Difference between revisions of "The Illuminati (Virtue Supergroup)"

Overview

The Illuminati is an ancient and clandestine supergroup comprised of the heads of the 13 most powerful magical houses in the world who have joined together to protect humanity from the evil unseen forces that seek to regain control of the material world. From their secret lair located one mile underneath Atlas Park, The Illuminati fight an invisible war against the dark forces of evil from the shadows of global power.

Shadow of The Illuminati

The Illuminati (plural of the Latin illuminatus, meaning "enlightened") is a name that has referred to many groups throughout history, both real and fictitious. However, at the highest intersections of human and super-human society, there is only one true “Illuminati” that is ever spoken of, and it is never spoken of directly by name. In fact, it is only through its absence that Illuminati is ever truly detected; a vacuum left in the wake of some astonishingly heroic, real-life deux ex machina that no one can explain. At times it's subtle, and the mere presence of obscene wealth and power changes the color of the battlefield from black to white in the blink of an eye. At other times it appears as though reality itself has been re-written for the greater good, by some force that you pray is on the side of the angels. It was by tracking these unexplained events throughout human history, that a handful very clever men and women were eventually able to learn of the existence of The 13 Royal Houses of The Illuminati; the most famous of which was a man named Ross "Darkvine" Coldwell.

The most reliable information ever provided on The Illuminati was researched and collected in the late 1930’s by famed Midnighter and occultist, Ross “Darkvine” Coldwell. At the time, the United States was climbing out of The Great Depression, and the new heroes of Paragon City were fighting back against several vast criminal empires that had claimed the city in the wake of the economic devastation. Shortly after the formation of The Midnight Squad, Darkvine began to perceive the influence of a hidden hand behind the rapid rehabilitation of Paragon City, distinct from the the inspiring exploits of The Statesman's Freedom Phalanx, and the supernatural investigations of The Dream Doctor's "Midnight Squad". Over the next 20 year, he investigated this presence, and documented his findings in a document known as The Dossier Illuminatus. The Dossier was recently stolen, recovered and subsequently donated to the Midnight Library by Debbie Coldwell and Dr. Duncan Silver, the heirs to the Coldwell estate. The most revealing parts of The Dossier lie in an interview conducted in the 1960's by The Dream Doctor's now grown sidekick Tommy Arcanus, with an Plant Elemental known as The Green Shaman.

The Shaman revealed The Illuminati to be an ancient supergroup consisting of 13 super-powered bloodlines, entrusted by "The Gods" to safeguard the Earth from an incalculably powerful and ancient, extra-dimensional entity know simply as "The Ancient One". This entity was supposedly born before the laws of our universe were even written, and had lived on the Earth when the planet was young and poisonous. It existed only to extinguish all thought, all imagination, and all hope, everywhere - for all eternity. It was also revealed that, because of mankind's unique ability to create and believe in something greater that itself, it had actually wished it's own gods into existence on a higher, more sublime dimension. It was the existence of these human created "gods" that was the secret to humanity's ability to repeatedly escape self-extinction and flourish, and it was the exact same reason that "The Ancient One" had targeted Earth.