The Milliners' Guild

In the outskirts of the town of Shawe, Surrey, there stands a sandstone Masonic hall, square and squat, a pale cube in a lush outcrop where rural meets suburbia, fuelled by moneylenders’ offerings. Carved into its edifice is the emblem of a set square and compass, flanked on either side by an angel carrying a symbol of God-given royalty; one a crown, the other a sceptre.Beneath reads a Latin inscription; Velut cumulus accedit rusticus caput.

Opposite the hall is a decadent mansion of Georgian design, its curtains ever closed. Expensive cars approach the home on the same gravel path that coaches and horses once did, the stables still intact, their noble-born passengers never seen as they unload beyond the tall greenery.

This luxurious setup is the home of The Royal Guild of Milliners, a charitable organization recognized globally as a philanthropic force for good, donating billions of pounds over the years to scientific endeavour, famine relief, vaccination research, and even prevention measures for both Aids and many forms of cancer.Famous members have included politicians, actors, businessmen, and even members of the Royal Family.

To the Academy of Change, The Royal Guild of Milliners is the polite name for The Esoteric Order Of The Crown Of Bathsheba, a Masonic order with obsessions over the School and its students, a link to occult rituals and beliefs, a penchant for hiring agents to interfere with the lives of children, and a public face that is utterly, and completely, untarnishable.

History

Since the 1950's, the Guild has been the thorn in the Professor's side, constantly attempting to buy up the school or cause problems for its residents (including funding the ACTAEON program), through entirely legal matters. It was not until the La Bete Noir incident exploded in the Guild's face that more underhanded tactics were played out; mercenaries, assassins, saboteurs - a student even specifically hired and enrolled in the school to destroy it from the inside out.

In the 1980's, constantly thwarted so far, the Guild bought their own school, the Surrey Royal Institute, a friendly rivalry swiftly growing between the two schools despite the malicious intents. With the relationship between the Academy and Guild cooling, an alliance,or at least a truce, was formed that would last over a decade, even with the Professor coming to the aid of the SRI during its horrific closure.

Though the Guild has redoubled its efforts to harm the school in its years since, continuing with agents and underhanded schemes, there are still remnants of the truce between the two organizations; a handful of Alumni have joined the guild in a an attempt to mediate its purposes, while a similar number of the Guild's Chosen have subsequently joined the school as faculty, and even ditched their more malicious ways.

At its core, The Guild is a secret society that at least preaches that they believe what they do is right for humanity. Their obsession with the school and its Parahuman students is certainly worrying, but it is certainly not the Guild's sole agenda. Hidden behind pseudonyms, proxies,and behaviour that cannot be linked to their public faces, the Guild is almost untouchable, only susceptible to repercussion when the facade drops, or confronted on their own turf.

With the Guild's Masonic links, its occult practices and its naming schemes, it is generally considered by Alumni that other than the sheer power to influence the world Parahumans can bring, the Guild's obsession with schools in someway linked to the small, reappearing Cairn.

Practices

General Guild events are black or white tie affairs, often enormous dinner parties or balls, where domino masks are worn for “anonymity”. Considering the Guild's Esoteric affairs, this seems like an in-joke at the unsuspecting, wealthy members’ expense.

The Academy has often been invited to these, where the Guild has charmingly made offers on the school only to be patiently rebuked.

The Chosen’s private events held at the mansion are much stranger affairs including rituals, blood-letting, chanting and clandestine rules for making challenges or raising questions. The outfits worn by each member are of a much older design, something comparable to Venetian or Rococo costume,complete with silver wigs and highly decorated masks. Cotton aprons adorned with Masonic iconography are worn. Even the hired guards and maids wear masks

During the La Bete Noire incident, it was noted that certain Chosen, the female members, and maids, had exposed breasts and nethers, while some male members had similarly naked groins; it is believed this was for “Esoteric reasons”. The SRI students relayed that by the mid 1980's this had mostly been abolished.

Modern Chosen meetings seem to have simplified the costume; modern suits and dresses with ornate masks and Masonic aprons.

Naming Schemes

Depending on the time and level of authority in the Guild, the pseudonyms of members have changed over the years.

• The general Guild Members are given a Tarot Card Minor Arcana Name to denote their rank and area of speciality to the Guild; Coins provide financial buoyancy, Cups cover media & political sway, Wands have links to progresses in science and technology, and Swords have military links. Ranks go from Ace to Two through Ten, Knight, Prince, Queen, King.
• During the La Bete Noir incident, the Chosen or “inner circle” of the Guild, the definite Esoteric Order, were the Kings & Queens of the above suits. However, following the major damage done during thatevent, the Guild instead used Tarot Card Major Arcana Names, a more expansive and descriptive collection to reflect the society's new, larger roster. This is the same name scheme the Guild uses today. The leaders were Emperor & Empress, Hierophant & High Priestess. Star, Moon, Sun & World were proteges of the ruling council.C Chariot, Strength, Justice, Hanged Man, Death, Tower and Judgement were all agents or enforcers. Magician, Hermit and Devil provide, according to documents, esoteric points of view. The rest have a mix of roles throughout the organization. Judging by relayed messages, there is no Fool; this is an empty chair left for no, so far explained, reason. 
• All the Tarot names denote a title; some members progressed from one title to another. They are not solid pseudonyms, linked to one face. 
• During the days of the SRI, the school's students were referred to in Guild memorandums by the names of demons taken from the Ars Goetia; Buer, Asmodeus, Stolas, Dantalion, Belial, Marchosias, Malphas, Sitri, Baal, Murmur. The same memos referred to involved adult members of the Guild by similar names; Lilith, Nemaah and Beelzebub referring to The Empress, Temperance and Magician. 
• An unidentified set of memorandums from the 2000s, recovered by Heroface, refer to Angelic Names; Armaros, Gadreel, Baraqel, Chazaqiel, Kokabiel, Penemue, Samyazal, Jeqon 

Milliners’ Guild Incidents

2nd April,1963

The WW2 Hero known as The Dandy, Olivier Gielgud,dies,leaving his mansion to Professor Lieber, who decides to teach Parahumans to better humanity. Seemingly believing the mansion should have been left to them,The Guild begins a fifty year war of attrition, attempting to buy out the land for undisclosed reasons.

1965

The Guild donates millions to the development of the ACTAEON program.

1968 to 1975

Throughout the years of the First Class, the students clashed with a large number of so called “supervillains”. Memorandums obtained far later prove that many of these were agents, either members of, or employed by, The Guild.

1975

As the Professor assembled the students that would become the Lost Class, the Guild ensured three of its agents were installed within the Academy; Temperance, an alumni of the school torn between allegiances, Moon, who posed as a staff member, and the unknown Tower.

31st October, 1980; “To Crown A Peasant's Head”

One of the students taps into limitless power and endless potential, bringing the ire and interference from many watching forces. After weeks of observation, Moon tricks the student into leaving the Academy and joining The Guild, a victory that will ensure her promotion within the organization. Realising something is wrong, the Class confront Temperance,and together they rush to the Guild to rescue their team-mate.

The fight between The Guild and the Lost Class results in the deaths & mutilations of many Guards and Chosen, and the unleashing of the powers of La Bete Noir;something the Guild claim they were trying to prevent. Much of the Guild mansion is destroyed, and The Guild are exposed as the masterminds behind the Academy's troubles.

June 30th, 1981; The Brutus Pledge

Following years of misfortune and months of suspicion, one of the Academy’s students is exposed as Guild Chosen operative The Tower, and chaos ensues. In the aftermath, The Tower is killed, a large portion of the school and grounds are destroyed, but most importantly, the Lost Class disbands, leaving only a couple of students staying with an emotionally broken Professor.

July 1981 to January 1983

Ultimately victorious, the Guild proceeds to disillusion and bankrupt the Professor in an effort to buy up the land. The School officially closes in early 1982… but within weeks the Professor counterbids with an exorbitant amount of money and legal coverage. Defeated, the Guild turn their eyes to a new project.

September 2nd, 1983

The SRI starts teaching its first class. The Empress, Temperance and Magician teach at the school.

What follows is at first a rivalry that blooms into a close alliance between the Academy & The Guild.

April, 1987

Ex King of Cups and Hierophant Jerome Newton, disgusted by Parahuman cooperation, quits the Guild to form recurring thorn-in-the-side The Ever Circling Skeleton Family.

September 13th, 1990; “Twilight of the Innocents”

The New Class rush to the aid of the SRI, as do the Guild's Chosen. What follows is a bloodbath, reigniting old prejudices and straining the truce, resulting in deaths and the disbanding of both the SRI & New Class. The Guild resumes its attempts to undermine the Academy, while other Chosen members join the Academy.

March, 1991

The Guild publicly decries The Alpha and their terrorist acts, subtly

1992

The Guild donates millions to research and develop the cure for --.

June 11th, 2015

When the Deterrents attempt to forcibly remove the world's only Parahuman child since 2005 from the Academy, The Guild comes to the Academy's aid.

It is later discovered that private Academy information was supplied to the Deterrents by The Guild.

December, 2018

Leaked memos prove that The Guild provided millions towards the Paracea “cure” for Parahumanism as far back as the late 1980s.