Guardians of the Veil/temp

Philosophy
Magic is a secret Art. The Guardians of the Veil keep it that way for a reason. The order believes that Atlantis was defined by its humanity. It rewarded the fruits of human brilliance and reflected its flaws. Atlantis was as close to Utopia as ever existed, but it was not perfect. Even Atlantis needed wardens, spies and killers. The Fallen World is no different.

The Guardians of the Veil, also called the Visus Draconis, or Eye of the Dragon, secretly protected Atlantis from internal strife and treachery. They say it was a thankless job where mages sacrificed personal quests for enlightenment for the good of the Awakened City. Even in its greatest days, Atlantis had subtle enemies: great beasts, demons cloaked in human flesh, and avaricious rebels. Like their companions in the Adamantine Arrow, they were to be viewed as instruments of Atlantis &mdash; never masters. But while war was the province of honorable, overt volunteers, the Guardians of the Veil were charged with more subtle matters of state. If revealed, they would undermine the ethos that Atlantis was where humans ruled without fearing the night or barbarous tyranny. Sometimes the ideal held true, but in the city's latter days, whispers accused the order of spying and killing to serve itself.

Atlantis's reign was partly predicated on the secret work of the Guardians. They discreetly removed foreign enemies where they could, moving beyond supernatural threats to press chieftains and lords for boons, and if necessary, toppling their kingdoms by fanning the fires of insurrection from within. Some of these kingdoms did indeed threaten Atlantis, usually through the plots of non-Atlantean mages, but most only posed potential threats—potential that the Guardian's mage spies expertly identified and then squelched. If Atlantis seemed like a Utopia to its people, it was partly built by keeping down any power that could one day threaten it.

Character concepts
Even after the Fall, the Guardians practice their subtle arts on Sleeper regimes, hollowing useful conspiracies and myths out of the loam of history, and using plots, lies, and knives to protect mages from enemies both Sleeping and supernatural. Even though their aims are pragmatic, they are not without occult significance. The order believes that every Paradox widens the Abyss, so magic must remain hidden. Its own dark deeds are an occult sacrifice: The Guardians defile their own karma so that other mages may hone their own, free from witch-hunters and fouler dangers.

Today
No order is as hated as the Guardians of the Veil. Mages see them as a necessary evil; valued, but distasteful allies. Even the Free Council is more respected, because its own chaotic ethos still emphasizes discovery instead of repression. Awakened wills are trained to shatter barriers and seek freedom, so most mages have an inherent distrust of anyone who would shackle human desire.

Still, the order has its uses, and despite the fact that many mages hate the Guardians, they still come to them for aid—and the order demands aid in return. This is not always voluntary, but experienced Guardians learn to take stock of the skeletons in other mages' closets and expertly leverage them. Above all, the Guardians have mastered the art of moving among Sleepers in a mundane guise, planting useful stories and careful measures of magical influence to ward off magic's enemies while providing for their own interests. Rumors brag that the order once manipulated nations and civilizations to these ends. Even now, Guardians plant memes and secret signs in the world's cultures. Members of the order might receive assistance by uttering a secret word to a Sleeper, who learned it in the useless (but potent) rites of a secret society that the order created centuries ago. Stories of family lines bred to serve the order across generations and torture chambers reinforced for supernatural inmates fill the annals of Awakened hearsay. And for all anyone knows, half of the rumors may be the Guardians' own lies.