Since its inception as a movement, Esoterror has proven itself a slippery and ever-evolving enemy. At times its actions appear to be consistent with a coherent, if distributed, organization inching toward a common goal. Other evidence suggests that it is nothing more than a loose confluence of dangerous lunatics, frequently working at cross- purposes. One top analyst (codename TALLOW MONORAIL) has described it as a Schrödinger’s conspiracy, in that our efforts to observe it motivate its members to alter its structure. With that word of caution, it is possible to make certain general statements about the nature of the foe, as it is currently configured.
FunDing
By the standards of international terrorism, Esoterror is a well-funded operation. For every dollar raised and disbursed by the largest and most influential conventional terror group, the Al-Qaeda network, Esoterror gathers ten dollars. (These figures may be somewhat obscured by Esoterror penetration of the increasingly beleaguered AQN. Analysts surmise that as many as 23% of AQN expenditures are now diverted by Esoterror moles to serve the agenda of the Outer Dark.)
Conventional terror raises much of its money from small donors, funneled through front organizations including radical religious institutions and phony charities. Esoterror enjoys no comparable source of grass roots support. Its funding comes in large bundles, handed over by a small handful of wealthy donors. These monies travel around the globe through a laundering network of unparalleled elusiveness. Esoterror financiers appear to operate multiple money- funneling pathways in parallel to one another. When we bust one, redundant cash pipelines remain intact and flowing.
correctly, that their network of illicit contacts will aid them in the acquisition and maintenance of power. To them the conspiracy, in all its occult ruthlessness, serves as the ultimate contact network.
Once in a position of authority, the dominant invests heavily in the status quo. His efforts to bring about an apocalyptic membrane rupture may take on a perfunctory quality. Others imagine a post-catastrophic world in which their authority is further elevated. They imagine themselves ruling over the miserable survivors from their massive thrones of human bone.
Due to the type’s unrelenting pursuit of authority, any Esoterror cell including a dominant is likely to be led by that individual.
Verbal triggers: Dominants respond positively to flattery and negotiation, and negatively to bureaucracy and intimidation.
PsyCHogRaPHiCs
The academic desk officers assigned to our Psychographic Profiling Unit (PPU) face the daunting task of finding the logic underlying the twisted actions of the functionally insane. All high-profile Esoterror actors can be regarded as psychopathic in the classic sense of the term. They gratify their desires and ambitions without moral compunction, unrestrained by pangs of conscience. However, for investigative purposes, it may prove fruitful to divide their operatives into various psychopathic sub-types.
PPU analysts stress that these categories are useful for investigative purposes only, as a tool in determining the motivations, emotional breaking points, and potential future actions, of Esoterror suspects. They possess little if any diagnostic or therapeutic utility. Keep them in mind as you seek the right button to push during an interrogations or interview.
Note also that many individuals will possess qualities of multiple categories to various degrees. Where one set of traits dominates, you will want to determine which profile is most applicable. In cases of weak or mixed motivation, the interviewer may get positive results using the verbal triggers for any applicable category.
Dominant
Esoterror operatives exhibiting the dominant personality type are motivated by the desire to exercise power over others. Dominant types seek the top positions in large hierarchies. They may strive to head nation states, multinational corporations, unions, or institutional churches. Once installed in these positions, they attempt to enlarge their authority, either by widening the reach of their organizations or removing checks on their power. There is no position so modest that a dominant-type psychopath will not seek it—if only as a stepping stone to greater things. Dominants of more modest achievement might head small businesses, municipal governments, or condo residents’ boards.
Cipher
Ciphers’ childhood identity formation remain incomplete, leaving them listless and unmotivated until they come into the orbit of a strong personality. Left to their own devices, they want little for themselves except to secure very basic needs and to pass the time.
Outwardly, the behavior of a cipher may appear to resemble that of a submissive. However, the submissive actively seeks a dominant personality, and works in a self-directed manner to please the superior individual. The cipher follows orders when motivated but feels no great attachment to any task, or sense of reward when he succeeds. He is an unformed blob of clay, waiting to be pulled into shape.
Because they are heavily suggestible, ciphers are often employed by Esoterrorists as hosts for demonic possession. What little personality they exhibit is easily overridden even by minor Outer Dark entities.
submissive
The submissive type exists in a mental world of extreme self-abnegation and seeks reassurance in unquestioning obedience. He is attracted to Esoterror as a harshly paternalistic authority willing to make all of his choices for him. Submissives thrive on difficult missions and a flagellating sense of sacrifice. They project unresolved feelings toward withholding or psychopathic parents (often of the dominant personality type) onto their Esoterror masters and the high demons of unremitting horror. A submissive seeks to prove himself to the symbolic parent by ably performing his Esoterror duties to. Perversely, he is gratified more by failure and its resulting punishment than by success and praise, which can never fill the yawning chasm at the center of his psyche.
Submissives are the organization’s flunkies and minions. If they mistakenly gain authority by rising within the conspiracy to the level of their incompetence, they become anxiously self- destructive, desperately hoping to be cut down to size. At first blush, this dynamic might seem advantageous to our aims. Ironically, it brings its own set of dangers. A submissive in full self-sabotaging mode can cause great collateral damage. He may recklessly violate the group’s core secrecy principals, endangering the public with open manifestations of the supernatural. The results of these dramatic cell implosions can be fiendishly difficult to veil out.
Though supposedly servile, submissives can be high-maintenance lackeys, requiring constant attention from their co-dependent authority figures. In some dysfunctional Esoterror cells, it is the incessant demands of the allegedly inferior partner that spurs the dominant to action.
Verbal triggers: To crack a submissive, transfer his instinctive servility from his Esoterror masters to you, then employ intimidation or basic interrogation techniques. Beware triggers that treat him as an desirable individual, such as flattery or flirting, or which seek to reassure him. These induce cognitive dissonance, prompting the subject to become uncommunicative.
whose DNA has been mutated in this fashion can be identified on an intensive physical inspection. Look for new and unnatural orifices.
Exofetishists revel in a paradoxical sense of shame regarding their demonic copulation. The forbidden nature of their sexual activities heightens their obsession with it.
Approximately 45% of exofetishists are exposed during early puberty to extreme pornographic images of human-demon sexual contact. They may be recruited by older exofetishists or stumble across the material accidentally. As an OV investigator, you may called upon to roll up Esoterror porn rings, seeking to disseminate this material to impressionable persons as part of a recruiting process.
Verbal triggers: Biologically altered exofetishists fear exposure and imprisonment and respond positively to interrogation and intimidation. Non- alien sexual overtures leave them cold, rendering flirting useless. Consumed by self-loathing, they likewise reject flattery.
Hedonist
The hedonist seeks physical pleasure and the outward trappings of success. He follows the Esoterrorists in exchange for promises of wealth, intoxicants, and an endless parade of supple sexual partners. Hedonists tend to gravitate to the entertainment industry and are used by Esoterror to inject harmful cultural memes into the public consciousness. A hedonist may be a knowing agent of supernatural horror, or may reject talk of occult rituals and demons as so much nonsense. Only the former group, naturally, attains leadership status in any cell. Others are used as cultural tools and discarded when they lose their hold over the public.
Knowing conspirators, like dominants, may pursue the apocalypse lackadaisically, hoping that the end comes long after they depart this mortal coil. They like the world as it is, so long as they’re squeezing all the juice out of it.
Dominants often have a hedonistic streak, but pure hedonists are interested in power only as a Verbal triggers: Ciphers respond with apparent
eagerness toward nearly any verbal approach. Unfortunately, their answers may be influenced by unconscious cues given by the interrogator. The cipher tells you what he thinks you want to hear. A well-honed bullshit detector is required to separate truth from imitative behavior.
sadist
The sadist gratifies himself by inflicting emotional or physical suffering on helpless others. This gratification is usually sexual in nature but may be sublimated beyond recognition. The sadist may be unable to achieve arousal by conventional means. He serves Esoterror in order to gain access to a steady supply of fresh victims. The sadist may be a group leader, or act as a torturer, assassin, or guard. The sadist shares impulses with the beings of the Outer Dark and heavily identifies with them. He may believe, possibly correctly, that a catastrophic membrane event will transform him into an immortal entity of unremitting horror, able to torture innocent victims for all eternity.
Verbal triggers: A sadist may be tricked into revealing his true nature by a display of feigned weakness, using flirting or reassurance techniques. Displays of strength or dominance (intimidation, cop talk) cause him to retreat into his shell.
exofetishist
The exofetishist is an individual of exotic sexual tastes whose physical desires can only be gratified through contact with Outer Dark entities. He is often recruited directly by these malign otherworldy beings. This contact may occur through dreams or via physical manifestation. The exofetishist is then introduced into an existing cell or instructed to build one from the ground up. In the latter instance he is likely to be operational leader of the cell. His controller entity performs the duties of a desk officer in a conventional intelligence agency, directing his efforts to weaken the membrane. After an initial, addictive exposure, the exofetishist’s sexual access to his controller is sharply rationed, ensuring obedience. When congress does occur, it may biologically alter the subject, investing him with demonic traits. Captured exofetishists
More often he spearheads operations of appalling violence, intending to fight until the end of days. Avengers are sometimes victims of unrelenting childhood abuse. Others turn to cosmic vengeance after wrenching setbacks, such as the senseless accidental deaths of multiple loved ones.
Verbal triggers: The avenger rejects attempts to contradict his nihilistic world view, but secretly craves the agreement of others. Open him up through reassurance, by pretending to sympathize with him. Don’t try to negotiate; he’ll string you along and enjoy your suffering.
Quisling
The quisling’s conscience and sense of identity have been irrevocably distorted by contact with the Outer Dark. Convinced that the end of days is nigh, he has thrown his lot in with the servants of unremitting horror. He betrays mankind in the hope that he and his loved ones will be spared the worst ravages of the coming apocalypse. His brush with the other realm may have been accidental but is often part of a targeted recruiting operation. The quisling is often a sleeper agent in a position of influence or authority who is kept in place for years until he is needed for the execution of a sinister plan. His controlling Esoterror cell has probably convinced him—possibly accurately— that the safety of his friends and family depends on his commitment to operational secrecy.
Verbal triggers: If Esoterror is threatening a quisling’s loved ones, you must first reassure him that they will be protected. Attempts to intimidate him fall flat; he is far more afraid of Outer Dark entities than he is of you.
Recruitment
Esoterrorists and their otherworldly allies maintain a constant alert for new disposable pawns. We have identified the following primary means of induction into the Esoterror complex:
in-Cell
The leader of a current cell sets out to find new dupes or knowing accomplices. This scenario offers our best chance for infiltration. Unfortunately, means to luxury and debauchery.
Verbal triggers: Hedonists fear a life of pain and wretchedness, and can be cowed by intimidation or streetwise threats. Accustomed to separating the players from the posers, they can spot insincere flirting and flattery a mile away.