Brotherhood of the Heaven's Gate
Opera masks and matched rifles stand watch over a garden above the clouds. The Brotherhood of the Heaven's Gate is an order of elite mercenary guardians who protect the receiving dish atop the tallest tower in the Heights. They are, by most accounts, among the most lethal warriors in all of Old York; a claim that few who have seen them in action dispute.
Every member wears a perfect pre-fall black suit, carries a gleaming blade and a matching assault rifle, and conceals their face behind a long-nosed opera mask. The uniformity is absolute. Half of each day is spent in martial training: firearms drills, hand-to-hand combat, tactical formations. The other half is given over to what the Brotherhood calls "personality conditioning," a regimen designed to ensure total loyalty to the Speaker of Heaven's Gate.
The Speaker is a Telling Visions priest chosen annually at Thirty Rock and brought to the topmost floor of the tallest Heaven's Tower. There, beneath a massive half-circle satellite receiving dish adorned with thousands of candles, the Speaker receives the signal. The broadcast burns and boils those who receive it. The Brotherhood considers this holy. They maintain the statuary garden of pre-fall marble, the grape vines climbing the stone pillars, and the perimeter of armed guards who ensure that only the worthy reach this sacred threshold.
Every member wears a perfect pre-fall black suit, carries a gleaming blade and a matching assault rifle, and conceals their face behind a long-nosed opera mask. The uniformity is absolute. Half of each day is spent in martial training: firearms drills, hand-to-hand combat, tactical formations. The other half is given over to what the Brotherhood calls "personality conditioning," a regimen designed to ensure total loyalty to the Speaker of Heaven's Gate.
The Speaker is a Telling Visions priest chosen annually at Thirty Rock and brought to the topmost floor of the tallest Heaven's Tower. There, beneath a massive half-circle satellite receiving dish adorned with thousands of candles, the Speaker receives the signal. The broadcast burns and boils those who receive it. The Brotherhood considers this holy. They maintain the statuary garden of pre-fall marble, the grape vines climbing the stone pillars, and the perimeter of armed guards who ensure that only the worthy reach this sacred threshold.
History
The Brotherhood's origins remain unrecorded. No founding account, no charter, no named first commander survives in any archive accessible to outsiders. What is known is that the order exists to serve the Speaker of Heaven's Gate and to guard the annual ceremony in which a Telling Visions priest ascends to the receiving dish to accept the signal.
The ceremony itself has claimed many. The broadcast burns the Speaker alive, boiling flesh and searing the mind. Those who survive are considered divine vessels. One of the few documented survivors is a figure known as Rev. Fr. Jonathan "Bobb" Wayne Miller, whose endurance of the signal elevated him to a status the Brotherhood guards with the same fervor they apply to the dish itself.
The ceremony itself has claimed many. The broadcast burns the Speaker alive, boiling flesh and searing the mind. Those who survive are considered divine vessels. One of the few documented survivors is a figure known as Rev. Fr. Jonathan "Bobb" Wayne Miller, whose endurance of the signal elevated him to a status the Brotherhood guards with the same fervor they apply to the dish itself.
