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**LostLight** · 01-24-2023, 09:15 PM

Northern Europe
Serving as the home region for former colonial empires and current great powers, Northern Europe has been a home for some of the oldest, most powerful secret societies in the world, many of which prospered in the United Kingdom during the Victorian Era. Known for its cold climate, many of the ancient horrors are well adapted to the frozen desolation and long winters, while throughout history many ancient evils were left frozen in the ice, believed to be dead and gone by the Vigilant community. However, the coming climate change has affected the supernatural ecology as much as it harms and natural one, forcing monsters to migrate in search for food and proper occult infrastructures to maintain their existence and melting the ice which kept many of the forgotten entities imprisoned, letting them roam free once more.

British Isles
Once standing in the heart of a vast colonial power, the British Islands still bear with them the marks of their past history, hosting a rich and complex Vigilant society within them. Many occultists have gathered in Britain during the old days, creating a thriving shadow market where many strange ingredients and ancient lore can be bought and sold on a day to day basis, for those who know where to look and what to say. It also contains the wealth of stolen bygones and claimed traditions from all across the globe, remnants of the age where the British Empire ruled over the world and enforced its own Vigil upon disparate communities regardless of indigenous traditions. As a result, the ancient conspiracies of the UK harbour many enemies across the globe, and as the economic failures of the Brexit, the COVID crises and political instability have fell upon the Kingdom, cracks start forming within the rulers of the occult world- ones which their enemies would love to break open.

The main threat on the Vigil is in isles are the fey- due to some unknown circumstances, be it a bargain long forgotten, product of occult matrices or the results of a apocalyptic supernatural disaster which shaped the metaphysical geology of the region, the Fair Folk have much greater freedom in Britain and Ireland than in other places in the globe. Wearing many different names and titles, the Fair Folk and their hounds often cross the veil, forcing hunters to produce a variety of traditions and methodologies in order to counter their advance. Some claim that the isles are the gate for a massive scale invasion of the Fair Folk, and if the Vigil were to fall there the whole world would be at risk. Other main enemies which lurk in the region are the dead- vampires are known to tie themselves to old institutes of power, the ghosts of the dead lurk all across Edinburgh, and hounds howl all across Cadair Idris. Finally, Britain is also well known to suffer its share from the slasher epidemic- with many that the plague have started there, with Jack the Ripper being the “patient zero” which triggered the chain that only now reached outbreak.

The Vigil in the United Kingdom stands on three main pillars- the government, the secret service and the Anglican Church. The first pillar is represented by the Office of the Lord Stewards (DC). Utilising the druidic arts of the ancient Welsh people, the Office works to maintain the ancient Arrangements which govern the relation between the people and the Land. According to the Office, there has always been someone to manage those arrangements, and they are simply the latest incarnation of that organisation, fitting to the modern era. The main task of the Office is to keep the “land appeased” through a series of many different small acts and tributes, all while maintaining contacts with the occult community, monsters and vigilants alike. Their greatest goal is maintaining the “Pax Britannia”, and as such their hunt (which utilises mostly regulatory and bureaucratic methods) focuses on those who violates the peace, disrupt the many bargains that the Office have kept throughout the years and keep the Old Gods of the Thorn (or the Fair Folk, as they are more commonly known) at bay. Such behaviour keeps them in contact with the insidious Wood Witches, even though the two organisations are often at odds with one another. The conspiracy was hugely in support of European Integration, seeking to establish their Arrangements all across Europe, and were harmed the most during Brexit, which violated many recent arrangements by metaphysically cutting the United Kingdom away from the mainland.

Where the Office deals mostly with internal affairs and governmental issues, MI18 (KR) is responsible for foreign interests and counterintelligence. Supervised by Lord Chickering, MI18 was established as part of the Directorate of Military Intelligence to deal with supernatural threats to the United Kingdom. Unlike similar cabinets around the world, MI18 is known to actively work with certain monsters, those they dub as “geniuses” or “crafters”, in order to produce Listings (LUtW) of supernaturally enhanced equipment and gadgets, which has to be constantly recharged by the conspiracy’s occult technicians. While they monitor supernatural threats for Britain, they also deal with threats caused by rouge hunters and agents from other cabinets, such as the Russian KSI21 and Chinese Cultural Protection Society. On the other hand, due to alliances such as the Five Eyes and AUKUS, MI18 does maintain regular (even if not close) relationships with cabinets such as Task Force: VALKYRIE and Liminal Threat Agency, as well as the European Irrational Economy Taskforce. Due to their need for the help of monsters in order to maintain their listings, MI18 invests as much time recruiting low risk monsters as they hunt down high risk ones, focusing on the help of the more human monsters such as witches and changelings.

Such behaviour keeps putting MI18 on a clash with Britain’s third great power in the local Vigil- the Knights of St George (WF). Working within the Anglican Church, the Knights view magic as corruptible and dangerous, and are trained in fighting witches and their magical arts. The Knights teach that the use of magic is dangerous regardless of the intentions of the user, and as such even if used for the benefit of other people all witches are sinful before God, and should be punished for their actions. Those claims, however, are merely a lie meant to hide a more insidious truth- that the Knights themselves do not work in the benefit of the Christian God, but are themselves derived from secretive occult order meant to appease ancient deities known simply as the Faceless Angels which, if awakened, could destroy the world- and magic is the “light” which draws their attention, and so much be banished from the world. To do so, the Knights have incorporated the dreams of the Faceless Angels into their own minds, interpreting them through the lenses of virtues and sins to form their Goetic Gospels. For the common members, however, the Gospels are being produced through demons bound by Jesus within Christian iconography. Due to the many layers of secrets and lies, the Knights are structured as a cult within the Anglican Church, and in its heart sit the Inner Circle which shares the dreams of the Angels and the heir to the bastard line of Richard the Lionheart. The reach of the Knights is spread across the Anglican Communion, giving them a worldwide access in their search to hunt down and banish the witches from the world, and their zealous methodology often puts them in odds with the more tolerant Vigilant organisations, causing instances such as the Salem Witch Hunts, where hunters fell upon one another due to paranoia governed by the Dragonslayers.

Just as the Knights hold influence across the globe, other external organisations maintain hold within the United Kingdom, such as the Aegis Kai Doru. The presence of the Shield and Spear in the Isles is ancient, coelasting into the chapter known as the Order of the Black Knight (DE2). The Order claims to have been the guardians of Britannia’s mythical past, holding access to relics from the Arthurian Cycle, including the mythical Excalibur and the armour of the Black Knight. Similarly to their patrons, the Order maintains secret labyrinths in mystical sites across the Kingdom, such as Stonehenge, yet those labyrinths seems to have a strange, time displacement effect, and it is rumoured that some of the Order’s members are in fact actual Knights of the Round Table, who escaped into the labyrinth only to emerge in a time where their kingdom was turned into myth by Merlin’s act of hubris. Whether true or not, the Order is devoted to the protection of the British Monarchy, which they deem as a living relic, and awaits the prophesied return of King Arthur, with some whisper that his tomb is kept hidden within the Order’s hedge labyrinth.

Esoteric and old just like the Aegis Kai Doru, the Ascending Ones also maintain their own local chapter within the United Kingdom in the form of the Pristine Order of the Auric Chalice (PtC2e). Unlike the Order of the Black Knight, which does not actively work against the Aegis Kai Doru, the Chalice often clash against their “patrons”, being forced into obedience by the Ascending Ones controlling the import of many reagents which the Chalice require to produce their Elixirs, yet the Chalice keeps viewing itself as superior in the arts compared to more decentralised and religious Cult of the Phoenix. The Chalice believes itself to be the guardians of the Art, and as such often hunts down those alchemists who they deem to abuse alchemy, as well as the twisted creations they produce through foul transmutation. The only reason that they allowed themselves to be absorbed into the Ascending Ones is due to their gradual weakening after fighting for centuries against Amalgama Ltd, which forced them to seek allies or die out. Still, the Chalice refuses to view themselves as part of the Ascending Ones, maintaining strong independence compared to most chapters due to the Cult being too decentralised to enforce its will upon the rogue chapter while it maintains its crusade against other alchemists and the reanimated.

Where the presence of the Aegis Kai Doru and the Ascending Ones is ancient, VASCU holds a much more modern presence. In fact, VASCU could be considered to be the chapter, as the Society of Twelfth Keys (Slsh) was the base from which the latter agency formed. Still, it was only after the Wintergreen Process was developed that VASCU developed their Endowments, making the Society dependent on their agents in order to gain access to Teleinformatics. However, after VASCU being dismantled and restructured by the FBI, many former hunters have left to the Society, bringing the knowledge about the Procedure with them. As a result, the Society has started to bloom in influence, changing from a small private investigator company into a powerful mover and shaker in the Vigil, allowing them to track down slashers and other supernatural murderers by solving cases through their supernaturally enhanced deduction. Being a private organisation, the Society operates without many of the regulations that VASCU had to deal with, and they are sometimes hired by Scotland Yard and other local law enforcement authorities.

A remnant of the United Kingdom’s era as a colonial power, the Museum Secretorum (LL) is a massive power within the land’s academic institutions and scholarly societies. Also known as the Five Roses Empire and the Society of Cultural Preservation, the Museum has its reach across many universities, museums and archives, all while working to preserve magical traditions and entities from all across the world. Claiming to have been founded by Aliester Crowley (or, in some version, merely being reorganised by him from earlier, hermetic traditions), the Museum draws power from their own trapped collection by using a system of Hedge Magic, which makes each hunter dependant on their own personal collection for power. The essence behind the Museum’s power is the archivists- mysterious beings which supply the hunters with amber-like substances used to trap beings outside of time. The brand of Vigil which the Museum pursue is that of collecting knowledge about the supernatural, and many times they are willing to coexist with monsters who provide the knowledge they so desire- unless the monsters in question are themselves rare specimen which needs to be preserved, and then the use the the Black Rose Amber is required.

Having a much more different view about the fey compared to other hunter organisations, the Guardians of the Silver Gate claim that the Fair Folk are not some mystical entities, but aliens abducting people and replacing them by clones and performing horrifying experiments upon them to transform their form. The chapter within Operation Nebula, the Guardians reinterpreted the local myths and folklore into their alien paradigm, and believe that the megalithic sites across the British Isles and the frequent fey incursions are signs that the region is either a secret base for aliens, a special source of energy for them or is full with ancient interdimensional portals- if not all of the above. Others, however, have a different approach, and claim that the structure of the ley lines and ancient structures have in fact served as a protective barrier from invasions built by the druids of the past, yet centuries without maintenance have broken the ancient technology, allowing the aliens to creep in. While many would like to disregard the wild claims of the Guardians, they have found their fair share of xenotechnology nearby burial mounds and megalithic sites, or harvested special gadgets for the fair folk which resonate with those locations, allowing them to rip open gates to the strange, alien worlds or cause tremendous damage to those invasive species.

Also popular in the United Kingdom’s academic circles yet much smaller and less organised, the Wilde Society (DC) sees the supernatural as a source of inspiration. While developed independently, the Society serves as a chapter of the much larger Orchestra Fatalibus, yet they focus more on plastic art in order to produce their Muses, even though some do focus on poetry. In many ways, the Society represents the greatest danger which the Orchestra has to deal with- getting addicted to the supernatural inspiration, sometimes even on the expanse of the Vigil. As a result, many hunters are wary of the Society, who are willing to cooperate with the fey in exchange for the vivid ecstasy and beautiful madness those beings may offer. While they are viewed as unreliable, eccentric and even mad or corrupted, the Society holds a lot of knowledge about the Fair Folk, both in terms of archives, personal experiences and networks, making them valuable to those who dare to navigate the labyrinths of bargains, costumes and traditions by which the fey live.

Also starting originally as a “social club” so to speak, the Ashwood Abbey (HtV) is infamous across the Vigil, specifically in Britain. Originating as a hellfire club in Scotland, the Abbey views the Vigil as a hedonistic practice, done for the thrill and less due to obligation. Their members are often of the high class and wealthy, and acceptance can only be done through invitation. While up until recently they were disregarded due to their “foolish games” with monsters, recently the Abbey has seen increase with members and influence, being reorganised in the service of a certain “patron”. As part of their service, they have developed special bacchanals which project decadence and vice into those in the presence of those hunters. Being immoral and corrupted, the Abbey is despised by most other groups, yet their influence in both the mundane world and the shadows gives them the leverage required for them to not only survive, but to prosper. They are highly regarded by the occult market of the United Kingdom, being high class customers and managers of auctions which deal with both bygones, ingredients and even living monsters themselves, which are used as either “pets” or for “special tournaments” in their secret mansions.

While the Abbey has a hand in the criminal underworld of the United Kingdom, the Daughters of Ravana (PtC) are among its movers and shakers. Descended from Indian alchemists which migrated to Britain, the Daughters are an all women society which both act to protect women from monsters and recruit them as assassins and mercenaries. While this cabarete utilises alchemy, instead of the elixirs produced by many practitioners of the Art their alchemy is derived from the cultic practices of the Aga Nritya, utilising catalysts (LL) that enhance and accelerate common practices. Some high ranked members of the cabarete do maintain some contacts with the Thuggee Cult, yet in general this chapter works independently, for better and worse- and there is much “worse” for them to handle with. Trapped between the zealot Chalice and the ruthless Amalgama, the Daughters are forced to fight for their survival on a daily basis, yet due to their influence over the criminal world and alchemically enhanced assassination techniques even their worst enemies are wary of taking them lightly, as they should.

Much less violent but just as elusive, the Theater of Tragedies (LL) operates through a network of brothels, bars and clubs. Formed following the Opium Wars, the Theater utilises special crossdressing techniques taught by (or stolen from, depending on who you ask) Chinese shamanic societies, which allow the user to become a different person through dramaturgy. This practice is highly useful for those who use the supernatural identity to bargain with demons, fey and other such entities, making them notorious among monsters for being able to sell their soul and walk out of the deal with no consequences. While the Theater focuses on cheating monsters for power through their false identities, it also serves as a safe place for many prostitutes and other such individuals and protects them from the monsters who would otherwise abuse them. That puts them in odds with other criminal organisations who, generally, would themselves abuse such people, and they clash often with the Scharlach Spinnwebe who trade with blood dolls and their vampiric customers. Still, the Theater are not safe from faults by themselves, and their hospitality and protection comes at the price of trading with dangerous entities where one slip up may lead a vengeful demon to tear apart the foolish mortal who dared to cheat them.

Moving to the industrial scene of the Vigil, two local companies compete for dominance on that aspect of the shadow world, all while trying to balance the influence of outsider conglomerates such as Cheiron and Deva Corporations. The first is Amalgama Ltd (PtC2e). Founded and controlled by ancient alchemists, their industry is based around using alchemy in order to create advanced biotech for the benefit of humanity- and infecting their mercenaries with genetic mutations to make them into deadly opponents. Amalgama is in fact controlled by immortal alchemists of Dutch descent, who try to force every alchemist in London into their fold while harvesting any reanimated they stumble upon for vitriol. Their magnum opus leads them to human transmutations, as they attempt to produce the perfect soldiers through alchemy, and every other alchemist is viewed as a competition which needs to be eliminated. They are found in a complicated relationship with Cheiron, which uses similar methodologies and seeks to buy out Amalgama for its secrets, yet the alchemists behind the corporation are patient and savvy, and they will not let go of their syndicate easily. Still, Brexit caused a significant harm to the British economy, making Amalgama vulnerable- and the alchemists behind it wonder if perhaps it is the time to move their project to another location, hopefully away from the clutches of their competitors.

A more direct competition for Cheiron which deals also with pharmaceuticals is Last Dynasties International (MtC). Just like Amalgama uses alchemy to enhance their products, LDI utilises sorcery, invoking the powers of life and death in order to create life infused medicine which they use both for their business and as part of their Vigil. The product of British colonialism and an Egyptian sorcerous cult, LDI seeks to harvest mummies for power and steal the knowledge of ancient traditions. Through their strange rituals, LDI have not only produced medicine but also strange monsters which they use to guard their facilities and protect their trade, which means that their hunters are used to work alongside horrors, and also that most hunters view them as corrupted and twisted, willing to harness black magic in the name of profit. Still, considering the strength of their enemies, the use of such entities is required, and the power they hold over the economy (especially after the vaccine they developed following the COVID crises) makes them a power to be reckoned with, and that the common hunter prefers to avoid if possible.

Also viewed unfavourably by the Vigilant community, the Hearth of Hestia (KR) are disliked not due to their actions, by the lack of. The Hearth acts to serve as a “safe place” for hunters, using their hearthtending arts in order to form sacred places which are protected from monsters instead of actively hunting the darkness. The Hearth itself is mostly composed of women, which claim to draw power through the ancient bargains with the lares and Vesta used by the Romans for the prosperity of their land. As such, the Hearth are very cultic in practice, venerating the powers of the home in order to maintain their havens and tend the wounds of those who enjoy their hospitality. While they don’t suffer from much of open hostility, they are still very much untrusted by many hunters, who suspect their claimed connections to spirits and unseen forces. Thankfully, they are protected by the Office of the Lord Stewards, who see similarities between the Hearth’s arts and the arrangements which the Office works to maintain, and appreciate the services they offer to help those bearers of the Vigil- even if they do so out of strange obligation to the “mothers of the home” and the “laws of hospitality”.

Similarly to the Hearth, the Welsh Verbena (LL) do not directly practise the Vigil. Instead, they use their blood rites as part of an ancient tradition, claimed to be druidic in origin, in order to protect the strange holes in the veil and stop intrusions between worlds. The Verbena claim that the blood they spill works as a barrier, catalysing human lives into a magical, protective force which keeps the dead “outside” and the living “inside”. Proudly claiming themselves as witches, the craft does not hunt down monsters or demons, and instead seeks to protect sacred sites and keep the demons of Hell (or “Anwnn’s Hounds”) at bay. Following the christianisation of Wales the tradition has taken a significant blow from which they never managed to recover, even though they did survive to the modern era. With each passing day, the number of Verbena practitioners dwindles, suffering from both lack of interest and zealot hunters such as the Knights of St George, and with that it becomes harder and harder to keep the old wards in check. Simple bloodletting is no longer enough, and some witches start using human sacrifices in secret in order to enhance their spells. While viewed with disdain by the rest of the craft, desperate times call for desperate means, and if the Verbena would fall all Hell would literally break loose- though if those acts will be revealed to the wide Vigilant community, that may also bring to the same outcome.

Where the Verbena tries to ward against the dead, the Walkers With Ankou try to coexist with them. Found across the many haunted sites in Britain, the Walkers are a chapter of the Council of Bones, yet ones which are focused more specifically around Mysterious Places of all kinds and how they cause hauntings. They are centred mostly in Edinburgh, which is well known for its haunted locations, with the Walkers attempting to use their Perispiritism to not merely commune with the dead, but with the dark sentience behind the ghastly locations, be them Nests, Tainted or even Sentient. The Walkers identify Death with the Ankou of Breton mythology, and claim that each of them is visited by one of the Ankou during their initiation, which grants them the Mark. Due to their focus on the lay of the land, the Walkers have developed techniques that allow them to commune with ghost cities or allow the memories sunken into bloody grounds and graveyards to speak through them. They are found in a constant strife with the neighbouring Aided, whose actions only creates more and more tainted places by causing the land soak deep with blood, as well as the Hunt Club and the Ashwood Abbey, as whose bacchanals imprint the land with dreadful memories, yet as the chapter is by itself decentralised and connected through messages in the Twilight and gatherings in haunted places, the Walkers have generally found themselves unable to fully deal with their more established enemies.

A sort of a dark mirror to the Verbena, the Circle of the Crone (VtR) is a horrifying craft, which celebrates what the Verbena despises. Starting within the Wicca and similar New Age movements, the circle is composed of witches who seek to break the boundary between the living and the dead, manipulating the remnants of Britain’s celtic rites with the help of vampires, shapeshifters and other monsters. That eclectic collection of pagan rites forms the system that the Circle calls Cruac, which requires blood sacrifices for its dark fertility spells and chaos magic. Currently, the Circle is considered as the largest craft and coven in the United Kingdom, and a huge thorn in the side of most hunter organisations who simply can’t get rid of the foul tradition. Worse, through blood sacrifice and high level Cruac rituals, mortal members of the Circle have learned to transform themselves into vampires, turning even small cells of the craft into extremely dangerous. While the stated goal of the Circle is to cross the boundary between life and death, it is, in fact, a fractured organisation, with many different cults having their own interpretation of the Triple Goddess, how to invoke her favour and how harmony between the forces of life and death can be achieved. As a result, even though the witches are dangerous and generally have monstrous allies, not all are a direct threat on the Vigil- yet most hunters, such as the Knights of St George, don’t care for such distinction, and prefer to make sure that all witches will burn.

Where the Verbena seeks to protect the boundary between worlds and the Circle seeks to break them, Britain’s third heir to its pagan past has a much more humble goal and practice- satisfying the Old Gods. The Weihan Cynn (DE) hold faith that the monsters are simply the Old Gods of the land, and as such they should be bargained with and not appeased instead of hunted down and destroyed. For that reason, the members of that coven maintain uncanny contacts, contacting the strange spirits, Fair folk and hungry dead among others and gain their favour as a means for “sorcery”. Whatever one may desire, there is a god able to grant their wish- for a price, of course. As such, most of the Weihan Cynn spend their time trying to collect the resources and tributes which their gods would find of interest, be them precious jewellery, exotic beasts and ingredients or, sometimes, actual human sacrifice. While they generally avoid drawing as much attention compared to the Verbena and the Circle, due to them not using active sorcery and generally not causing trouble to the Vigil, they are still a coven, and their members may commit atrocities in order to satisfy the Old Gods- especially if they believe it would keep the United Kingdom safe. Another benefit they hold, however, is that many members of the Weihan Cynn belong to noble lines, serving as a dark conspiracy maintained in secrecy by those families who follow the “old ways” to maintain their fortune. That control makes them an uneasy allies of the Office of the Lord Stewards, as both seek to satisfy the Laws of the Land in their own ways, yet the Office clashes against them more than once as he Wood Witches, in their eyes, both abuse the Laws of the Land and are abused by the monsters who manipulate them for their own service.

While covens are bad, cabals are, in many respects, worse. While developed independently, the Hunt Club (Slsh) have become very much a chapter within the Ashwood Abbey, if not a parasite growing within them. The merge between the two groups happened almost naturally, as both draw members from the same pool- the rich. However, where the Abbey celebrates with its hedonism by attacking monsters, the bacchanal of the Hunt Club is much darker and more twisted. Instead of committing atrocities against monsters, the Club believes that some people simply don’t deserve to live- the poor, the homeless, the addicted, and prostitutes among others. While claiming to “cleanse humanity from its filth”, the most are simply in the Club for enjoying the “Great Game”. Such behaviour puts them at odds with the Abbey, who believes that the Club causes more trouble than it helps, and that allowing its activity is against the very principles of the conspiracy (that the reason absolut hedonism is allowed is because they use monsters as their targets). This internal strife puts the Abbey in an identity crisis, one which may very well become violent as tolerance for the Club’s activities decrease and their influence within the conspiracy increases. The Abbey, however, are not alone in the fight against the Club- the Theater of Tragedies and the Daughters of Ravana both stand to protect those that the Club seeks to kill, to various degrees, and the Society of Twelfth Keys invests much of its efforts in uncovering the crimes of the Hunt Clubs, sending members of the cabal to life sentence more than once. Besides those groups, almost every hunter in Britain will see them as enemy simply due to their degenerate behaviour, and surrounded by enemies the Club works constantly to evolve and survive to the next age, allowing its slashers to celebrate in a bloody decadence.

Standing in the shadow of the United Kingdom, Ireland is sometimes considered to be England’s “first colony”. Suffering from ages of oppression and violence from the British, Ireland has developed its own distinct Vigil, one which both preserves the past and clashes against the powers of the United Kingdom. Being part of the European Union, the hunters of Ireland have a much wider support network compared to the British, being able to move resources and personnel into and off the island much more easily- yet all while allowing the monsters to do the same. That makes the integration with Ireland much easier, which works more in the benefit of larger, external organisations over smaller, local ones. After all, there is no need to connect with a compact and make it into a chapter when you can establish your own presence in a more cohesive manner. Still, Ireland keeps its old traditions, maintaining its own ways to fight the darkness.

One of the groups that do maintain its own chapter is the Malleus Maleficarum. The Sanctuary of St Patrick stands as a remnant of the era where Irish monasteries held sway over Christian theology. Standing as the strongest power in Ireland’s Vigil, the Sanctuary hosts the largest archive about the fey and other pagan traditions, as well as how to combat them. As such, they are highly regarded by the hunters of the Catholic Church as the authority to battle the so-called “Old Gods”, developing unique Benedictions to battle them, and are renowned even outside of it. On the other hand, their views on the nature of monsters makes them somewhat less rigid from their brethren, believing that monsters are generally not the Spawn of Satan, but of the fey, being related to those angels which have chosen neither side in Lucifer’s rebellion. As such, the chapter holds categories of horrors, defining which monsters are the spawn of the Devil and must be burned, and which ones may be able to find some redemption, depending on their actions. Such behaviour puts them at odds with some of the more fervent hunters, especially outsider members of the Shadow Congregation, and they also view the Knights of St George as untrustworthy, even though that is due to the bloody past which resides between the Catholics and Anglicans in the British Isles. Another difference is that in order to access their Endowments, they do not need to to travel to the Pope- instead, they have their own access to divine power through the Archbishop of Armagh, who guards a secret altar which contains a bygone in the form of a bronze cauldron, claimed to be sanctified by St Patrick himself when he claimed the land for his Church.

Where the Sanctuary represents Ireland’s Christianity, the remnants of its pagan past have revived into the form of the Order of the Fili. Claimed to rise in the fit of inspiration in Newgrange by a group of Druidry practitioners, the Order seeks to reconstruct the ancient rites of Ireland through their Muses. The Order serves as a de facto chapter of the Orchestra Fatalibus, yet with a larger focus around uncovering the past and seeing the future. The Order is spread all across the British Isles, centred around megalithic structures and follow their ley lines, such as Stonehenge and the Hill of Tara, as well as the burial mounds in which the Aos Si claim as their home. Their use for Muses is to cross time and space, and they claim to experience visions of the ancient druids who teach them the sacred poems, as well as prophecies about the future. As such, the Order serves as diviners of the Orchestra, focusing less about the Vigil and more about rebuilding the past and working for their vision for the future. However, in their quest of uncovering the secrets of the druids they have also stumbled upon ancient warnings- that the last blow to the old ways came not from the Christians, but from a far older, more cunning entity, who offered them as a sacrifice to make sure her own future will come true. The Pythian Oracles have devoured the congregation in the past, and if they were to not be careful, they’ll do the same again.

While the Order is about reconstruction, the Sons of CuChulainn (DC) are about preservation. Originally formed by members of the Irish diaspora in America, the heart of the compact was, at least metaphorically, in Ireland. Long before Christianity set foot in Ireland, a group of Fianna warriors and druids entered the Hedge which separates the mortal world and the Otherworld, chasing their query and getting lost in the thorny labyrinth. Centuries afterwards, a group of Irish diaspora have found their way into what became a village set out of time and place, protected by the will of the Vigilante and the time displacing effects of the Fey world. Since then, connection between the lost village and the mortal world was established, allowing paths all across the world through the Hedge- yet the ones in Ireland have remained the most stable and studied ones. Fighting the fey for ages, the Sons have knowledge and experience almost unrivalled by anyone else, while they are using their geasa in order to take power over their own fates, allowing them to achieve inhuman feats while binding themselves to horrifying curses. While they are still reclusive, most hunters who did worked with them found them as trustworthy and loyal, especially when their words and honour stand for a test.

The last component of the Vigil in Ireland is a rather dark one. More of a death cult than a hunter organisation, the Aided have walked in the shadows for centuries, marking the dead and forcing them to the Great Below. Claiming to be a heretic tradition of the druids of old, the Aided have grown in numbers following the Great Famine, where they were crucial in the work to keep the dead in check. Due to their use of the words of the dead in order to bind and banish ghosts, the Aided are often perceived as a remnant chapter of the Ebony Fangs, and just like them they are devoted to make sure the dead and the living will remain apart- with one caveat. The Aided believe that as all of the living are of death, killing is not a sin. Believing themselves to be the messengers of the Morrigan, the Aided believe that in order to honour her, ghosts must be sacrificed in her name- something which leads them to not merely bind ghosts but to also kill the living in grotesque manners to make sure they will leave ghosts behinds, ones which will feed their grim goddess. If the Fangs were to enjoy their past glory, they would have been horrified by those practices, be them head hunting or wicker men rituals, yet in their current state even if they are aware of the Aided, they have no ability to enforce their will over them. As such, trying to stop the death singers falls upon the local powers of the Vigil, mostly the Sanctuary of St Patrick and the Order of Fili, yet they generally have more urgent matters in the form of fey intrusions and old enemies. The Society of Twelfth Keys tries to handle them, yet their ability to act was significantly limited by the Brexit, leaving the hunters of Ireland to fend for themselves, needing to decide if they can fight the Aided, and if so, should they considering that without them, many dead beings would slowly crawl back to haunt the world.

(feel free to provide suggestions and constructive feedback as you see fit)

**TrueMrMultiverse** · 01-24-2023, 09:34 PM

This is looking pretty great LostLight!

**Michael** · 01-25-2023, 02:56 PM

Looks pretty good.

Originally posted by LostLight View Post

Northern Europe
Serving as the home region for former colonial empires and current great powers, Northern Europe has been a home for some of the oldest, most powerful secret societies in the world, many of which prospered in the United Kingdom during the Victorian Era. Known for its cold climate, many of the ancient horrors are well adapted to the frozen desolation and long winters, while throughout history many ancient evils were left frozen in the ice, believed to be dead and gone by the Vigilant community. However, the coming climate change has affected the supernatural ecology as much as it harms and natural one, forcing monsters to migrate in search for food and proper occult infrastructures to maintain their existence and melting the ice which kept many of the forgotten entities imprisoned, letting them roam free once more.

Although geographically correct, the UK doesn't really fit with that description. Like, we have the long nights in winter, but it's pretty mild temperature-wise, just wet and damp. That said, I get that trying to come up with a pithy sentence for a large swathe of territory is not easy.

There's two minor stylistic points: Firstly, I think you meant the Anglican Communion, rather than Commune. Secondly, is should be Amalgama Ltd, not LtD. (That latter might be a typo, but it looks like GmbH.)

**LostLight** · 01-25-2023, 07:42 PM

Glad you liked it, and thanks for the corrections! And yeah, trying to fold a whole subregion into a few thematic lines is hard and requires some (over)simplification, but as long as I do not make big mistakes I hope it will be fine (mostly on the cultural parts and descriptions).

The thing I wonder the most about currently is the Hearth of Hestia. While KingsRaven have originally wrote them to be British, they don;t get much of history in their writeup, and I wonder if they are fitting better in, perhaps, Italy, with the whole Vestal priestesses that Rome had. Something to think about while I write Scandinavia/Finland/the Baltics.

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