The Safehouse

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The Safehouse

Sonoma RPG Dresden Files Forum


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    Groups whom oppose supernatural threats

    The Merlin
    The Merlin


    Posts : 81
    Join date : 2012-03-13

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    Character Name: The Merlin
    High Concept: Fun over reality

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    Post  The Merlin Tue Jul 09, 2013 12:07 pm

    Some points have been tossed around via email that I thought would be worthwhile here on the forum.

    The question was asked, "Is there like an FBI, CIA, Secret Service "super" like Warehouse 13 government group in the Dresden world?"

    I replied, "Yes and no, The FBI much like a local police force will have a Division of their special investigations unit or some group whose focus is "weird" and unexplained crimes and occurrences. In general these units filter the unexplained into the bureaucracy in a manner it will accept but do not have to be 100% clued in themselves."


    Then the Venatori Umbrorum and the Venatori were mentioned.

    Venatori Umbrorum: An ancient order of humans dedicated to fighting the darker aspects of the supernatural. What they lack in magical or supernatural powers, they make up for in political influence, knowledge, and conventional firepower. Very little is known about the Venatori; Harry describes them as being "like the Masons, but with flame throwers." While they have some armed assets, they excel at using their influence in society to hinder the movement of supernatural predators such as vampires. The Venatori Umbrorum have been credited with freezing bank accounts, cutting supply lines, exposing mortal collaborators, and even going so far as assassinating or kidnapping human agents of the Vampire Courts. They are allied with the White Council in the war against the Red Court. The order's name, Venatori Umbrorum, is Latin, and translates to "The Hunters of Shadows". The group acts as unwitting cover for an even more secretive group referred to simply as the Venatori (Hunters in Latin) who specifically exist to stamp out knowledge of demonic gods, a task they call the Oblivion War.

    The Venatori (hunters) founded the Venatori Umbrorum as their foot soldiers, with their name intended to mean 'shadows of the hunters', not the other way round as commonly believed. There are approximately 5,000 Venatori Umbrorum and 200 Venatori. Thomas Raith, Harry Dresden's vampiric half-brother, and his sister Lara are among the Venatori.

    What other groups are out there, either mentioned in the books or not?
    Jaid
    Jaid


    Posts : 3
    Join date : 2014-08-17
    Location : The Infinite Beyond

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    Post  Jaid Sun Aug 17, 2014 10:37 am

    Cool. I gots an idea!

    So to translate to a real group of people who existed in actual history the Venatori Umbrorum are akin to the Knights Templar.  Not the fantasy version you read about in adventures of Britanica or whatever. The actual organization that really did operate in the real world.  Well right up until October 13, 1307.  

    Yeah that's right folks... that's where Friday the 13th comes from.  A day when King Phillip of France and the Catholic church (everywhere else) conspired together to arrest hundreds of Knights Templar members.  Then torture them into giving up their other members, safe houses and more importantly vast stores of wealth.

    The Templar's guided entire national politics, built cities, and heavily influenced other orders of the day (Masonic's anyone? Yep many had double membership).  They did much of the nation building from behind the curtain.  They built a power base on wealth earned in early crusades and continued to invest it in Europe's burgeoning economy as we entered the renascence.  More importantly they invested heavily in personnel.  Not in numbers but in educated merchants, statesmen, engineers and even clergy.  Granted that last one would bite them.  They did this to the point that the fall of the Templar Order shifted the entire economy of Europe and caused a not so minor recession.

    So what if the Templar order never fell? Their stated mission was 'to protect pilgrims on their journey to visit the Holy Places'.  Bernard of Clairvaux wrote the De Laude Novae Militae ("In Praise of the New Knighthood"), in which he championed their mission and defended the idea of a military religious order by appealing to the long-held Christian theory of just war, which legitimated “taking up the sword” to defend the innocent and the Church from violent attack. By so doing, Bernard legitimized the Templars, who became the first "warrior monks" of the Western world. Bernard wrote:
    "A Templar Knight is truly a fearless knight, and secure on every side, for his soul is protected by the armor of faith, just as his body is protected by the armor of steel. He is thus doubly-armed, and need fear neither demons nor men."

    Sounds like a group that fights evil to me.  We know from history they did investigations into atrocities.  Pilgrims gone missing,villages destroyed and plots to undermine the church.  Sounds like a behind the scenes group of paranormal investigators and guides for the betterment of humanity to me.  Just with a religious twist that some would find problematic or a conflict of interest.  The Catholic church certainly did and so did King Phillip.  But by the 1300's the Templar's were all most as powerful as a nation or the church.  We can' have competition like that now can we?  Certainly not a Church undergoing its most corrupt page in history and kingdom that well was about to start a long string of wars with the rest of europe.  Nope, sorry Templars, you had to be moved aside because we knew you wouldn't stand for it.

    So if Friday the 13th never occurred and the Templars were still around what would they be doing in the world of Dresden today?  Its an intriguing thought and much like 'Masonic's with flamethrowers' with Templars might very well be like the Illuminati with spec ops wet work squads and nearly 100% Sunday Mass attendance. Remember a well trained and outfitted knight of 1300's was equivalent to a Navy Seal today. And a successful Merchant at the had of a trade company was much like the reading the who's who of Forbes top 100 CEO's of today. Now make them all members of an organization who fights both Demons and Men in the name of defending what they perceive as "good" or defenseless.

    Thoughts?

    Jaid
    The Merlin
    The Merlin


    Posts : 81
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    Character Name: The Merlin
    High Concept: Fun over reality

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    Post  The Merlin Mon Aug 18, 2014 1:25 pm

    That group fits very well into the setting...perhaps after the industrial revolution they have become more secretive as society became less accepting of such organizations. They can front as a social group or nonprofit association just like the Masons/odd-fellows or other such groups. But evil they fight...

    ...Perhaps the Templars fight to protect vanilla mortals from boogeymen etc.

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