Agnus Dei is a hunter organization that originated from Killarney, Ireland.
Overview[]
To many members of this hunter circle, the Catholic Church is the means to salvation. None of the hunters involved are members of the clergy, but several are devoted to the faith and believe quite strongly in its doctrine. Their problem is that, whereas they regard Scripture as truth, the Church itself they suspect to be riddled with corruption. Devils are believed to eat holes in the spiritual woodwork like diabolical termites. Priests, bishops, cardinals - even the Pope himself - may be at fault, and the group has already weeded out some dark influences from the echelons of the clergy. If the doorway to salvation is barred by monsters, group members fear, how can anyone find peace with God? And so, these hunters believe it's their responsibility - their divine duty - to purge the Church to ensure people's salvation.
The group originated in Killarney, Ireland, at the Church of the Assumption. Father Joseph Listowel was the young parish priest there. His congregation was small but devout, with members attending mass regularly and supporting their new pastor. Late one night, Listowel was accosted by three of his parishioners: Robert Kiley, James Branigan and Liam McCoy. Kiley pinned Listowel against the wall and announced that they knew what the father was. They had seen him in church one day and had "up and figured it out." Listowel, seeming repentant or desperate to save himself, broke down. He confessed to visiting a monsignor in Dublin, a man he'd met in the seminary, and being "compelled" to engage in all manner of sin... the first of which was drinking the priests' "holy blood."
The three men - recently imbued - took Listowel to a prepared place and pressed him for information, threatening that if he didn't tell them the whole story they'd frame him for illicit acts before his congregation. The story they heard was beyond anything they could have imagined - or feared. The corruption extended as far as the Americas and as high as Rome itself. An infection had supposedly festered within the Church since at least the late 15th century, starting with Pope Alexander VI, a dabble in magic and a father of over 60 bastard children. The men told Listowel that this was his chance to make good. He would return to Dublin. He would kneel before the monsignor, and he would get names, locations - anything he could about corrupters of the church whom the men could track down and deal with.
Before long, the three waged a campaign of harassing Church figures identified by Listowel. Their efforts were indirect - property damage, blackmail, threats of violence - all meant to pressure the things to give up their ways and abandon their hiding places in the Church.
In time, the men encountered three more Irish faithful who were unaware of the decay within the Church, but who could nevertheless see the truth. Soon, tow more joined. Its numbers growing, the movement continued and extended into England and Scotland. Eventually, the group was forced into a confrontation with the monsignor himself, a blood drinker who had hidden behind the cross for untold years. The hunters lost four members (including two founders, McCoy and Branigan), but they prevailed in the end. His was their first murder and they looked on it as such. They believed what they had done was necessary, but that they had sinned nonetheless.
Only recently has the group's leader, Kiley, sought aid outside the British Isles. He has discovered hunter-net and operates online as Believer323. He contacts only those "imbued" whom he believes hold beliefs or loyalties similar to his own, whether in terms of faith or the desire to show others the path to salvation.
Organization[]
Initially, numbers were small enough that the group would meet sporadically in Killarney. Those meetings continue, but the circle now extends beyond those origins. Apart from small groups operating in Scotland and England, others have sprung up in Rio de Janeiro, Cincinnati and Santorini, Greece. All labor under the auspices of Kiley's efforts to reach out to like-minded believers. The hunters have yet to decide how they can cleanse the Church of its corruption, but they seek ways to undermine the deceivers within while neither interfering with the good that the institution can do nor despoiling its good name.
Members[]
- Robert Kiley, Believer323 - Founding Member
- James Branigan - Founding Member, Deceased
- Liam McCoy - Founding Member, Deceased
References[]
- HTR: Hunter: Utopia, p. 123