History Characters / HunterTheVigil

* IAmAHumanitarian: A very frequent practice among them. Freaks and Mutants, especially, are prone to eating their victims.

* IAmAHumanitarian: The most prone for practicing this among the Undertakings.

* {{Mutant}}: It's right in the name.

A secret government group organized by the mysterious Mr. Smith to hunt down "reality deviants" who are going to cause the destruction of reality. They first appeared in America in 1976, when Thomas Major, a hunter who worked in the office of a prominent New England Congressman, and a group of like-minded DC power players moved to interrupt a shadow war brewing between various occult societies on the eve of America's 200th birthday. Division Six divides itself into three '''Departments'''; '''Alpha''' (planning and logistics, the nominal cell-leaders who receive hit-lists from the Panopticon), '''Charlie''' (surveillance and intelligence gathering), and '''Whiskey''' (assassination).

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The Illuminated Brotherhood is noted as having a very high mortality rate. "Psychedelics don't teach people how to fight."

[[folder:Task Force: VALKYRIE]]
[[quoteright:349:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/valkyrie_mark.png]]

A secret branch of the USA government established in 1865, when a man named Gordon West got together a unit of government men to try and rescue Abraham Lincoln from the clutches of a creature from outside any human reference. Upon failing, they instead staged the assassination of a look-alike, hiring John Wilkes Booth to do the deed, and then taking care of him before he could reveal the truth. Since then, they have operated outside the usual structures of the US government to protect the US from supernatural agencies and hide the existence of the supernatural from an unwitting populace. Field agents belong to one of three sub-departments; '''Project TWILIGHT''' (doings of social parahuman extra-normal entities), '''Operation FORT''' (extraterrestrial and extra-dimensional phenomena and encounters), and '''Operation ADAMSKI''' (retrieval of evidence and dissemination of disinformation).

* TheHedonist: An especially dark and twisted variant. The basic motivation of the Abbey is hunting monsters because it's ''fun''. And since monsters [[FantasticRacism aren't people]], they have no qualms about... experimenting... with using them for pleasure as well. Raping them, torturing them, eating their flesh, drinking their blood, making them into trophies and clothes: these are all things the Abbey has been said to do. A consequence of this is that the Abbey would be offended at discovering [[TabletopGame/PrometheanTheCreated the Pilgrimage]]. Monsters are sport; they're not supposed to try and become people. If monsters can become people, then that makes the Abbey monsters, and the Abbey will not accept the idea ''they're'' the monsters.

* RichInDollarsPoorInSense: Ashwood Abbeyists are noted as being woefully inadequate in terms of monster lore. Most don't care that they only know a few scraps of information at best; research is boring! It's more fun to try and make things up as they go along.

* TokenEvilTeammate: Of the core Compacts and Conspiracies, the Ashwood Abbey are treated as pretty much the nastiest. Since they are basically bored, rich party-animals who rape, torture, murder and even cannibalize supernatural beings ''for fun'', it's not an unreasonable treatment. They are actually one of the least popular compacts amongst fans, since they're so heavily slanted towards VillainProtagonist and/or DesignatedHero status whenever they get described.

* InformationWantsToBeFee: Network Zero is driven by the belief that the public has a fundamental right to know the truth about the ghoulies, ghosties, long-leggety beasties and things that go bump in the night, and its members go to great trouble to record the activities of the dwellers in the shadows, compare notes, and release the information into the net. They rarely get anywhere -- a combination of public disbelief and the work of the multiple conspiracies and monsters that puppeteer society does a quick job of hiding most of their work -- but they keep trying.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Libertines are stated to often revolt even their fellows in the Ashwood Abbey. On the Compact as a whole, the ''one'' line they seem unwilling to cross is hunting humans (though witches don't count in their eyes). They recruited UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper so he could help them hunt the supernatural, but “Saucy” Jack disgusted even them to the point where they killed him themselves.

* {{Hellfire}}: They literally have a Castigation ability named like this, which allows to do [[PlayingWithFire exactly what you'd expect]].
* HeroWithBadPublicity: Despite being overall one of the most reasonable factions of hunters, they are distrusted for the most part due to their demonic origins.
* InTheBlood: Their powers, and an attendant compulsion to do evil, or so they believe.

* JoinOrDie: Anyone would-be recruit they find is offered this choice. Somewhat justified, in that a person with demon blood has ''very'' strong chance of becoming [[EvilCounterpart L'Enfant Diaboliques]], making the option of letting them go rather unwise.

* HealingHands: The Hand of St. Luke Benediction grants the ability to heal wounds.

* PunchClockHero: As the writeup puts it, the Hototogisu don't "hunt monsters" so much as "remove hurdles"-if the monster in question isn't a threat to their livelihoods and business, the official policy of Inoue is to ignore them (though it's mentioned a few joined the cuckoos primarily so they could get powers to hunt monsters in the first place).

* WeAreStrugglingTogether: There's a lot of internal conflict between the Brotherhood of St. Athanasius and the Order of St. Ambrose, since the former favor swift violence and the latter methodical research. Not only that, but ''Compacts and Conspiracies'' reveals the Brotherhood of St. Athanasius and the Order of St. Longinus are both making plans against each other, with the former intending to take over the entire conspiracy.
** As mentioned in ''Mortal Remains'', the Vatican doesn't necessarily approve of the methods of the Brotherhood of St. Athanasius, especially the recent popes: Benedict slashed the entire organization's budget as he viewed their violent methods as more detrimental than beneficial, while Francis has encouraged them to use non-violent methods to oppose the influence of demons, especially institutional ones. He's still fully onboard with them killing monsters whose methods are violent, but ones that use subtle corruption and political power are to be opposed with unsubtle beneficence and showing people that they have more to gain from the grace of God than the traps of damnation. It's noted that this is a good thing, as the days of the Vatican attracting large amounts of military forces are gone, but they are ''very'' good at gaining political and financial support, and using that to counter the corruption of demons and politically powerful vampires is ''quite'' effective.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: ...They're the Inquisition. What do you expect?

->''A wise woman once said, the definition of a hero is a person who gets other people killed. You can look her up later.''

* WeakButSkilled: Compared to other templates in the setting, the large majority of Hunters lack supernatural powers, and even those who ''do'' have ones lack a Supernatural Trait and a {{Mana}} pool, meaning they have to rely on HeroicWillpower to fuel their abilities and cannot increase their Attributes and Skills above 5 like monsters can. They make up for it by exploiting every bit of experience they can get on the field and using elaborate tactics through teamwork. Moreover, Practical Experience grants them more Experience, and the same lack of Supernatural Trait gives them less things to spend it on, meaning they can focus everything on Skills, Merits and Attributes, which they will frequently have ''much'' higher than supernatural beings as a result.

* LetsYouAndHimFight: Their origin.

* FunWithAcronyms: '''S'''trong '''W'''arriors '''O'''f All '''R'''ed '''N'''ations

* OurCryptidsAreMoreMysterious: They primarily focus on fighting Cryptids

* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Members of the Tribal Investigation and Protection Initiative, who are stated to be male-dominated and prejudiced against female and LGBT+ Native Americans

[[folder:Council of Bones]]
''Death is not the enemy you should fear.''

* AncientConspiracy:
* ISeeDeadPeople:
* MarkOfTheSupernatural:
* OccultDetective:

[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Faithful of Shulpae]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/conspiracyfaithfulofshulpae.png]]
->''Today, we honor those who have fallen in the hunt for Divinity, and in their name, we feast! Try the arm, there’s still meat on it.''

The Faithful of Shulpae are an ancient, and extremely secretive, conspiracy dedicated to Feasting on gods (which in practise usually translates as devouring long-lived/immortal supernaturals, with special preference for [[TabletopGame/MummyTheCurse Mummies]]). There are a number of ways to be '''In Service''' to the Faithful. '''Keepers''' maintain the temples, ensure the "gods" don't wake up, maintain the Feasting calendar, and decide who participates in which Feasts. '''Guides''' look for the "gods" out in the world, as well as potential candidates for the Faithful. '''Celebrants''' are the ones who take the risks of bringing the "gods" to the temple -- those who take the greatest risks are first to take the Feast.
----

* ShoutOut: The names of VALKYRIE's weapons, tying in with MeaningfulName: many of their tools take their names from Myth/NorseMythology.

[[folder:The Faithful of Shulpae]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/conspiracyfaithfulofshulpae.png]]
->''Today, we honor those who have fallen in the hunt for Divinity, and in their name, we feast! Try the arm, there’s still meat on it.''

The Faithful of Shulpae are an ancient, and extremely secretive, conspiracy dedicated to Feasting on gods (which in practise usually translates as devouring long-lived/immortal supernaturals, with special preference for [[TabletopGame/MummyTheCurse Mummies]]). There are a number of ways to be '''In Service''' to the Faithful. '''Keepers''' maintain the temples, ensure the "gods" don't wake up, maintain the Feasting calendar, and decide who participates in which Feasts. '''Guides''' look for the "gods" out in the world, as well as potential candidates for the Faithful. '''Celebrants''' are the ones who take the risks of bringing the "gods" to the temple -- those who take the greatest risks are first to take the Feast.

[[folder]]

[[folder:The Talbot Group]]
[[quoteright:297:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/talbotgroup_mark.png]]
->''It's not you. I know that. It's the thing hiding inside you.''

Born out of tragedy known as the Harvest Moon Massacres, an event from the early 1980s in which eight high-school seniors in the Seattle-Tacoma area experienced "spontaneous psychotic episodes" and went on a rampage that left forty-eight dead over a three-day period before vanishing without a trace, the Talbot Group has a simple mission. To locate werewolves and spirit-possessed individuals, and find a way to cure them of their possession, changing them back into people. The Talbot Group was founded by Paul and Isabelle Talbot, two prominent Washington doctors whose son, Andrew, was the first of the eight to go berserk and then disappear. The two spent years searching for their son, and to find an answer to the mysteries of the rampage; they would have faded into obscurity, had it not been for a fateful even in mid-1989; Isabella went to meet two private detectives who had apparently found her lost son, only for her to be attacked and massively injured, as well as the two detectives being brutally slaughtered. She would claim that her attacker had been a werewolf... more specifically, her son. From there, they founded the Talbot Group, a non-profit organization dedicated to counseling, rehabilitating and educating troubled youths -- and also a secret front for investigating and studying spirit-possessed individuals and werewolves, in hopes of finding a way to bring back their humanity. So far, three '''Methodologies''' are prominent amongst the members of the Talbot Group. The oldest are the '''Exorcists''', who recognize spirit infestations as representing a kind of sickness that must be expunged. They seek to destroy areas that seem to spawn spirits, and track down those spirits who possess human hosts; they prefer to exorcise the spirits, recognizing that the humans are just victims, but sometimes the only cure is death. The '''Redactors''', on the other hand, believe that spirits are a natural part of reality, and the blame for when spirits run amok must lie with humans themselves. They are far more violent in approach than the Exorcists, as they generally believe that there must be some sort of flaw in the person who was possessed which resulted in their possession, and so naturally curing them won't really work in the long run. Finally, the most recent and radical development are the '''Conciliators''', who wish to see if perhaps some spirits and/or wolf-people can be used to help the Talbot Group in their quest of solving the relationship between mortals and spirits.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Libertines are stated to often revolt even their fellows in the Ashwood Abbey. On the Compact as a whole, the ''one'' line they seem unwilling to cross is hunting humans (though witches don't count in their eyes).

* RichIdiotWithNoDayJob: The iconic Abbeyist.

* {{Hypocrite}}: They hate Heroes for not caring about all the innocent victims and collateral damages they leave behind while pursuing Beasts, but they are themselves guilty of this every now and then.

%%* CombatPragmatist: The Trappers, and presumably many other members of the Lodge.

* HuntingTheMostDangerousGame: Played with. While werewolves are possibly the most single dangerous one-on-one enemy to face in the World of Darkness, Lodge hunters don't believe in being stupid about how they view the prey.

* TooDumbToLive: Actually seen as such InUniverse; even the writeup of the compact in ''Spirit Slayers'' states outright that they possess misguided energy, and are, frankly, too dumb not to get involved with the supernatural world.
* WrongGenreSavvy: Members of the Watching Eye are particularly prone to pigeonholing ''all'' supernaturals as being spirit or ghost related, even considering other kinds of monsters, such as werewolves, vampires, witches, etc, to be a result of spirits possessing people and deliberately changing to emulate those archetypes in "semiotic ghosting" -- the world changling slightly to benefit from people's perspective.

* TooDumbToLive: They've been known, InUniverse, to try typical hippy protestor actions against werewolf packs and mage cabals. Yeah... this doesn't end well. They gave this up after Redgrove took over, though.

* TooDumbToLive: The Spirit Emissaries actually think that the Pure are the "good and noble underdogs" of greater werewolf society. The Pure not only outumber the Forsaken roughly two to one, but also consist of the Fire-Touched [[note]]spirit-worshipping [[TheFundamentalist religious fanatics]] who view [[MadOracle madness as a sacred blessing]] and [[{{Plaguemaster}} disease as holy for its symbolic comparisons to faith]][[/note]], the Ivory Claws [[note]][[AristocratsAreEvil stunningly wealthy, powerful and ruthless werewolves]] who think werewolves are [[ANaziByAnyOtherName "the master race"]] and who'll expend human lives like petty cash in pursuit of their goals[[/note]] and the Predator Kings [[note]]neo-barbarians who want to blast the world back to the Stone Age so they can go back to hunting humans like livestock[[/note]]. BeliefMakesYouStupid is putting it mildly in this case.

* LivingMoodRing: A variant. The Devil's Eyes implant allows its recipients to perceive the emotional states of others as colored auras around their bodies. These include most expected emotions (anger as bright red, calm as light blue, envy as dark green, lust as deep red, confusion as a mess of mottled colors, etcetera), as well as some more unusual states (a supernaturally controlled being has a generally muted aura, a psychotic individual a swirling cloud of color, and a nonhuman monster feels subtly "wrong").

%%* FantasticNuke: Some of their magical artefacts. The Aegis Kai Doru may well be the most dangerous conspiracy of them all.%%ZCE. "Some of their magical artifacts" are what?

* MageHuntingMonster: One of their Relics, the Witch-Candle, is a metal candlestick adorned with the carved gargoyles. If a candle is placed within it and lit, any successful uses of magic, whether by witches or supernatural monsters, will cause the gargoyles carvings to come to life, climb off the candle, and single-mindedly attempt to kill the magicians that gave them life.

* LivingMoodRing: A variant. The Devil's Eyes implant allows its recipients to perceive the emotional states of others as colored auras around their bodies. These include most expected emotions (anger as bright red, calm as light blue, envy as dark green, lust as deep red, etcetera, confusion as a mess of mottled colors), as well as some more unusual states (a supernaturally controlled being has a generally muted aura, a psychotic individual a swirling cloud of color, and a nonhuman monster feels subtly "wrong").

* FantasticRacism: Aegis Kai Doru has a specific hatred for [[TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening mages]] and [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken werewolves]], due to their history claiming links to Atlantis, when they worked alongside mages and fought against werewolves only to be betrayed by the former. The various splatbooks imply that Aegis Kai Doru's truest motivation is jealousy; they remember wielding magic themselves, but now they can't; they hunt their fellow Atlanteans both out of pique and because stealing their magical tools allows them to cling to some scrap of ancestral power.

* FantasticNuke: Some of their magical artefacts. The Aegis Kai Doru may well be the most dangerous conspiracy of them all.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: ''Mortal Remains'' reveal they are utterly ''terrified'' by [[TabletopGame/MummyTheCurse Mummies]]; indeed, the Arisen absolutely ''[[BerserkButton hate]]'' having their Relics stolen by mortals, [[TheDeterminator can and will travel to the other side of the world to get them back]], and [[ImplacableMan just won't die]]. Any Aegis Kai Doru hunter who screwed up and actually got identified by a mummy is instructed to cut ties with the organization and forbidden to ever come back until they get rid of it.

* AncientConspiracy: Trace their origins to AncientEgypt.

* TheFundamentalist: Members of the Knife of Paradise faction, as a general rule.

* MirroringFactions: To the Night Watch (both groups are criminals, or at least work with criminals in pursuit of the greater good) and to the Long Night and/or Malleus Maleficarium (both are heavily motivated by their religious doctrines, which in turn color their viewpoint of the supernatural world and their place in it).

* KnightTemplar: A world without vampires -- ''at any cost.''

* CutLexLuthorACheck: Their entire organization is based on this, and this is the main reason they merely use thaumatechnologic implants to improve their field agents rather than just sell it to the military; there is much more profit from creating a cure for cancer from werewolf flesh or medical pills from vampire blood than there is from selling super-soldiers.

* MilkingTheMonster: They make a business out of this, kidnapping supernatural beings so they can dissect them and make medicine out of them.

* TheyWouldCutYouUp: Especially if you're something they've never seen before.

* LightningGun: The Mjolnir Cannon, which ionizes the air before discharging an electric burst. Comes in both personal and [[WaveMotionGun vehicle scale]]!