The Archbishops
(Also referred to as the Governate, the Lower Circle, the Office of Pales.)
The leaders and orchestrators who each govern one continent or region and execute the Tower's will therein.
Arz Dominicus
Archbishop,
The Order of the Regis Tenebra
Genus: Umbrood
Nobody knows who--or what--Antarctica's Archbishop is or where he hails from; All that can be discerned is that he--or it--is not of this world.  In the dead of night, for miles around the Anomaly from which he presides, one can hear his grinding howls pealing through the darkness.  When no duty is pending, Arz Dominicus is known to leave the Anomaly and vanish into the hellishly frigid wastelands for days, wallowing in the bleak desolation and bitter solitude.
Jeremiah Velox
Archbishop,
The Order of the Nightmare Fathers
Genus: Mage
Tradition: Nephandus -- Celestial Chorus
barabbi
Not every defrocked clergyman is removed from his office over some heinous transgression.  Conversely, some are dismissed over mere rumors and exaggerations, and these clerics can become the most resentful of them all.  Once there was a Catholic monsignor, aloof and poorly received by his parish yet educated and diligent in his duties.  When accusations flew that some of his implements were of heathen origin, he was loudly branded a Satanist and a pedophile by his detractors.  That fallen priest would become Archbishop Velox, now become more of a monster than his previous accusers could ever imagine.
Mohammed Al'Razhid
Archbishop,
The Order of the Sundered Messiah
Genus: Mage
Tradition: Nephandus -- Ahl-i-Batin
barabbi
Sheikh Mohammed Kijir was once a wealthy merchant-chief and, sadly, one mullah of the many who teach a more hateful version of Islam to the Muslim flocks. His grudge lay with the Majafi steppe tribes, and he persecuted them relentlessly. But he soon succumbed to scarlet fever and lost his eyesight. Believing that Allah had punished him, Kijir went on self-imposed exile into the desert. For two years he was presumed dead, but then he returned... blind, yet he could see the world more clearly than the eagles. Unknown to his kin, he now sees with the eyes of the Slumbering God, and his Islamic teachings have taken an even nastier turn....
Andrew de la Derecha
Archbishop,
The Order of the Eden Hell
Genus: Vampire
Clan: Toreador
antitribu
Antonio del Mar was born into an impoverished Venezuelan town.  By age 14 the suave, charming boy had found an easy way out of his poverty: Dealing cocaine in Caracas. At the age of 24 he murdered his supplier and usurped the business, building a criminal empire founded on cocaine and the broken souls of his many customers.  But a shoot-out with rival drug lords struck him with a brain injury which led to steepening madness.  Three years later he was venting stress by raping and torturing prostitutes, leaving their butchered remains in the jungles.  Septimus Eden came to witness to him then, and he has never looked back.
Anise von Fausthammer
Archbishop,
The Order of Winter's Blade
Genus: Changeling (
Thallain)
Kith: Ogre
Anise Steinmann mysteriously fell to a fit of madness one night; Alerted to the screams, Berlin's polizei burst in to find her parents butchered in their bed and Anise peeling the skin from her brother's corpse. Her only explanation was that she was making "a coat for all gods". Anise spent the rest of her teen years locked away in a home for the criminally insane, until an unknown matron somehow bargained for her release...on terms that Anise be allowed into her custody. The benefactor was Septimus Norikimo, who had sensed Anise's link to the dark side of the Dreaming and who would groom her into a champion for the Ministry....
Theresa H'rusk
Archbishop,
The Order of the Chalice of Dust
Genus: Mage
Tradition: Nephandus -- Celestial Chorus
barabbi
Over ten years ago, Tahira Isimet was ascending the ranks of Egypt's foremost archaeologists and historians.  But Egypt's history had stoked an interest in the occult as well, and a number of artifacts were kept from the museums once she came to suspect their mystic properties. Her life was forever changed when a dig in Ethiopia turned up several pieces of a red obelisk; Once alone, she assembled the obelisk and found herself channeling the soul of H'rusk, a prehistoric Z'Kun mystic who had worshipped a many-eyed destroyer god. Simon Meridius personally contacted her a week later, and she has served the Ministry ever since.
John Onikuroko
Archbishop,
The Order of the Defiler Dragon
Genus: Mage
Convention: Nephandus -- Syndicate
barabbi
Jubei Onikuroko was once the proud chief financial officer of Shiuroko Enterprises, an esteemed international corporation which traded in machine parts.  His initiatives for the company and the ensuing commissions earned him a degree of insight and Enlightenment, later followed with induction into and rank among the Syndicate.  But he could never rise above his position to become vice president; Thus denied of the power he craved, he turned his earnings to founding an Imperialist Shinto sect, and his deepening rancor soon turned his brainchild into a Doomsday cult.  The Ministry "bought out" him and his followers soonafter.