Tenebris

Tenebris is a secret society in the Clarkwoods Literary Universe which is dedicated to keeping secret the nature of reality. The men of Tenebris have been tasked by the Sister Goddesses to act as their representatives inside the CLU, and with preventing the sapient beings of the universe from discovering that they are living inside a simulation.

Since The Second Age of Eden, Tenebris has headquartered themselves inside the Faux Ben in Reekian London. They also maintain offices in Kirbyville, where they can oversee the operations of The Unwrecking Crew, and on The Skerry of Souvenirs, which grants them access to the universe outside of Eden.

Tenebris is infamous for infiltrating governments and organizations through the CLU, though the general public believes Tenebris to be nothing more than an urban legend which has been exaggerated by conspiracy theorists. Their most egregious act came in the Second Age when they, aware that they were part of a simulation themselves, prompted the The Democratic Republic of the Reek to begin the social experiment of Reekian London—where lifelike humanoid robots roam the streets of a replica of the English capital as it stood in 1904.

This experiment was supposedly greenlit in an effort to determine what factors may have led a Londoner to travel through time during the Earth-666 iteration of reality and cause a Calamity in the process. But now that the city has persisted for over a thousand years and its citizens have never been allowed to learn the nature of their reality, many Edenians view the existence of Reekian London as the ultimate sapient-rights violation.

And the Sister Goddesses, the patrons of Tenebris, what do they think? Well, they grow more and more nervous that Tenebris is losing their grip. And if the citizens of the universe the Goddesses created ever learned the nature of their reality, what then? What would there be left to do but reboot the whole damn thing—Eden included this time around?

Structure

Tenebris consists of five handpicked members, and no more. Though they occasionally interact with each other in the outside world—as when the five of them snuck their way iinto the Second Age government of The Reek—they mostly pretend to not know each other.

No one member has more power than the others, and any who try to elevate themselves above the rest are summarily dismissed by the Sister Goddesses.

“Dismissed” in this case meaning death by immolation or drowning.

Culture

Because they know they are living in a simulation, they are driven to spare other sapient beings from learning the truth and going mad as they did. And yet, given their actions in Reekian London, they’re not above doing what the Sister Goddesses have done to them to other beings they consider artificial. Some members of Tenebris struggle with this. Others see it as a necessary evil.

Motto

Secretum nobiscum moritur.

Founding Date

February 16, 1998, Earth-1

Type

Secret, Brotherhood

Location

Reekian London