The Entity Special Operations Group (ESOG) - In Italian, Gruppo Operativo Speciali della Entità (GOSE) - is an organization partially permeating the ranks of the Society of St. Leopold's military arm Gladius Dei, operating under the wishes of La Entità as a UTR force.
History[]
Few things are as arcane as Vatican organizational charts and the Entity Special Operations Group represents an unintended outcome of the renewed power of the Entity. Long the strong arm of the Society of Leopold, the warriors of Gladius Dei formed the cadre of the new special operations group when Ingrid Bauer negotiated her first deal with FIRSTLIGHT through the Entity. As a result, Gladius Dei serves the secret masters of La Entità while remaining subordinate to the Society of St. Leopold. Still more confusingly, as the Entity recruits ever more veterans into its ESOG teams, not all ESOG are Gladius Dei – and not all Gladius Dei joined ESOG. This is often a distinction without a difference on the ground as very few vampires are interested in checking the badges of the UTR squad hunting them through the sewers.
Previously, the Entity primarily engaged in conventional intelligence gathering and used the CIA and other deniable agents for direct action; the addition of the Gladius Dei to its ranks gave the Vatican a true covert operations capacity. Since 2005, ESOG has recruited not only the cream of the Swiss Guard, but Catholics from other elite special forces units all over the world, and deployed them to the front lines of the SI’s crusades. The even more radical theurgists, unorthodox operators, and other “loose cannon” types from the old Society of Leopold became the core of ESOG Team X (or “Team 10” to more secular audiences), a quick reaction force operating out of the Vatican.
In 2021, they disrupted the Second Convention of Prague, deploying Red Gas against the Kindred in the city.
Operations[]
The Entity recruits further ESOG fighters from other military organizations as they near retirement. Its criteria include Catholic faith, expertise, and combat hunger. Despite being older than most of the soldiers of the Coalition, these zealots seek out the heart of the action, often taking on operations that confront vampires on their own turf. The Society often recruits younger, promising soldiers from Italy, Argentina, and other Catholic militaries as Gladius Dei members; the Entity funnels those with paranormal talents into ESOG Team X. This usually means that new Gladius Dei hunters are younger and less used to military discipline then the rest of their ESOG squad and bring the doctrinal quirks of their suborders with them. Both new and paramilitary, ESOG embraces these differences as tactical flexibility. Thus it’s fairly common for a squad of black-clad ESOG troops armed with assault rifles to also contain hunters sporting riot shields and shortswords.
ESOG forces represent an attempt to bring the unique abilities of the Vatican’s vampire hunters to the modern UTR squads that have become the backbone of the Coalition. As elite forces they carry the most advanced and experimental weaponry in the conspiracy’s arsenal. And as the Vatican’s elite forces, they deploy weapons nobody else in the Coalition has, such as the Red Gas. A typical Gladius Dei/ESOG squad wields submachine guns and ballistic riot shields, though many carry incendiary grenades and Nightwatchman shortswords specifically to deal with vampires. These hunters understand that bullets can slow or impair a vampire, but that final blows require fire or dismemberment.
Unlike many other Coalition soldiers, Gladius Dei/ESOG is usually called in when an active vampire threat has to be confronted during an active night cycle and often under suboptimal conditions — such as tracking a pack of creatures through an underground tunnel or assaulting a vampire stronghold. ESOG commonly acts in isolation, but teams up with BOES or IAO forces when the mission requires overwhelming force. These large operations are the only time Gladius Dei/ESOG squads operate without the Entity at the top of their chain of command.
Entity Hunters[]
Entity Hunters are elite soldiers with exoskeletons, equipped to handle even the most dire of supernatural threats. The moment an Entity operation goes from blending in with the local authorities to hunting down blankbodies, the Hunter equipment gets distributed to the soldiers out on the field. Its most eye-catching feature is the powered exoskeleton that enhances the soldier's endurance and strength. The downside is that many of the systems require technology that makes the soldier easier to locate. No matter the possible flaws of the outfit, most Kindred that have encountered an Entity Hunter will testify to its effectiveness. A Kindred that does not consider an Entity Hunter a real threat might very likely regret it as they meet their final death.
Trivia[]
- The Entity are the primary NPC antagonists scattered around the map of Prague in VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt .
Gallery[]
References[]
- VTM: Second Inquisition
- VTM: Camarilla, p. 80