Introduction
The Brotherhood of Mutants is a team of mutants dedicated to the cause of mutant superiority. They employ any means necessary to achieve their goals, including violent action against anti-mutant forces. The Brotherhood was founded originally by Magneto, but was thought to have dissolved following his arrest and imprisonment in the wake of the Liberty Island incident that earned them a spot on the FBI's terrorism watch list. In actuality, under the guidance of Regan Wyngarde and then Mystique, they were growing their numbers, and in recent years have been responsible for a string of high profile terrorist incidents and assassinations.
Reputation
xxxxxWhat (if anything) might others have heard about this organization? It is okay if this is 'nothing'; it is also good to specify if they have a reputation but only within a niche field -- for example, maybe it's very likely mutants know about them but they are relatively unknown to humans, or only known among a certain profession or social class, etc. It's possible that different groups know entirely different things about them, and if so, name that as well!
Structure
The Brotherhood operated under Magneto's leadership from its founding until 2015; under the leadership of Regan Wyngarde until the coronavirus epidemic, and has been under Mystique's leadership from spring 2020 to spring 2022. Magneto resumed leadership of the brotherhood after his jailbreak in April 2022. It is a hierarchical organization -- though their recent leadership often listens and takes members' opinions into account, ultimate decision-making power rests at the top.
Daily life in the Brotherhood is not heavily structured. Leadership is not going to be dictating to anyone what their day consists of or how to spend their time. There are some base expectations, though, of all Brotherhood members: that they treat their brethren with respect, that they take Very Seriously the safety and security of the group (including never sharing information about group plans or membership without explicit permission), that they work towards developing their own skills in ways that will be an asset to the group.
Though there are many ways to support the group's goals and it is not required that any individual Brother take on roles in violence/combat that they are not ready for, all Brothers are expected to be able to take care of themselves even if they don't expect to be on the front lines of missions. To this end there are regular training sessions offered on the island by various members of the group -- organized teaching and casual sparring practice offered in some form daily, as well as instruction in basic survival knowledge and more specialized skills offered KIND OF more patchwork as someone with the necessary skillset feels moved to do so.
Spaces
The main base of the Brotherhood currently is an island located in the Lower New York Bay, a couple miles out from Brooklyn. Though there are plenty of mutants capable of flying/teleporting/etc, for those who travel by conventional means the only way to access the Ascension Island base is via boat; the trip back to the city will average between 45m-1.5h, depending on what type of boat they choose and general sailing conditions. The island's dock maintains a number of vessels for common use.
Living on the island is not required for people in the Brotherhood, but anyone who has joined is welcome to obtain a residence on the island if they wish! While there's no rent, here, there is an expectation that anyone living on the island will help out with the chores/maintenance of their shared living space in whatever way they are capable -- there are plenty of options, ranging from gardening to cooking to helping shuttle people to the mainland to tech support to helping with physical security -- it's essentially a tiny town and requires all the appropriate maintenance.
The number of people living on the island at any given time fluctuates, but generally sits somewhere between 75-100 people. Given the level of security they maintain about trespassers, it is a complete impossibility that your character is not familiar with every other person who is allowed on the island within the first couple weeks of residency there: anything else would be considered a pretty severe security risk. (No outsiders are ever allowed on the island for any reason whatsoever without clearing it with leadership first: that is an impossible rule to enforce if nobody knows who is allowed.)
Recruitment
OOC Note: The Brotherhood, as their name suggests, tends to consider themselves more of a family than simply an organization -- though given that they're a group of murderous terrorists, they're the kind of family that won't hesitate to kill you if you betray them. Joining the Brotherhood ICly is a serious commitment, not a day job. While there is room in the faction for a lot of different levels of OOC involvement and no OOC requirement to have any particular level of commitment to scenes and plots, ICly there is no easy way to leave the group once you have joined -- once you know who all these wanted terrorists are, their homes and their secrets, just quitting is not a simple road.
Please take this under serious advisement before joining the faction, as IC desertion or betrayal will very likely be met with severe IC repercussions.
As a terrorist organization, members are ICly vetted before recruitment. The most common way that people join the Brotherhood is to get to know existing BoM members enough to earn their trust and show that they'd be a good fit in terms of both ideology and dependability, and then members can recommend them to leadership for recruitment. Members should not recruit without clearing it ICly with leadership first, as ICly the wrong recruit can be an enormous danger to the entire faction by way of law enforcement and/or death.
The second, much less common way to get recruited is to do something notable to come to the Brotherhood's attention. Please note, before going off and bombing anything, that this requires several components: a) the incident needs to be ICly significantly newsworthy (don't forget to actually make the relevant newsposts!); b) it needs to be very explicitly and conscientiously done to make a statement in defense of mutants/mutant rights, not just A Random Crime; and c) people already in the Brotherhood need to know, OOCly, that your intention is to have your character recruited, and agree that your plan makes sense.
No matter what path you are taking to Brotherhood recruitment, it is important to let Brotherhood members know OOCly once you start down that path so that they can help make the process smoother and help with your faction change!
Roster
- Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto) - Founder, current leader.
The Brotherhood is not a large organization. While there are a number of friendly/sympathetic associates scattered around New York and the world who BoM leadership can call on for assistance in a pinch (safehouses, resources, etc.), the actual membership of the group numbers below two hundred mutants worldwide, all of which were hand-picked by one of their leaders and the vast majority of which still today reside in and around New York. Somewhere around half of these live on the island; most of the rest live in and around New York City.
Important Events
Terrorisms:
- 10 April 2023 - Starting just before midnight on Easter Sunday, a series of simultaneous explosions at the private residences of HAMMER officials killed multiple high-ranking officers of the DHS organization and injured Captain Malthus Rogers. The Brotherhood of Mutants has claimed credit for this attack. In a pre-recorded statement sent to law enforcement, Erik Lensherr, who escaped from HAMMER custody last year, advised HAMMER to give up the search for him: "If you want to be free of Magneto, you have the tools to do so -- when mutants everywhere are free, the Brotherhood will no longer be necessary." Law enforcement traced the origin of the video to an deserted military compound in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, that locals maintain has been abandoned since the late 70s.
- 09 April 2022 - The BoM attack and free Magneto, along with a number of other prisoners, from HAMMER custody.
- 14 February 2022 - The BoM attack multiple Mutant Affairs Division Registry offices using OsCorp Guardians to detonate and destroy the facilities. No human casualties in these attacks, though a number of human staff are injured. The first director of the Mutant Affairs Division, Lance Fagan, is assassinated the same night.
- 24 August 2020 - The BoM attack the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, using Sentinels to assassinate House Representative Steve Scalise (R-La.), Representative Jim Jordon (R-Oh.), Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, and Mark and Patricia McCloskey of St. Louis. Sentinels are recalled in the aftermath, replaced by OsCorp Guardian robots in most jurisdictions until 2022.
- January 2015 - Liberty Island. The Brotherhood of Mutants attack a gathering of diplomats in New York City. The resulting furor kicks anti-mutant sentiment to a record high, right in the middle of election season. Magneto is arrested. SHIELD forms in response to this mutant terrorism. Senator R. Kelly is quietly replaced by Mystique.
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