Omake incoming. I've been working on this one for a while, partly because my original draft got accidentally deleted when I was almost finished. It's another one of my annotated omakes. This time, I'm using italics instead of footnotes in the hopes of increased readability.
An Examination of the Vile Traitors Known as the Gilles de Rais Society
By Alexandre Bladworth
Annotated by L
L: I have been asked to provide context and additional information regarding this document by the Council, as Bladworth is not the best scholar. In case anyone is wondering, yes he is related to the Huntsman who visited Union during the Reconnection.
The purpose of this report is to provide information about the vile and depraved rebel group who call themselves the Gilles de Rais Society. They are a group of treacherous occultists who seek to destroy the Dual Monarchies as we know them. There is no limit to their depravity.
L: It's more accurate to say that they seek to separate the French and English crowns, but there's no denying they are monsters in human form. Quite frankly, there is no line they won't cross in service of their goals, as demonstrated by the number of small villages and hamlets who have been sacrificed in their rituals.
History
The Society claims to have been founded after the Hundred Years War by a prominent French nobleman and occultist, from whom they take their name. It's utter nonsense of course. No rebel group could survive the Huntsmen for so long, and those foolish enough to seek arcane power have a shorter life expectancy than most. Besides, Gilles de Rais didn't survive the Year of Knives.
L: My family served the Crown well during the Year of Knives. That bloody business is responsible for much of our present prominence. Gilles de Rais was one of my ancestor's targets. The evidence for de Rais's demise is not as incontrovertible as Bladworth claims. He was only assumed dead when Château de Tiffauges "Burst into an unnatural flame I have never seen before and hope to never see again". He was known to be inside at the time, and given that nothing remained of the Château afterwards, it was assumed he was dead despite the lack of a body.
It's far more probable that the name is a legacy, when one group suffers its inevitable demise, another group takes on the name. Thus, the new group gains the significant amount of prestige that the Society possesses amongst those of a traitorous inclination.
L: Like many other statements by Bladworth, this too is overly optimistic. When organizations like this fall or merely suffer severe unrest, the results are rarely subtle. In the centuries since the Society was founded, the evidence of them undergoing such a process is minimal at best. I shudder to think of what could keep a group like this together for so long.
Membership
The current incarnation of the Society mostly recruits from disaffected and amoral French nobles. Still, they are quite skilled at the art of appearing to be of another class, so they can appear as anyone.
L: Said mastery of false appearances is greatly aided by the fact that the Society is far more egalitarian in their recruiting than Bladworth would like to admit. All they care about is intelligence, French ancestry, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to hurt the Crown.
Operations and Goals
The cowardly Society refuses to act directly against the Dual Monarchy. Instead, they offer occult aid to other rebel groups. This makes them a frustrating enemy to face, for it is nigh impossible for the Huntsmen to land a telling blow against them. Still, such indirect attacks are limited in the amount of damage they can do.
L: Do not make the mistake of underestimating the Society's occultists due to their preference for patronage over direct action. I made it once, and while I (barely) survived, my career as an infiltrator came to a permanent end as a result.
L: Nor is their patronage limited to French groups, as you might expect. French, English, Irish, Welsh, it matters not. If supplying aid will hurt the Crown, then that's what they will do. Even some Anglois pretenders have been provided support, albeit through intermediaries. Of course, said support is geared more towards making the eventual Loyalist victory more pyrrhic than actually improving the odds of success, but that is true regardless of the origin of the patronized group.
On occasion, a more direct approach is used, but such occasions are rare and almost never against those truly sworn to the Dual Monarchies. The threat of Huntsman retaliation is simply too great for their cowardice to withstand. The most recent one was against a small monastery across the Genoese border a decade ago.
L: It's worth noting that said monastery was in truth a Simmonite Black Archive. The Order of St. Simon has refused to divulge whether or not the Society actually managed to steal anything, although they have mentioned that both sides took heavy losses. Regardless of whether or not it was a success, the fact they were even able to make a serious attempt speaks volumes about their capabilities.
I shall now end this report upon the Saint. Little is known about this individual in the Society's ideology. They seek to find, birth or recreate this figure, but the details are unclear. Whether or not obtaining the Saint is a means to an end or an end in and of itself is likewise a mystery.
L: The Saint is probably connected to Joan of Arc, a folk saint who is prominent in the mythology of French rebellions against the Dual Monarchy. Gilles de Rais was said to have known and fought alongside her during the Hundred Years War. Needless to say, any so called "saint" created by the Sociery's methods will be as far from holy as you can get.
L: Threat to Union: Medium: The arcane knowledge of Union would almost certainly tempt the Society. However, they rarely act in direct opposition to other occult organizations, with the Black Archive Raid being a notable exception. As such, attempts to subvert those within Union with such knowledge are the most probable threat.
AN: L's been a character I've been tooling around with on and off for a couple of months now. At the moment, she's a member of the nobility whose father performed horrific acts to revive her late mother. As a result, she ended up enjoying the hospitality of the Order of Saint Lazarus. Her curse was useful enough for the Huntsmen to recruit her in order to infiltrate and destroy individuals meddling in the occult, especially those with treasonous tendencies. I can't imagine they'd trust a bunch of Papists to do that job on their own. Through a confluence of factors that I intend to make its own omake, she ended up serving as a consultant on European occult groups to Union.
She's also my take on a certain fictional character if she was born in the Dual Monarchies, but where's the fun in telling? I'll save that for the L omake, although I intend to place a clue in my next omake. Seriously though, this author's note is already too long, and the explanation of L would require a lot more word count.
The Society is partially based on Nasuverse Gilles de Rais and partly on an occult rebel group from a popcorn fic I read on occasion, the Exchequer. Thankfully, the Society is less hyper-competent than those guys. If that wasn't the case, then the Dual Monarchies would have fallen centuries ago.
