The House

*“Passing through the H was a pair of crossed wands with the words Condemnant quod non intellegunt written underneath them. Roughly translated from Latin, this phrase meant: “They condemn what they do not understand.” Personally, I favored changing the motto to Ignorantia beatitudo or “Ignorance is beautiful.” It better reflected what we did here at the Red Room.”*— *Esoterrorism*
**The House**, formerly known as **the Court**, was an ancient organization dating all the way back to ancient Babylon that lasted until 2008. The group held one mission statement: prevent the existence of the supernatural from becoming public knowledge by any means necessary. According to former member Karl Bjornson, the group actually once held humanity and supernatural species in harmony, but they were overcome by greed and instead began forcing the supernatural species underground. Ever since then, they have dedicated themselves to suppressing the supernatural by any means necessary, all while lining the pocket books of their governing body, the Committee.

The group functioned on a global scale, but their effectiveness was always hampered by their selfishness and infighting; the various Divisions outright refused to cooperate with each other (in fact, it was common for agents to assassinate other Divisions' agents with little provocation), and members of the Committee weren't above killing their own agents just to screw over their co-workers. The result was that, although the House was the single most powerful organization in the world, they were constantly divided and spread thin. Combined with humanity catching up to the House's technology at an exponential rate, by the time senior agent Derek Hawthorne ascended to the Committee himself, he believed that the Reveal was an inevitability.

In 2008, the House's reckoning came when Committee member Nathan Hawthorne arranged for his son to wipe out the Committee as part of his plan to Reveal the Truth. The House collapsed from the top down very quickly, with all of its members either dead or retiring immediately afterward, and the supernatural was ultimately revealed to the public, turning the world into the United States of Monsters encountered in other books.

## History

According to previous member Karl Bjornson, the House's beginnings were that of a noble venture. "The Court", as they were known back then, wanted to protect the world from any threats, supernatural or mundane, and encouraged the species' to live in harmony. However, as is often the case with human creations, the leaders became selfish and greedy. Eventually, they found more worth in controlling the supernatural races than in protecting them, eventually culminating in the House forcing the supernatural races underground and keeping them hidden from humanity. They then adopted the mission they would have for the rest of their existence: keep the existence of the supernatural a secret by any means necessary.

After Karl was corrupted by Odin's Eye and began a crusade against the house, the two groups were deadlocked for centuries. Over time, the House was only further corrupted, eventually changing from the lesser of two evils to perhaps the most corrupt organization on the entire planet. Though they did still protect the world from supernatural threats, their primary goal eventually became simply gaining more power and wealth for themselves, especially for the Committee. Consolidating this power also led to inbreeding among its members, with the result being that most of the House was related to each other in some way.

In the 1940s, the House embraced its corruption and began plotting active measures to wipe out supernatural races should it become "necessary". To this end, the Committee drafted Protocol Zero, a Protocol that resulted in the creation of an entire Division designed to brainwash problematic supernaturals and agents alike to serve their cause. As the Protocol began to grow in power during the war with Dracula, Rebecca Hawthorne was placed in charge of it, shifting the goal to eventually exterminating supernatural races entirely.

Starting with the war with the Wazir, however, the House began to take major hits to its numbers, particularly Division One. The Wazir and Cassandra Cassidy both launched campaigns with the intent to destroy the House, and Cassandra went even further by targeting its relationship with the United States government; the result was Division One being crippled by the loss of agents and soldiers. The Protocol Zero War would also end with the complete destruction of Division Zero, ending the plans to genocide various supernatural races.

However, the House's final end came shortly after, when Committee member Nathan Hawthorne exacted his revenge on the House for the deaths of his first family decades before. While simultaneously having his son Stephen massacre the Committee, Nathan caused worldwide supernatural chaos, including draugr infestations and mini-nuke explosions. Though various House Divisions around the world attempted to take control and mitigate the fallout, it was simply impossible to prevent what many thought was inevitable: The Reveal of the Truth. The surviving members of the House were able to rally one more time to prevent the monster Balor from reawakening, but once he was defeated, the House was officially declared destroyed. Any survivors retired from the "game" almost immediately afterward, with many going into hiding.

With the destruction of the House came the reveal of the supernatural to the world, particularly when the Vampire Nation came forward to clear the United States' debt during the 2008 financial crisis. With this, the supernatural races of the world were able to live openly for the first time in centuries, ending the House's tyrannical reign of terror over them and making the world a far better and more open place for everyone.

## Divisions

The House was divided into 112 Divisions based on location, with each Division having jurisdiction over their prominent location. Among these Divisions include:

* Division Zero: The House's prison camp used for brainwashing.
* Division One: The United States.
* Division Two: The United Kingdom (including England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland).
* Division Four: France.
* Division Sixteen: Hong Kong.

## Rooms/Agents

The House divided its multiple agencies and branches into "Rooms", with each Room having a specialty and independent command structure.

* The Committee: The ruling body of the House, with power evenly distributed among the members regardless of originating Division or country.
	+ The Chairman
	+ Nathan Hawthorne
	+ Yuri
	+ Derek Hawthorne
* Red Room: Field work and spy work/intelligence gathering.
	+ Derek Hawthorne
	+ Shannon O'Reily
	+ Penny Hawthorne
	+ The Professor - Division Head
	+ Ben Talbot
	+ Tommy Moretti
	+ Ishikawa Sakura
	+ Ashley Morgan
	+ Christopher Hang
* White Room: Research and development, including magitech and medicine.
	+ Lucy Danvers
	+ Edward Strickland - Division Head
* Blue Room: Internal affairs, including monitoring of its agents and potential moles/traitors.
	+ Christopher Hang
* Black Room: Training of new agents.
	+ Penny Hawthorne
	+ Mister Black
* Yellow Room: Obfuscating what agents are really doing in service of the Committee, such as making the targets look worse than they are.
* Protocol Zero: A secret Division of the House designed to use vampiric mesmerism to brainwash supernatural species and human traitors.
	+ Rebecca Hawthorne

## Enemies

The House made many enemies over its centuries of existence, but it was the enemies it faced in the twilight of its life that defined much of its history.

* Emerald Eye
	+ The Wazir - Leader of the Emerald Eye and former member of the House
	+ Dr. Edward Strickland - Traitor
* Pantheon Corp
	+ Cassandra Cassidy
	+ Roland Cassidy
	+ The Gunmage
	+ Tommy Moretti - Traitor
	+ Sons of Mars
* Vampire Nation
	+ Dracula
	+ Annabelle Jones
	+ John Ruthford
	+ Elizabeth Cambridge
	+ The Blackguard
* Nathan Hawthorne
* Stephen Hawthorne
* Balor