The Epimetheus
Group
No, actually, being forgotten is precisely how
Epimetheus likes it. His organization
does not want to be known, which is
why they're camped out in the Far Marches behind multiple layers of
obscurity. There will be plenty of time
for fame and renown once the celestial invaders are sent back to where they
belong.
Purpose and
Goals
To find some way to break
the stranglehold that the inhabitants of the celestial plane have upon the
ethereal.
Organization
and Membership
The Epimetheus Group is organized as a set of
independent Projects, each exploring a specific type of research. While they consider themselves a guerrilla movement,
they do not have anything really equivalent to a paramilitary wing. The Group is of the collective opinion that any
sort of direct, violent action against the celestial 'invaders' is doomed to
failure - unless, of course, one of the Projects succeeds. The typical Group member is an ethereal with
some sort of deep-rooted, long-standing animosity towards either side (or
both!) of the Heaven/Hell dispute. Many
are escapees from Beleth's or Nybbas's service, but the rest have their own
issues with the Host, or the Tsayadim.
The Group typically recruits those with Tech or Information strands, but
will consider taking in anyone with useful Knowledge or craft skills.
Membership in the Epimetheus Group is strictly
ethereal-only. Celestials are simply not
trusted, no matter what their current level of disfavor with Heaven or
Hell. As for humans... while the members
of the Group are varied in their opinion of mortals, they universally consider
them to be too much of a security risk to involve in the Group's plans. For that matter, ethereals themselves are
carefully vetted before being brought in, and the Group does not accept 'no'
for an answer. It is 'yes', or else be
destroyed.
Sample
Projects
Project
Apotheosis
Researchers in this Project are attempting to
discover, disprove or isolate out the legendary Almighty Strand. In the process they have done quite of bit of
original research into the nature of both ethereals and celestials; including,
alas, the kind that involves scalpels.
Their work has produced some interesting spin-offs in the form of temporary
ability boosters and inhibitors.
Project Nexus
This Project attracts the more analytical type of
Group members. While the other Projects
attempt to find ways to enhance individual ethereals to the point where they
can take on celestials, Project Nexus instead tries to devise a strategy by
which existing forces could hope to drive off the invaders. The Project quickly determined that the
amount of information needed to create such a strategy was beyond its ability
to gather, let alone collate; so they are now trying to find a way to simplify
the problem down to a level that can be at least modeled. In the process, they have acquired quite a
good deal of near-random information, much of which can be surprisingly
relevant.
Project
Peacemaker
The Group went to incredible trouble to go to Earth
in order to find a Colt 1873 Single Action Peacemaker revolver, imbue it with
power, and bring it back to the Domain solely for the purpose of putting it on
the wall, but the Project felt that it was necessary to drive home the ideal
that the item represents. This Project
is dedicated to finding a simple to use, easy to make and maintain, reliable
multi-shot weapon that can kill a celestial, or at least defeat it in ethereal
combat. So far, every item produced has
failed to meet all the criteria; but many of the prototypes are still lethal.
Abilities and
Resources
The primary resource of the Epimetheus Group is Ochuroma, a Far Marches Domain with the Common
Tongue, Deceitful and Oasis Features. To
uninitiated eyes it appears to be a flat plane of dirt that no one would even
look at, let alone walk onto. In order
to access Ochuroma one must ceremonially break a box while standing before it,
revealing a small mountain with various Grecian-style temples and structures
set among it. Ochuroma has several
workshops and study halls associated with it, but the real prize is the
communal library, which boasts over a millennium's worth of research on the
ethereal plane.
Outside of their Domain,
Group members have little in the way of resources, although many of them
maintain contacts with friends and former colleagues. Generally, it is easy to find individuals
within the Group who know things, as opposed to having them.
Celestial Relationships
Heaven and Hell
The Epimetheus Group does not officially distinguish
between the two; from its point of view the entire War is a faction fight from
one dimension that has (infuriatingly) injected itself upon another. Individual members may have an opinion on who
will or should eventually win, but they all agree that both sides need to leave the
Others
The eponymous founder of
the Epimetheus Group may have begun as a member of the Greek pantheon, but he
has been adamant about not interacting with them, or any other organized
group. Anyone known to Heaven or Hell is
vulnerable, and to be vulnerable is to be untrustworthy. The Group plans to reveal itself later, when
the time is right - but until then no one is to know of its existence. Not even the independent Hindu pantheon is
deemed safe enough. This, of course,
makes recruitment a problem. The Group
does have a very few, very carefully prepared agents in the Near
and Far
History
It is said that Pandora's
Box, once opened, let out all the miseries and evils of the world; but that the
one thing that remained was Hope. It is
the teaching of the Epimetheus Group that this means that the task is
unfinished. The thing that the Marches
lack most is Hope, and the humans have kept hold of it for themselves for far
too long.
The founder of the Group
is actually Epimetheus himself, brother to Prometheus (still chained to a rock)
and husband to Pandora (who did not survive the Purity Crusade). He did not set out to start a Resistance: it
sort of... flowed from the discovery of Ochuroma during his headlong flight
from the Crusade. At first he was happy
enough to rest and hide, but as the ethereal recovered his strength he began to
grow angry at the insufferable arrogance of the celestials that broke his
pantheon. They were not of the
The Group evolved over
several centuries to its present form.
Epimetheus did at first contemplate the formation of an army, until
events graphically demonstrated to even him just how overmatched the average
ethereal was to the average celestial.
So the ethereal brought in, carefully, those willing to look for some
way to challenge the invaders on their own terms. So far, the Group has not yet come up with a
true equalizer, but they have developed various unique items that might help
individual ethereals.