The Memento Initiative

When you turn on the evening news, what is it that you expect to see? Depending on where you live in the world, this can vary. Perhaps you expect to see the latest drama surrounding political figures and pop culture celebrities. Maybe you expect to see the latest information about the economic decline in the market. Whether you expect it or not there is something you will always see: Death.
The news is one of the most interesting elements of modern society. Much like how people told stories of dangers that lurk everywhere in our world, the news is nothing more than another way of telling a story, trading paintings on a cave wall for information tinged with all the various colors of bias.
Every news station is constantly in search of more viewership, and the Initiative is happy to oblige.
Stories of break-ins gone awry, mass shootings, gang murders, and more are among the many tragedies that one sees. Sometimes the journalists who work for these organizations stumble across a story that becomes something so much more. A newspaper article tells of a break-in where nothing was actually broken. No forced entry and no locks picked. A war correspondent tells the story of a mercenary who walks about the battlefield with a swagger so potent it seems to force the bullets to move around him. A news anchor reads a story of the latest in a long string of ritualistic murders from the teleprompter, unknowingly feeding the one responsible.


The initiative is always searching for new membership. It's always searching for the next big thing, a killer who is able to do their good work in delightfully entertaining and never-before-seen ways. These killers are banded together by The Gift of Tall Tales, feeding on the legend built by the news outlets that can just as often assist in their capture. These are more than simple killers. These killers have power and all swear fealty to an unseen benefactor that drives their every action. The entire organization is based around a simple phrase: Memento Mori. Remember that you will die.

Humble Origins

The origins of the Memento Initiative are shrouded in mystery and conjecture. Some believe that it is simply a group of the craziest of people who discovered the gift of tall tales by accident. Others believe it is an organization that is funded by the rich, a heavily curated gallery of rogues brought together to wreak havoc for the entertainment of the 1%. Some believe that there is an entity beyond time and space that chooses these individuals personally for purposes unknowable to anyone but them.

Any one, or even all the above could be true to some degree or another. Evidence gathered over the course of generations revealed mixed truths. Many in The Web don't care about the truth. The Memento Initiative is a menace. They are monsters, and many organizations dedicate their lives to killing monsters.

Monsters of a Different Kind

Many have wondered what exactly happened to these people to make them the way they are. To ask this question is to misunderstand what it is they have become. By some grand design, regardless of whose hand is behind it, the initiative is filled with people who can no longer be considered people anymore. To see them as human is to give them an advantage over you. They stopped being human a long time ago. These killers have been transformed in mind and soul, the body left intact to make it easier to trick their prey. They utilize the gift of tall tales in ways that are unusual, beginning their careers with smoke and mirrors only to find that the beliefs of the populace help develop the abilities they pretended to have all this time.

The news fuels this belief, every report taking great care in pointing out the strange details of every case. Many often chalk this up to hyperbole or getting lost in the story to indulge in the fantastic minds of the viewers. The more the story gets told the more powerful the killer becomes.

The Initiative and The Web

The Memento Initiative is not considered an organization under The Web. They are an anomaly that appears and disappears routinely throughout history. They are an antagonist to the web, and for once, every organization is pretty clear on that point. The initiative takes great pride in this fact and has even gone to great lengths to help the organizations of the web in their various endeavors out of spite.
It is said that they were even involved in The Helheim Incident, actively choosing to change the principal of their hunt to include more dangerous game. They eliminated some of the most dangerous creatures on the field during this incident, and took trophies from the bodies of their new victims. As a final insult they left a makers mark. Sometimes it was painted in blood on the ground, ceiling, or walls of the creatures nest. Sometimes it was a drawing, or an image on the back of an iron coin. The images displayed a laughing skull with a glittering third eye in the forehead, the symbol of the Initiative.

While very few, if any, in the web appreciate their existence, none hate them more than The Black Betties, who see their use of the gift of tales as an abomination to the craft. For The Betties, the hatred is a promise of war, to the initiative, the feud is merely a game of hide and seek. The Black Betty's have, on more than one occasion, wiped out entire cells of the initiative only to find them spring back up many years later. The initiative has countered with their own attacks on chapter houses, systematically hunting down every Betty they can find.

Legend

Members of the initiative live in infamy. They do everything they can to get as much media coverage as possible. One of the reasons for this is simple. It's a requirement of membership. Members will not be inducted into the initiative unless they have been granted a title by the media. This title serves as the anchor for their legend, and the legend only begins upon receiving it. The more coverage one gets, the more spectacular the abilities they develop. A major downside to this is the necessity for repetition.

In order to build and maintain a legend the same story must be told many times. This usually ends up being the primary downfall of many members. Making a mistake is not something you want to do if you are a serial killer, and it's nearly impossible to catch one until they do. Couple this with the often ridiculous lengths that the members go to for the purpose of acquiring new abilities and further development of ones they already have, and it's easy to see the process of joining is quite lengthy and filled with risk.

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The Trade

There are many elements present in all members of the initiative. These universal concepts are often the key to their power as well as their downfall.

Drives

Every member of the initiative is driven to accomplish a particular goal. No member kills without reason. Each one has their own specific thing that drives them to kill. For a member in Chicago who chooses to bathe in the blood of her victims, it's the pursuit of immortality, and to a killer who crawled from his own grave in New York City, it is the pursuit of justice. The drive of a member will often determine the various other aspects listed below. It isn't clear whether or not these drives are legitimate in the sense that they actually give members power, but the very belief that they do seems to be enough.

Blood Type

The initiative jokingly refers to preferences in victims as one's blood type. It is unique and it is inescapable. The blood type of a member defines the mental, physical, and even spiritual characteristics their victims must have in order to count as their victims. Killing a victim that is not of your blood type is not going to help your legend nor will it feed the power you wield. The drive of a member will often dictate what blood type they have.

A drive of justice generally means that whoever you kill they must be a criminal or at the very least someone has committed heinous acts. A bloodbather seeking immortality likely needs victims that are young and physically attractive. This can also dictate the time in which a member must kill its victims such as different phases of the moon or specific times of the day, week, month, or year. It can also dictate the weapon that must be used or ritualistic practices that must be done during the act. Blood type can also determine limitations on what you can do when you kill your victim.

Trophies

In order for a kill to count as a proper victim, members must take a trophy of some kind to represent the kill. These trophies can be literally anything associated with the victim. Hair cut from the victim, samples of blood, and possessions of the victim are all examples. There are some members who find that the more emotional the victim was about the trophy that was taken the more powerful that trophy is. Family photos are more valuable than a driver's license, for example. Trophies can bestow a plethora of abilities and enhancements to the killer that claimed it, making them essential for the members of The Initiative.

A House Divided

The members of the Initiative are varied to the point of creating factions that separate its members. These factions are often centered around the abilities that members have as well as their drives in some cases. Some of these factions are divided up into the methods used for killing.
While divided in their methods, the organization is still very much unified in purpose. There is little to no infighting between these factions, and they are used mainly for finding like-minded individuals within the organization. The initiative is a worldwide phenomenon, and as such there are a great many factions within it.

Below is a list of the major factions within the organization

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The Seance

The Seance is most known for its complete disregard for legendary status. While there are many who have the gift simply by being who they are, members of the Seance almost never work to cultivate their Legend. In all reality they don't have to. These members are those shrouded in death. They are restless ghosts and undead beings who have returned from the grave to pursue their drives. These drives often differ from other fractions as many members have been driven insane by the experience of dying and then coming back. They're also more likely to hold more ethical drives, such as Justice for their own murder. While they are more ethically inclined as time goes on they slowly descend and become just like the others in the initiative. The longer they go without Justice the more insane they become. Every single kill that refuses to ease their desire for vengeance will take its toll. Their humanity slowly chips away and you don't want to know what happens if someone kills their mark before they do.

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Freakshow inc.

Members of this faction tend to be known for their unique physical characteristics. Some are monstrously tall or horrifically disfigured. Others have almost superhuman strength or possess mutations like gills, scaled skin, hoofed feet, or alarming resilience. Their drives tend to center around testing just how far evolution can take them. They see themselves as pristine examples of natural selection, and seek to prove this to everyone they meet. While they are proud of what makes them different, they are also prone to self-confidence issues. Most of them spent their early lives being called freaks by everyone around them and often choose their victims based on just how normal they are.

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Curio

Curio is a faction dedicated to discovery and curiosity. They see themselves as explorers, seeking out the rarest of victims they can possibly find. What it is they choose to focus on differs from member to member. Perhaps one decides to target those who are particularly kind to others, no matter what. Maybe they choose to target those who have exceptional skill. This desire to indulge in their own curiosity goes even further. The trophies they take tend to be symbols of whatever made their victim exceptional, and oftentimes, they end up with powerful artifacts by accident. Legendary weapons have been procured by many of these members, as well as many arcane devices capable of giving them power that their legend simply can't bestow.

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The Bridge

The Bridge is often associated with the Seance but they are not one in the same. Members of this faction believe themselves to be the ferryman that carry souls to the afterlife. They see themselves as the bridge that allows others to see what they see. These individuals are very much so alive but at one point they were dead. They are now back in the land of the living and they have such sights to show. Their experience in the afterlife was an epiphany rather than a trauma. Their victims are often chosen based on just how receptive they may be to the secrets these members have to give. They are often the most ritualistic killers in the initiative. Many believe that their victims must be prepared or transformed before they cross over. They are also known for their tenacity, and can shrug off grave injury with little effort.

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They

This faction is known for its more scientific pursuits. Its members are doctors scientists who have descended into a special kind of insanity. They seek to learn, and oftentimes the only way to learn is to get your hands dirty. They often possess rare and unique inventions of their own creation. Their abilities are often fueled by these inventions. The targets they choose tend to be individuals they believed would be excellent for the studies that they carry out. Some procure large amounts of land and take their victims to that land to test them. The testing grounds are filled with traps and contraptions designed to kill with remarkable efficiency. Others in the faction choose to test something different. Sometimes they choose to test the willingness to survive, the adaptability, or intelligence and belief of their victims. This faction tends to be filled with members who see the hunt as a game and always include ways in which their victims can win. They are often just as thrilled, if not more so, when they are beaten versus when they have successfully made a kill.

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9

The smallest faction within the initiative, 9 consists of exactly 9 members. They serve as almost an inner council of the entire faction. There are no similarities between them. Each is unique in their own way. The only thing that binds them is there complete disregard for the rules. These nine members are the only members capable of building their power without specific targets or drives. Some don't even take trophies, or eat the trophies they take, something no other member could do and still retain the power. Half of the members of this faction aren't even part of the initiative anymore.The web considers these 9 Killers to be a top priority, and some organizations have issued a shoot-on-sight order. The only member whose name is well-known is October "Cicada" Brooks, who spent a small amount of time in the initiative. Brooks has gone out of her way to distance herself from the initiative but once you join you can never truly leave.