"Ad Arbitrarium"
In Atlas there is a word that is shared among high society. "Ad arbitrarium", or "at pleasure". The word refers to do things at one's own pursuit of pleasure. This word means far more though for the exclusive party known as the Arbitrarium. Known for being adorned in purple during events such as parties held by high ranking politicians or military leaders, they are known for being incredibly generous. Philanthropists, a whole group of anonymous philanthropists. Some members of high society are widely known to be a member, while some among the Arbitrarium have their identities remain a secret.
They are however by no means very famous, and for good reasons, they are not known very well by most of civilization outside of Atlas. Their activities have always been for the sake of Atlas, and are closely affiliated with companies in Atlas such as the Schnee Dust Company. Their methods have always been far more pragmatic than their activities at gatherings would suggest. They are said to have a private army of assassins, espionage agents, androids and more. Their funding comes from the incredibly wealthy members of the Arbitrarium, and some illegal activities. Some of their members are said to be directly involved with creating Atlas' Fearless Army, and the Altesian Knight line of androids.
SymbolThe Ad Arbitrarium rarely show their symbol, in fact it's not on any of their clothing or uniforms. They use their seal only when sending out messages, such as the wax seal of a letter. Their
symbol is a masquerade mask with one side elongating like butterfly wings. If representing them is required, purple and gold colours for uniform or clothing are what they usually use.
History Their founding predates Atlas' current governmental system, but it is unknown when exactly, and were said to once be the ones who ruled Atlas, before a more people-friendly government was put into place by the leader of the Arbitrarium at the time. It was also a bloody time for the Arbitrarium. Many within the organization were corrupted by the control they had over the populace and opposed the decision. They over the course of a month were killed by another founding within the Arbitrarium, their secret service of assassins, who proved to be incredibly skilled and efficient at their work. Thus began a new age for Atlas. The leader of the Arbitrarium at this time had kept his name secret, and even now is unrecorded in history, but he is heralded as the founder of the council system Atlas uses today.
The technology that Atlas is known for was not actually a result of Arbitrarium activity despite many claims, but they did support it from the shadows. The founder of robotics by the name Irvine Argyros in Atlas was funded mysteriously during his early years, it appears one of the Arbitrarium believed in his research. It paid off however, and eventually it took off, and he became so supported by the government that he no longer needed funding from his Arbitrarium supporter. Though he passed away roughly a decade and a half later, when dissidents within Atlas were displeased with him due to destroying their chances of commiting crime. This only created the opposite effect however, where weapons research for robotics truly took off in response to his death, and crime was stomped out with literally an iron fist.
During The War though, they participated greatly in the service of Atlas, helping develop the Cross Continental Transmit System, though many of their members were not interested in this, because their interests were more for Atlas than the rest of the world. Nevertheless, they could not oppose the decision to assist, due to it meaning peace and thus the benefit of Atlas. Their numbers during this War were great, and were part of the reason weapons are so advanced today. A testament to this is the Crocea Mors wielded by Jaune's great great grandfather, inspired by some of Atlas' transforming weapons developed at the time, thanks to their robotics and transforming technologies, during this War, other nations began inventing their own. Though it has been many many years since the first, and now in a time of peace, development of weapons has overlapped in style, leading to some weapons using innovations originated from Vacuo and Mistral at the same time and so on. Some weapons are still styled to their country of origin, such as Weiss' rapier with the dust system, something developed within Atlas. The War, was where many of it's members and divisions gained the most prestige, to be brief, they reaped the spoils of war.
The Faunus Rights Revolution had surprisingly little involvement with the Arbitrarium, only providing them scouts and other clandestine assistance, but no open support like androids, due to a majority of combat taking place far from Atlas' borders, though the Arbitrarium did assist the Schnee Dust Company in defending against any clandestine attempts to sabotage them.
Though now dead, a member of the Arbitrarium supported the White Fang during their early years, as he believed them to be an organization that could bring peace, this very same member also pulled some strings to push a more peaceful end to the war with the Faunus. He was killed by his own Arbitrarium colleagues when they found out about his indepedent actions. This though sped the evolution of the White Fang into the terrorist organization it is known as today. It is suspected there are still some Arbitrarium involvement in White Fang, but obviously without their knowledge, and possibly to push some other agenda, or use the White Fang somehow.
AdministrationThe organization is under direct control by a leader, or at least that's how it has been shown. Though there are times where certain members will have their own agenda. An agenda that is not in favour of Atlas however, is frowned heavily upon, and will often result in death. They live by their code, "Ad Arbitrarium", which means "at pleasure". This was after all, an organization originally founded by the richest among Atlas' people before the council system used today was founded. This means far more today however, it is no longer just their own pleasure, but the people's pleasure too, as well as the pleasure of helping others.
MembersTheir members remain largely a mystery, but billionaire and CEO of Gilford Technologies, Charles Gilford has been identified as a member, as well as CEO of fashion company Violette Apparel in Atlas, Celestine Violette. People believe Celestine may be the leader due the dominance she has when the Arbitrarium becomes involved in anything at all, however she has denied these claims. If this is true, then the leader has never appeared before the people, or has been hiding among the 'normal' members. Some suspect that this leader is far more cunning, and chooses not to even appear, and using the members more as a relay for what he or she wishes to do. In any case, only two members have been identified out of what appears to be five members who have appeared before Atlas so far.
Though this is only the upper echelon, the leaders of the assassins and scientific divisions of the Arbitrarium remain largely a secret. Only the Arbitrarium themselves, and some members of the more restricted areas of Atlas military know some of their identities due to having fought and worked alongside one another from time to time.
That is not to say the main members though, are incapable of combat themselves. Charles Gilford has established himself as a skilled duelist, and uses the rapier, a popular style of weapon within Atlas' high class, one that Weiss Schnee also uses, though Charles uses a very different configuration, one that accentuates a single strike to win the duel, rather than dust magic.
It is actually suspected that James Ironwood may be a member, but these rumours have little ground to them beyond James being a man of great wealth and power. As he is involved directly with the Altesian Knights line of androids, it can be confirmed that he has had support from the Arbitrarium, which makes sense considering their motivations align.
MethodologyThe Arbitrarium are very clandestine when it comes to their black ops. Pragmatic to a fault, they want results, that's what they pay and train their various divisions for. They have a special Hunters division, made up of people who are trained as Hunters for their own personal clandestine use. Some jobs need Grimm taken care of after all, not people.
Though that is in the shadows of their organization. Out in the open, they are seen as philanthropists, continuously supporting the community and becoming great friends with the rich and wealthy. They use their money to help the people, and use their black ops and military assets to help the rich and wealthy. They are a neutral force within Atlas, but will always side with the one with Atlas' best interests in mind, for this is their home.
AssetsThe assets that the Arbitrarium are incredibly vast within Atlas. Their connections run through the most and least well known parts of Atlas, the highest to the lowest. The most powerful, to even the least powerful.
Excluding connections, the assets in their direct control is the companies run by the members, such as Charles Gilford's tech company, and Celestine Violett's fashion company, and possibly more, as not all members have been identified, this is of course including the wealth that comes with it.
Shared among them is their secret assassins, R&D, special Hunters division, and special androids.
Among the unmanned division are a few different android model series, they are as follows the Libitum, Mortem, Lucus, Undas series and the incredibly powerful Infinitum and Ciphra models. Infinitum and Ciphra models are highly classified and have never seen combat yet, but the other three series have been seen in clandestine settings, or within Atlas itself.
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The Libitum models are the most common ones, and are great as anti-personnel, scouts, or bodyguards depending on their equipment. They recently upgraded to the Libitum M4 with thermal tech and can use Dust to generate shields. They were made based off of the Altesian Knights and thus also possess similar capabilities and weapons, and their name means "liberty". They in battle bear the colours of the Arbitrarium, but can come in camo and other more practical colours for combat.
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The Mortem models are the stealth models, very fragile, even by the standard Libitum settings, but faster and come with an active camoflauge no matter the model. These models have seen the least amount of upgrades, usually to utilities such as vision and stealth upgrades, as most of their upgrades are in their weapons, favouring sniper rifles or smaller blades. Their name means "death". This series specifically is coloured black and dark gray.
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The Lucus models are on almost every single bodyguard or defense detail. They come with improved dust shield generators similar to the Libitum models, but basically someone at R&D went 'I could make really really powerful shields', and so they did. This however means they cannot equip many offensive weapons, most just only having the rifles. They have weak constitution, making them fairly useless in a fight alone. Their name means "light", due to the appearance of the dust shields. This series is specifically coloured beige and white.
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The Undas models are the meat of any defense for the Arbitrarium. Upgrades to armor and missile systems are what they see most, and recently to deal with being slow, wheels have been developed for them to move quickly through urban environments. They closely resemble some of Atlas' heavier arsenal. Their name means "hell". They bear similar colours that Libitum models may.
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The Infinitum model is experimental, humanoid, intelligent, versatile, like creating a new warrior, rather than mass produced machines to fulfill specific roles. There is only one Infinitum Model, and that is the Project X. X representing infinite possibilities.
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The Ciphra model is made from the same research as the Infinitum model, but was created to be without independence, and to be superior to the Infinitum model in every way besides free thought. There is only one Ciphra model, and that is the Project Z. Zero, representing the very opposite to infinite.
SizeUpper Echelon, or the very ruling members of this organization consist of possibly up to 7, while commanding officers are around several in number, with two research heads and four Hunter division commanders. Under each of them is at least 50 soldiers, going as much as 200 for the bigger divisions, while research has a total of around 35 members. The Hunters have 8 teams of four, totalling to 32 hunters.
This is not including the 'unmanned division', which consists of a base of 1000 android units, and more can be produced if required. Their numbers were said to number in the thousands during The War, and half of that during the Faunus Rights Revolution. Though this is a time of peace and not open war, so their numbers are more reasonable, but in preparation of another conflict, they have been developing for their unmanned division, in case they need to produce more soldiers to aid Atlas.
Largely, they either use their android units, and mercenaries for certain work, to give mercenaries work, or to exercise and test their androids. They are a needlepoint organization, not one that relies more on brute force or terrorism like the White Fang.
Stances and ViewsThe stances and views of the Arbitrarium is openly in favour of Atlas. They oppose the White Fang like many, it is believed that most of them are not favorable to Faunus in general though, as is the popular view of many in the world. Charles and Celestine have openly supported the peace that they have, and support the destruction of the White Fang.
Present InvolvementsPresently they are involved closely with the military of Atlas, James Ironwood, and the Schnee Dust Company, as a helping hand, which is a little strange, and different to being partners. Again, they are a neutral force, and would assist or do anything for the benefit of Atlas. They have suspected involvement with the White Fang and using them towards some agenda despite their open opposition to the White Fang, some even believe they directly control the Ruling Council, but there has been little evidence to prove it.
They have some small influence in Vale, which makes sense. Occasionally theirs and Vale's Hunters will cooperate on missions, or even in classrooms from time to time. If they feel generous, would be willing to aid in their defense too.
FearsSome fear that the Arbitrarium may become too powerful, and return to the old days of high-class rule before the implementation of the Council system Atlas now uses. Considering the amount of influence, wealth, and assets that they control, these fears are not unfounded.
They have over the many years become subject to a large amount of conspiracies, such as that they can instigate a war, influence worldwide figures, and the most common one... That they are the ones who are really in control of Atlas.
Other/TriviaDuring the month where corrupt Arbitrarium leaders and members were killed in the lead up to the council system implementation, the leader of the assassins was believed to be a beastkin. A few documents were found detailing one or two of the kills, and it suggests night vision, that "they had nowhere to run, for the darkness cannot hide them", implying that the assassin could see in the dark.
Despite anti-beastkin stances, the Arbitrarium takes in and supports many beastkin orphans through their philanthropy, and are very willing to have beastkin warriors under their command, whether it be their assassin divisions or Hunters. The Arbitrarium are pragmatic when it comes to their assets, so this makes sense.
