The Epimetheus Group

The Epimetheus Group

 

No, actually, being forgotten is precisely how Epimetheus likes it. His organization does not want to be known, which is why they're camped out in the Far Marches behind multiple layers of obscurity. There will be plenty of time for fame and renown once the celestial invaders are sent back to where they belong.

 

Purpose and Goals

 

To find some way to break the stranglehold that the inhabitants of the celestial plane have upon the ethereal.

Organization and Membership

 

The Epimetheus Group is organized as a set of independent Projects, each exploring a specific type of research. While they consider themselves a guerrilla movement, they do not have anything really equivalent to a paramilitary wing. The Group is of the collective opinion that any sort of direct, violent action against the celestial 'invaders' is doomed to failure - unless, of course, one of the Projects succeeds. The typical Group member is an ethereal with some sort of deep-rooted, long-standing animosity towards either side (or both!) of the Heaven/Hell dispute. Many are escapees from Beleth's or Nybbas's service, but the rest have their own issues with the Host, or the Tsayadim. The Group typically recruits those with Tech or Information strands, but will consider taking in anyone with useful Knowledge or craft skills.

 

Membership in the Epimetheus Group is strictly ethereal-only. Celestials are simply not trusted, no matter what their current level of disfavor with Heaven or Hell. As for humans... while the members of the Group are varied in their opinion of mortals, they universally consider them to be too much of a security risk to involve in the Group's plans. For that matter, ethereals themselves are carefully vetted before being brought in, and the Group does not accept 'no' for an answer. It is 'yes', or else be destroyed.

 

Sample Projects

 

Project Apotheosis

Researchers in this Project are attempting to discover, disprove or isolate out the legendary Almighty Strand. In the process they have done quite of bit of original research into the nature of both ethereals and celestials; including, alas, the kind that involves scalpels. Their work has produced some interesting spin-offs in the form of temporary ability boosters and inhibitors.

 

Project Nexus

This Project attracts the more analytical type of Group members. While the other Projects attempt to find ways to enhance individual ethereals to the point where they can take on celestials, Project Nexus instead tries to devise a strategy by which existing forces could hope to drive off the invaders. The Project quickly determined that the amount of information needed to create such a strategy was beyond its ability to gather, let alone collate; so they are now trying to find a way to simplify the problem down to a level that can be at least modeled. In the process, they have acquired quite a good deal of near-random information, much of which can be surprisingly relevant.

 

Project Peacemaker

The Group went to incredible trouble to go to Earth in order to find a Colt 1873 Single Action Peacemaker revolver, imbue it with power, and bring it back to the Domain solely for the purpose of putting it on the wall, but the Project felt that it was necessary to drive home the ideal that the item represents. This Project is dedicated to finding a simple to use, easy to make and maintain, reliable multi-shot weapon that can kill a celestial, or at least defeat it in ethereal combat. So far, every item produced has failed to meet all the criteria; but many of the prototypes are still lethal.

 

Abilities and Resources

 

The primary resource of the Epimetheus Group is Ochuroma, a Far Marches Domain with the Common Tongue, Deceitful and Oasis Features. To uninitiated eyes it appears to be a flat plane of dirt that no one would even look at, let alone walk onto. In order to access Ochuroma one must ceremonially break a box while standing before it, revealing a small mountain with various Grecian-style temples and structures set among it. Ochuroma has several workshops and study halls associated with it, but the real prize is the communal library, which boasts over a millennium's worth of research on the ethereal plane.

 

Outside of their Domain, Group members have little in the way of resources, although many of them maintain contacts with friends and former colleagues. Generally, it is easy to find individuals within the Group who know things, as opposed to having them.

 

Celestial Relationships

 

Heaven and Hell

 

The Epimetheus Group does not officially distinguish between the two; from its point of view the entire War is a faction fight from one dimension that has (infuriatingly) injected itself upon another. Individual members may have an opinion on who will or should eventually win, but they all agree that both sides need to leave the Marches, or at least stop interfering with its rightful inhabitants. They also all agree that being discovered will lead inevitably to an assault, so the Group is very careful to avoid giving away any hint to its existence.

 

Others

 

The eponymous founder of the Epimetheus Group may have begun as a member of the Greek pantheon, but he has been adamant about not interacting with them, or any other organized group. Anyone known to Heaven or Hell is vulnerable, and to be vulnerable is to be untrustworthy. The Group plans to reveal itself later, when the time is right - but until then no one is to know of its existence. Not even the independent Hindu pantheon is deemed safe enough. This, of course, makes recruitment a problem. The Group does have a very few, very carefully prepared agents in the Near and Far Marches who look for suitable candidates. They prefer candidates who are not actively being hunted, but will recruit those that they think can be safely smuggled away.

 

History

 

It is said that Pandora's Box, once opened, let out all the miseries and evils of the world; but that the one thing that remained was Hope. It is the teaching of the Epimetheus Group that this means that the task is unfinished. The thing that the Marches lack most is Hope, and the humans have kept hold of it for themselves for far too long.

 

The founder of the Group is actually Epimetheus himself, brother to Prometheus (still chained to a rock) and husband to Pandora (who did not survive the Purity Crusade). He did not set out to start a Resistance: it sort of... flowed from the discovery of Ochuroma during his headlong flight from the Crusade. At first he was happy enough to rest and hide, but as the ethereal recovered his strength he began to grow angry at the insufferable arrogance of the celestials that broke his pantheon. They were not of the Marches, but they dared to claim the Marches as theirs; and worse, they dared to be able to hold the Marches. This could not be borne.

 

The Group evolved over several centuries to its present form. Epimetheus did at first contemplate the formation of an army, until events graphically demonstrated to even him just how overmatched the average ethereal was to the average celestial. So the ethereal brought in, carefully, those willing to look for some way to challenge the invaders on their own terms. So far, the Group has not yet come up with a truly equalizer, but they have developed various unique items that might help individual ethereals.