The Combine

Riding the lines of morality exists The Combine, a major faction that works to bio-engineer ways to better society, and also sometimes for their own amusement. Originally part of the Maester Academes, they eventually branched off into their own organisation, wanting to explore the world through a specifically bio-technical perspective.

## History

The Combine were initially a sub-sect of the Maester Academes, following their rules in order to get funding for their research. But in due time, both groups realised that The Combine were becoming too large to remain part of the Maester Academes and would eventually need to branch off. Though they both tried to keep this separation private, eventually other groups caught wind of this and made the Maester Academes more hesitant to let The Combine split free from them.

In the chaos of the other groups leaving to start their own factions, The Combine decided to give the Maester Academes a formal notice of separation before going their own ways before anyone could refuse them again. Though this was more peaceful and formal than the others who separated, this hardly changed the fact that this still created some tension between The Combine and the Maester Academes, making it more difficult for the members of the two factions to exchange information and knowledge.

As time passed, the two factions eventually came to a peace, accepting that they both had similar enough goals and that they could easily help each other without getting in the other faction's way. Yet, even though peace was attained between the two factions, this created some tension within The Combine with some members believing the Maester Academes unnecessary as well as some members who knew that the Maester Academes would not approve of some of their practices - especially some of their practices involving living subjects.

While The Combine threatened disciplinary action and warned The Gold Helms about potential issues, this didn't stop people from targeting senior members of the Maester Academes. As promised, the Combine handed these people over to the Gold Helms whenever they were caught, but that hardly changed the fact that The Combine was slowly getting a reputation of assassins and plaguecrafters.

Since then, The Combine has had to slow down on their research on potentially dangerous studies for the sake of maintaining social standing, such as gene splicing and viral studies. Of course, that hardly stopped them from studying these things altogether.

## Philosophy

Though members of The Combine may seem slightly unhinged given that they want to work with deadly creatures of all sizes that may terrify any normal person, and some seem even more insane for wanting to experiment on those creatures, they still stand united for something. Regardless of how they go about it, members of The Combine yearn to toy with the very strings that make up life itself.

After all, what greater satisfaction could you ask for than to solve the puzzles that make up our entire being.

## Notable Members

* Ian Dennings
	+ Founder of The Combine
* Patrick Singer
	+ Discovered a way to treat Sweating Sickness without leeches
* Ysabel Savidan
	+ Created 12 new species of animals by forcing mutations
* Aaliyah Horner
	+ Discovered a way to reduce childbirth related mortality rates