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The Trust (AH.com Eternals)
The Eternals' Trust was founded in 1569, by Bosch, Timothy, Jesci and other Eternals, with its headquarters, main vault and archives at Lausanne in Switzerland. The Trust consists of the member Eternals, a large number of “Trustee” Ephemerals, and an even larger roster of employees who do not know who they are really working for. Over the centuries, The Trust has slowly grown, diversified and modernized. It now has branches throughout the world.
The Trust's goal is to identify and aid all eternals, by providing financial and other support and sponsoring various long-term projects. Its largest operation is to maintain and safeguard eternals' money and personal effects from one cover identity to another, and to produce new covers as needed to maintain the Masquerade. Following that is the ongoing effort to locate new eternals and any older ones that have escaped notice (Peter was the first of those in the last hundred and fifty years).
The Trust encounters problems informing eternals, or even finding some. Many eternals are recluses that live bored and alone in deserts with memories and minds crumbling. Other eternals are afraid they'll get “found out” and purposely escape the trust. Mark Faire was known to the Trust since the mid-1800s but they never actually got to contact him until 2012.
The Trust, through front corporations, has sponsored genetic research and other attempts to understand the cause of immortality. One revelation of this genetic work has been that G'Len and many other of the elder immortals are distant ancestors of all currently living humans, and that G'Len himself is the direct male-line ancestor of much of the population of western Europe. These corporations are also the Trust's main source of revenue, which averages to just above 50 million USD / year / member eternal, in 2010 currency.
During the Cold War, the Trust considered the possibility that the Earth might be rendered inhospitable to life, and arranged the construction of the Runaway, a nuclear-pulse Orion spacecraft, to evacuate the Trust membership in the event of nuclear war. In the 1970's, the Trust suborned two Russian space probes bound for Mars to establish a small base (The Cave) on the planet. Since then, Macarius and Nicolet, the two eternals at the base, have dug a permanent habitat - aided by several further supply drops from Earth, which were covered up as lost satellites. The Cave will become impossible to hide with higher-resolution imaging of Mars by NASA spacecraft, and the Trust is currently voting if the Masquerade should be ended or not.
On occasion, the Trust has also dispensed justice against eternals. The most prominent case was that of the Blood Knight, who was consigned to burial in an oceanic trench as punishment for murdering 22 eternals, five of whom have not yet been located and revived, and at least five thousand ephemerals. Gregorios has recently petitioned for the Blood Knight to be excavated, with a view towards potential rehabilitation and to aid in locating the missing victims and potentially other victims that were unknown at the time of the original conviction.
Insignia of The Trust
The official insignia of The Trust. It is described thusly: “An hourglass crossed with an infinity symbol. Note that the infinity symbol crosses with the hourglass at the glass neck connecting the two bulbs. Thus, the sand inside is stopped in both directions and the measurement of time becomes meaningless: A symbol for the natural immortality of Eternals worldwide. It also highlights the grimmer implications of the gift of immortality - i.e. time still flows, eras and individuals come and go, societies change. And over time, you lose everything and everyone you knew and loved. Aging may have stopped for the Eternals, but time itself hasn't stopped - and the Eternals have to learn how to live with that.”