"The Society for Divine Cleansing"

The Society for Divine Cleansing, known more infamously as the cult of the Plague Doctors, is a secret society devoted to serving the Five Heavenly Kings.

## History

The origin of the Order's founding can be traced back all the way to Florence, Italy during the Renaissance era.

Recently during this time, The Council of Life sensed that The Magician, one of The Five Heavenly Kings, had escaped from Icelnebratia, but where he was they were unsure. Archangel Gabriel chose to contact a mortal man she had over-confidently deemed "worthy" in a lapse of her judgement, a man named Amadeus Gregia. Gabriel showed to Amadeus prophetic visions of what could happen if The Magician was not found and captured. The visions depicted Earth in an apocalyptic state, ravaged by death and disease and consumed by an inferno of misery. However, Amadeus, who's psyche was not completely stable, misinterpreted these visions as being his *destiny* which he must fulfill, convinced that the world was full of sinners that must be purged.
Amadeus went on to begin his work in training with magic and martial arts, finally finding his perceived "calling".

Amadeus formed the Society for Divine Cleansing, a secret group dedicated to worshipping The Five Heavenly Kings, upon the outbreak of the Black Death in 1347. During this time, he took on a profession as a plague doctor, and most of the Society's members were also plague doctors themselves as their daytime profession. This was what led to the cult being associated with plague doctors in the first place, an image which became synonymous with the cult.

The symbol of the plague doctor inevitably became intertwined into the Society for Divine Cleansing's beliefs and doctrines, which equated sin to a "plague", which the cult's members sought to cure. And so members wore plague doctor suits as their uniforms within the order as well, which also served to mask their true identities from each-other.

### Pestilence

Eventually, the cult had tracked down the location of The Magician on Earth, learning him to be bound to a mortal man named Æhnyir.
Armed with this knowledge, Amadeus and the cult set in motion a series of events to ultimately lead Æhnyir(and more importantly The Magician) to them.
First, they started with killing and branding the body of a high-profile political official with the "Seal of Pestilence", dumping him in the streets of Florence where he was discovered the next morning.
This did indeed attract the attention of Æhnyir, as well as several other beings like Hydronicus, Arkan Sol and a wizard named Rohan.
After conducting research, The Seal of Pestilence had been identified by the group, who finally understood the severity of the Plague Doctor Cult's threat to both them and the world at large.
They decided to do investigating to find out the Plague Doctors' plans and how to stop them.

Several of the Society's high-ranking members attempted to impede the progress of the team, sending demons and hitmen their way, but all these threats were neutralized.
Finally, however, the cult had succeeded in kidnapping Æhnyir, and brought him to the temple of The Plague Doctors. There, Amadeus Gregia finally confronted him. At first it was made to appear that the plague doctors were trying to sacrifice Æhnyir as part of a ritual. However, Amadeus tricked Æhnyir into stabbing him with the ceremonial dagger, revealing that the ritual was actually for Æhnyir to kill Amadeus.
This murderous act on Æhnyir's behalf had awakened The Magician's spirit who then took over Æhnyir's body as per the stipulations of their contract.
Using the legendary Ring of Solomon, one of the plague doctors separated The Magician's spirit from Æhnyir and bonded it to Amadeus' body instead. The Magician, now free and in control of Amadeus' body, began to wreak havoc and destroy everything around him.

In the end, Hydronicus sacrificed himself to banish The Magician back to Icelnebratia and break the Seal of Pestilence, saving the world and foiling the Plague Doctor cult's plans. Arkan then proceeded to dispose of all the remaining cultists left within the temple.

### Post-Pestilence

A select few of the cult's members had managed to survive past the death of Amadeus and they had managed to escape and remain unidentified.
In the years and centuries that followed, the Society for Divine Cleansing had been driven underground, forced to operate in higher secrecy as they fled persecution by several groups such as The Soldiers of Saint Michael.
Due to this heavy division and lack of order, the cult had lost much of the arcane knowledge and religious tenets that they had originally held when they were originally founded.
The order had become heavily splintered over time, scattered all over Earth and with barely any idea how to operate as one whole.

### Great Plague pf Marseille

Eventually, in the 1720's, amidst the Great Plague of Marseille, the order had once again been reunited, having once again remembered their purpose. All of the Society for Divine Cleansing's lodges across the world established an interconnected global network, reclaiming their powerful station in the world.

The Society for Divine Cleansing managed to infiltrate the governments and monarchies of every major world power, pulling strings from behind the scenes as they manipulated some of Mankind's greatest wars and conflicts, all in the name of their deities. However, as time passed, the cult had lost their touch with magic, having lost or forgotten many of their sacred rituals. And so, they changed with the times and shifted into more of an order of highly disciplined religious mercenaries, rather than students of the mystic arts. But the Society's core beliefs and the deities they worshipped remained unaltered throughout the entire course of their existence.

### The Cold War

At the height of the Cold War, plague doctor cultists based in Russia had begun working on secret technologies and superweapons in an attempt to conquer America and gain a greater influence over the world.
Comrade Bolezn', a head Russian scientist and the current leader of The Plague Doctor cult at the time, also began work to free the Heavenly King known as "The World".
However, a chance reunion between Arkan and Æhnyir put a stop to Bolezn's plans and both he and The World are defeated and killed.

Shortly afterwards, the Society for Divine Cleansing founded a chemical/pharmaceutical company known as "Chem-X" as a front for their operations. Chem-X quickly rose up to become one of the world's leading corporations.

### 1990-2004

In a war-torn third world country, a six-year-old boy had witnessed the brutal execution of his parents by invaders from a neighboring faction.
Fleeing the horrific scene, the boy ran through the jungles nonstop, before stumbling upon a temple belonging to The Society for Divine Cleansing. The residing Plague Doctors of the temple, taking pity on the poor boy, decided to take him in and teach him their ways. This boy was then given the religious name of "Alistair Spencer" by the cult.

14 years later, Alistair, now a grown man, had been officially initiated into the plague doctor cult and was sent on a mission to steal chemicals from Tyler Veritas' abandoned Evolium refinery with a team of fellow members.
At the factory, Alistair's entire team was stealthily killed by an unknown figure, and before he knew it Alistair was the last remaining plague doctor.
Christine Warren, a newly minted CIA agent at the time, revealed herself to Alistair and then they engaged in a fierce hand-to-hand battle. By the end, Christine detonated a bomb which blew up the chemical plant, and Alistair was caught in the explosion and consumed by chemical fires.

Barely clinging to life, Alistair's body was recovered by the Plague Doctor cult, and they attempted to restabilize him and revive him. However, they had initially failed and Alistair died.
Unbeknownst to the cult, a mysterious agent sent by the CIA appeared to Alistair, and revived him with a mysterious serum. Having been resurrected, Alistair was then operated on and outfitted with a life support/combat suit, becoming "The Plague Doctor". Following this event, he quickly ascended the ranks of the Society, eventually becoming their new leader after murdering the previous one.

### Majestic League: Volume 2

2 months after The Gamemaster and Scrapper teleported off of Earth, "The Plague Doctor" finally saw the perfect opportunity to strike. This teleportation had weakened the veil between the Physical plane and Metaphysical plane, the barrier between Earth and all other planets, and the boundary between the Prime Universe and the rest of The Multiverse.
He began to enact his plan, hundreds of years in the making by the Society, to "cleanse" mankind by summoning one of the most powerful of the Five Heavenly Kings: The Moon. To do this, he had to create a vessel to give The Moon physical form on Earth.
The Plague Doctor set about his plan, first collecting the necessary supplies and resources needed to create a special chemical solution and a zombie virus. He acquired ingredients through various means, such as stealing from and killing figures in the black market bioterrorism world. Each of The Plague Doctor's victims were left with a mysterious symbol branded on their forehead post-mortem, his calling card. The media soon caught wind of these mysterious activities and began reporting on the branded corpses, at the time unsure of who the true culprit was.
It was around this time, the day after one of the victims' deaths, that  Project: Runa and  Cellulitis learned of The Plague Doctor's activities through one of the news reports. Deciding to take matters into their own hands, they began to investigate for any potential leads.
Over time, The Plague Doctor acquired more ingredients, sometimes sending some of his men to carry out the jobs for him and other times doing it himself, as most of his men were killed in their efforts anyways.
Eventually, Trevor Hartman, one of The Plague Doctor's lieutenants, hired Lance Vienne to meet with The Plague Doctor and personally deliver some of the ingredients.

However, The Plague Doctor's plans were soon seemingly thwarted by a detective in the city named Robert Pierce, who had set up a sting operation with Lance to capture him during one of their scheduled meetings. The Plague Doctor was then thrown in prison where he was interrogated by Pierce. He gave cryptic half-answers to all of Pierce's questions, before he caught the detective off guard and attacked him, then escaping from the prison.

After collecting the DNA of an alien named Skarpix, which was shown to be compatible with the Mutagen, The Plague Doctor finally had all the ingredients to initiate his "ritual" to summon The Moon. The cult released a virus throughout the city that transformed a large number of its citizens into savage, mindless Zombies. As the zombies swarmed throughout the city, plague doctor cultists throughout the city dunped a green sludge into the streets, which fused several zombies together into monstrous Amalgams. Adam, Project Runa, Kaleo Keen, Detective Pierce, The Creator of Ice, Axiom, Gridmaster and a Chem-X scientist confronted The Plague Doctor at the top of a tower. The Plague Doctor proved to be a fearsome opponent in the battle that followed, but he was eventually bested by the heroes, and he fell down the tower's shaft.
This would have been the end, but The Plague Doctor would yet again live. The syringes of power-boosting serum he carried had shattered in the fall, and they all were absorbed into his bloodstream, greatly enhancing his strength and allowing him to awaken the power of The Crimson.
The Plague Doctor, with his newfound powers, advanced through the city as he attempted to catch up with the heroes and once again confront them.

Meanwhile, an enormous skyscraper-sized amalgamation of zombies throughout the city had merged together to form The Moon. The Moon fought against various heroes who attempted to thwart his summoning. The Moon, upon his body fully forming, began to rain fireballs from his mouth upon the city, leveling entire city blocks. He was only defeated when Axiom drove a spear into his third eye, which conducted a lightning bolt that fried his body, killing him.

At this point, Alistair had finally caught up to the heroes. However, he had arrived too late, with The Moon already befallen and defeated. The Plague Doctor was outraged, furious at the failure of the plan which he had devoted much of his time and resources to executing.
The Plague Doctor lashed out at the heroes and attacked with blind fury, and after mutating into a horrific monster from the zombie virus and amalgam mutagen that he released into the city, he was killed in a fiery explosion.
The Plague Doctor's charred remains were then taken into Government custody by UNION Asset Containment, and locked away in the CIA's vaults. The plague doctor cult was then driven underground into hiding.

### Pre-2059

After Alistair was defeated and killed by the heroes, and Chem-X subsequently went out of business in the face of the scandal held against them, Trevor Hartman had worked tirelessly to restore the now-underground cult to its former glory over the course of the 40 years that followed.
Additionally, Trevor also oversaw the transformation of The Infiltrator into The Salesman, a loyal agent and servant of the plague doctor cult.
Trevor also founded WESD, the new front of The Society for Divine Cleansing, becoming the leader of the organization.

### 2059: The Invasion

After having procured Savager's remains following the events of 2059: The Superhero Revolution and synthesizing it into a copy of The Savager serum, Trevor broke into the CIA base which held Alistair's remains, and resurrected him with the serum along the additional aid of nanotech.
Alistair, now rechristened as Plague Knight, left the CIA base with Trevor, reclaiming his station as leader of the plague doctor cult and more than ready to finish what he had started 40 years ago.

After the arrival of "The Prophesied One", a Celestial known as Toxin, Plague Knight took it as a sign that the " Saviors" would soon arrive to "cleanse" Earth, based on an old prophecy that The Society for Divine Cleansing had predicted in the earliest days of the order and served as an integral part of their religion.
Acting accordingly, Plague Knight assembled a team of the most powerful other villains and organizations at the time, to prepare Earth for the Xir'algath's arrival. To this end the alliance mostly succeeded, by weakening Earth's defenses with terrorist attacks and sabotaging their budding political alliance with the planet of Celerion. But Plague Knight's plan fell apart towards the end due to the intervention of The Majestic League.
Seeing no other option, Plague Knight fled earth with The Xir'algath at the last moment and left behind Trevor and the rest of the cult, becoming a lieutenant to The Xir'algath.

### The Last Resistance

The Society for Divine Cleansing, having been left stranded on Earth, viewed Plague Knight's abandonment as treason of the highest order, and so they renounced him as their leader as Simon, another of Plague Knight's lieutenants, took over as the new leader.
However, this would be short-lived, as due to his incompetent leadership and failing to execute his plans properly, Simon was proven to not be a proper figure to lead.

Namely, one incident in particular had occurred a few months shortly after The Xir'algath had bombed Earth. As the planet had been transformed into a barren irradiated wasteland, several survivors eventually ventured out of their bunkers to forage for supplies and reconvene. As Simon had been patrolling and scouting the wasteland, he encountered Jeff, Justin and Marrissa together with a team of military soldiers, as they fought off several Xir'algath
Helping to save the team, Simon approached them with what he perceived to be a mutually beneficial proposition: he would tell them how to reportedly kill the Xir'algath, and then they would be equipped with the proper knowledge to face them. However, this was all a ruse. The real reason he had lured them to the cult's hideout, was that he discovered that Justin was in possession of the magical artifact known as the Golden Ankh, an necklace worn by the pharaoh Ramses II which was tied to one of the cult's deities, The Emperor.
Simon attempted to kill Justin so that the power of the Ankh could be unbound from him, but this plan backfired when Justin transformed into a mummified entity wielding the power of the desert itself.
In the ensuing chaos that followed, the mummy attacked and killed a large number of plague doctor cultists, and injured Simon, temporarily crippling him.

### 2059: The Dark Reflection

After The Multiverse was recreated, Simon was viewed by both the Society and himself as an incompetent and incapable leader. And so, he forfeited his leadership over the Society for Divine Cleaning to Toxin instead. Under Toxin's guidance, the cult was quickly rehabilitated and restored. His primary accomplishment was his role in the creation of The Scourge, which every member of the cult had been transformed into.

### Cataclysm

When Kreel began to assemble her army with which she intended to conquer The Multiverse, she sent Plague Knight to rally together the entire cult to aid the Xir'algath's army.
Of course, considering how they had last left off, the cult did not welcome Plague Knight with open arms. But after defeating and killing Simon in combat, Plague Knight was able to convince Toxin and the Scourge soldiers to join him in his cause.
Plague Knight mobilized his army of Scourge soldiers against the heroes as they arrived in his Plague Realm, and put Toxin in place as Plague Knight's guardian. However, Toxin was killed in combat against the heroes, leaving Plague Knight cornered. Not one to avoid confrontation, though, Plague Knight viciously fought the heroes head-on, even transforming into his Berserker form against his opponents. But the heroes eventually gained the upperhand, and Plague Knight was defeated and killed.

The remaining plague doctor cultists still nonetheless held their ground and fought alongside the Xir'algath in their final stand, however, with The Five Heavenly Kings at their side. But after the defeat of The Architect, The Five Heavenly Kings were cured of their demonism and restored to their angelic selves. This event effectively erased all of the deities in the cult's religion, and what remained of The Society for Divine Cleansing subsequently disbanded, the organization no longer having a reason to exist.

Following this, Trevor Hartman, now a reformed man, utilized the WESD as a corporation for good, using their resources to contribute to positive and beneficial causes.

## Beliefs

When it come to their exact set of specific beliefs, The Society for Divine Cleansing is very murky in this regard. The lack of consistency in the MO among the cult's various lodges is primarily due to the witch hunt committed against them in the early days of their existence, and the subsequent loss/destruction of their recorded religious beliefs.

However, the core set of the Society's beliefs have managed to survive over the course of its existence.

The cult essentially holds the same philosophies as the Five Heavenly Kings, as well as some other beings in the demonic hierarchy and similar entities associated with them(such as The Xir'algath).

The core tenants of the cult are basically that their mission is to aid in humanity's "Ascension", and wiping out the "plague" of "sin" through means such as bioterrorism and the summoning of the cult's deities to Earth. These methods serve as means to root out the weaker beings in Earth's population(Referred to as the "sinners"), and leaving behind the "Worthy"(Those with a more durable and viable genetic makeup. Namely Metahumans and other types of superpowered individuals).