Protected by a webbing of obscure religious ordinances, the Fraternity of St. Venefice began life as a guild of assassins specializing in the use of poisons and serving the old Council of Apostles. The Fraternity narrowly survived the Moral Reforms due to its usefulness to the Royal Houses, but during the period degenerated into a band of paid killers. After the Minmatar rebellion, new leadership rooted out the most corrupt members and converted the Fraternity into a specialized counter-insurgency group ready to crush slave revolts, for a price.