you will not be tripped up, caught or detected for one foolish mistake. The first piece of advice I would give you is to remember that an Arcanos - even Intimation - is just a tool. It will not fight your battles for you, nor guarantee victory. Your true understanding of ours, and its nature, sets you apart from others who have licked mere scraps of it up from the corners of their consciousness. But that alone assures nothing, save condemnation in certain quarters if your eye's true color should be seen. In other words, my students, I wish to see some of the blocks disappear from your shoulders, and some of the smirks wiped from your faces. We are not ubermenchen - we are here because we proved to be mortal, and are still quite so. And the only way to guarantee our survival in this dead world is to learn from our mistakes, and those of others, and to be cunning and subtle at all times. So how does one go about being cunning with Intimation? Consider two Solicitors I have known. Both of them were given the task of changing the minds of a pair of mid-level Hierarchy bureaucrats through Intimation - a thing that could be done in so many, other ways, as I have just shown you at length. And it could also be done rather grossly and suddenly, just be announcing the facts of the matter to the Mark But they went about this subtly, and this made the difference. One of them stalked his target for days on end, watching him carefully and using the lower levels of our Art to discover what this person felt while he was doing each task. Then he picked a time when he was feeling next to nothing at all - signing records and forms, of course - and then removed a certain want from that person's mind. It was a gross and sudden removal, typical of the use of Quash, but as it was not at the forefront of this person's mind, he did not notice it. And it was not until this person went about doing a more important task - assigning Legionnaires to specific duties - that his desire to be efficient in all things was missed. And so he was lazy and careless, and the wrong sort of people were put on the wrong sort of tasks, and so things

proceeded apace. As for the other, he befriended the fellow. He got to know him, both the public self that was revealed in friendship and the private self that our Art could uncover. And once he knew what this man wanted, it was ever so simple to play up to that desire in otherwise-innocent conversation, meanwhile using our Art to make what the fellow wanted even more enticing than before. All the while, our Solicitor played the voice of reason, trying to urge the fellow to be steadfast and forthright. But he did this knowing that the man needed someone to tell him he was going too far. He needed a father-confessor, as it was. If he had to act as his own, then he would never dare do anything. But if he had another, he could go ahead and do it, and then 'repent' by telling a friend. In both cases, the Cabal's wishes were served, and no one had any idea we were involved. And that, students, is the key. If we step from the shadows, blaze our eyes and state "I am the King of the World, and you will obey me," it will work in the short term, but in the long term it will compromise us, and make us all too easy to dismiss as bullies and ruffians. Some say that the best trick the Devil ever made was convincing us that he didn't exist. But we are here, dead, and know that he does not exist. So I say that the best devil is the one you know is real, and are terrified of, but never know was ever there. And with that, I believe we may be finished here, this day. You may go.

("Of course, this marked the end of her lecture... or so it seemed. She did promise that one of the students was a Mark? ("Well, she would have, by this time, discerned which of the students in the first two rows was paying the most attention. This one would have slowly worked upon during the lecture, using The Urge and the like. And then, when she was finished, and the class was dismissed, she would wait for the person to pass and then ask that person to help her with something, up at the front. ("Now, if that student was smart enough to pause, or - in one case - ask what happened to the Mark, then she would smile and send him or her on her way. That student had passed her test, for he or she had truly been paying attention. That student remembered what she said: that anyone is usable, so long as it fits the Cabal's interest. ("But if that student thought nothing of helping her, then that student would be skewered upon her very sharp knife. The rest of the class would be called back in to see that this student was, indeed, the Mark. And it could have been any one of them! The students were told not to tell anyone of what had happened, and the Mark would then be sent on his way, corpus pierced right through and ears burning red with shame. ("A very effective presentation, I have to say. But, again, we should remember that her attempts to de-sanctify our Art and inculcate in the new blood an antipathy towards its use was, in the end, deemed heretical. She would have had us skulking in the Shadows along with the Mnemoi and the Usurers! I considered that approach to be quite undignified, and I am very pleased that the Center of the Wheel agreed. ("But she still has her uses. A gentleman should always have a sword handy, and, in spite of my

upbringing, I did always appreciate German steel." - Grand Master Don Salazaar)

WHY Why "This is war... and I would kill a million little girls to win." "Preacher" Special: "Starr - One Man's War" - Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon

All the preceding information leaves the question: what Wraith in her right mind would do that sort of thing, and how could they do it for long without falling face-first into Oblivion? Of course, any other Wraithly group could claim its share of sneaky dealings, brutal behavior and outright sadism. The Masquers, the Haunters, the Monitors and the Spooks are prime examples of institutionalized inhumanity. And that's not even mentioning the less pleasant - read "soulforging" - sides of the Artificers and the Hierarchy... But the Solicitors seem to have the corner on those markets. And they routinely go a lot further than the the other fellows could ever dare. So one can only wonder what sort of trick the Cabal has up its sleeve: they can't all just be sadistic freaks... can they? The answer is deceptively simple: perfectly sane individuals will do the most horrible things imaginable if they can justify those actions to themselves, or to others. And the Solicitors knowing this all too well - are happy to provide their Apprentices and Novices with a number of compelling reasons to do the things they do. Some example justifications can be found below. Some of them may sound horribly familiar... Desire: "It's not so bad a thing, really. We deal with the desires of others, day in and day out. What is so wrong with recognizing our own desires? What is so wrong with using what we have to bring them about? So long as our ambition does not go further than our place, no harm is done." Greed, covetousness and plain old ambition color the actions of many in the Cabal. While they are told that what they do is sacred, they have no real moral code to adhere to. There are rules and laws, of course, but these only really apply to conduct amongst other Solicitors - not towards others outside the Order, or their own persons. So, if most of what they do revolves around the ambition of others, then what harm could there be in exercising a little of their own? Some desire wealth, others temporal power, still others forbidden knowledge or certain things that only one with their powers could hope to attain. And so long as they put the interests of the Cabal ahead of their own, or - more commonly - find a way to satisfy both at once, no one cares to raise an eyebrow at their criminal impulses.

Duty:

"There's a bright, brilliant new Underworld coming, and we're the ones who are going to make it happen. Revolution is always messy, sometimes even brutal. But the ends will justify the means. They will. You'll see." Hopes on the blazing glory of the future, hands in the bloody guts of the present, these Solicitors have their eyes on a far-off prize that they see coming closer every day. They rationalize their actions as being necessary to bring forth the Day of Desire, and maybe make the occasional joke about omelettes and cracked eggs. That the eggs have names and faces might give them some pause, at least to start with. But once they get used to the struggle those things become nothing more than little blips. One day, it will all be worth it - all of it.

Devotion: "Master Robbins is the greatest of our Order. I care not what others say, nor what they may do to me for saying it. I care only what he says, and when he cares to look upon me from afar, and send word of his pleasure at my humble deeds, then I would suffer a thousand thousand times in his service." There are those who aren't complete unless they're doing - and being praised for - what a charismatic leader asks of them. When such people get caught up in the thunder and glory of the leader's grand vision, they will do anything in his name, no matter how wrong or amoral it may seem. Such concerns get thrown out the window in exchange for the praise, however fleeting, of their brilliant, beautiful master. There are a lot of these in the Cabal. As a result, many Solicitors cultivate a cult of personality around their person as soon as they have the Status to do so - sometimes even before they really should. Whether this is seen as presumption or wisdom depends on whether they keep the Cabal's favor, or lose it...

Divinity: "Desire wills it, and so it must be done. Any who hesitate are lacking in faith. Any who openly question are apostates and heretics. And any who oppose are Hir enemies, and therefore mine as well. "Where do you stand?" There's little more frightening than a religious zealot, except for a religious zealot who thinks his God/dess told him to make a mark chuck your Fetters into a blast furnace. Such Solicitors are so assured that what they are doing is blessed, and they blessed for doing it, that they will do anything they are told to do - anything at all. And they will do these things with a zeal rarely seen amongst the sane. If some of the Cabal had their way, every Solicitor would be like this. But then, if every Solicitor was like this, one can only wonder if heresies and schisms would wreak havoc within the ranks. Of course, that's provided it hasn't already started...

Diversion: "You should have seen the look on its face when everything came crumbling down around it. With one word... one word... I revealed just how deeply I'd wrapped it up. Then it watched - helplessly as its last Fetter screamed and died because of its own, unwitting actions. And then it fell down into a Harrowing, and it was so gone it couldn't even scream... "That has to be the most rewarding two years I've spent. Now... what new plaything can you offer me?" And then there are those Solicitors who really couldn't give a spent mark about any of the above. Maybe they believe in what The Book says, and maybe they just pay it lip service so the Keepers won't get on their backs. But what really motivates them, deep down, is the fact that they're not only being allowed, but encouraged, to play with other Wraiths' unlives as though they were toys. This is where the sadists, the gameplayers, the unhinged and the (in)human monsters tend to wind up. Duty? Enlightenment? To hell with all that - they just want to hear someone scream in pain. They want to hurt people. Break people. They want to be the knife that cuts. And there are many of them within the Cabal. Maybe a few too many...

Degradation: "Walking through filth, I discover what it truly means to be pure. Twisting the desires of others, I discover what it means to truly understand my own. And in both, I understand Desire all the more..." Much like the boy in Hell who was ordered to clean an endless cavern full of horseshit with a tiny shovel, the Solicitors who follow this idea spend their time happily looking for the pony. Of course, that's putting a much more amusing face on the situation than it calls for. The Solicitors do horrible, terrible things, and those who tend to flock to this rationalization are often up past their knees in them. But they see what they do as a quest towards self-discovery: one that, Desire willing, will bring them closer to Hir. This lot is closely related to the 'Divine Orders' side of things. But where the aforementioned zealots think they already know what's going on, these Solicitors are still trying to find out. And they're not afraid to get their hands dirty doing it, especially if they're crawling on them through the filth. The Parable of Inanna In Sumerian mythology, Inanna (often called Ishtar, these days) was the goddess of nature. Once, Inanna had cause to go into the Underworld. Different versions of the myth give differing accounts as to why: some say to rescue her consort, others say to gain knowledge. (The Solicitors prefer the latter reason) On Her way down, Inanna was asked to shed a layer of clothing for each gate She went through.

She surrendered her jewels, her robes, her clothes... everything. Eventually, She was naked. She stood completely stripped before Ereshkigal - the goddess who ruled the Underworld - and her seven judges of Death. They looked upon Inanna with The Eyes of Death. And so She died. She hung on a stake in the Underworld as a corpse, for three days and nights, before other Gods came to rescue Her. But the Underworld abhors a vacuum, and Ereshkigal sent demons to follow Her, capturing other Gods to take Her place, below. All allusions to the Underworld aside - and there is some debate as to whether this really happened, or not - this story illustrates the revelation that losing everything can bring. By degrading Herself, and sinking as low as possible (however metaphorically) Inanna came by knowledge that She would not have learned otherwise. So, too, can those Solicitors who follow Her example. As for the "demons" coming to get others to take Her place, well... knowledge requires sacrifice. And any Solicitor worth her name should be able to name a few likely candidates from her pool of Marks, Clients and enemies...

...And Now for an Opposing View .Some might think that having the sort of motivations described above would offer a measure of protection from Shadows. But they'd be very, very wrong. Every single one of the preceding viewpoints can be twisted right back around by an inventive Shadow. For the more visionary ideas, the best way to do it is for the Shadow to set up a very complex chain of ruin, and then trigger it to fall right when the Solicitor is the most vulnerable. Get the zealot to realize he's become the very thing he hated; Help the Inanna-follower discover that she wasn't doing anything but crawling through filth; Suddenly break it to the hero-worshiper than he was nothing to his hero - nothing at all. One good push and then boom, down she goes... As for the more criminal or twisted, sometimes all the Shadow has to do is sit back and enjoy the ride. Such behaviors often reap a whirlwind of Angst all by their lonesome, and if it's not working fast enough then the Shadow can always try to engineer a final betrayal or a mark that can fight back with interest. Organization The bulk of the Solicitors is grouped into one of eight Orders, each of which oversees roughly 1/8th of the Shadowlands. Each Order is governed by a Grand Master of the Order from a cleverly-hidden fortress-haunt known as a Cathedral. For example, The Order of Seven looks after the North American continent, and has its Cathedral in the New Orleans Necropolis. The Orders are further broken down into Chapters, which are numbered in multiples of eight. Any one Order might have eight, sixteen, or sixty-four Chapters, but would never have three, twentyeight or fifty-one. To use North America as a further example, it has fifty-six Chapters, numbered one through fifty-six. There are Chapter Leaders, but these stay in the Cathedral with the Grand Master of the Order

most of the time. This is done for mostly esoteric reasons: by the time a Solicitor achieves that rank, she has so immersed herself in arcane researches that having to directly oversee her Chapter's day-to-day routine would be a dangerous distraction. Her orders are sent by The Urge and carried out by proxy by a Grand Master. Once they leave for the Cathedral, Chapter Leaders only come to visit their Chapters personally if there's some problem, or The Center of the Wheel wishes it done. Each group of Solicitors in any one area are grouped together in a Chapter, and any one Chapter meets in a tight, local confederation known as a Chapterhouse. This refers both to the Solicitors themselves and the place in which they meet, which is usually in the most run-down and shunned area of any Necropolis. Chapterhouses rarely exist in Citadels, as such communities are much too small to hide a useful group of Solicitors: they'll usually just send a Circle to any such place if they need to do anything there. As previously mentioned, each Chapterhouse is overseen by one Grand Master. She is directly answerable to the Chapter Leader, and every Solicitor in the Chapterhouse is answerable to the Chapter Leader through her. She is in charge of relating the desires of the Center of the Wheel to individual members of the Chapterhouse, and making sure those orders are carried out. She also has the authority to authorize - or turn down - contracts, select new Apprentices, and see to their pairing with a Novice for instruction. Positions and Tasks The Cabal has any number of things that need doing at any one time: all members are expected to be able to do whatever they're commanded to, and failure is not acceptable. Adaptability, ingenuity and the willingness to do things correctly as soon as possible are the signs of someone who'll go far. The alternative make nice wheels. Of course, there are some "standing" positions that any member might wish to try out for. Being a member of these groups gets one allies, instruction and a faster chance for promotion. On the other hand, sometimes being in a niche means plum assignments go to someone who's more "flexible," even if you're really as bendable as a rubber band.

Negotiators: One of the more acceptable faces of the Cabal - or, at least, the side of them that the Guilds will invoke when they think they need to - the Negotiators do just what their name says. Of course, their methods of "Negotiation" have a lot less to do with convincing the other person to agree as they do in making them agree. But "Coercers" has such an... unsubtle... ring to it. Such individuals tend to come in two packages. One is the sort of person who takes a contract and then lurks nearby the mark, waiting for a chance to implant the requested desires into her head. These are the infamous, never-seen "liers in wait" of the Cabal, ever waiting for their victim to pass on by. The other lives a more dangerous life: she pretends to be something she's not in order to gain access to the halls of power where such negotiations bear their fruit. Often times she'll pretend to be a Chanteur, and be hired to lend a keen ear to the proceedings on behalf of whoever hires her. That she's using Intimation rather than Keening is a secret that the Negotiator keeps to herself, and anyone counter-employing their own Chanteurs to keep such an event from happening winds up spending her money in vain.

Agent Provacateurs: For those unlucky enough to know something of the true face of the Cabal, these ones are often invoked as a "typical" Solicitor: a devious, desire-twisting snake in the grass just outside the sight of the eyes. She typically uses her skills of Intimation to clandestinely ruin any individual the Solicitors want toppled, and she'll also be set into play to disrupt other groups and institutions if the situation calls for it. Unlike the Negotiators, the Agent Provacateur's services are not for sale. She works for the Cabal's direct interests, making certain those who feel her sting never know she was involved, much less that Intimation played any part in the tragedy that ensues. They are the invisible workers who make the Underworld function, or cease to function, as the Center of the Wheel desires.

Held Hands: Another of the Cabal's more despicable sides rests in the lap of the Held Hands, who go out of their way to secure people's cooperation through the less-taxing method of blackmail. One might well wonder why the Solicitors would resort to blackmail? Any Solicitor worthy of that name can Intimate someone into full cooperation, surely. And that's true, but such a working usually requires a lot of tiring, taxing and careful Intimation use - the sort of things that any one Chapterhouse may not have enough specialists to do at the time. In such cases the Held Hands will be employed. Such persons tend to look at themselves as virtuosos of the Art. They use Intimation like a finetuned instrument rather than a blunt one, carefully setting a mark up into doing something she normally wouldn't. Once the deed's done, all she has to do is appear to confront that Mark with the evidence, and suggest she comply with what her new "friends" would like done - or else. In some ways, the Held Hands do the same sort of things that the Agents and the Negotiators do, but their methods are different. The Blackmailer and her victim will have to talk at some point, after all, and should therefore know that someone has it out for her. If the Negotiator and Agent do their jobs well enough, their Marks won't know that they were forced into working against their natures.

Gardeners: Their name might be a bit of a twee joke, but no one in their right mind laughs about it in front of one, as the Gardeners are the Cabal's rather twisted interrogation specialists. They use their skills in Intimation to leech the secrets from those unfortunate souls given unto them, and then do whatever they like with the ruins of what's left. Most of the time their interrogation techniques consist of breaking the spirit and mind rather than the body, but there are those who relish the time-honored traditions: rack, thumbscrew, boiling plasm and red-hot pokers - for a start. Just about every Chapterhouse has at least one room full of such implements for one of their number to use.

The Gardeners also serve another purpose: many of them are skilled in Soulforging, having... convinced an Artificer to give them their secrets. Such persons are the ones who create the various Artifacts that the Guild calls its own, and these are invariably made from either failed Apprentices, disgraced and deranged Solicitors or the "volunteers" they pool from their interrogation rooms.

Purgers: A welcome sight to those of the Cabal, the Purgers are those Solicitors who have learned enough Castigation to affect the Shadows' of their fellows. Since the Solicitors know they aren't welcome in the halls of the Pardoners, and wouldn't trust their secrets with them, anyway, they have to look after their own Shadows. Most of the Purgers occupy levels of respect amongst the group, but there's always the chance that what you tell one will come back to haunt you in the form of blackmail one day. After all, they may know the Pardoners' Arts, but they're still Solicitors...

Keepers of the Shrine: The Solicitors are as much of a religious order as they are a temporal one, using their sacred cause to justify their actions in the Underworld. As such, there are many Solicitors who tend to the sacred duties of a Chapterhouse, and these are known as the Keepers of the Shrine. They are the ones who look after The Book and the paraphenalia of the Induction Ritual, and they are the ones who carry those rituals out. They are also charged with keeping track of the Cabal's spiritual life, and are permitted to spotcheck any Solicitor for proper orthodoxy of faith. Anyone who fails such a test is either chastized for her misunderstanding and sentenced to "re-education," or sent to a Gardener for a good, solid scourging. Heretics and atheists are sent to the Gardeners for a very brutal and final "cleansing," one that strips the Solicitor of her sin via the soulforging process. The Center of the Wheel "Where desire writhed there stands a stone; the change was sudden and complete." - Maggie Roche The Cabal has been controlled by a single, mysterious figure since the dawn of memory. Known only as the Center of the Wheel, this enigmatic figure has never been seen, even by any of Hir advisors or messengers. There must have been a time when S:he was known to others, but this was so long ago that no one from that time is here, or at least sane enough, to testify as to Hir true appearance, nature or origins. Those who attend Hir do so from the security of their own havens and Haunts, turning towards a certain direction, bowing, and speaking aloud. They never hear Hir voice in reply. They receive feedback and instruction through Urge-borne commands in their minds, and these are as unmistakable as a Maelstrom's breaking winds. Once the communion is done, the Grand Masters go to put Hir directives into action, and thus is the Cabal commanded. There has always been some measure of speculation amongst the Grand Masters as to what

they are serving. Theories range from the ludicrous (one of the Deathlords?) to the frightening (a Malfean?), with a number of stranger ideas inbetween. There is speculation as to whether S:he wrote The Book, or merely found it and has created the Cabal to safeguard its secrets. Hir relationship to Desire is also of interest, and some say that S:he is none other. And then there is one other question that has proven unsettling. There are a total of eight Grand Masters who are permitted to speak with The Center of the Wheel, and these Eight are not permitted to speak to one another, even to confirm Hir orders or discuss overall Cabal strategy. The orders go from the top down - never sideways. And while this seems perfectly acceptable in a situation where new information can be given and fresh orders can be received within seconds, one can't help but wonder what the harm of the Eight talking to one another could be. The only answer that makes sense is that if even two of the Eight were to compare which way they bowed during communion, they could get an approximate location of where The Center of the Wheel was transmitting from. And were this secret to get out, then S:he might be located by enemies of the Cabal. Or is S:he also afraid of hir own servants? Needless to say, thinking on this subject for too long is cause for one of the Eight to be replaced by some other, aspiring Grand Master. And S:he always knows who's being mentally counterproductive... sometimes before the Solicitor in question does. Divisions Amongst the United "We are not saddled with the factionalism and balkanization that takes place within other, inferior groups. We are working towards a shared goal in Desire's name. There is no place for dissent, argument or petty politics. We have achieved a golden unity, here in the darkness, and no one can deny it."

"Don't you believe it. That's bullshit. Anyone who'd say such a thing too loudly is either headed for a fall, or trying to root out someone else to take it for him. We're extremely political - viciously political. Those who can hack it, propser; Those who can't hack it are hacked up and fed to the machine that keeps it all going."

"Why would anyone say such a thing? That's a very negative frame of mind for such a new member. I think the Keepers of the Shrine wouldn't appreciate such a thing. No... oh, no, I won't tell them. We all have our minor grumbles. But I think we had best keep your curiousity very quiet. We two can keep a secret just between us... can't we?" From Unity, Discord There is no denying that the Solicitors harbor some very different ideas on what ought to be done, what has been done, and what will untimately come of it all - and why. It might seem strange, considering the tight grip that the Center of the Wheel supposedly keeps over the Cabal. But then, while there is a promised end to things, the plan is not as clear. The Center only reveals the steps to get to the Day one at a time, and does not appreciate being prodded any further than that. And so, given that wraiths are nothing if not self-willed and passionate creatures, contrary interpretations were inevitable.

The instructions the Center sends to the Grand Masters, and they pass along, are very simple and direct, with their implimentation almost always left open to the Solicitor who receives them. And they are often open to several degrees of interpretation by the time they reach that Solicitor, so that a simple instruction has become more complex, and laden with intent. Then, they are filtered through the individual Solicitor's views of how best to do a thing, or what the best outcome would bring along with it. And that's not even counting that a command would usually be done in such a way as to benefit the Solicitor's personal goals. Further adding to the confusion is the Center's cool, almost glacial temperament. If "mistakes" are made in the implementation of Hir orders, S:he rarely directly comments on them - preferring to send more instructions that may or may not fix those "mistakes." And perhaps the mistakes are not mistakes at all, but part of some clever, twisting plan in which everything that happens was meant to be, no matter how disastrous it may seem. "Desire works in mysterious ways, Hir wonders to perform..." as the Keepers say. Where the Factures Lay No matter what Dark Kingdom the Cabal is operating in, the primary divisions inside it seem to revolve around the questions of secrecy versus openess, and then whether to back the current regime, or the rebels at its' gates.

The Traditionalists: The Traditionalists are very, very convinced of the Cabal's need to preserve its secrets. The nature of who and what they are should be known by no one until the Day arrives.. In fact, there are those amongst them who feel that even after the Day comes, they should remain in secret steering the new world from behind closed doors. In Stygia, it is the Traditionalists who loudly maintain that the Cabal allowed itself to be banned, thus making it easier to hide their secrets from others. That is a major part of the Stygian Cabal's oral tradition, and very few will risk questioning it out loud. Some of the younger Stygian members - especially in the Shepherds - are starting to ask if the story isn't just another fabrication that's been handed down mouth to ear and taken on a life of its own. Anyone who suggests that around a Traditionalist had better have something to back her up, though, or the Keepers might be called in...

The Shepherds: On the other side of the openess question are the Shepherds, who feel that, since they control so much of the Shadowlands, anyway, there's no harm in letting it be known. They are driving the world towards a greater goal - why should those who are being led there not know of the glory to come? It would make some things so much easier if more people were involved, and would save them a great deal of time when the Day came, as the ungrateful and treacherous could be identified - and culled - well before then. As could be guessed, the Shepherds are small, vocal and very, very careful. What they're proposing flies in the face of aeons' worth of tradition, and brings a great deal of risk. But they're sure that the rewards outweigh those risks, and will argue it until they're blue in the face if given

half a chance.

The Statists: In terms of the question of control, the Statists are the ones who thought that the dominant regime of any Dark Kingdom should be given the utmost attention. Why build a new machine from the ruins of the old when you can retool the old machine to suit your needs? Those charging against the gates make for useful pawns, but they tend to be disorganized and fractious: it would be too much effort to fit them together into a more useful whole. Most Statists tend to be Traditionalists as well, as they note that the machine is a wonderful mask to hide behind. The Shepherds amongst them are considered all the more radical for their notions of coming out from behind the curtain. In Stygia, the Statists were backing the Hierarchy, and carefully cultivating Clients within it. Now that the Hierarchy is no more, a schism has occurred, with some of them wanting to rebuild the Hierarchy from its ruins, and others seeing this as the chance to transfer power to the Guilds or some of the larger, better-organized Renegade groups. This has put them working alongside - or in opposition to - their Insurrectionist bretheren, who were working with them all along and don't appreciate the Statists muscling in.

The Insurrectionists: And, on the opposite side of the Statists' take on control, the Insurrectionists feel that the dominant regime must fall. The state invariably blocks or perverts the Solicitors' attempts to change it: at the very least, its static nature makes that change an uphill battle. The best thing to do, then, is to back the resistance. The Cabal can take advantage of the dynamic nature of such groups, and affect a more lasting change on them. And when the time is right, they can be sent against the state. Any signs of the Cabal's hand in things can be explained away via the confusion that accompany revolutions, and any mass-scale purging that needs to be done can be blamed on the fanatic zeal that also accompanies such things. As with the Statists, most Insurrectionists tend to be Traditionalists. Insurrectionist Shepherds have a more sympathetic reception than they'd get in the Statists, but they are seen as wanting too much too soon. First the revolution, then the purges, and then - after the Day comes everyone can know it was the Solicitors who handed them this wonderful new world. Of course, with the fall of the state in Stygia, the Insurrectionists have been taken by surprise. Suddenly the Guilds, who they thought were the best resistance, are poised to become the state without a fight no less. For some this is a great moment, for others it's a bit of an anti-climax, and for the others, it's a travesty. They can feel the revolutionary endeavor bleeding away as the Guilds close ranks and march in step out of a sense of responsibility, rather than anger or justice. And responsibility is a much more difficult emotion for Desire to twist about... Cabal Politics Of course, the notion of the Solicitors as political creatures is a frightening thought: imagining a wraith who can change your mind for you makes most of the restless deathly afraid, but imaging

a whole group of wraiths who can change one another's minds for themselves is another thing entirely. It's a wonder how anything could ever get done in such a group. The Cabal would change its mind every minute, surely...? But actually, no - that doesn't happen. Amongst the earliest lessons taught within Intimation is the method by which one can detect its' use upon herself, and counteract it. For the Solicitors, this is a lesson that cannot be stressed enough. Their Apprentices, and Novices, are heavily trained to resist being hoisted on their own petard. Some Novices and Masters even go out of their way to psychologically torture their Apprentices when they fail in this, just to drive home the point that a Solicitor must be a master of desire, and not its slave. And there is no tolerance of of a Solicitor who uses Intimation on another Solicitor for anything but the most clear and obvious training, or when allowed as punishment. This is considered a gross betrayal of trust, and anyone found guilty of such a thing is made an example of. The Cabal still whispers of what Don Salazaar did to a fledgling Master who tried to force him to agree to something: some say that even now - centuries later - Don Salazaar is still doing it to him. That's not to say that it never happens, of course. But those who do must be very, very careful. But then, that's Intimation. There are no proscriptions against blackmail, seduction, trade, trickery or outright lies. Any tactic that might be used on a Client could be brought to bear on a rival Solicitor, and often is. Inside Relations "One essential to success is that your desire be an all-obsessing one, your thoughts and aims be co-ordinated, and your energy be concentrated and applied without letup." - Claude M. Bristol As a worldwide Cabal, we tend to know quite a bit more than your average "well-connected" Wraith... even if we're not supposed to be talking to the others all that much... But let's start with what's in our immediate backyard, as it were? The Hierarchy: The main thing you need to understand about our attitude towards the Hierarchy is how disappointed we are that it's gone. No, really. Think about it. Those who seek to wrest control from a superior power have two choices: they can either try and topple that power, and replace it with themselves, or else slowly and subtly infiltrate that power, until they ARE the power. We determined, early on, that the best way to deal with the Hierarchy was to become the Hierarchy. And that's just what we were doing, right up until the day it fell down. "Breaking" or no, it was easier than you might think; In fact, they were our largest source of Clients throughout all of Stygia. When you're in a system where your supervisor cannot retire, and might never be promoted, the only way up is to get that supervisor out of the way. And if you can't afford a Masquer, or aren't brave enough to do the job yourself that's where we came in.

But now it's gone, and we have to deal with what's left. The Guilds: The fact that we masqueraded as a Guild for so long doesn't have much to do with our high level of interest in them. It's a matter of simple practicality: the Hierarchy may have controlled Stygia, but "Broken" or not it was the Guilds who made the whole thing work. The Guilds were and still are the hands that turned the machineries, so we spent a great deal of time turning those hands to our own needs. Before, they were just pieces of a large puzzle called "Stygia" that we were reassembling to fit our plans. As of now, they are the puzzle. They're what we have to work with. That makes some things easier, and some things more difficult. But it's very doable once you look at things in their proper perspective, that is.

The Alchemists: As of the new reality, they're quite useful. It's not so much what they can do which is, I'll admit, spectacular but rather what they could be: the replacement to the Artificers that all the Guilds have been clamoring for since the War, and the Breaking. The Alchemists know how the Artificers manufacture soulsteel, after all, and when it comes to leadership, they unlike their "parents" they know a thing or two about building consensus, as opposed to trying to force agreement. Not that forcing agreement is a bad thing, of course And once we've moved our Clients into the right position, I think we'll see a bit of steel in their handshakes.

The Artificers: The sad thing is that they had such potential! A Client like Lord Ember only comes around once in a Gaunt's age, and he was a very useful piece of our plan for Stygia. Unfortunately, the Maelstrom's caused that entire plan to be scrapped, and what few Clients we have remaining are running for fear of their unlives. That also means that we're a bit stretched in our supplies, as of late; It might be time to reign in some of our Clients in the Alchemists, then...

The Chanteurs: Useless. Useless and pathetic. I'd love to be able to say that we were the ones who brought that sorry house of song down, but Miklos beat his own path to ruin. He thought the Jade Emperor would give him a better deal than what he was getting from his motley band of sycophants, status-seekers and would-be replacements. And so he sold out his fellows and took it on the lam. As for whether he got the better deal well, it depends how you look at it... Still... they were fun to masquerade as, occasionally...

Harbingers: Useful, and of no real threat. Their heads are wrapped around things too large to be easily comprehended by many. We'll leave them to their explorations, and make certain they have a stable home to return to one where they'll be honored for what they are instead of shunned for their affiliations.

The Haunters: They're up to something that much is certain. As for what, well I'll let you in on a little secret: we have a very hard time finding Clients in the Haunters. Something to do with what they can do makes them unlikely to come to us. Those that do don't tend to last long before some busybody in their Guild sniffs them out and does away with them. So our information on them is a bit limited. But, as with the Harbingers, we're not too concerned about them. They don't have much inclination to rule. They just want to do what they do, and, again, as with the Harbingers, we'll be happy to let them do it in peace. As long as they don't get any ideas, that is.

The Masquers: This is a trouble spot for us. On the one hand, we respect their expertise and their craft. We've recruited Clients from within their number, and what they can tell us about what goes on in their damned ziggurat or what went on there, at any rate was nothing less than astounding. They knew things even we didn't know. Can you imagine that? And so, they are useful. But on the other hand, they are most troublesome. You'll remember what I was saying about the Hierarchy, and our plans to replace it by becoming it? That's exactly what they've been up to quite literally, in fact. We have no way of knowing, apart from what our Clients have said, how many Hierarchy officials were, in fact, Masquers in deep cover. I think they'll have to be dealt with. The current plan calls for us to do unto them what they'd been doing with the Hierarchy: compromise them completely, to the point where their ranks and ours are almost interchangeable, and then just slip away the masks at an appropriate point. That way, we'll know what they know, and we'll be able to do what makes them so irreplaceable, all at the same time. They'll appreciate the irony of it all. I'm sure of it.

The Monitors: And then there were the Monitors. Much like the Masquers, they're irreplaceable. Also much like the Masquers, they're quite impressed with themselves and desiring to run the whole show. However, unlike the Masquers, they're a pale shadow of what they once were. These days all they can do is fight amongst themselves and jockey for position. If they had another century, things might turn themselves around, and they might be a considerable challenge to our new plan. So they're not going to get that century. Our Clients are already in place, awaiting the moment of truth. You'll know when it's happened millions of Wraiths will suddenly be dancing in the streets, overjoyed.

The Mnemoi: Yes, we never appreciated them. And, yes, we knew of Charon's plan from the start. And as much as I hope the bastard appreciates the full folly of what he's embarked upon once his plan crumbles around him, I have to hand it to Minos: his work following the Insurrection was nothing short of exemplary.

But no, we didn't have anything do with Charon's plan, or what came afterwards, other than to harvest a few Clients from their number. They made terrible martyrs, most of them. Under the new plan, they'll not be allowed such pretensions: we'll be turning them into a library. But as for those who helped Minos with what he wrought, after the Fourth Great Maelstrom let's just say that they'll be quite useful in the final stages of the plan.

The Sandmen: Pathetic, but not useless. With no real urge to lead, and a calling that takes them well away from such pursuits, I think we'd be better off just leaving them be. They'll be allowed to hang up their plaques and have their theatres, as long as they don't cause any problems. And if they do, no one will miss them. I think you know what I mean.

The Spooks: Yes, they can provide a useful service, but I find their plaintive whimpering to be "there for the little guys" a sickening exaggeration. We have enough Clients amongst them to know it's just not true. And I think the world to come could do without much competition in the Fetter-protection business, don't you?

The Oracles: We like to think that the vision that sent the First Pythian into the state she's in now was the sight of what we're going to do to them once the plan is realized sent courtesy of the Center of the Wheel. Those meddling augurs have been a major thorn in our side for ages. They said their plan was the correct one to follow, and that any who spoke out against it were wrong, and should be dealt with? Well, see what their well-laid plan has brought them chaos, ruin and the end of all they worked for. I've never trusted soothsayers and prophets. That's why I'm happy to say there'll be no room for them in the plan. Individuals will, of course, be free to practice that Arcanos for private and public use, but if they try to form a political movement we'll turn them into wheels, one and all.

The Pardoners: Very useful, and very useless in a leadership role. These factors make them more than welcome. And they've never been more tractable, either. Their best and brightest are across the sea, battling windmills in the New World. Meanwhile, their stand-ins debate doctrine around a table and lose control over the rank and file due to their sudden lack of clear leadership. I think the Clients we have in them just need a little push, and then we can get the Guild lined up for the "moral support" part of the plan.

The Proctors: We have to say it now for all to hear: the Proctors are not a Guild. They are Heretics. They have always been Heretics. They may have their uses, but they're more interested in following their bliss towards The Great Lie, and wondering why they never seem to make it there.

The sooner their true nature is recognized, the sooner we can just dismiss them for the tacky hedonists they are and be done with them.

The Puppeteers: Useful, and not inclined to lead. That makes them very welcome, and we'll need them in the absence of the Proctors. We have plenty of Clients amongst them, just waiting for the signal to topple their sad excuse of a leader. In fact, I think they're the first scheduled to move

The Usurers: We've had them in the palm of our hand since the War of the Guilds. And they have been shockingly easy to manipulate. You know, by now, about why they deserted the others during the attempted revolt. But we're the reason they've never tried to make any real apology or restitution to the others. We're also the reason they seem to think that having a near-monopoly over the gathering, storing and selling of Pathos guarantees survival. And, more recently, we're the reason they stopped selling to the Artificers, thus isolating themselves from the one true "friend" they had.... You'd almost think they were committing suicide? And you'd be right: assisted suicide, courtesy of us. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel A two-way battle for supremacy is much easier to handle than a three-way battle, and we really didn't need them muscling in on the Artificers and Monitors. So we've had the Usurers going around in circles for centuries, waiting for the day when we'll have taken such a degree of control over them that they'll be happy to play the part of "energy providers" in the new world to come. What can I say? We plan well in advance. The Renegades: Forge-fodder and spectre-bait, one and all. Can you think of anything more foolish than trying to bite the hand that feeds you? If you don't like what you're getting, it's so much easier to seduce it, and thereby become it. But tearing the whole thing down for the sake of being antinomian is just absurd. If they put aside their differences and worked together they might be of more use, or at least be something we could work with. But that never happened before now, and it's even less likely now. That leaves their best use as short-term distractions that leave no witnesses and need no mopping up, if you get my meaning. It's been fun setting them on one another, but that's about as much of a challenge as mixing red and black ants and watching what happens. And we have much better things to focus upon. Freewraiths: I refuse to make a distinction between them and Renegades, but I know that some of us do, so we should just state the obvious. There are Wraiths who don't want to belong to any of the major forces in Stygian society, and "drop out" to go live in anarchist colonies, or as hermits. And as such, they're mostly useless to us.

Yes, "mostly." When things turn around, we'll use them for the forges. The Heretics: Worse than pathetic and less than useless. Charon had the right idea when banished them, but he should have come to his senses earlier. He of all people should have realized the truth: that there is no such thing as Tran... Excuse me, the Great Lie. To try and follow such a path is wasting your time. To exhort others to do the same is a crime. I take great pleasure in turning the ones I catch over to the Gardeners. Sometimes... I even stay to watch. Oh yes, I hate them. I've seen the abominations that pass for "afterlifes" out there, far away in the Tempest. They do not serve the truth out there, on their damned Far Shores. They serve lies. They take Desire's name in vain out there: denying Hir outright or giving Hir free reign without a thought of Hir greater implications. The "Clients" we have amongst them are time bombs that we've wound up and set loose to await the Day of Desire. With the change of plans, that day is delayed, but it will come. And mark my words... when it does, we'll show them all the true meaning of Hell. The Ferrymen: We steer quite clear of them. Their service to the the Great Lie has somehow rendered them immune to our arts, though we're not quite sure how, yet. They have always stood in opposition to us, though they seem to focus their ire on Spectres, more. For that I suppose we should be grateful, but I can't deny that I'm looking forward to when we can deal with them with more than puzzlement and apprehension. Spectres: They are a sad reminder of what happens when Desire is twisted and not tempered. If you leave your Shadow to its own devices, this will be all that is left of you. And I would rather be lost to Desire than lost to the Labyrinth. At least Desire leaves us with hope. We do not listen to anything they have to say. We do not try to enslave them, or befriend them, or save them. We leave them be. "Outside" Relations The Order of One: The Bush of Ghosts (The Dark Kingdom of Ivory)

The Order of Two: Mantaqat Khayal and Swar (Middle East and the Subcontinent)

The Order of Three: Western European Stygia

The Order of Four: Eastern European Stygia

The Order of Five: Zhongguo (The Dark Kingdom of Jade)

The Order of Six: South and Central American Stygia

The Order of Seven: North American Stygia

The Order of Eight: Australia

~ III. Spinning Wheels and Grinding Gears ~ Intimation Arcanos "Desire creates the power." -Raymond Holliwell The Solicitors keep their secrets locked up tighter than Charon's fist. Not only would they not teach the secrets of Intimation to anyone outside the Cabal, but anyone on the outside who showed too much ability with that Arcanos would be watched closely and tagged for possible inclusion, use as a pawn, or outright destruction. No one but a Solicitor should have access to the Alternate Arts, listed below. Rules Notes Intimation first made its appearance in the Wraith Player's Guide. Since that time, there's been some time to question some of what was said concerning this Arcanos. * Wraiths with the Iron Will merit resist Intimation whether they know it's being used or not, but the resistance is in the form of a +1 difficulty to the Solicitor's roll. Others with the Iron Will Merit (Vampires, Mages, Werewolves, etc) are completely immune to Intimation's effects. * Intimation can be detected, and fought off, via the Mind Sphere. * If Quash (Intimation Level 2) is used in anything other than a theraputic context, then the Solicitor receives a point of Temporary Angst. Anything done with bad intent, as opposed to mere mercenary selfishness, counts as 'non-theraputic.' Passions reduced via Quash are permanently reduced. * Quash can also be used to reduce Dark Passions as well as normal Passions, but this requires

that the Solicitor know what they are. She must use Deep Desiring on the Wraith and her Shadow to discover this, which costs an additional point of Pathos and gives the Solicitor a point of Temporary Angst for mucking about with the Shadow's desires. Also note that removing or lowering a wraith's Dark Passions may not be theraputic on their face: sometimes, a Shadow's Dark Passions are needed by the Psyche to balance her actions as well, and, as with normal Passions, anything done with bad intent counts as 'non-theraputic.' * Such is the power of Intimation that both the Shadow and Psyche are equally affected by such Arts as The Urge, The Gleaming, The Horror, Cupid's Arrow, The Craving and any other Arts which use their principles, such as Mass Hysteria. Of course, without the use of Cupitatis, which also affects both sides of the Wraith, the Shadow might realize what is going on and choose to roll with it, much as the Psyche might think it's the Shadow doing something to her and seek Castigation. Alternate Arts Intimation is, as the Solicitors believe, a nearly-perfect Arcanos. Its central teachings and abilities have not changed significantly in almost a thousand years, perhaps more. Desires may change, but desire itself remains a constant and steady force: so, too, is the ability to direct it in others. As such there are no Ancient Arts per se, but a number of Alternate Arts have been explored and utilized by the elders. As previously mentioned, the Solicitors keep their secrets very, very close to heart; no one outside the Cabal should ever have access to these Alternate Arts, much less suspect they exist. Basic Ability: The Urge This is a small and useful trick that the Solicitors teach their Apprentices as a precursor to learning the great secrets they keep, and the more imperative Arts of Intimation. It makes the target develop a slight urge to do, or not do, something, but in no way compels the target to act on it. She must decide that on her own. SYSTEM: The Solicitor must be within line of sight of the target, and rolls Manipulation + Intimation at a Difficulty of the target's Willpower. A success causes an urge of the Solicitor's choosing to be implanted in the Wraith for a scene, and each success after that extends the time by another scene. The urge does not have to be obeyed. The Wraith and her Shadow have the freedom to act on it, or not, depending on what their state of mind is when The Urge is used. The Cabal's members tend to use this as a precursor to other, more controlling Arts in a particular target. Sometimes it's used to drive their chosen customers towards making a bargain with them. They also use this as psychological warfare, dropping hideous or perverse urges into the minds of the easily suggestible, or straightlaced, just to watch them squirm.

* : The Horror The flip side of the Level 1 Art The Gleaming, this is used to make a solid object less desirable to the targets who behold it: a bejeweled sword will be ordinary, or falling apart, a haunt will look like a run-down heap that wouldn't stand up to a mild Maelstrom, and so on. SYSTEM: The Solicitor spends a point of Pathos and rolls Manipulation + Intimation at a Difficulty

of 7. Success means that an object's value and attributes are downplayed at best, and hideously negated at worst, for five minutes per success. Unlike The Gleaming, any Wraith who's affected by this Art can still choose to use, enter or buy the object in question, but The Horror makes it much less appealing than it might normally be. Failure will make the object look more desirable than it really is, and a botch makes the wraiths nearby so enamored of it that they must each make a Willpower roll at Difficulty 7 or else do anything to have it: fights are inevitable. As with its companion The Gleaming, The Horror does not affect the Solicitor who uses it.

* *: Cupid's Bow This Art is much like The Gleaming or The Horror, but instead of solid objects, it works on other Wraiths. Any Wraith who this is used on will be immediately desired, or despised, by any wraith near her, and this means she'll either have to fight off any number of advances or run else for her life. This is made all the more confusion or terrifying because, unless the Wraith so targetted has Self-Intimation, she will not know what has happened, nor be able to see any change in her own appearance. SYSTEM: The Solicitor rolls against a Difficulty of the target wraith's Appearance + 5. Each success can either be used to raise or lower her Appearance by a dot for one scene, and every success must be placed in one direction if Jorg scores four successes on Cupid's Bow, he can increase his target's Appearance by four, or decrease it by four, but not increase it by three and then subtract it by one for an overall increase of two. So long as the Appearance stays somewhere between zero and five, the change is merely a matter of roleplaying. However, if the Wraith's Appearance goes higher than five, then every Wraith who beholds her - regardless of gender preference - must make a willpower roll at a Difficulty equal to her new Appearance to keep from going over and trying to win her affections. Conversely, if her Appearance goes below zero, then every wraith who beholds her - regardless of any past dealings or current friendships they may enjoy - must make a Willpower roll at a difficulty of 7 to avoid the need to beat her into a Harrowing with whatever weapons are available. The cost is variable: if the goal is to make the target more beautiful, it costs two points of Pathos. If it's to make her more ugly, it costs three points of Pathos and gets a point of Temporary Angst.

* * *: A Line of Desire Some say that the Solicitors' power is such that they do not even need to be near a previous target to know what is on her mind. That may just be gossip from the mouths of those who do not know enough, but some would say that such is indeed true. And they are right. SYSTEM: In order to use A Line of Desire, the Solicitor must first make a successful Twinge or Deep Desiring roll on the target, and then make a Manipulation + Intimation roll at diff 9. If this second roll works, then the Solicitor may make the same, previous roll on that target at anytime, even if the target is nowhere in sight. The effect of the Art lasts for a month, and each success past the first grants another month. Example: Katherine Wheel, notorious Solicitor, uses Twinge on a Centurion. She then uses A Line

of Desire and gets three successes on that roll. She may now use Twinge on that Centurion no matter where she is for the next three months, but she cannot use Deep Desiring on him from anywhere but within line of sight. Had she used Deep Desiring instead, she would be able to use it from anywhere but would have to use Twinge while looking at him.

A Line of Desire costs 2 pathos and one Temporary Willpower.

* * * *: That Fickle Feeling Some say that this frightening power is the hallmark of the Solicitors - the ability to make small, temporary changes in a person's mental state. These take the form of emotional or mental "shifts," where the Solicitor plants desires or emotions in a person. They don't last too long, but they're often enough to make someone look the other way, or become strangely interested in bothering someone else. In many cases, this power is used to condition possible recruits, or break down would-be puppets for the Cabal. Every five succesful uses of That Fickle Feeling on a target reduces the difficulty for any other use of Intimation on that target by that Solicitor. Tales have been told of wraiths kept locked up and howling, undergoing mental and emotional torture at the hands of the Guild for ages before being subjected to Cupitatis and released. It is possible for a victim who understands what's going on to fight back, but sometimes this is what the Solicitors want. Doing do makes the victim extert her will, and with that exertion comes depletion, whereupon it's much easier to interrogate her... SYSTEM: The Solicitor must make eye contact with her target, and then roll Manipulation + Intimation at a difficulty of the target's Willpower. The number of successes scored equal the number of sudden emotional or desire shifts that the Solictor can implant. The Art can be used as many times as needed each scene, and each use of this Art can last up to one Scene, but any shifts not used by the end of that scene are lost. If the target realizes she is being jerked around by the Solicitor, she can try to fight back. This is done by spending one point of temporary Willpower and engaging the Solicitor in a Resisted Roll, each one rolling off against a difficulty of the other's Permanent Willpower. This roll and Willpower expenditure must be done when the shift happens, and in order to resist, another roll and Willpoer expenditure must be made for each new shift. If the target can overcome the Solicitor, shift for shift, for one whole use of the power, then the Solicitor cannot use That Fickle Feeling on the target for a whole day. Example: Bob is going in to mess with Frank's head for a while. He spends One Temporary Willpower and 2 Pathos, and rolls his Manipulation + Intimation of 7 against Frank's Willpower of 5, and gets a 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8: three successes. This means he can stick a sudden desire and/or emotional shift into Frank a total of three times, any one of which which could last up to a scene. He proceeds to use it on Frank, who is caught unaware and has no idea why he's having these weird mood swings. After Bob leaves, he figures it out. The next day, when Bob comes in, Frank is ready for him. Bob scores three successes again, and when the first shift happens Frank spends a point of Temporary Willpower and combats Frank's use of the shift via the Willpower roll. When Bob uses another shift, Frank has to spend

another point of Temporary Willpower and make another roll. If Frank manages to overcome all shifts of one use in this fashion, he will be immune for 24 hours. Use of That Fickle Feeling costs 1 Temporary Willpower and 2 Pathos per use.

* * * * *: Mass Hysteria The Solicitor's hold over the crowd is a frightening thing to see. Although Intimation is best practiced intimately, between one Solicitor and one target, it is possible for one particularly skilled in its ways to affect more than one person at a time. The cost is considerable, however, and perhaps we should all be thankful for this. SYSTEM: Mass Hysteria allows a Solicitor to use The Craving on more than one target at once. The roll is the same for The Craving (Manipulation + Intimation vs. the Subject's Willpower) but that roll is made once, and the dice rolled affect everyone. In addition, using Mass Hysteria costs the same as The Craving plus 1 Temporary Willpower, and plus 1 Pathos for each target after the first, and the Angst gathered is 1 for every 2 successes that affect each target. And if one of the targets is a botch, the entire effect is shattered. Example: To use Katherine Wheel again, she is cornered by five agents of the Hierarchy who intend to bring her in. She decides to use Mass Hysteria against them, implanting a deep desire to run far, far away from her. She has a Manipulation of 5 and an Intimation of 5, and the five targets have willpowers of 5, 5, 6, 7 and 9. So she spends 1 Temporary Willpower and 4 Pathos, and then spends another 4 Pathos (one for each target after the first). Then she rolls, getting 1, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 9. So, both of the Hierarchs with Willpowers of 5 have 5 successes against them, the one with a Willpower of 6 has 3, the 7 has 1, the 9 has none, and Catherine has just soaked up 5 points of Temporary Angst. If she had NOT rolled that 9, it would have been a botch against that target and, therefore, the whole roll would have failed. Also: note that The Craving can either cost 4 Pathos, or 2 Pathos and 2 Temporary Willpower. So Katherine could have done as she did above, or else spend 2 Pathos and a total of 3 Temporary Willpower.

The Secrets of the Heart "We desire nothing so much as what we ought not to have." -Publilius Syrus Intimation is not for the weak. In order to understand how the wraithly mind works enough to seriously affect it via Intimation, the Solicitor must come to grips with certain, strange concepts that defy rational understanding. These concepts are implicit in the Dread Secret that the Cabal defends with its unlife and will not share on pain of worse than death. The Cabal, then, see themselves as heroes who guard this dangerous secret from widespread dissemination. That this same secret gives them a terrible power, and one that is often used for financial gain or personal agendas, is explained away as "the way things work in a buyer's

market." And, given that these secrets have teeth, and tend to bite the owner quite hard, the costs for their use are quite legendary. But the importance of these secrets cannot be understated. They are absolutely necessary to learn before learning any use of Intimation that requires the use of Willpower. This is not simple secret to be fumbled out by a loose tongue or pried out via an interrogation, either. So this means that no one outside the Guild could ever learn Cupitatis, or the Alternate Arts presented here that require Willpower. Reality Check: The Mnemoi No one could learn it without leeching the secret from a Solicitor's mind, that is. The Mnemoi have probably done this, and may have sold the secret here and there. This would account for the fact that some non-members of the Guild have used that one, precious level of Intimation in the past. Suffice it to say that the Mnemoi, and their customers, will pay the price for that terrible knowledge - one way or another. Desire's Price Those who learn the secret are privy to the greatest power any Wraith has ever known: the ability to take another Wraith, itself a being largely of desires, and twist those desires about at whim. But there is a hidden danger - one that will eventually drive a Solicitor insane. The Cabal has called it Desire's Whiplash. Clinically speaking, it is the mental affliction that comes from using Intimation. It affects both Psyche and Shadow equally, and is incurable. Its buildup is as inevitable as that of Angst, but no Pardoner could ever get rid of its ravages in like fashion. As to what it is: as mentioned earlier, understanding Intimation requires the understanding and worse - acceptance of certain strange, alien truths. These hard facts are not concepts for the weak or the timid, and tend to unsettle one if one should ever spend too much time mulling them over. Most of the time, they're just kept on the tip of the brain like a perched bird of prey, ready to be let loose on whatever target the Solicitor may have in mind. However, on those occasions where the Solicitor must expend real mental effort to work her craft - those uses requiring Willpower - the concept must come to the fore and be strongly considered. And this mind-bending moment of time causes a certain mental discomfort that must be purged via meditation. Failure to do so within a day means that a chunk of this truth has stayed with the Solicitor's conscious thoughts. Over time, this builds. And when it builds to certain levels, the Desire Whiplash will manifest itself in the form of strange quirks or severe disorders. After a certain point the Solicitor will be so maddened by the Whiplash that she can no longer function in the Cabal. And so, she disappears. Where do such persons go? There are tales told of great, yawning chasms in the Shadowlands where mad Solicitors prowl and gibber, lost to the strains of the art. They say that some of the less violent of these are often consulted by Cabal members for guidance, like some sort of perverse oracle, but many are too unpredictable to get near. Of course, that could just be a story. It's more likely they are mercifully recycled into something

useful, like a Catherine Wheel or other Artifact of power. Waste not, want not. SYSTEM: Every time a Solicitor uses any Intimation power that requires the expenditure of Willpower, the player should mark that usage down on her sheet. Each point spent must be worked off via Meditation - two hours for each point spent, at a difficulty of 6 plus the total points remaining. The roll is made each hour on the hour. Failure to purge this point within 24 hours of the point's gathering garners bad consequences for the Wraith in the form of one permanent point of Desire's Whiplash. Over time, the Whiplash will build to Wagnerian proportions. Every five points brings a Whiplash Disorder. If the Solicitor should ever get to twenty points of Desire's Whiplash, she will be too insane to play and must be surrendered to the Storyteller. Sample Whiplash Disorders are listed below. They should be picked with the character's particular ideosyncrasies in mind. Also note that some of these can be taken more than once; As the Solicitor's situation worsens, what might have been controllable is no longer so, or gets twice as bad.

Backwash: The Solicitor's mind has developed a bit of a hole, and when the knowledge comes down to play it tends to leave a bit of what it was doing in there. A small little problem, really..., it just gets confusing. Was she making the target do what she wanted the target to do, or what SHE wanted to do, herself? Sometimes you just can't tell... SYSTEM: This can be taken twice. Every time the Solicitor uses an Intimation power which actually affects the target's desires, she must make a Willpower roll at a difficulty equal to the difficulty of the Art being used. If she fails, then she will also be affected by her own power, at half strength for the first time this is taken, and full strength the second. (So if a Solicitor scored 4 successes on a target, she'd take 2 successes herself in the first stage, and 4 in the second.)

Open Gate: The Solicitor finds it difficult to not vocalize her desires. Any desire, no matter how private or personal, mundane or complex, will just tumble on out of her mouth if she's not careful. This leads to a lot of odd, one-sided conversations where the Solicitor might constantly inform herself of wanting Pathos, a new mask or a new contract. It could also lead to amusing situations, such as telling your superior that you want to put her into a harrowing... SYSTEM: This may be taken twice. The first time, the Solicitor may roll her Willpower at a difficulty of 7 to avoid saying what she wants for a scene. The second time, she does not have any control over this at all, and everything just tumbles on out of her mouth all the time.

Stimulus Response: The Solicitor has fallen prey to her own abilities to make people obey her desires against their will. Now, she has a difficult time keeping herself from doing what she wants. At early stages,

she's able to control herself, but once she passes the threshold she becomes a real beast in some situations, unable to halt her actions. Most Solicitors who get to this stage are considered liabilities and dealt with accordingly. SYSTEM: This may be taken three times, though the last one is a real challenge to roleplay and may be more fitting for NPCs who have been lost to Desire Whiplash. In the first stage, the Solicitor may keep herself from acting on her desires for a scene with a Willpower roll, difficulty of 6. In the second, she must spend a point of Willpower and make the roll at a difficulty of 8. At the third stage, she has no control and will act on any desire, no matter how dangerous, destructive or temporary it may be. Character Creation Attributes: Solicitors should be manipulative, to say the least, and some measure of Charisma isn't a bad idea either. High Perceptions keep one from missing the obvious, and allow one to discern what isn't so obvious, the latter of which might one day be very useful indeed. Common Abilities: The Cabal tends to prize Talents and Skills over Knowledges, with Talents usually being the Primary. They tend to look for certain, sneaky abilities in their would-be Apprentices, and those who have them in abundance are allowed to progress to Novice Status. Secondary Abilities are marked with an Asterisk. Talents: Empathy to tell what your mark is feeling; Expression to make your ideas sound oh-so good; Intimidation for overt hostility; Subterfuge for covert manipulation; *Interrogation for Gardeners; * Intrigue for Disrupters; * Seduction for those Held Hands who like to get close and personal with their marks. Skills: Etiquette can never be understated; Leadership to be believed; Meditation is of absolute importance; Stealth for being hidden in plain sight. * Misdirection for long talks; * Torture for Gardeners who prefer more blunt methods. Knowledges: Bureaucracy to know how the beast of state works, or doesn't; Enigmas to figure out the secret workings behind it all; Politics for obvious reasons Backgrounds: These are very important to the Cabal. The general ones, along with Status notes, Relics and Artifacts, and a new Background - Clients - are covered in some detail, here. Arcanoi: Intimation is the Cabal's highest priority, of course, but they teach their own some other Arcanoic skills as well. Most notable amongst them are Keening (to pose as a Chanteur Negotiator), Lifeweb (for blackmail purposes) and Moliate (for disguise). The Purgers learn Castigate in addition to Intimation, but these Arts are a jealously-guarded secret amongst their small number. There is a school of thought that they should learn Mnemosynis' Arts to aid in their work. This is a very small school, though, and its few surviving members have long since learned to keep their mouths shut. It's a matter of principle, you see: through Intimation you can make someone want

to tell you everything you need to know, whereas the Mnemoi have to cheat and steal those memories away. Willpower: As high as possible, the better. Any questions? Corpus: Upon becoming a Novice, via the Ritual, the Solicitor loses a permanent point of Corpus in making her own Centering Wheel. Therefore, the vast rank and file of the Cabal have only 9 Corpus. Deathmarks and Moliation: The Solicitors do not have any standard Moliation. When working in chorus in public they tend to wear NoWear, thus making their true appearances unknown to all but the most willful of onlookers. Outfitting: Upon becoming a Journeyman, each Solicitor receives a Wheel of Centering (level 3 Plasm Artifact). Anything else they want is either Guild property, and handed out on need only, or must be purchased with background points. Optional Rule: "Issued" Materials Some players may find it frustrating to have to spend three of their background or freebie points on a Wheel of Centering in order to play a Solicitor. If this becomes a problem, or in order to illustrate that there is strength in numbers, Storytellers can declare that some workaday items are "issued" by the group the Wraith belongs to. Such items are handed over freely, with the understanding that they are a part of being in the group, or instrumental in doing its work. Other "issued" things could be Legional masks, the pendant an Artificer hammers out of her own Corpus, a Legionnaire's gladius, etc. The player does not have to spend points on these issued materials for her Wraith to have access to them. However, the group expects a return on their investment: using such items frivolously might merit chastisement, or having them taken away. And those who abuse such materials in the Solicitors are quite likely to become materials, themselves...

Backgrounds Solicitors can use the same Backgrounds that any other Wraith might, plus a new one: Clients. Status, and Relics and Artifacts are described in some detail, below. General View on Backgrounds Allies and are seen as extremely useful. Without allies in the Cabal, a Solicitor is a target. But they never consider an ally to be anything more than temporary. The best way to break off such a

relationship is to sacrifice the other fellow for your own purposes: Soulforged wraiths tell no tales. Contacts, on the other hand, are a bit touchy. Why have someone you have to pay when you could have a Client, whom you can command? Contacts are generally wraiths whom the Solicitor does not wish to risk tipping her hat to - yet. Many clients were once contacts. A Mentor or two would never be a bad thing, but their students should remember that lessons can sometimes be errands - or what a contact might call a favor - in disguise. They should also remember that the mentors view their pupils to be as temporary as the pupils might view an ally. Someone is being used in the relationship. Eidolon is vastly important, for it represents the strength of the will over that of the Shadow. The Shadow would make the Solicitor be weak, or else think herself stronger than she truly is. Eidolon can burn through that falsehood, but, as with the Shadow, this, too, has its own agenda. Not everything it shows can be trusted, either, but it would at least spur a wraith forward instead of back, or down... Haunts, Memoriam and Legacies are good things that must not be shared with anyone. Much like the location of Fetters, or the exact nature of Passions, they are not topics for discussion. Anyone who speaks of such things has just made herself a target, or at least set herself up for the eventual fall. As for Notoriety... that is a double-edged sword. No one would argue that, once you've made the rounds more than a few times, a reputation saves time and effort that would otherwise be spent on introductions, threats and posturing. On the other hand, if you're trying to keep a low profile, there's nothing worse than having someone recognize your from across the room. Don Salazaar is the most notorious Solicitor of them all, and he can go where he pleases without much hassle because of it. But, then, he is Don Salazaar. Clients The Solicitors main source of strength - other than their understanding of Intimation - lies in the wraiths they use it upon. Clients are the wraiths that a Solicitor has ensnared in her personal web of promise, deceit and desire. The more Clients a Solicitor has, the more she is able to do. Clients also buy a Solicitor a certain level of immunity from her fellow Solicitors: who would dare dispose of her and risk collapsing her network? Clients are neither Allies nor Contacts: they will not stick their necks out for the Solicitor, nor does the Solicitor need to pay them for their further services. She need only command, and they will obey... or at least try to. Each dot in Clients represents a single individual (major Client) who is very useful, and up to a handful of others (minor Clients) who are marginally useful, or fairly useless. Whenever a Solicitor tries to get a major Client to do something, the Storyteller should roll secretly at a difficulty of 10 the Solicitor's level of Intimation to see if the Client succeeds or not. With the minor Clients, their success of failure at the whim of the Storyteller, as she deems best for the overall Story. While this background is meant to represent a tool that Solicitors have, Storytellers should be aware that, in the hands of a "munchkin" player, this Background could be abused. Care should be taken in presenting Clients, and making certain that the Solicitor (1) takes in-character time to look out for them, and (2) doesn't rely on them for everything. Losing dots in this background due to neglect or overuse isn't out of the question.

0: No Clients yet, or did you lose them all? *: One Major Client, and a handful of Minor ones. * *: Two Major Clients, and a baker's dozen of Minor ones. * * *: Three Major Clients, and a squad of Minor ones. * * * *: Four Major Clients, and a large gang of Minor ones. * * * * *: Five Major Clients, and an army of Minor ones. Status You know the way - It throws about It takes you in - And spits you out "Cuts You Up" - Peter Murphy To the Cabal, Status isn't just a measure of how much rank you hold, but also how much respect you can command from your peers, or those who are technically "beneath" you. A Master who doesn't watch her step won't get much respect from the Novices she commands, and an Apprentice who's worth her weight in good works might find herself spoken to at the same level as a Novice. Respect is not purely a function of words or ideas, but deeds, and there is no deed better in the eyes of the Cabal than cultivating a "customer" for its use. As a result, no Solicitor may have a Status more than one dot higher than her current rating in the Clients Background. Solicitors are urged to think several steps in advance, as one single misstep might do more than make them stumble. Status might go up or down several times in a Chronicle, given the fickle nature of the Cabal, and it generally takes more time to gain - or regain - it than it does to lose it.

Apprentice (0 to 1) At this stage the Wraith is a Solicitor in name only. She is being taught the most basic skills of the Art (Basic Abilities), and all the while her political acumen, mental fortitude and willingness to obey orders without question is constantly tested. Sometimes these tests are so secretive that the Apprentices don't realize they're being given until they've passed or failed, if ever. Those who pass the high bars their Masters set for them are tapped on the shoulder to undergo the Inclusion Ritual and become Journeymen. Those who do not are sacrificed, soulforged or disposed of in some fitting manner that best aids the Cabal as a whole.

Novice (1 to 2) Following the Ritual, the Solicitor (who may now refer to herself by that name) is given a Wheel of

Centering and a Mask, and allowed to pick a name more befitting her new station if she so desires. From here, she begins to learn the more advanced Arts of the Arcanos, and is drilled and coached in the ways of subterfuge, deceit and subtle bargaining. She will not be allowed to make deals on her own until she is a Master, but for the time being she will be allowed to watch and learn. To advance, a further test will be laid, the most common of which is for the Solicitor to slowly but surely cultivate a client - to be chosen by her Master - in such a way that the target never knows she's being manipulated.

Master (2, 3 or 4) Once here, the Solicitor's duties expand. She may be a teacher of new recruits, an agent provacateur, or anything else the Cabal requires of her. The politicking at this stage is almost as dangerous as Desire's Whiplash, given the jockeying for position that occurs. The Center of the Wheel hands Hir orders down, but the question is always the way in which they're carried out, or how, or why. And from these divisions grow the flowers that trip rivals underfoot.

Grand Master (4 or 5) Having progressed this high up, the Solicitor enjoys a position of rank and privledge within the Cabal. She may be the master of a Necropolis' Chapterhouse, the figurehead of a negotiating team or one of the trusted eight who report to, or advise, The Center of the Wheel. One of the more well-known Grand Masters is Don Salazaar. Artifacts and Relics Courtesy of the Gardeners, the Cabal has quite a few interesting toys at their disposal. No one needs to say where they come from; The price of failure is quite understood... Anything marked Guild Property can be owned by no one. If a Solicitor needs one, it will be made available to her for as long as she needs it, and must then be returned.

Hypnobutton: 2 The name of this handy Artifact is a bit of a misnomer, as it doesn't have to be a button. Any kind of pin, bauble or other sort of Relic or Artifact will do, so long as it's steeped in the bubbling plasm of a Solicitor lost to Desire's Whiplash for 72 hours and had other, unspeakable things done to it. After that, the Solicitor who gets it must meditates upon it, considering the Dread Secret as she does. During this time she places one point of Permanent Willpower into its surface. Ever thereafter, if she wears it somewhere that a target can see it, the hypnobutton will reduce the difficulties of all Intimation rolls by 1 for her and her alone. No one else can use her Hypnobutton unless they, too, meditate upon it and make the sacrifice of a point of Permanent Willpower.

Clear Spectacles: 3 These are eyeglasses that, when worn, have the effect of making Intimation's Arcanos Marking go away. So long as they're worn, the left eye - or both, for those who have developed that odd trait - will appear whatever color it normally would. They're made in such a way that they appear to be a part of the Wraith's corpus as opposed to a Relic or Artifact, but it only takes one good punch to the nose to dislodge them and ruin the secret. Some Gardeners have been tying to get their hands on a supply of Relic contact lenses to alleviate this problem, but haven't had much luck thus far.

Centering Wheel: 3 The mark of any fully-recognized Solicitor, this appears to be a catherine wheel made from tarnished bronze, and has an odd warmth to it surface that cannot be fully explained. They are created from the Corpus torn from their body during the Induction Ritual, and are forged in the pages of The Book. They are rarely far from their owners after that, and are often worn on some kind of chain that lets it dangle down to where one's heart should be. Its use is invaluable for Mediation. When it is used as a focus for such an activity, and one point of Pathos is placed within it, the wheel reduces all Mediation difficulties by 1. It also prevents the Shadow from interfering with that Meditation in any way, once the Pathos is placed inside. The Centering Wheel has another purpose: while it is worn, it facilitates mental communication between other Solicitors so long as they are both wearing Centering Wheels and touching one anothers' Corpus. This requires some concentration, but the Solicitor may attempt to carry on other tasks, such as vocally conversing with the other Solicitor, or another minor matter, if she can make a Wits + Meditation roll at difficulty 6. (Those who have the Concentration Merit automatically succeed at that roll). This communication is carried out in pictures, feelings, memories and the like rather than actual words, and it allows for the Stygian Solicitors to converse with brother Solicitors from other Dark Kingdoms without the language barrier getting in the way. The wheel is made from one Wraith for that one Wraith. They are not interchangeable, and it's said that any non-Solicitor who tried to use a Centering Wheel would go mad from the attempt. But then, no one's really sure...

No-Wear: 4 A recent development of the Cabal, No-Wear is a tounge-in-cheek description of a particular sort of relic clothing the Solicitors have been sporting, lately. It usually takes the form of a hat of some kind: most often a bowler, as that's what the Gardner who made the first batch had the handiest when he finally got the formula right. Those who understand how it works say that it does to Wraiths what The Fog does to the Quick. When worn, No-Wear creates an Intimation-based 'dampening field' of sorts. This field makes it so that no one can look at the Solicitor unless she makes at least three successes on a Willpower roll (Difficulty 8). Those who fail the roll will not want to see the Solicitor, and therefore won't allow themselves to

think that they have. They won't even remember what she sort-of looked like, either, and will go about their business as if nothing was amiss. They may later remember that something strange happened, but they will most likely shrug it off and find some way to justify it, just like a mortal struck by The Fog. The protection of identity does not come without price, though. In order to activate it, No-Wear requires the expenditure of one Pathos per turn. In addition, the Solicitor must be careful in her use of any Intimation powers. All difficulties are at a +2 while the field is on, and such things as Hypnobuttons are useless because the target cannot see them. If the Solicitor uses Intimation under these circumstances, and fails, the field will rebound on itself and make everyone in eyesight want to see, and remember, the Solicitor in question.

The Contract: Guild Property The time-honored tradition of the Solicitors, The Contract is both an Artifact and a simple ritual in one. It looks like an ordinary scroll of yellowed, cracking paper which glints from certain angles and is as tough as burlap in spite of its apparent age and condition. It is written on in a peculiar, dark green ink made from things best left to the imagination, and it's fairly traditional for the pen to be a quill of some kind. The Artifact is impregnated with The Urge. Whenever a Solicitor binds someone to an agreement, she writes the details of the agreement out in private, all the while thinking of a particular thing she would like the client to want to do. When the time comes for the deal to be finalized, the Solicitor produces The Contract and has the client sign at the bottom. At that point the Solicitor puts a point of Pathos into the Contract, which then leeches a point of Temporary Willpower from the client. After that, it's primed and ready to go, and the Solicitor carries it back to the Chapterhouse to keep on file with the other contracts. Whenever the details of The Contract have been completed, the Solicitor goes to find her particular contract and places another point of Pathos into it. The ink disappears from the paper's surface as though it was never there, and, wherever the client may be at that moment, she will feel the Urge-implanted desire to do whatever it was the Solicitor placed into The Contract when she was writing it. This is how the signators know that the deal has been carried out without the Solicitor having to contact her directly. They won't have to worry about finding the Solicitors to make payment, though: they'll find her, and soon. Rumors circuclate of a more powerful version of this has been sold to others by the Cabal: one that does not have The Urge built into it, but actually binds all parties to obey the terms of the contract against their will. The Solicitors will not use this sort of thing except in dire circumstances, as they are quite capable of making the party obey... if they desire to, that is.

Wheel of Warning: Guild Property This is the infamous calling card of the Cabal, sent to warn wayward bargainers who try to cheat them, or just as an unsubtle reminder that someone's watching. They appear to be fist-sized catherine wheels made from fantastic materials, such as spun glass, emeralds or any other thing so long as it is at least somewhat green. In order to be used on a target, the Solicitor who made the deal with her - and who must have used Twinge or Deep Desiring on her as well - will hold it in her hand, think of the target, and place a point of Pathos

into it. The Solicitor then tosses the wheel up into the air, where it seems to disappear. It is somehow transported to near the target, wherever she may be at the time, and it will roll across a convenient surface (sometimes in mid-air) directly in her field of vision. It will then continue on around a convenient corner and disappear, whereupon it reappears in the Solicitor's hand. What makes the Wheel of Warning so terrifying is not only the suggestion that the Cabal can find the target anytime they want to, but that the object is seen only by the target. Anyone else nearby is either unable to see it, or somehow unwilling to admit they saw it. The first time this happens, the target might blame her Shadow or think she's seeing things. Past that, there can be no denying that something is going on...

The Book: The Book is the holy writ of the Solicitors, explaining the secrets of the Cabal in no uncertain terms. Every Chapterhouse has one, quarto copy, locked under key and kept with the most sacred of things. They are handwritten, bound in what appears to be black leather of unknown origin, and have no title, frontispiece, or acknowledgement of author. No one is certain if these tomes are relics or artifacts, and to ponder this too loudly is to incur the wraith of the Masters. The Book is central to the Solicitors' instruction. Apprentices will hear things read aloud from it by their mentors, and be encouraged to read from it (under watch, of course) once they are trusted. But no one will ever be allowed to read the Dread Page of Truth - which explains The Dread Secret - until their Induction Ritual. The revelation is quite... disturbing, but it allows the Solicitor to learn more easily those uses of Intimation that require extreme force of will. But The Book serves yet another purpose. During the ritual, attendants representing Agony and Ecstasy stand by the new Novice, holding her fast as she reads the Dread Page. Once she understands the implication, they are charged with taking the book from her and tearing a chunk of the Solicitor's Corpus away from her chest - the 'heart,' of course - with a special knife made just for the purpose of the Induction Ritual. It is usually considered good form to allow the initiate to stop screaming from what she's read before tearing the Corpus from her, though by this point most initiates are too stunned to scream at the pain, too. That gob of corpus is then placed within The Book, and the tome is then slammed shut. The Book then glows as hot as soulfire, releasing a moan of what might be pain or pleasure. And then, once the glow and the heat subside, within The Dread Page is a Centering Wheel for the new Novice to wear and use. Merits and Flaws These are Merits and Flaws that are available only to Solicitors, or at least those who use Intimation on a regular basis. Very Useful Client: 1 - 3 pt Merit Through airtight blackmail and the occasional use of Intimation, your Solicitor's gotten a hook into someone very well-placed. The Client might be influential, or provide a moderate service (1 pt.) very influential, or provide a rare service (2 pt.) or extremely influential, or provide a unique service (3 pt.). Such a person will behave as any other major Client: in addition, the Difficulty of

the roll to succeed is one less. This Merit may be taken several times during Character Creation, but dots in the Client background must be taken to represent these Clients. The Player and Storyteller should work together to determine who the Solicitor has hooked, and how.

Manchurian Candidate: 2 pt. Merit Your Solicitor's been smart enough to program someone with a failsafe of sorts. As a result, you have a "sleeper" who can, with one word from you, spring into action and do something to help you, and then forget all about it. The Solicitor's player should come up a low-ranking individual in an other group who, unbeknownst to that individual, has been programmed to aid the character in some fashion if she desires it. The player must state a specific, short program for such a person to follow: "let me out of the jail cell and forget you did so" and "argue with the nearest Legionaire about the Dictum Mortuum" would be acceptable, whereas "follow me forever and be my slave" or "do whatever I instruct whenever I need it" would not. This Merit may be taken several times during Character Creation. It can only be taken by Solicitors who have a high enough Intimation to have accomplished such a feat.

Creeping Color: 4 pt Merit A curious condition that affects perhaps one out of three hundred Solicitors who've undergone the Induction Ritual, the Creeping Color is when both of the Intimation-user's eyes turn a bright, poisonous green instead of just the left one. It usually starts out with just a few flecks of green in the right eye, and then the condition spreads and that eye catches up with the left within days. The good news is that this makes for an effective disguise for moving about in public, given that Shapesense will reveal no Moliation in either eye. The bad news is that, even with this condition, the Solicitors' left eye will still blaze green from within the eye when she uses Intimation. Still, until she does, she just looks like someone with really bright, green eyes.

Desire's Blessing: 6 pt Merit Desire has blessed your Solicitor with Hir favors, making it easier to work Hir desires. Once per game session, she may reroll any one failed or botched Intimation roll, but this may only be done if the Solicitor is using that Arcanos in the interests of the Cabal, or in keeping with orders that came from The Center of the Wheel Hirself. Mere self-preservation and self-aggrandization does not count.

Found Out: -2 or -4 Flaw Somewhere along the line, your Solicitor goofed up. Right now, out there, a Wraith knows who

she is, and that she's a Solicitor. In the -2 version of the Flaw, that someone is scared to death and running for her unlife at knowing such a thing. In the -4 version, that person is not scared at all, and considers your Solicitor her personal nemesis - one she's looking forward to taking down sometime soon. The Player and Storyteller should work together to create this witness. Sooner or later she will come back to haunt the Solicitor, either as a spreader of her legend - which will increase her Notoriety - or someone dedicated to stamping her into a coin.

Apostate/Atheist: -3 pt Flaw Your Solicitor believes that the true story of the Cabal's origins, or the true nature of Desire, or Hir children, is not quite as true as many believe. She might not even believe in the existence of Desire at all. Having such a belief makes one a dangerous element in the eyes of the Cabal's leadership, and if they ever find out that she disagrees with them, she'll be told she wants to go submit to a Gardener for "questioning" - a session she won't be leaving in one piece. The player should come up with what her Solicitor believes, why, and if she tries to get others to see the light or keeps it to herself. Such Solicitors have to be very, very careful.

Desire's Disfavor: 4 pt Flaw In some cases, the Creeping Color doesn't stop when both eyes are as green as a poison apple. Some unfortunates' eyes start to degenerate, turning into large, bulging and evil-looking things that start from their sockets and drip chunky, lime-green slime almost constantly. The effect will follow the slime down the face and neck, turning the Solicitor's Corpus puffy and pustulent as it goes. The malady usually stops somewhere around the shoulders, though tales are told of a case whose whole body was affected over time. Besides being disgusting to look at, this deformity seems to radiate an atmosphere of dread and pure malice, making those who value their health and sanity want to flee. Worse still, this obvious deformity cannot be covered up with Moliate, which means that no matter what she does she will always be marked by Desire's ill-favor. It's not a good thing at all, and is thankfully very rare. Any Solicitor who has Desire's mark of disfavor upon her has her Appearance score set at zero, and it can never get any higher via Moliation. Only the Alternate Art Cupid's Bow can mask the effects. Anyone outside of the Solicitors who sees such an individual must make a Willpower roll at difficulty 7 - or spend a point of Temporary Willpower - to avoid running in fear. All Social Rolls made with outsiders who can see her for what she really looks like fail. (These social problems do not apply to beings such as Spectres, or the insane) In addition, anyone who manifests this Flaw is considered cursed by the Solicitors, who assume that Desire must have found this one lacking in some way. In some of the more strict Chapters she'll be smelted down into something useful once the Flaw can no longer be denied. In those that are more "civilized," but no less faithful, she'll be at a +2 Difficulty on all social rolls within the Cabal.

Lashed: 5 pt Flaw The Solicitor needs to slow down and be more careful, lest she forget that Desire cuts both ways. She begins the game with five points of Desire's Whiplash, and therefore has a Whiplash Disorder of her players' choosing. This Disorder must be roleplayed out. ~ IV. The Hands of Desire ~ Slaves of Desire... Slaves to Desire... With the addition of 15 Freebie Points and the creation of a Shadow, these characters could be ready to play by anybody. Keep in mind that they follow the "issued" rules for Relics and Artifacts. The Nervous Boy

"Well... I don't know much about that sort of thing, but if you think it's a good idea I'm sure your Chancellor will agree. So all you'd have to do is convince your Chancellor of it, right? I'm sure he'll see it's a good idea... why wouldn't he?" Life: From the time you were knee-high to your father, you knew that you wanted to be the sort of person he could respect and look up to. He was a political consultant to the Republican Party, and you followed after him on campaign trail after campaign trail, learning how the big machine worked. Your father had a good grip on how it all fit together, and wasn't shy at all about explaining its intricacies to his eager son. As time passed, you came to employ what you'd learned from your father in your life. First in high school, then in college, you entered the conservative political circles, found the best candidates and ran their campaigns for them - successful campaigns, at that. After graduating from UNLV with a degree in Political Communications you hooked up with the local branch of the Republican party and went to work for them. Things were really looking up. Then two things happened that turned your world upside down. A former lover who'd caught the plague killed himself, and left a rambling, public note that named every man he'd ever been intimate with - most notably you. The candidate you were currently working for had a third party call your home to tell you you were fired. And that very night, before you gathered up the courage to call home, your mother called to inform you that your father had died from a sudden heart attack... and that you weren't welcome at the funeral. Things spiraled downhill after that. No one wanted to work with you. No one wanted to talk to you. One of your "best friends" from the party headquarters was caught writing "AIDS FAGGOT DIE" on your door at 4 in the morning. The cops just laughed and let him off with a warning. On Election Day, 1996, you stayed up to watch the election results for your former candidate. He lost - served him right - and you put on your best clothes and took a bottle of celebratory champagne up the stairs to the roof of your apartment building. Somehow you knew you'd be taking the quick way down. Halfway through the bottle, you proved yourself right.

Death: You'd probably have been reaped by the Silent Legion, at least you would have if someone hadn't been waiting down there to pull you from the caul. He said he was the King of This World, and that your talents had been desired here for some time. Then he said that you wanted to follow him - which you did, of course - and thus began your sojourn with the Cabal. It's been a few years since then. Your trial by fire was a success, and you were made a fullfledged Solicitor in no time at all. After the Induction Ritual you were set up with an identity with the Silent Legion, and set to work being the Cabal's eyes, ears and hand within that group. You latch onto a useful sort of officer, befriend and bed him, and then subtly guide him into doing things the Cabal wants done, hoping to capitalize on his desires for promotion. All the while, the information he tells you slides right back to the Cabal. And then, when he can go no further, you leave him in favor for another, more suitable officer, and the game begins again. By the time the Maelstrom struck, you'd gone up the chain to a Minister. Fortunately, the Silents in your Necropolis have been able to hold it together, so you continue your role as a lowly Adjustor. You've avoided emergency promotion as much as possible, preferring to be of fairly low rank for this sort of work. All the same, you hope that one day, when you've climbed as high as you can, you can step to the side of the throne and share in some of the limelight for a change. Concept: Failed political consultant turned Mata Hari: a man who latches onto the up-and-coming and "guides" them as far as they'll go. Description: Moderately handsome, with flashing eyes and a sudden smile. "Dresses" in khaki pants, brown loafers and Polo shirt. The Clear Spectacles are a pair of unobtrusive, silver-rimmed eyeglasses. Roleplaying: Appear to be slightly nervous in public, and never seem truly at ease. Give the impression of being earnest, simple and true-hearted. Never suggest ideas outright: carefully steer your current paramour's thinking down that alley, so they think they came up with the idea on their own, and then reinforce their acting on them. Relics/Artifacts: Clear Spectacles, Centering Wheel (Cabal Issue), Adjustor's Mask (Legion Issue) Nature: Conniver Demeanor: Caregiver Shadow: The Comedian Life: Unsuccessful Politico Death: Did he jump, or was he pushed...? Regret: Never knowing if his father was proud of him STR 2 DEX 2 STA 2 CHA 4 MAN 3 APP 3 (Charisma Specialty: Unobtrusive) PER 3 INT 2 WIT 3 Talents: Alertness 2, Awareness 1, Dodge 1, Empathy 3, Seduction 2, Streetwise 1, Subterfuge 3, Skills: Drive 1, Etiquette 1, Leadership 2, Meditation 1 Knowledges: Bureaucracy 2, Linguistics 1, Politics 3, Cabal Lore: Solicitors 1 Backgrounds: Artifacts: 3 (Clear Spectacles), Clients 1, Status: Solicitors 2, Status: Hierarchy 1 Passions: Be appreciated for my political skills (Ambition) 4, Be desired (Jealousy) 3, Put my

fingers in all the pies I can (Pride) 3 Fetters: Las Vegas Republican Party Headquarters 3, old apartment 2, last person I advised 2, Stone Eagle bar 2, father's grave 1 Arcanoi: Intimation 3, Keening 1, Moliate 1 Willpower: 5

The Keen Ear

"Yeah, I know what's riding on this deal. Of course I know. The question is - do you? 'Cause I don't know if you even realize how important all this is. So let's talk about my fee again...?" Life: Life? What life? You can't remember a great deal of what happened before you were 20 only that home sucked, school blew and work was hell. Your only escapes were riding on your motorcycle and playing in the rock band you and your friends started. You played lead guitar, and not too bad either, from what you recall. Everything changed at 20, courtesy of a head-on collision with a stationwagon going a lot slower than you were. They said you flew fifty feet, headfirst right into a plate glass window - and you without a helmet and gloves! You were "lucky to be alive," but with a lot of your memory gone and your hands turned into scarred, raw meat, you sure didn't feel lucky. In fact, you felt like finishing the job. Lucky for you, one of the candy stripers at the hospital wouldn't let you quit. Your friends kept your spot in the band open for you, but a few tries with the guitar confirmed that you'd lost too much to play. But hey, they were on the brink of going pro, and what's a band without a manager - right? So you got a quick education in how to make gigs happen for real, and off you all went. For a while, things were pretty good. Your band never made anything better than supporting acts, but the money was enough to get by on. The real problem was keeping the VW van in gas and spare parts - everything else you could handle, just by needling the club owners until they'd agree to let the band play, if only to be rid of you. And you got pretty damn good at that. Between your unique management style and the band's talent, you could have gone somewhere big. But then, this was the 80's, and coke was it. Once the band started swimming in the higher circles of the low-end of the business, one owner got you two introduced, and then you got yourself hooked. You suppose that you might have really embarrassed yourself at some point, if the others had caught you with your hand in the till. You saved them the big let-down by ODing on a single line after a good gig. Death: First, the Emerald Legion reaped you. Then the Chanteurs realized you had a good ear for persuasion and brought you into the group, but your inability to do more than strum a guitar meant you'd never get too high in the Guild. After cutting a few good deals as a 'Keen-eared' negotiator, the Cabal sent someone by to measure you up, and he liked what he saw in you. After that, you got to play a triple role. The Solicitors had you as an ear in both the Chanteurs Guild and the Emerald Legion, and as a clandestine negotiator on the Cabal's behalf. Once hired as a Chanteur, you would let the Solicitors know what was going on, and they would instruct you

how to subtly twist the arrangement - and the parties involved - around to fit their needs, rather than what your clients wanted. You didn't think you could do subtle, but once they taught you how to use that one aptitude the Legion didn't want to know about, and the Chanteurs never found out about, you were amazed at the results. Ironically, the end of the Legion and the Guild was the best thing that could have happened. You were getting tired of having to divide your time between three masters, and worried that you might get caught any time. Now you don't have to worry about your Legional duties at all, and can just hang your sign out as a "Chanteur" in name only. No one need be the wiser... Concept: A bent deal-cutter whose best attribute is his absence, getting parties to agree to things if only to be rid of him. Keeps tabs on what goes on for the Cabal, and changes people's minds for them if the Solicitors need it done. Description: You look like a slimeball, to be frank: a little greasy looking, with scars under your hairline and a perpetual case of bed-head. You "wear" go-nowhere music agent clothes and lots of rings to cover up the mess on what's left of your fingers. The Clear Spectacles are goldrimmed, dark sunglasses. Roleplaying: "It's so easy - easy - when everybody's trying to please me, bay-bee..." It isn't about looks or charm with you - it's all about wheedling the other guy into doing what you, or your clients, want just through sheer annoyance. The sooner they agree the sooner you're out of there, and you make sure you're just annoying enough to close a deal, but not so bad that they want to punch you out. Relics/Artifacts: Clear Spectacles, Centering Wheel (Cabal Issue) Nature: Conniver Demeanor: Conniver Shadow: The Pusher Life: Needling band manager Death: Coke overdose Regret: Never got to be in the limelight STR 2 DEX 1 STA 3 CHA 2 MAN 5 APP 1 (Manipulation Specialty: Persuasive) PER 3 INT 3 WIT 4 (Wits Specialty: Dealmaking) Talents: Alertness 2, Dodge 1, Empathy 1, Expression 3, Intimidation 1, Streetwise 2, Subterfuge 3 Skills: Drive 2, Leadership 3, Performance 1, Repair 1 Knowledges: Bureaucracy 1, Law 1, Politics 3 Backgrounds: Artifacts: 3 (Clear Spectacles), Clients 1, Contacts 1, Status 2 Passions: Be a star (Jealousy) 5, Get what you want (Pride) 3, Play the guitar again (nostalgia) 2 Fetters: favorite guitar 5, the band 3, the fatal cocaine mirror 2 Arcanoi: Intimation 2, Keening 3

Willpower: 5 The Honey Trap

"ah... doesn't that hit the spot? You can't tell me this doesn't beat sitting around in some stuffy guild hall pushing papers for your boss, huh? Naah - borrowed skin and bombay gin, that's the way to do it. Mmmm... yeah... so what kind of work has that bastard got you doing, anyway?" Life: Smiling, happy-go-lucky and very quick with your words, you were everyone's best friend maybe a little too much. You got the reputation for being the sort of person that anyone could talk to, and so they did. Once you got to college you made up your mind to make those talents work for you. A double major in journalism and psychology gave you a way to get people to say anything, and the skills to report it, and you managed to get a political beat with a major newspaper. Interviewing the movers and shakers made for good money, and it felt wonderful to see your name in print. How you went from reporting the news to reporting for your government was something of a funny story. One time you went to an interview, had a few drinks and wound up in bed with a Latin American diplomat who liked to talk into his pillow between snores. You managed to excuse yourself from his room the next morning and went to get the story in. But while trying to remember what had been on the record and what had been whispered in his sleep, you got the two got a little mixed: not so much that your paramour noticed, but enough that some analysts from a certain alphabet-soup organization noticed. Before long you had a knock at your door, and two dour-faced men in black were there, wanting to talk to you. You'd done nothing wrong, they said, but they'd like you to keep doing what you were doing - for them, from time to time. They never said who they were working for, only that they were with the government. But as they were very persuasive - and you were always a patriotic kind of lady - you signed on, thinking that it might be interesting if nothing else. It was interesting, alright. This was during the Cold War, and you got to pile the charm on some real winners. Some of them had nothing to tell but the most obvious things, but some of them had some interesting beans to spill. And whenever you got a good bean, you took it right to your handlers, who slipped some cash into your account by way of thanks. It was a good deal for all involved, though you're sure some of the guys you slyly pressed for info had hell to pay when they got home... Unfortunately, your handlers changed. The new ones weren't as interested in getting secrets as they were in your ability to be "the other woman." You were used to blackmail foreign nationals into giving sensitive information, otherwise your handlers would go public with the affair. The fact that this would ruin you as well didn't seem to matter much to your new bosses, who compensated for your complaints by promising that this time would be the last time... Death: ... It just so happened that one time was the last time, courtesy of a scared diplomat who decided that killing you was preferable to being under the government's thumb. The Grim Legion took you in, but wasted your talents in a clerical position. It wasn't until you figured out how to bend the folks in the office around your finger that the Cabal found you. It's been a match made in Heaven ever since. Concept: A master of getting people to say more than they should, you flit from mark to mark, pulling useful information from some, and tempting others into doing things the Cabal can blackmail them for later.

Description: Fairly attractive, with long, black hair, a tasteful wardrobe and a way to use them both to your advantage. Roleplaying: Fun fun fun! It's always parties and hookey from work for you. Get others to go a little wild, and then use the forward momentum to either loosen their tongue, or get them to do something naughty with it. Sometimes you almost feel sorry for them... but you've got to live your life for you, right? Relics/Artifacts: Centering Wheel (Cabal Issue) Nature: Bon Vivant Demeanor: Caregiver Shadow: The Monster Life: Sly, slinky cold war spy Death: Became "expendible" Regret: Never got to live your life for you STR 1 DEX 3 STA 2 CHA 4 MAN 3 APP 3 (Charisma Specialty: Trusting Face) PER 3 INT 3 WIT 2 Talents: Alertness 2, Awareness 2, Empathy 3, Expression 2, Style 1, Subterfuge 3 Skills: Disguise 2, Etiquette 1, Performance 1, Stealth 1 Knowledges: Bureaucracy 1, Investigation 2, Politics 1, Psychology 3 Backgrounds: Clients 3, Contacts 2, Status 2 Passions: Write a tell-all book (Pride) 4, Get people to trust you completely (Self-Worth) 3, Do what you want (Selfishness) 3 Fetters: Your secret notes 4, Stained party dress 3, Class ring 2, Your murderer 1 Arcanoi: Intimation 2, Puppetry 3 Willpower: 5 Little Mary (The Gardener)

Mary Mary - Quite Contrary How Does Your Garden Grow? With Rusty-Red Chains And Knives Slick With Brains And Broken Teeth All In A Row...

Life: Your real parents went south of the border and abandoned you to complete strangers when you were only one. They told your new parents that they didn't want any attachments, because they were going to go "live free or die." Whatever happened to them, you have no idea - though odd whispers of their having been a Hollywood couple come up now and again - and those kindly strangers became more of a family to you than those two potheads had ever been. But your new family had some interesting ideas on child rearing... to put it mildly. They were brother and sister, living in a mutually abusive, incestuous relationship. They were also cannibals, surviving on roadkill, scrounged vegetation, the occasional lost motorist and - when times were really tight - their own children. In fact, they often told you that the only reason they didn't toss your ass right into the pot when they brought you home was because mother thought you had cute dimples. Life in a shotgun shack, way out in the desert, was pretty tough, and not just because of the environment. Your new brothers and sisters were congenital idiots who were either trying to screw, maim or kill one another, and you, as something of an outsider, were always the preferred victim. Your parents did nothing to stop this; They went so far as to encourage it. By the time you were approaching puberty, father was starting to take a notice in how you were developing. Your mother didn't take kindly to this development, and decided that your dimples' cuteness had run out. She held you down and poured boiling cooking oil down the front of your dress, scarring you from your neck to your thighs. After that, dad didn't want a piece of you anymore. Everyone else sure did, though, and you were in no shape to play "Hide and Seek" just then. You died screaming, and fed the family for three nights straight. Death: By all rights, you should have come over as a Spectre. That's what the kindly-voiced reapers who found you wandering, still in your Caul, out in the desert, said. They kept saying it over and over again, too, as though it might ward off your sudden conversion into a Doomshade. But between the shock of being eaten alive, and waking up here with a strange voice whispering in your head, you weren't in much shape to do more than be led back to civilization. Once you reached the nearest Necropolis - Mexico City - the kindly reapers were replaced by soot-stained, unfriendly men. You were still a child to their eyes, and by Imperial edict, there was only one thing to do with child Wraiths: soulforge them before they fell to Oblivion. Unfortunately for them, they had no idea how vicious you could be when cornered, or how quick to escape. You spontaneously Moliated yourself into something sharp and nightmarish, seriously wounding several Legionnaires in your headlong flight out of the forges.

After that, you lived on the streets of the city for over a year. You'd drag unsuspecting strangers into dark alleys to "play," and then try to kill and eat them, not realizing that you didn't need to do that anymore. The Cabal found you while chewing up a Wraith three times your size, and recognized in your eyes something very useful to them. And then the nice strangers showed you a room full of wonderful toys, and promised you all the food you wanted if you'd just do a few things for them... what else could a little girl want? Concept: A child gone terribly wrong, playing with her new "toys" until they break and she eats them - once the nice people who give her the "toys" ask their questions, of course... Description: You're a girl just on the cusp of becoming a young woman, but arrested somewhere between those two points by a childlike appearance. Your corpus is hideously burned down the front of your chest, but most of that his hidden by your "clothing." You seem cute and disarming in a slightly torn dress, with bright, unblinking eyes and a sunny smile that hides a terrible, maddened hunger. That hunger is only a second away from surfacing, turning the smile into a feral, toothy snarl. Roleplaying: Look at torture the way a child looks at a game. Somehow, the fact that what you're doing to people is painful and degrading has failed to register, or - worse - you know all about that, and just don't care. Relics/Artifacts: Centering Wheel (Cabal Issue), enough torture devices to keep you amused for several lifetimes (Cabal Issue), a sad-faced dolly made from parts of your victims Nature: Survivor Demeanor: Child-Monster Shadow: The Parent Life: Seriously fucked-up cannibal child Death: Got eaten Regret: Nothing that would make any sense to the sane STR 3 DEX 3 STA 2 CHA 3 MAN 4 APP 3 (Manipulation Specialty: Frightening) PER 2 INT 2 WIT 2 Talents: Alertness 2, Athletics 2, Brawl 2. Dodge 3, Intimidation 3, Streetwise 1 Skills: Melee 3, Torture 3, Stealth 3 Knowledges: (None) Backgrounds: Artifact 1 (the dolly), Mentor 2, Notoriety 2, Status 2 Passions: Survive at all costs (self-preservation) 4, Please authority figures who "understand" (devotion) 3, Get enough to eat (Hunger) 3 Fetters: The Shotgun Shack 4, Favorite Hiding Spot 3, "Daddy" 2, The tree that killed your real father 1 Arcanoi: Intimation 1, Moliate 3, Usury 1 Willpower: 5

Flaws: (Most likely has the 'Uneducated' Flaw) The Unseen (Cold, stark silence) Life: No one ever understood you. No one ever cared to try. But then, even if they had, they wouldn't have been able to. Surely. From your earliest recollection, you were the kid no one talked to, looked at or wanted to play with. It wasn't because you were ugly, handicapped or mental. It was because you were so quiet so terribly, utterly quiet - that most of the time they just never realized you were there. Even your parents hardly ever noticed you, what with ten kids under one roof; Sometimes you weren't in the family photos, and no one really cared. Seen but not seen, you went through life somewhat aimlessly. You graduated by default. You got a job where you attended to what went in one box and put the finished product in the other box, never relating to anyone at all. You never dated. You never hung around. Even your landlord hardly ever remembered that you were there, except when the rent check would appear under his door. It took a long time for you to realize that there had to be some point to it all. There was something else you didn't understand, surely. The key had to lie in the other people - the ones who acted like you weren't really there. And you knew that once you realized it, things would make sense. So you started watching them. You would break into people's houses and watch them as they went about their daily routines. You would peep in their windows, hide in their closets... go through their lives without their ever noticing. But nothing you saw ever showed you the secret that eluded you. It wouldn't be until one night, maybe ten years into your quest to find out what was going on, that it all suddenly made sense. But the flash of insight came while you were perched precariously on someone's windowsill. Enraptured, you fell down four stories to your death. Of course, no one noticed your body in the alley, either... Death: Conversely, the Cabal took a great deal of notice in you. They helped you get back on your feet and put you to work in a job that was absolutely perfect for you. Now, you lie in wait for the people the Cabal targets and use Intimation on them from afar. No one knows you are there. And once you've done your job, no one knows that anything's amiss, either. Of course, this is all wonderful... but you were right on the cusp of making some great discovery back there in that alley, just before you died. You would very much like to get back to it, and the strange voice in your head seems to have some novel ideas on the subject... Concept: A perfect Agent Provacateur, you are the one who is never noticed: a Solicitor who does the Cabal's biding, and then disappears. Description: Utterly nondescript. Roleplaying: Say nothing: act. Propose nothing: do what you will. Call no attention to yourself. If all goes well, no one should know that you're there. (Note that this might be very hard to RP in a group, so you might want to ask your Storyteller for her thoughts before trying to make and play a

character like this) Relics/Artifacts: Centering Wheel (Cabal Issue), No-Wear (Cabal Property) Nature: Explorer Demeanor: ??? Shadow: The Perfectionist Life: The one no one knew was there Death: Fell down after reaching sartori Regret: Don't remember finding what you were looking for. STR 2 DEX 4 STA 2 (Dexterity Specialty: Silent Movement) CHA 2 MAN 2 APP 2 PER 3 INT 3 WIT 4 (Wits Specialty: Quick-witted) Talents: Alertness 3, Awareness 3, Streetwise 3 Skills: Meditation 2, Stealth 3 Knowledges: Bureaucracy 1, Computer 2, Engimas 3, Investigation 3, Occult 2, Cabal Lore: Solicitors 2 Backgrounds: Clients 1, Eidolon 2, Haunt 2, Status 2 Passions: Find out what it all means (Desperation) 5, Never be noticed (Resignment) 3, Erase all records of your having ever been (Desire) 2 Fetters: The person you watched when you learned what you have now forgotten 5, Your favorite observation points 3, an album of family photos you weren't in 2 Arcanoi: Argos 1, Intimation 3, Mnemosynis 1 Willpower: 5

...and Masters of It Overlord Alistair Curtain

"We ask only to serve the greater good of the Seattle Necropolis... as should all..." The late (?) Alistair Curtain - Grand Master of the Seattle Necropolis, Overlord of the Silent Legion - was a legend amongst the Statists of the Cabal. Not only was he able to assume control over the Necropolis, but he was able to hide his Chapterhouse in plain sight, and have the Cabal go about its business, without anyone ever suspecting a thing. If he'd made it through the 6th Great Maelstrom he might now be the Grand Master of the Order of Seven, courtesy of his plans to spread his rather novel ideas from Necropolis to Necropolis through the Silent Legion. Seattle was unique in terms of its Hierarchy's organization. Rather than have each Legion attend to its own needs, the duties for the entire city were split amongst the seven political Legions. Most of the Legions were given duties well in keeping with their natural strengths - the Grims were assigned patrol duty, for example - but the Silent Legion was given the job of maintaining morale. It was assumed that this was some kind of macabre joke, meant to send their rather dour Anacreon off to Stygia for a terminal review. But after a few months, no one was laughing. The Silent Legion had always possessed the potential to be the most numerous - and therefore powerful - in the city, given the high number of suicides in Seattle. However, suicidal Quick make for fairly suicidal dead, and the number of "double-jumpers" was fairly high. This kept the Legion's rosters in a state of total flux, and made certain that they were always surpassed by the Grim, Emerald and Skeletal Legions. So the Silents needed a way to keep their own morale as high as possible. The answer was presented by a fresh-faced Marshal transferred in from Stygia - Alistair Curtain. He personally trained what he called "the Happiness Patrol": units of Silent Legionnaires who would wander the city, looking for fellow Silents who didn't seem to be having a good time. With a unique blend of pop psychology and morale-boosting, they would chase away the blues, or else take the fellow in for private, "special counseling." They also maintained a rigorous schedule of social events for the Legion to enjoy, on the theory that a busy Legionnaire didn't have much time to moap around. After a short month of having the Happiness Patrol, the Legion had cut its "double-jumping" rate by nearly 4/5ths, and morale was at an all-time high. Marshal Curtain was promoted to Regent for his good work, and then given a further promotion to Overlord once the Legion was given morale duty for the entire Necropolis. He doubled patrols, used the Necropolis' coffers to sponsor parties and other social events, and saw to the placement of morale-building signs all over the city. And the results were pretty spectacular, at least in terms of overt morale. Of course, there was something rotten underneath that smile of his, but no one ever caught on to the great secret: the entire operation was rife with Solicitors. His Happiness Patrols were - like him - all entitled to wear the Blindfolds of Justice, which hid the fact that most of the cheer they foisted on people was courtesy of Intimation, rather than genuine happiness. The "Be Happy" signs all gave off a low-level command to smile and think pleasant thoughts. The parties were all training grounds for new Solicitors, who tried to get wall-flowers out and into the action with the subtlest means possible. And as for what went on in the "special counseling" sessions... Best of all, anyone who started digging too deeply into the Patrols' methods - or generally became a pest - could be accused of being "unhappy," and then dealt with. Between that, and the de facto control the Legion assumed once it had the numbers it was due, the Silent Legion ruled Seattle. Those who knew something was awry kept it to themselves, or were either done away with or - in the cases of higher-level Hierarchs - scheduled for a "friendly talk" with Alistair. It was a dream scheme for the Cabal, and they were quite happy to see the idea of a Happiness Patrol considered by Silent Anacreons in neighboring Necropoli. Unfortunately, the 6th Great Maelstrom struck. As far as the Cabal knows, Overlord Curtain was

lost to its outbreak. Most have no idea that he and the remnants of his Chapterhouse pulled a more overt - and frankly sloppy - coup over what remained of the Anacreon Council once things went to hell. They were thwarted by a meddling Circle of Hierarch and Renegade Wraiths, and Curtain was last seen being carried off into the storm by a horde of ravenous Doomshades. But then, Seattle was always a little strange. Even now, the hands of Fate and Memory conspire yet again to wipe away the past and start yet anew. What part Alistair may have to play in it has yet to be seen, but no Solicitor with any sense of the area should count him out of the game just yet Katherine Wheel

"It's all about desire, baby - upper-case and lower-case "d" desire. Once you get a handle on one, the other'll come knockin' at your door, sure as shit. And it's power, baby. It's all the way, baby. Come Here, baby... let me show you..." Katherine Wheel was something of an oddity in her breathing days: she was one of the few black women in mainstream American porn able to transcend the "novelty" factor and become a bonifide star in her own right. She straddled the time between the late 70's high-plot, lowproduction era and the late 80's high-production, low-plot era, taking on everything the scriptwriters could throw at her, and then some. Those who worked with her said that she was like a woman possessed. Voodoo jokes made the rounds, and she laughed right along with the others at them. They were often calling her the black Amber Lynn, though she hated having the b-word in front of the title; She just wanted to be known for what - and who - she could do. And do she did. She did everything. She did everyone. She was insatiable, both on and off the camera; Like the song said, she just couldn't get enough. Unfortunately, she got more than she bargained for. News of John Holmes' infection made the studios freak out and demand AIDS tests from its workers. She came up positive, and was drummed out of the business along with the other victims. She paid bills by being a stripper after that, but stripping doesn't go that far when split between rent, food and medication. One night, after a show, a man came to her dressing room and said he could get her back in films... if she didn't mind catering to a "special" crowd. By that point, she didn't care - anything to be back in front of a camera. What she didn't know was that her "agent" represented rich freaks who wanted "special" movies that the normal studios wouldn't touch. They were scary, gross and degrading movies, all shot on commission. And the "stars" were near-talentless actresses down

on their luck, and scary-looking actors - with names like Butch, Killer and Slash - who were just a little too willing to do anything. At first, Katherine just dealt with it, but after she realized how disposable the actresses were she got wise as to where it was all leading. That was then they got her hooked on heroin, just to give her a leash. She tried to get out a few times, but they always knew where and how to find her. Eventually they got tired of looking and booked her for a stump film, but the "love doctor" got a little carried away... When she came out of the Caul, she was fetal with shock, not quite sure what had happened to her. The man who would become her mentor in the Cabal was waiting. He kissed her lovingly on the neck, whispering the legend of Innana into her ear. And by the time he was done with it, she was able to get to her feet and accompany him out of the studio. She never looked back. Since then, Katherine has become a notorious figure amongst the Solicitors. No one's sure just how she got a rebellious streak, but she's become one of the most noisy and unapologetic Shepherd Insurrectionists of the lot. She was incessant in her calls for the Cabal to openly back the Renegades, and now that Stygia has fallen she's redoubled her calls, saying that now is the prefect time to pull it off. She hasn't gotten much support from the Order of Seven. Some of the more staid Traditionalists including Don Salazaar from the Order of Three, it should be noted - have tried to have her silenced. But they've never had any luck: between her uncanny knack for survival, and her massive Memoriam, she's come back from every attempt to put her down. Recently she's been solidifying her hold over the Renegades she had before, and gaining Clients from the new breed of Renegade. And no, she's never looked back... at least, not too much. In her Haunt, behind her bed, there is a row of toys she's had the Gardeners make special for her. They all scream instead of moaning when she touches them. And every single one has a name: Butch, Killer, Slash...

Don Salazaar

"We can make Charon reverse his decision. It will be difficult, and it will be expensive, but it can be done. I cannot tell you the cost at the moment, for we have only dreamed of doing something on this scale, and never planned it..." (wry chuckle) "Or budgeted it, either..." The well-known Grand Master known as Don Salazaar is no more.

Those Solicitors who looked after him say that when the Great Maelstrom struck, he was in the middle of very complicated negotiations with various parties (whose identities do not need to be divulged at this time) and took the full force of the Outbreak when the window broke. Very few in the room were able to escape the wind, debris and attendant Spectres: Don Salazaar was not one of them. The news was taken with a great deal of concern amongst the Order of Three. For a time, it was hoped that he might escape his Harrowing and come back to the Cabal. But as the weeks became months, and the months turned into years, it was fairly clear that he was lost to Oblivion. He was mourned as both a leader and a shining example, and quite openly missed - both by those who loathed and loved him And those who loved him could use his advice, right about now. Solicitors who actively aided him are being cut down from the shadows: left to twist in the wind as their webs of lies, blackmail and deceit are unraveled about them, leaving them vulnerable to outraged mobs and vengeful Solicitors. Anyone who had the audacity to call him friend has just disappeared, as though they vanished into thin air. And anyone who was never sure where they stood with him watch the shadows and jump at slight noises, afraid of what's to come. Those who have been with the Cabal long enough to see these cycles play out say that this is to be expected. When a leader falls, those who attended him must also fall. The dispossessed reach up as one to take their revenge as the vanquished become the victimizers. The game changes its places and begins yet again, rules changing to fit the new landscape. It is nothing to be afraid of, or alarmed about, they say: It is only the turning of the wheel. And a circle is forever... Such Lovely Places