Gentle Order of the Garden Door

The Calixian Arbites often picture their role the way their
Lord Marshal does: the Imperial Adeptus stands, inviolate and
impeccable, above a great wretched mass that must be kept
in order by stern law. While they are aware of the Arbites’
charter to police the operations of the Adeptus itself, and
there are many records of the Arbites taking down individual
Adeptus renegades, in general the Arbites turn their gaze
outward toward the self-evidently corrupt and criminal
Imperial citizenry. It is this focus that has given the Esteemed
and Gentle Order a niche in which to thrive on many worlds
of the Golgenna Reach, most notably the mining worlds such
as Sepheris Secundus and Luggnum.
The Order is a mutual-support network for corrupt Adeptus
officials. It has no initiation ceremonies, no distinctive garb, and
certainly no hierarchy or leaders. Its bylaws are mostly encoded
in unspoken understandings among its members about how
to behave toward one another and what to expect of one
another. They have no interest in undermining the Imperium or
elevating themselves to lords and nobles, nothing so vulgar. The
Order is the logical outcome of shrewd operators realizing they
can collaborate to make far freer, safer, and more prosperous
criminal lives for themselves together than they could apart.
Every member of the Order has been chosen because
they have something to offer. Military Procurators divert
tithed supplies, manipulate purchases, or introduce “specially
tailored” systems for issuing Imperial Guard scrip that
happens to require a massive increase in the size, resources,
and, therefore, influence of another Order member’s
Administratum bureau. An Administratum archivist might
introduce retroactive “errors” into a bonded tithe-hauler’s
records that pull the gaze of the Magistratum (or indeed
the Arbites) away from the activities of an Order member
in the Adeptus Astra Telepathica who is ensuring that tithe
quotas for a neighboring system go out carefully adjusted. The Order members there will turn in a lower tithe than the
planet legally owed and divert the rest back into the coffers
of the Governor, who then will show her appreciation with
lavish “donations” to keep the adepts in fine style, with
any irregularities in her own finances concealed by forged
religious donations courtesy of an Order member in the
Adeptus Ministorum cloisters. 
The Order is something of a different beast from the
ruthless and openly violent private guilds or noble houses;
an adept of any standing is someone who has learned how
to slip through the vast Imperial bureaucracy like an eel in
murky water, using quieter and more elegant tools to achieve
their goals. They do best on populous and civilized hive
worlds where the life of the elites is easier and scrutiny less
rigorous, or on feudal worlds where the Adeptus enclave is
an unchallenged power and an Order member is freer to
make their own rules. They shy away from frontier worlds
and warzones, where the grey bureaucracy that is the Order’s
element is leaner and provides poor concealment. They also
avoid the Adepta Sororitas and Adeptus Mechanicus, whose
values are too at odds with the Order’s to be safe, and the
Navigator Houses---while wealthy and eminently happy to
dabble outside the law, the politics of the Navis Nobilite are
apt to turn murderous far too often for the Order’s liking.
Potential recruits bring themselves to the attention of the
Order by demonstrating intelligence, resourcefulness, and
a suitably loose set of morals concerning their sacred oaths
of duty (they will certainly have sworn a number of these
during the course of their careers---the Order only interests
itself in adepts with a high enough rank to be useful to the
existing membership. Once a recruit has been suggested by a
member of the Order and considered and approved by two
others, the courting can begin. The approaches are always
subtle and delicate, gauging the potential recruit’s suitability
and willingness to co-operate while scrupulously avoiding
anything that might actually incriminate them.
The most delicate phase is when the topic turns to
corruption. So many things can go wrong at this stage: the
subject may panic when they find out that another knows of
their illicit dealings or refuse to believe that their interlocutor
does not intend to act on that knowledge. Reactions upon
learning that there is a wide, hidden network of criminals
like themselves can vary wildly---some try to alert the Arbites
in a fit of conscience, or some attempt at a double-cross,
some attempt to attack the Order directly, others flee, and
some refuse all entanglements and continue on their own. If the recruit sees reason and becomes a member, they are
taught some of the simpler ciphers, code-words, and Order
etiquette, and are shown, by way of a couple of carefully-prepared
favors, how much they stand to profit from their
new association (then are shown what the Order expects of
them in turn). Few Order members know very many other
conspirators directly; this is both a security measure and a
deliberate tactic, since by keeping the identities of their
contacts to themselves an Order member can broker deals
and siphon off part of the pickings.
Of all the trans-planetary crime networks in the Calixis
Sector, the Esteemed and Gentle Order is probably the least
dangerous, both to the Imperium as a whole (the Order has a
vested interest in a strong and stable Imperium that can continue
to line their pockets) and to individuals within it (the Order
generally considers violence vulgar and prefers to discredit
and impoverish those they need out of the way). On the other
hand, any Arbitor would agree that the Order constitutes the
foulest imaginable crime against the laws of Him on Earth. It
is not a question of who they hurt, the harm they do is to the
oaths they swore to the God-Emperor and their crime is the
violation of duty by one in whom the Emperor and the High
Lords have put their trust. If the Arbites ever realize the full
extent of the Order and the nature of the crimes they facilitate,
the purge will be swift, ruthless, and bloody enough to become
the stuff of legends generations from now.
That said, to date the Order has successfully kept itself
hidden from Arbites scrutiny---its members are under no
illusions about the stakes if they are caught, and take no
chances on discovery. As a matter of policy no Arbitor, no
matter how apparently pliable, has ever been approached for
membership, and the slightest hint of Arbites involvement
during the Order’s extensive vetting process will see the
recruit dropped like a stone and never approached again.