Editing Skein of World:People (section)

== Organizations ==
Outside of the lines of race or civilization, there are a few groups of beings working towards their own goals. Such organizations must be vast and powerful merely to exist across the vast distances between different systems of spheres. Because of this, and because their goals are rarely compatible, few of these organizations are on good terms with any of the others. This is one, of many, reasons they tend to be secretive about their existence.

=== [[Skein_of_Worlds:Society_of_Doors|Society of Doors]] ===
The Society of Doors is probably the single biggest organization in the universe. Their primary goal seems to be to locate and exploit portals. A portal between two, otherwise unreachable cities can be worth a lot of money in the trade of rare goods. Therefore, the key to such a portal, or even just the knowledge that such a portal exists, is also worth a lot of money.

Those mysterious shops that sell goods no one else does and then vanish the next day tend to be run by members of the Society.

==== Attitude Towards Others ====
The Society cares little for race or religion. Anyone that can keep a secret could potentially be a member. Fortunately for the rest of the universe, their main goal seems to be profit, and probably nothing more sinister. This doesn't mean they are nice people though. Should someone come between them and their business, that person is likely to wake up on an unfamiliar, and decidedly hostile, world.

The Society does not go out of its way to recruit new members. Instead, it's likely to offer membership to people whose existing talents and resources would further the cause of the Society as a whole. Merchants that have hidden means of off-world travel, adventurers that explore the other sides of mysterious portals and any number of other characters that have something to offer are all potential new recruits. The normal routine is to offer the recruit a mission of sorts without revealing anything about the Society. If they complete the mission to the recruiter's satisfaction, they are usually offered full membership. Of course, things may get tricky if the recruit rejects the offer. 

=== [[Skein_of_Worlds:Whisperers_to_the_Darkness|Whisperers to the Darkness]] ===
Though not the name they'd give themselves, if they game themselves and name at all, the Whisperers to the Darkness are a vast cult, spanning many planets. Despite being the most secretive of organizations, they also have a tendency to lose many members to madness (among other things). In fact, most of what little is know of them comes from piecing together the accounts of madmen. To most people, this would already put the notion that they exist into question. They do exist though.

The Whisperers to the Darkness believe that there are beings older that the infinite universe, living outside of space and time. Imprisoned beyond any reachable plane of existence. Those few who have made studies of such things agree that there must be some truth to these notions since threads of belief traceable to their activities fade away into the deep mists of the Astral plane. Belief can't simply vanish to nowhere. Other cult beliefs will eventually generate a deity to fill that void, but that hasn't happened here. Something must already exist at the other end of those threads.

Unfortunately, those researchers are few and far between, and for good reason. Anyone that gets too close to the truth, or even to a reasonable facsimile, has disappeared. No magic yet tried has managed to locate either their bodies or their souls. Together with their secrecy, this suggests that there goals are less than benign... much less.

==== Attitude Towards Others ====
How the Whisperers choose or recruit their members remains unknown. Who the current members are or even how many there are is also unknown. In fact, one of the few things that anyone has pieced together in this regard is that the membership consists of a disproportionately high percentage of humans. This too is horribly suggestive when you consider the lost history and unknown origin of the human race.

That is not to say that they are actively hostile to other races. Humans only seem to make up a significant plurality of the membership. Again though, too much is pure speculation to say anything with certainty. To non-members, though, they can be extremely dangerous. While there are many deities throughout the universe that seek to gain a greater number of souls by sacrifice, few go to such gruesome extremes as the sacrifices attributed to the Whisperers. Additionally, the souls of those sacrificed to known deities are easy enough to locate, if not recover. The souls of those sacrificed by the Whisperers seem to be, simply, gone.

[[Category:Skein of Worlds]]