system
A chat on 4chan
human
>They call themselves the Lodges. They were the force behind the Inquisition, the Reformation, the Industrial Revolution and most major conflicts and events since before the fall of the Roman Empire. They sabotaged the Ghost Dance, the Boxer Rebellion, and every mystical attempt of magical cultures to fight off European invaders. They have been the secret protectors of Western civilization for 1,000 years, and the secret masters of the world for longer than that. Humanity at large knows nothing about them, but they control the bulk of the financial, military and political power in the world — or at least think they do

>Most students of the occult believe that the West turned its back on mysticism and spiritualism in the period between the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution, and that by the 20th century rationalism and materialism had all but killed religion and magic. For the most part, they would be right; the vast majority of people have embraced the material world and all but forgotten the spiritual one. However, the truth behind this half truth is that a select group of Initiates have kept the occult traditions alive. In fact, their power is one of the reasons behind the victory of seemingly “secular” colonialism over peoples who had powerful Initiates and spirits protecting them. These Western Initiates not only have enormous magical power at their disposal, but they have conspired to keep this power in the hands of a tiny elite, deluding the rest of humanity into disbelieving their potential. To preserve their secrets, they have used their influence to discredit or destroy anyone who tried to study or publicize the arcane arts. The Lodges are the secret rulers of the world — or want to believe they are. In any event, they have been behind most political events in the last thousand years
gpt
>Over the centuries, the Lodges have dominated the governments and religions of Europe, and continued doing so in the European colonies. However, the Lodges are not a monolithic group, and the different Orders have often fought among themselves as fiercely as when confronting outside threats. Their internal struggles for control were the hidden cause of the Moslem jihads, the Crusades, the Hundred Years’ War, the Reformation, the witch hunts, the French and American Revolutions, and both world wars. The French and British Royal Lodges were particularly nationalistic, and bitter rivals. Each major Lodge controls some area of international power, and guards its rights jealously. The mantle of leadership has passed from one group to another, and enmity and intrigue mark all the relations between these groups

>Despite their rivalries, most traditional Lodges have a few things in common. For starters, most members, or Brethren, are fervent believers in the superiority of Western civilization (particularly, white male Western civilization) to all other cultures and nations. Many members are racists, anti-Semites and misogynists; in the 1930s and ‘40s, the members of the German lodges took those beliefs to their “logical” conclusion, leading to the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust (although other Lodges claim the Initiates involved were the dupes of an evil demiurge). Also, most Lodges are essentially elitist organizations: they believe that only a tiny percentage of the population has a chance to transcend the material bonds that keep the human soul imprisoned in this imperfect, twisted world (see Gnosticism, p. 24), and they care little about keeping the vast majority of the population ignorant of their potential
human
>The Lodges have generally supported a policy of European supremacy. They sent their Initiates with all the great colonial undertakings, from Columbus’ voyages and the subsequent colonization of the Americas, to European incursions into Asia, Africa and Australia. Their efforts went toward neutralizing and destroying the mystical powers of other civilizations, leaving them vulnerable to the more advanced technology of the West. Their magical power was enough to neutralize native Initiates

>Not all Lodges (or Lodge members) are restricted by prejudice, however, and many have questioned the wisdom of their elders’ policies. Many European traditions that were co-opted by the Lodges were never in agreement with the core beliefs or the actions of their more powerful counterparts (see the sidebars on pp. 28, 30, 31 and 32)

>Many Brethren realize that they must overcome their prejudices and form alliances with other mystical traditions. They understand that the Shadow War is not a conflict between different peoples, but between humans and predatory alien entities. And in recent years, this newer generation of Lodge Initiates has formed its own splinter organizations (see The Split, p. 32)