Candles Together
Hunters have always gathered together to fight the monsters more effectively and to survive. A lone human is little threat to the undead, skinchangers, and witches of the world, just as a single candle can do little to brighten a pitch black warehouse. But together, humans have always been a formidable force, an army of men and women can conquer kingdoms, just as an army of candles create a raging inferno that banishes the darkness.
It should be noted that Hunters are a secretive lot. They don't openly talk about being hunters or who they work for. Most groups go mostly unaware of other groups, with more knowledge about it the higher up you go in the higher tiers. Hunters may seem like allies and fellow brothers or sisters in arms, but today's ally can be tomorrow's enemy. More than one group of Hunters have fallen into insanity or supernatural corruption, and too much trust can bring down both you and your allies. Hunter groups are arranged in three Tiers, as follows:
Cell - a tier-one organization, and consists of little more than a group of people working together to fight back against the darkness within their local neighborhood or town. Cells are unlikely to have more than a dozen members, and membership in a cell provides no specific benefit or drawback. The advantage and disadvantage is the same, size. Too small to be effectively tracked or obviously noticed, but also too small to have strong resources and influence.
Compact - a tier-two organization, and while it is much larger in scope than the cell, it often lacks a central governing body. Compacts are often a grouping of many smaller cells, sharing information through a message board or similar medium. The advantage is that you have people outside your cell you can call for help from, information, a hideout, equipment, maybe at least. the downside is that it's easy to break apart if cells begin fighting over the purpose of the Compact or if a they draw too much attention from a powerful group of supernaturals, who could decide to wipe them out.
Compacts:
Ashwood Abbey - Those that wish to experience all that life, and unlife, have to offer- even the supernatural. They hunt the supernatural for sport. Bored with ordinary life, they seek the excitement that only comes with torturing a Vampire or tracking a Werewolf. Often sporting scars and missing limbs as representatives of encounters and keeping trophies like fangs and skins.
The Long Night - composed of a loosely-gathered group of faithful Christians who believe the world is in the midst of the Tribulation, the battle to purge evil before the Rapture can claim the holy, and they fight the creatures of darkness as part of God's holy army.
The Loyalists of Thule - descended from an old German secret society dedicated to finding the source of civilization. They now seek knowledge about the unknown, especially the creatures of darkness. In their origins part of their society broke off and formed the Nazi party, seeing themselves as partly responsible for creating Nazi Germany and all the horror after, they feel indebted to the world and fight to uncover the lore of the darkness to aid others in their fight.
Network Zero - Those who try to publicize the existence of monsters through radio, TV, and internet. They are dedicated to the truth, and want everyone to know about the existence of the supernatural.
Null Mysteriis - based on a loosely-organized group of scientists and professionals who use science and logic to determine the truth behind the creatures of darkness. While some deny the existence of any "magic" or "divine powers" most simply believe that the supernatural exists and can be understood with the scientific method.
The Union - The Union is probably the simplest of the compacts in terms of its goals; they don't seek to shake up the world or explain the supernatural. They don't care what the monster is. They simply want to protect their families, homes, and communities from the dark threats that more legitimate authorities won't or can't handle. That said, members of the Union don't limit themselves to the supernatural. Any company that shortchanges it's workers with staff in the Union will soon find themselves picketed or worse.
Conspiracy - the tier-three and highest level of hunter organization: a group who has global influence, or something close to it. Conspiracies are defined by their use of a central governing body that can coordinate each of its cells to achieve goals on a large scale. In addition to the benefits provided by the Compacts, the Conspiracies have developed Endowments for their hunters to use.
Conspiracies:
Aegis Kai Doru - Aegis Kai Doru has one motivation: to collect the powerful relics of ages past, and use them against the supernatural, particularly the mages and the werewolves. While Aegis members are dedicated to their cause, they do not go into their missions blindly, realizing that sometimes keeping their foul targets alive can be just as effective and useful as striking them dead. A few Guardians even maintain contacts among some of the creatures, looking for information or a sturdy hand to aid them. Endowment - Relics, mystical artifacts of varying power, from simple coins that allow only one coin to spy on the location of the other, to the namesake artifacts, the Aegis and Doru Talismans. The Aegis is a medallion that protects it's user, making them somewhat resistant to damage, and can stun those who gaze at the gorgon symbol on it's face. The Doru is a 6 inch spear that can be used like a true spear, as if it invisibly extended to the length of an actual spear. And only they know what else.
Ascending Ones - Originally founded in Ancient Egypt, members of the Ascending Ones not only keep the creatures of darkness from attacking the innocent, but make sure the innocent stay unaware of the dark powers that lurk around them. They do little in the way of research on creatures, tending to know types more on their own experience than through any organized forms of data.
Ascending Ones are also as likely to talk a creature out of its actions rather than outright attack it, particularly if that creature is of a type known to be non-threatening to humans. They will even perform actions of diplomacy between rival factions of monsters, but also stand by ready to turn violently on both parties should peaceful ways fail.
Endowment - Elixers, various potions with magical affects, from appearing sick and weak, to healing wounds at a rapid pace, to breathing a poisonous gas and much more. But each potion is also a poison, and requires the proper skill not only to create or be granted, but to survive using it. This way, no one outside the group can use them without severe consequences.
The Cheiron Group - To the public, Cherion is merely another multinational, albeit one that offers affordable medical supplies and pharmaceutical products, even after the lawsuit.
Inside the company, there is a different story. Cherion's purpose is to gather and study as many supernatural creatures as they can, often with the same cold, uncaring manner as when they swallow up a smaller company into their conglomerate, but there is something more that even some of the highest members of the conspiracy don't know. It concerns their board of directors, and a single word translated from corporate babble: "Colonization."
Endowment - Thaumatechnology, the mixture of science and the supernatural, specifically implants. Surgery is required, invasive surgery, invasive surgery that essentially makes you company property. Things like a patch of vampire skin to detect other vampires, a sac from a werewolf that allows you to heal like one at the cost of being very hungry, to a swarm of some kind of wasp or something that comes out of the valve in your hand, and even some kind of worm from another dimension that wraps around your heart and makes magic difficult to be used against you, so long as you don't mind that it squeezes sometimes and the nightmares.
The Lucifuge - Apparent descendants of Lucifer who, when recruited, are given a choice, fight against the darkness to redeem yourself, or die. There are only ever 666 members across the globe. The Lucifuge uses their "gifts" (or curses, depending on which one you ask) to rid the world of the creatures of darkness, which they believe to have all come from Lucifer's legions. These creatures are carefully tracked and studied before the children of the Seventh Generation reveal themselves to destroy them. They are particularly effective at tracking down demons and other demon-born, and also have a surprising amount of information on angels, including such unusual phenomenon as the qashmallim.
Endowment - Castigation, the dark powers of their demonic heritage, from gaining a demonic familiar in either spirit form or flesh, to conjuring demons, controlling demons, speaking and understanding any language, and even calling and using hellfire.
Malleus Maleficarum - A secret and ancient sect of the Catholic Curch, the Malleus Maleficarum wants to put a stop to supernatural creatures and the horrors they inflict on their flocks. To that end, they call on the powers of God and the blessings of His saints to help them. They tend to target vampires and demons above other kinds of creatures, but if any malevolent monster threatens those in their care, they will come running.
Endowment - Benediction, prayers capable of infusing a normal item, be it gun, sword, or wrench, with holy power to smite evil before it breaks from the power, to protection, to healing and raising the recently dead, even if they're a bit off after, and a myriad of other miracles.
Task Force: VALKYRIE - The purpose of VALKYRIE is quite simple: for any report of supernatural activity that threatens U.S. security, agents are sent to assess, report, and neutralize the threat. While there are proper procedures, the best VALKYRIE agents have learned that to survive, sometimes one must break through the red tape. With traces of activity all the way to the end of the civil war when the real Lincoln died, up to fighting the occult allies of the Nazis, to covering up Roswell and beyond.
Endowment - Advanced Armory, high tech weapons and equipment from bullets that can punch holes in ghosts as well as flesh, to sand grain sized trackers fired from a special gun, to goggles that can see in the dark and into twilight, and even a gun that fires electromagnetic beams, in other words lightning.
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