literature

The Mauta

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                                       “Not paranoid. Prepared.”



           Often tymes when someone or something steps so far out of line that they become a threat to the secrecy of the supernatural world, there is a force there to keep them in check. Werewolves are, by their very nature, the border patrol protecting the world against malevolent spirits. Vampires keep tabs on their own, for fear of breaking the Masquerade. The supernatural has, by its own efforts, kept the natural world largely ignorant of its existence for hundreds of years.

           On occasion, though, someone unexpected will intervene. A nameless golem might dust a vampiric serial killer before others of his kind consider him a threat to their way of life, or a wandering ghost wolf may leave the remains of a mage that has been experimenting on local street urchins splattered all over the city park. While the majority of these incidents are simply random, and violent, encounters, more and more often they are becoming deliberate, targeted attacks on those who believe they are no longer tied to the laws, or morals, of any society. This is the work of the Mauta.

Overview: Over the past four hundred years, a vampire going by the name Almiya Mauta has been making friends of various beings all over the world. Those who were of like mind, more often than not, were incorporated into a family bound not by lineage, but certainly by blood.

           In tyme, the one-man defense Almiya mounted in favor of humanity was shown to be far too small an effort. He made the choice to execute a call-to-arms, to bring to the attention of his cousins the need to not only stand for the equality of the sentient races, but to push forward as well, to begin fighting for their ideas.

           At first, the goal was simply to protect not only the humans, but those others who had their freedoms stripped, whether powerful or meek, from the influences of those who would dominate or abuse them. Over tyme, the group grew more and more organized, until individuals and two man teams were being directed around the globe to areas of heightened hostility, areas where the locals could benefit from a kind-hearted monster passing through.
They began to unify, developing symbols of the family. Unique silver tokens for each individual became customary; often one could be found hanging upon a black chord somewhere on their person. A touch of two fingers to these pendants became a common salute and greeting, and the owing of favors began to be marked by the gift of one of these tokens to another person, even one outside the family.
In the last few years, the Mauta have begun working toward even further unification, the creation of a center of power that can be used to help in ways which were previously impossible, due to the largely independent nature of their work. Almiya has vanished, and many believe that his son is destined to lead them on their next steps toward actualizing their goals.

Members: The Mauta family consists of the supernatural races closest to human, those who, before losing themselves to baser instincts, are capable of empathizing with and forming a functioning position in the human world. In the cases of werewolves and vampires, Mauta tend to be the odd balls within their natural society, often ghost wolves or caitiffs. Among the less common races, such as mages, changelings and prometheans, Mauta tend to simply be those who have encountered and found a home within the family.

           On rare occasions, hunters, or even normal humans, have found a place within the Mauta. Whether their potential be a prodigious capability of some sort, or simply the possession of a bloodline that may eventually prove fruitful, they invariably use their targets’ inevitable underestimation of their abilities to devastating result.

           Regardless of race, the Mauta share a strong sense of honor, and many have roots in tribal societies. The warlike individuals of the family tend to be very focused, often with little to no training in anything that does not relate directly to their survival, and a knack for surviving outside of the mainstream of human society. They tend towards occupations that benefit from great physical skill; security work, professional stunt men(or women), athletes, professional renaissance fair fighters, ect. Those few among them not cut from the physical cloth often possess skills that are equally valuable, if less directly martial. For every ten hulking swordsmen or winking snipers, there is a dagger waiting behind a beautiful smile, a hacker gathering information for the next hunt, or a craftsman making sure that the family is properly equipped for the task at hand.

Philosophy: Race means nothing, training, everything.- Equality is the name of the game for the Mauta family. They have taken upon themselves the task of protecting those in need from the whims of the more inhumane supernaturals.

In the short term, this often means the literal, physical intervention of the Mauta in affairs that are seen as evil by the family. This truth causes them to be seen as a bit of a vigilante organization by some, operating by their own rules in an attempt to protect the common man.

In the long term, they hope to gain enough support and momentum to build a strong influence and garner the world’s attention, to forge an equal system of government, an idealist paradise. Though all of the Mauta see this as a noble goal, the majority accept it as unrealistic, and even a bit childish. They accept their lot as one that will require perpetual effort, while only ever seeing reward in their short term goal. At the same tyme, some of those who believe this goal to be attainable also aim a step higher, hoping to eventually witness a slow dissolution of the Masquerade. Though this path is by no means endorsed or actively pursued by the Mauta, it, too, is seen as a sort of idealistic paradise. In combination, the two concepts portray what many of the family consider to be the ultimate utopia.

Know what guides you, and place faith accordingly.-Regardless of where they rest on the balance between subtle and extreme ideas of unity, the Mauta share a common strength of belief that can make them a serious problem for supernaturals affected by objects of faith, such as vampires. The chosen token of each individual is a representative of the idea that they employ in pursuit of balance. For many, this token is also a representation of their weapon of choice.

There’s no such thing as paranoia in a world housing one person who would see you dead.- The Mauta believe very strongly that no amount of preparation is too much. Though this tends to find them marked as paranoids by those outside the family, they see no reason to change a tradition that saves their lives on a regular basis.

Organization: Though the Mauta are often assigned tasks from a central hub, a single individual who weighs the options and gathers information to make sure the Mauta go where they are needed most, the current system of operations gives no rank to any one member over another. Each individual is valued for their strengths, and positioned in a manner suited to their abilities. For instance, a tactician may be placed in charge of a team, if need be, but that does not mean she holds a higher position in the family. It simply means that her strength lies in the mind, rather than the body.
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