The Illuminati

## Description

It's all about power.
Grabbing it, keeping it, using it. Power is our currency. Our DNA. Our god. We control the world. We provide the blueprint and we give the instructions. We're the people in grainy photos on grassy knolls. We're the shadowy faces in smoky backrooms and darkened board rooms. We're right here, hiding in plain sight, buying and selling favors. Blackmail, treason, deceit, these are our stock and trade. We work the magic of the drunken evenings with senators and chiefs of staff. We shake down demons and negotiate with sorcerers. We have stocks in hell, and compromising photos of angels. We use any means necessary regardless of the cost because the world is a bad place, and you can either do or get done.
We're the Illuminati, and we're not done.

The Illuminati are a player and NPC secret society for The Secret World revealed at the end of the Three Are Coming buildup. They are invisible puppet-masters and corporate manipulators, they crave power and wealth by any means necessary. Notorious bad boys and girls of the secret world, the Illuminati are also the most ambitious, cut-throat and furtive of the secret societies. They rule their corporate pyramid with cold opportunism, and only the strongest members survive. The Illuminati believe in controlling magic. They don't like things they don't understand. The occult has to be quantified and contained, researched and refined, and synthesized if possible. Manufactured. Stored. The most intriguing thing about the Illuminati is how they operate--behind the scenes, never in the limelight. They believe in pulling strings, in bribing and blackmailing the people behind the people in charge.

The Illuminati certainly have cash to spare, and the society knows how to use it--though it may not look that way. Not on the surface. They're not flashy, not when it comes to the serious business of ruling the secret world. When it comes to weapons, you'll find the Illuminati headquarters being very well protected--in every possible way--and some of this high-tech equipment will certainly be available to initiates as long as they've proven to be loyal to the illuminated path. Nothing comes for free in their world. Everyone needs to prove their worth, climb the ladder, stab a few backs--you know, private enterprise. What kinds of weapons, you ask? Big shiny guns that go "boom." Stainless steel and black plastic. And gas masks, of course. The Illuminati are all about gas mask chic. The Illuminati believe in controlling magic. They don't like things they don't understand. The occult has to be quantified and contained, researched and refined, and synthesized if possible.

The Illuminati's golden agents enjoy power, money and glamour – but the real power they offer you goes beyond that. Information worked from every civilian, government and clandestine organisation in the world. Advances in modern magics, in the 'New Magic', that the secret world has never seen. They can give you everything...and they can take it all away.

## History

The buzzing hint that the Illuminati may have originally be founded during the 3rd Age. The Illuminati become allied with the Phoenicians sometime around 832BCE when the two Cabals helped King Solomon build his temple. Around 422BCE the Templars used the Babylonians to destroy the temple. The Phoenicians fled to northern Africa where the Illuminati had considered their territory. The Illuminati became suspicious of the Phoenicians and their alliance fell apart.

The Illuminati may have ancient roots**,** but they remain forever young and hungry. In every growing empire they have played for it all. And they play for keeps. Stealing the Americas from under the Templars' noses, they grew with the United States to become a shadow superpower. Their corporate headquarters, the Labyrinth, is in an undisclosed location beneath Brooklyn, New York.

## Other Information

* The Illuminati and the Templar are bitter rivals, with the Templar kicking the Illuminati out of Europe. They're not entirely sure of their standing with the Dragon.
* While there's some suspicion between the Illuminati and the Phoenicians, they're more willing to work with them than with the other major factions. Better the enemy that's predictable, after all.
* While the Illuminati are the youngest of the Big Three factions (barely), they are also the most flexible. They're very tech savvy for the most part, and have managed to thrive in the 21st century and the beginning of this Fourth Age.