Keepers of the Lie

Keepers of the Lie

(Organization)

Type

Religious criminal syndicate

Leader

False Witnesses

Headquarters

Veskarium

Goals

Destroy the 'lie' of the Gap

Scope

System

Source: The Blind City, pg(s). 40–41

The Keepers of the Lie are a religious criminal syndicate based in the Veskarium. Its members, called Liars, believe that history began at the end of the Gap and everything before it is a lie.

History

Shortly after the Gap ended, a group of vesk soldiers and researchers discovered an entity encased in the icy wastes of Vesk-8. Through telepathy, it told the vesk that they were being lied to, as the universe had been created from scratch after the Gap. From that seed, the Keepers of the Lie grew and have since spread across the Veskarium.

Goal

The central goal of the Keepers of the Lie is to use their resources to dispel the 'lie' of the Gap by destroying relics, demolishing historical buildings, deleting databases containing pre-Gap information, and discrediting or killing those long-lived enough to remember times before the Gap. In order to fulfil this monumental goal, the Liars are always on the lookout for opportunities and resources.

Structure

The central council of the Keepers of the Lie is the False Witnesses, which consist of one representative per planet on which the Liars have a presence. Vesk-8's seat is held by the creature originally cut from the ice by the Liars' founders. It is still frozen through mechanical means to protect it, and rarely speaks but is always obeyed when it does. Even this creature does not remember its own backstory: it awoke knowing that it was once a herald but was cast down, without knowing the deity whom it once served or the reason why it was dismissed.

Members

Vesk and pahtras are the most numerous among the Keepers of the Lie's members. After an introductory mission designed to help sever their ties to their old lives, Liars are given a new name, assigned to a gang and taught the ways of extortion, slavery and smuggling. The gangs promote diversity among their ranks to help break down old ties and cultivate new ones. Their call to bury the bonds of race, family, religion and background continues to attract the disaffected to the Keepers of the Lie. Most rank-and-file Liars are concerned with daily crimes and erasing their background.

Relationships

The cult of Lao Shu Po is regarded as the Keepers of the Lie's greatest enemy, since a vicious series of purges and reprisals that followed the revelation that a ysoki member of the False Witnesses was in truth a spy for Lao Shu Po's church.

The Veskarium's Division of Disloyal Organizations was originally founded to contain the Keepers of the Lie. However, it is believed that the division has been infiltrated by the Liars, as it seems far less effective against the Keepers of the Lie than against rival cults. The Scales of the Conqueror view the Keepers of the Lie's vesk members as traitors, but are not powerful enough to take on the much older cult.

The Keepers of the Lie's central goal is anathema to that of the Starfinder Society. The two groups have not engaged in open conflict, but this is likely to change with the recent appointment of a False Witness representing Absalom Station.