In time, another opportunity came for us to be more open about certain things. And we did, indeed, take advantage of it.

As you know, all Wraiths share as their deathright the powers of the dead. Arcanoi, as we call them. And it became eventual that those who shared a particular Arcanos would band together for mutual aid, protection and some sense of community.

The earliest of these groups were known as the Societies. Perhaps they were borrowing the notion from the Boatman's Society, though the Ferrymen were banded together for an entirely different reason than to protect esoteric knowledge or cheap conjurings. But there was also the Society of the Hammer, the Society of Purifiers, the Society of Dreams, the Society of Fear... several of them, in truth. Some of them yet remain to this day, as Guilds or other organizations, while others have disappeared into the mists of time and are no longer remembered at all...

Do pardon me. I just remembering one of the lost ones. There is a reason why the Spectres can do things we have no clear understanding of, you know. But I think the less that is said about that, the better.

So the Center of the Wheel, in Hir wisdom, bade us to resurface and become the Society of Desire. And so we did. We took as our symbol a star with eight points: the same one you have doubtlessly seen echoed in many aspects of this Cathedral, as well as many other aspects of our calling and vocation.

Our chief purpose, at least so we advertised, was to engender and rekindle strong feelings in those who were finding their sense of purpose flagging over the ages. As you might expect, this was a service that many would pay a great deal of coin, for. And we were considered useful by Charon for this... if you can imagine that irony.

The joke was, indeed, on him. As we did our service, we spread our philosophy and found many willing takers, right under that metal nose I alluded to, earlier. We also expanded our network of Clients and Marks under that very same nose.

Did we have a hand in the creation of the so-called Renegades? No. I believe it was... oh, who was it that said "I love treason, but hate a traitor?"

Ah yes - well done. He spoke wisely, and that has always been a hallmark of our Cabal, my dear pupil. We may not have created them, but we did find them useful, both then and later on... much later...

And did we have a hand in Charon's decision to call himself the Emperor of the dead, thus alienating those damnable Ferrymen and sending them away from the Isle of Sorrows? That is a very good question... one that I am, perhaps, not certain of.

Oh, I should think so. Who would not want such an outcome? But the exact details of how we may have done it escape me. The Ferrymen were always difficult to directly manipulate, and Charon just as much.

But those around them - and the events they could have set into place - were not so untractable...