The Faceless

And they will come from beyond The Curtain, from the world of the warped ideas, and their armies will feast on [our] flesh.

— The first fragment of The Prophecy that described the Spirits.

Only after the first of the Beasts has been found sleeping inside of the Mayotte Island Volcano that those who knew about The Prophecy decided to further check its genuineness. A group of scientists got particularly interested in the idea of the world beyond the mysterious Curtain. Supplied with the funds coming from those few who knew about and believed in the words of The Prophecy, they formed SSB, or Scientific Study of Beyond.

Discovery of the Curtain

The first step is always the hardest and so it was this time. After all, SSB had to prove the existence of another world that both deeply influences and is influenced by the material one, and the existence of something that separates the two of them. 2 years after founding of SSB, 43 years before Extinction a text that revealed a ritual needed to pass through The Curtain has been rediscovered. Soon after, the first expedition to the other world has been conducted in the catacombs under Paris. And although most of the participants died that day, both The Curtain and what lies beyond it has been proven to exist by both the eyewitnesses and video recordings.
SSB got more funds to continue their research.

Smaller discoveries

For the next few years, SSB experimented in various ways with the conceptual world and its properties. They managed to discover many things:

• Besides the equivalents of places filled with many strong memories or emotions, the landscape of the spiritual world constantly changes.
• The place is filled with many (mostly) dangerous sentient and sometimes sapient beings.
• Most conventional weapons don't harm the Spirits in any way. However, just like it is with the places, if there are strong memories bound to the weapon, it will be able to damage them. Holy relics prove to be especially useful.
• Any items that are traditionally considered "protective", such as salt, charms, talismans, and silver, can completely stop Spirits from entering the area as long as said Spirits aren't themselves related to one of them.

Thanks to all of those discoveries, SSB managed to create multiple research outposts safe from the influence of the Spirits. What they found interesting, the equivalents of those places in the material world were protected in the same way.

Three great discoveries - The Body, The Blood, The Soul

The Body

And those who bore the suits marked with these symbols, the symbols of silence and purity [of mind], didn't have to fear Their attacks and no evil entered their bodies.

— Excerpt of the Passage of Body

Although it was possible to create areas safe from Spirits, traveling from one to the other was still very deadly. Luckily, a solution has been found. 28 years before the Extinction a new part of the texts of The Prophecy has been translated. It contained a description of armor with mysterious symbols written on its inside. According to the texts, said armor would protect one from both the attacks and possession by Spirits.
With some modernization, suits simply called The Body, became standard equipment for anyone going beyond The Curtain.

The Blood and S.I.B.A

Although members of SSB were now able to withstand a few of the attacks of Spirits, they still had to fight them using weapons with strong memories attached to them. For that attachment to exist, most of them had to be pretty old and already fragile. Additionally, buying holy relics was both hard and expensive.
Once again, a new solution has been found in the Passages of The Prophecy. The Passage of Blood described the ritual that manifested a small fragment of The Curtain as a fluid. Thanks to this discovery, S.I.B.A. - Spiritually Infused Bullet Arsenal firearms were created.

The Soul

The last of the three Passages, the Passage of Soul described a ritual that could separate one's soul from the body and "submerge" it in The Curtain. However, even if one survived said ritual, the Spirits often attached to their soul and once it returned to their body, they would lash out, destroying everything they saw.
That was the norm until one of the scientists managed to discover the way to create the Faceless Ones.

The Faceless Ones

Their bodies carved from earth,
Their blood a liquid of Beyond,
Their souls a mix of two,
Those holy warriors stood against the beastly flood,
Giving the 12 the ground to fight.

Magnum opus of SSB, the Faceless Ones were the fruit of linking the knowledge of all three Passages to create a being, a mixture of a human and Spirit, capable of fighting the Spirits on equal ground. Their name came from the helmets that lack any features before the ritual of the Soul warps them. Even the presence of one of them drastically lowered the mortality rates during the expeditions. SSB (now known as The Faceless) quickly started investing in gathering resources needed to create them.
According to ancient texts, they were supposed to support the 12 Heroes (ZODIAC) by diverting the hostile forces.

But when the Extinction began, the ZODIAC never came.

Extinction

Through the 4 years of Extinction, the Faceless fought Lords tooth and nail. Unfortunately, with each small victory, a major loss would come soon after. During those years, using their knowledge, they created many hidden safe havens, supplied humans with weapons capable of harming Spirits and provided them with resources needed to survive.
On 13/7/4 operation "Show must go on" was conducted. It was a last, desperate attempt to stop the Lords from tearing down The Curtain. Almost 3000 Faceless Ones died that day and sadly, they failed.

After Extinction

Even after The Extinction has ended and only a handful of Faceless Ones and former Faceless employees survived, they still try to use their knowledge to help the remains of humanity. The wards they place create places safe from the Spirits, such as The Refuge. Their combat expertise and abilities save lives every passing day.
They became shining beacons in those tragic years. Some became knights in shining armor and some decided to take advantage of their power.

To reach beyond the Curtain

Type
Expedition, Scientific
After -22BE: Military, Special Operations Force

Alternative Names

Scientific Study of Beyond (SSB)

Related Professions

• Curtain passerby

Related Items

• Spear of Metal

Notable Members

• Vagabond

Related Myths

• The Prophecy

Headquarters

In the beginning, while still operating under the name of the Scientific Study of Beyond, the organization's first headquarters were located in Paris. The vast catacombs located under the city proved to be a great starting point for research as the mythos and rumors related to them were both caused by The Curtain in the area being thinner than normal and the main cause of its erosion.
Not long after the first expeditions which have proven the existence of the second, spiritual world, the organization gathered enough funds to increase the range of its influence and open more offices in other parts of the world. 20 years before the extinction, The Faceless could be found in every major country, on every continent, and in most areas where the border between the worlds has been weakened naturally or artificially.

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