Editing Notes from Freedom City setting for Man'O War (section)

==Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign==
The history of the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign predates human civilization—human existence, actually—beginning in the latter days of the Empire of the Serpent People, millions of years ago. The oncepowerful race of Serpent People achieved the peak of their civilization before humans began walking upright. Part of their decline can be traced to strange cults, worshipping alien gods from outside reality. One such cult was the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign, so named for the symbol of their god, the dreaded Unspeakable One. It is said to speak the god’s true name invites madness, death, and disaster, so it is all but forgotten save for a few forbidden documents from ancient Lemuria, the center of the Serpent Empire.
Some speculate that worship of the Unspeakable One led to the degeneration of the Lemurian Serpent People, while others suggest the degeneration of their culture drove the Serpent People to join cults like the Brotherhood. Whatever the case, the Brotherhood and its deity are associated with the downfall of Serpent People civilization. Followers of the cult were forced underground long before the remainder of the Serpent People fled there following the sinking of Lemuria.
In the millennia following the fall of their civilization, more Serpent People joined the cult, which fractured into numerous splinter groups.
They struggled amongst themselves, breaking apart, conquering each other, forming larger groups before being torn apart again to continue the cycle on and on. The Serpent People fought wars with the Morlocks and Sub-Terrans in the tunnels and caverns of the underworld and their civilization continued to degenerate, until it could barely be called “civilization”
at all. Occasional Serpent People were throwbacks to their intelligent ancestors. They became leaders of bands of their degenerate brethren, but few were able to do more than that.
The rise of human civilization brought the first real changes in the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign in millennia. The Serpent People leaders of the cult began recruiting human followers. This gave them influence on the surface world, and human cultists and prisoners were used as breeding stock for Serpent People experiments and reproduction. Occasionally the Brotherhood ran afoul of a human hero capable of opposing them, but for the most part they went unnoticed, largely because their activities never really amounted to much.
That began to change in the 20th century with the rise of superhuman activity and the birth of a greater number of intelligent Serpent People to members of the Brotherhood. The Serpent People became more active in Sub-Terra, coming into conflict with their ancient enemies the Morlocks again. They also became more active on the surface world, spawning both human cults and half-human offspring. The Brotherhood clashed on occasion with Earth’s Master Mage, Adrian Eldritch and, later, with the Voodoo goddess Siren, who fought the Serpent People half-breeds among the Mayombe.
The most ambitious plans of the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign involve unearthing lost artifacts and knowledge from Lemuria, particularly those associated with their patron, the Unspeakable One. One such item, the Serpent Scepter, is actually associated with the snake-god of ancient Lemuria, but the Brotherhood used it in an attempt to seize control of Atlantis and launch an attack on the surface world.
The ultimate goal of the Brotherhood is to summon the Unspeakable One into Earth’s dimension. All indications are this would lead to madness for all creatures on Earth, at the very least, possibly the destruction of reality. The members of the cult either believe their patron will conquer the universe and grant power to its loyal followers or else they are too mad to care what happens and intend to share their madness with all creation.

===THE UNSPEAKABLE ONE===
The Brotherhood’s unnamed patron is a being of cosmic power and unknowable intentions. There are no images of the Unspeakable One among the Brotherhood, only the Yellow Sign and other symbols of its power. Those claiming brushes with the Unspeakable One’s power speak of amorphous masses of tentacles, strange, shifting shapes, random piping and whistling music, and a vast and bottomless void. Such individuals are also invariably insane, so their accounts are questionable at best.
The Unspeakable One is beyond game stats, possessing untold cosmic power. If it were ever summoned to Earth, there would be little, if anything, that could stand against it. The Gamemaster can use the threat (or even the presence) of the Unspeakable One as a plot device in the campaign, but should be certain to give the heroes a means of overcoming the mad god; usually by disrupting whatever ritual the Brotherhood is performing to summon it to this reality. The Unspeakable One rarely, if ever, intervenes on the behalf of the Brotherhood. In fact, it’s quite possible it is entirely unaware of its worshippers, existing only to inflict madness and devastation on the universe.

===THE SERPENT SCEPTER===
The Serpent Scepter is an artifact of the ancient Serpent People civilization of Lemuria. It is a rod of greenish stone, similar to jade, except infinitely harder, about two feet long and carved in the shape of a writhing serpent.
The scepter is infused with preternatural power. Among other things, the Serpent Scepter is completely indestructible to any known force. Over the millennia, guardians aware of the Serpent Scepter’s power have tried to place it out of the reach of would-be wielders: at the bottom of the sea, in ancient vaults, and even in dimensions beyond this one. Always the Scepter seems to find its way into the hands of those it can corrupt with its power.