Cabal

A Cabal has very few members, likely none outside of the Operational Supporting Characters. They tend to have a very specific way they want to change the world, and they want to remain in the shadows while they achieve these goals.

Faction Effect Tree & Provisional Support: Read Between the Lines

Systemic Infection

The Major Cabals are wrapped up in a multitude of conspiracies. They have footholds of power spread throughout Vaia and beyond. From the oldest of them who slipped into Vaia and the surrounding areas in The Ager Expanse quietly during the First and Second Wars, to the new who have formed out of desire for power, greed, and control. Most Cabals began as Radical Factions who eventually found solid purpose and built up the funds and leverage required to operate on a terrifying scale. Most Cabals deal with information control, backroom deals, assassination, and the production and transport of highly illegal technologies. All while competing with, manipulating, and eroding other Factions and Organizations.

The Conspiracies Reveal

The longest standing Cabals by anyone’s guess are Emngene and The Pillar of Light.

Emngene

Emngene are a supposedly public facing Organization who nearly everyone has heard stories of but no one you meet will ever verify their existence as anything more than rumors and crazy stories, and often they’ll share one such story when you bring it up. The running joke is anyone who chases down the rumors eventually ends up at the same place. Emngene Abstract, a small gallery nestled in Renisans who sells surreal and horror art pieces at less than affordable prices.

The Pillar of Light

Our Media and brainwashing overlords according to some. The Pillar of Light is a news, education, and entertainment company known for shallow reporting. The Light Side of the News and the default feed for every single device. While their main programs are completely innocuous, and maybe even a little blinding to the hard realities facing many, it is their ownership of information technology systems and the power grid which stirs up all the conspiracies surrounding their operations.

Being Part of a Cabal

It is Rare for a Character to know that their Faction, those they work for, are tendrils of a Cabal. Often the affiliation begins with getting a bright new job with travel and lots of problem solving. Most of the time you’ll be doing regular duties within a job description. Then a weird favor for the boss, like take his suitcase across town and drop it off at a small club then report back. Then stranger things. Then your co-worker gets you involved in a small business with a tight knit group of people to make more money on the side who turn out to be cops and special agents. Then your boss turns out to be one of them, and then you’re fully operating in a clandestine outfit bent on world domination.

Some of our Characters know for sure on the other hand, and have been ambitiously training for years to become the next legendary secret agent or super soldier.