The Penitent

"The Penitent serve as a wall. A wall between the innocent and the darkness that surrounds them. We place a burden on ourselves, to sacrifice, to suffer, to guard them in all things. We will not allow failure." =• History •=

The Penitent have been whispered of within the Templars for centuries. At points their name is spoken with fervent hope, at others with thinly veiled contempt, sometimes forgotten as a relic of an earlier times only to emerge decades later on the lips of the children of the order's greatest detractors.

The Penitent is known to have operated during the Dark Ages and the Bubonic Plague, appearing during the Second World War and the Spanish Inquisition. Although nobody - perhaps not even the Penitent themselves - know to what degree, they function again today, providing their particular brand of passion to the war against the darkness.

=• Philosophy & Methods •=

The Penitent cull from what might be considered either the most devoted of the Templars, or the most fanatical. To the order, there is no greater curse, and no higher calling than to be inducted into the Secret World.

The organization once was steeped heavily in religion and mysticism, but today their guiding edict is an acceptance of sacrifice. Members view their purpose as that of elite soldiers, tasked with taking all necessary steps to guard the unsuspecting world from danger.

This view has shaped itself into an oft-rigid extremism. The Penitent are generally amongst the most goal-oriented of the Templars, finding any sacrifice an acceptable one in the goal of vanquishing evil. To defeat one demon, a member of the Penitent may very well burn a crowded village to the ground.

=• Self-regulation •=

"He was beaten to shit. Like, unrecognizable. They dragged him in and left. Said he had 'failed,' and 'paid the price.' He won't tell us who did it. -- Unattributed Templar healer, circa 2005"

"Failure" of a mission is an unacceptable outcome in the eyes of the Penitent. As so often the objective of a mission is the destruction of a demon or demons failure, in the eyes of the organization, is to fail humanity as it allows the monster in question to continue to sow destruction and chaos in its wake. At no time may a member show weakness towards the enemy, or allow outside consequences to get in their way.

As such, the Penitent have devised a particular method of enforcing devotion amongst their ranks. Members that are perceived to have failed at an objective are subjected to a physical emulation of the pain they have inadvertently brought upon others by their failure. The punishment can take many forms - some Penitent will self-mutilate, others will fast or go days without sleep. Others will be brought in by their fellow members and brutalized. The goal is always to remind the wrongdoer that their failure has harmed another - a self-inflicted "eye for an eye."

In isolated incidents it has been rumored that these enforcements have gone too far - stories of members of the organization beaten to death by their comrades, or Templars leaping from bridges. The Penitent do not comment on this controversy beyond to say that a loss of a member's life is never the objective.

=• Membership •=

The full breadth of the Penitent's ranks is subject to much debate. Most Templars agree the organization is likely small, perhaps no more than a handful of followers, although some suggest it may very well be in the hundreds.

The organization is fluid, not fitting the traditional definition of cabals and often members will belong to other cabals simultaneously to being members of the Penitent. Members typically bear no distinctive marks, and although the organization is not forbidden and thereby not something that must be kept secret, few talk openly about the group without first being asked.

Below are a list of known or suspected members of the Penitent:

 Nikolai Bukulov (NPC). While actually organizational structure is light among the Penitent, Nikolai is perhaps the closest thing they have to a high-ranking leader. From Europe he handles many of their affairs across the globe - deploying members on missions, administering the application of discipline where appropriate, etc. Nathan Covington. A Templar based in Europe, and a member of the Penitent since approximately 2006. 

=• ((OOC Note)) •=

Any player can feel free to incorporate The Penitent into their RP as they'd like (although individual characters are obviously going to need to be vetted with their respective owners). Realistically the only characters that would be members of The Penitent would be Templars as it's a Templar group, but interaction with the group from non-Templars is always an option.