Machiavelli Gambit

The Machiavelli Gambit are a faction of the False who try to exploit the Contagion for personal gain.

Overview

Generally, the Gambit views the Contagion as the inevitable result of all the clashing supernatural forces unleashed on the World of Darkness. The only cure would be a purge of all supernatural beings, and as supernatural beings, well, they aren't exactly signing up. Instead, they hope to harness the Contagion, ensure they're one step ahead of outbreaks, and use the chaos it causes to advance their own various agendas.

They prefer to exploit the Sworn rather than openly resist them: mooch off their resources, steal their assets, infiltrate their membership. If they can't target one of the Sworn directly, they'll go after friends and loved ones - threatening an entire freehold to put pressure on one changeling, for instance, if that's what it takes.

History

The Gambit and the Cryptocracy have a shared history, but the nucleus of the Gambit split off early on for various reasons: they wanted to use tactics the rest of the faction found repugnant; they refused to work with certain longstanding enemies, even with the fate of the world at stake; or they pissed off everyone else so thoroughly that nobody would work with them. Later, they merged with another False faction, the Followers of Ma'at, who had attempted to manipulate them behind the scenes.

The faction was around centuries before Nicolo Machiavelli wrote The Prince, and the book was originally meant as satire. However, later readers took it at face value, and it was in this sense that the Gambit adopted their modern name.

Methods

The Gambit, like the Cryptocracy, prefer to work behind the scenes or through intermediaries, though their targets are more often other night-dwellers than mortal society. They know a lot about how other each others' powers work, and how to block or circumvent them (or evade blocks). They keep tabs on active outbreaks and study new strains; their signature move is to deliberately infect their enemies, or threaten to. For understandable reasons, then, they area also intensively researching immunization, the ultimate advantage in a Contagious world.

Members of the Gambit are constantly jockeying with one another for position, but they (theoretically) try to keep a united front against outsiders. Intricate webs of shell corporations, catspaws and fronts protect the actual members of the faction from harm even if their schemes are exposed. Betrayal of any kind, but especially to the Sworn, merits death.

Members

Strix spies, Panopticon Seers, racketeering hobgoblins, the Cheiron Group, Heroes willing to capture and torture the Begotten rather than kill.

References

• CofD: The Contagion Chronicle, p. 32-34