Once the time came when our Court grew in numbers unmanageable, and power just the same, the decision was made to elect a leader. This was to prevent stagnation, dissent, and infighting amongst our great family. To that end, we manufactured a position of respect and control: the Voice of the Court. Elected by our elite members to speak for us as one whole and make the final decision on matters voted on by the council.Looking through our history, it is interesting to track our actions and goals against those individuals elected as the Voice. It is with these decided-upon appointments that our victories and losses can be measured, as well as our gradual descent into what some may call self-serving barbarianism. Whispers will say that we have been lured away from our original purpose as dignified owls to feral vultures, though power can be claimed and kept through many methods. Perhaps Gotham City has become a mere carcass, that which remains ours to pick from as we chose. Voices of dissent, for this reason, are seldom heard.Jacob Kane is military minded, as the rest of his family. Together he, his second, The Echo, and his close council guide us to permanence in the wreckage of Gotham. Madness and violence have claimed our otherwise civilized land. It is with fire, he thinks, that we should fight fire. Agreement reigns throughout the court. It is unlikely our ways will change with Jacob at the helm.Truffles has been assigned to The Voice of the Court.

Thomas Wayne's eldest son from mistress Panya Flerko was meant to be exterminated and forgotten under the parliament's direction, however, Arthur would come to prove himself not only a worthy heir of the Wayne empire, but a concern to the Court. Through strategic budget cuts, chance subway interactions, media plants, and lapses in surveillance at key locations such as Wayne Hall and Gotham Metropolitan General Hospital, we created a hurricane known as "Joker."Joker would escape Arkham State Hospital and prove himself impervious to every seismic shift. His influence is formidable. He cannot go unbridled or we risk history repeating itself. The Court will instill a sense of purpose, of power and rejuvenation to guide his path to glory with a short leash. Do not allow him to believe that power is his own. Should he turn against the Court, it will spell disaster.Arthur and Phoenix Wayne serve in Thomas and Martha Wayne's place in exchange for Bruce Wayne's life. He suffers from Bipolar-Type Schizoaffective Disorder, Complex-Post Trauma, Pseudobulbar Affect, and Dyslexia. These untreated impairments leave him both unpredictable and disconnected from reality. Do hide clauses in any document he is required to sign and do not allow Phoenix access to them. Punishment for disobedience is admission to Arkham State Hospital until the Court sees it fit to aid his escape.*Arthur is the sole Court member who is not required to be masked.Archimedes (renamed "Jareth" by the family as a pet) has been assigned to the Wayne family.

Through their influence within the political sphere, the Cobblepot's have given us cause for significant and numerous victories. Countless mayors of Gotham throughout history have shared the name and blood, including most recently Theodore Cobblepot, who enjoyed a record-setting tenure during his life.Originally having risen to power as steel barons with a monopoly on the industry, they quite literally provided Gotham City's very bones, and continue to today. Our iconic skyline has been constructed from the ground up by them, cementing the Court of Owls' DNA into the structure of all you see.Since then. further ventures have been branched out into to expand the Cobblepot's empire and influence. Many members of the family have proven themselves savvy leaders, with a feet-on-the-ground attitude that would allow us eyes into any corner of the city... were every family member currently playing their part as they should. Oswald, business owner and a man of deceit, doesn't play along as he should. His mother, Constance, is a high-standing member of our Court, and represents the family at every function. Close to disregarding the son she never wanted all together, we very well may be able to cut off our loose end soon.For now, Oswald and his works will be handed over to Phoenix Wayne, once she is ready to perform the overseeing of Cobblepot's expansion by way of his latest and most-loved venture, The Iceberg Lounge.Elvis has been assigned to the Cobblepot family.

Having founded the Gotham Herald, the Elliot's, to put it simply, have controlled the gates to information in the city since the very beginnings of its existence. This makes them invaluable.The Herald is regaled as a respectable paper to the uninitiated and ignorant, but the Court has had call in the past: having stories pulled or rewritten in a new light to make the truth a more palatable form of part-fiction.In the last one-hundred years, the Elliot's have taken the lead in the telephonic boom in Gotham, stealing further influence by collecting the city's information over telephone lines. Television, too, is under their careful hand; beaming messages straight into the homes of Gotham's residents and beyond. Naturally we take advantage of such chances when required, but we do not play our whole hand unless it is of the utmost importance.Because of this, the current Elliot patriarch is a relative vault of secrets capable of destroying this city. Under normal circumstances, no single person would be allowed to live with such wide-reaching knowledge, but the Elliot's are a founding family, and their loyalty is beyond reproach.Contrary to that otherwise firm belief, the Court has had to rid the world of a one Thomas Elliot, before is self-serving ways gave cause for an exposure from which we may not have recovered. Thomas was the eye on the Wayne's some forty-or-so years ago, and discovered the Wayne patriarch's affair with one of his employees, Penny Fleck. From this affair came now-court-member Arthur Wayne, whose importance to our cause over his younger brother cannot be overstated. Thomas Wayne was given leave to organise Elliot's end.Minerva has been assigned to the Elliot family.

For a long period of time, the Clark family was of little significance to us. It was the Cobblepot's who lobbied for their invitation, citing that their son Barclay Clark's artwork would one day hold critical renown. Keen as ever, they were correct. Barclay's work soon would claim him international fame and wealth, touring the finest galleries in Europe and Asia thereafter. His influence hangs in every museum, art gallery, and fine establishment in Gotham City. Even where we, the Court, were not present.With shared dreams of a continuous, undying, and bettered Gotham, the Clark family pledged their allegiance to us for generations, and still to this day some few remain on our council and within our trust. However, such might not have been had one Erastus, grandson of the aforementioned Barclay, had his way.Erastus thought he could expose our work to the greater populace, believing that we had become single-minded, brutal in our methods of survival and control. He had not the understanding that in order to save Gotham we needed to become Gotham.Erastus, once his betrayal was revealed to us, was swiftly dealt with, with the cooperation of his family, who still serve alongside us to this day.Ginger has been assigned to the Clark family.

The Monroe family has served the Court since its founding. Today, Kathryn Monroe is among our highest-ranking members. She acts as the liaison between us and Dr. Hugo Strange at Arkham State Hospital. She was instrumental in his recruitment and secures Dr. Strange's funding through her contacts in Wayne Investments' Board of Directors. She is primarily responsible for ejecting Bruce Wayne and supplanting him with Court member and true heir to the fortune, Arthur Wayne.Kathryn oversees operations both within Arkham State Hospital and Wayne Investments. She is responsible for making the arrangements should Court members Arthur and Phoenix Wayne be held in contempt of the parliament. She also directed the Falcone Crime Syndicate until The Roman's demise in 2022.By day, Kathryn heads Gotham's Department of Health, which has been defunded since 2019.Skittles has been assigned to the Monroe family.

C.C. "Pop" Haly and the Norton brothers founded Haly's Circus in 1940, a traveling show that tours throughout the United States and Europe. Their main attraction is their Big Top, featuring adrenaline-pumping performances by renowned acrobats, both formerly trained and trained on-site with the traveling circus. Haly's also has a rather extensive midway that features various food vendors, amusements, and rides. When in our city, the circus is of course found at Amusement Mile.To provide such an artifice and make the money that his son, Court member Garrison Haly, does on our land, however, there has to be a toll. Loyal as he's been since the very beginning, Haly has faltered none in providing us with the dues we require.Our Talons' turnover can be high and significant. Haly has a penchant for collecting wayward youth on his travels, and teaching them the ways of working on the road. Upon arrival in Gotham, those deemed suitable are taken under our care. In return, we allow his and his circus' continued existence.Popcorn has been assigned to the Haly family.

While lesser known, and a family to enjoy their invisibility, the Crowne's have played a vital role in the Court's growth, even if on occasion such was an accident.Current matriarch of the family, Amelia, is the lead on Gotham's Board of Education. Her task is to keep the city's education at a level we find suitable. Such a job she performs well and in-keeping with our needs. The Crowne's are ever-accommodating and worth their salt. We most recently welcomed Amelia's husband into our fold.When Amelia was faced with a marriage proposal from one William Cobb, she refused. This sent Cobb, an otherwise unknown denizen of Gotham, into a spiral of rage and violence, which soon caught our attention. Now Amelia's rejected paramour has risen through our Talon ranks. He is our most deadly Gladiator, trusted with the Voice's life.AMELIA DEAD, LIKELY BY AN INSIDER. WE MUST WEED OUT THE MURDERING ROT IN OUR COURT.Woodsy has been assigned to the Crowne family

Originally eyed for our previous incarnation of Project Polias, Phoenix Wayne (née Degraves) has been beneath the Court's watchful eye since she was a child. Her father has been a thorn in our side for just as long, seeking to protect the only family he has left after the devastating car bomb that wiped his wife and son from the face of the earth. Chief Inspector Degraves - then a mere Detective - declined our offer to take in his youngest, living, and criminally insane child for our cause. Phoenix first proved herself lethal at age thirteen, and continued on said trajectory even without our input. Despite her father's meddling, however, we have since staked our claim on the woman.Aided by her marriage to other person of interest Arthur Wayne, we were able to sequester and offer them their rightful positions. Though not one of our feral children as once we'd hoped, she's held in high esteem on our Council, and has all the ferality we require nonetheless. Incarceration, nor Skizm's claim on her body, mind, and soul (partly our orchestration anyway), nor her so-called "domestication" through marriage and family, has not put a dampener on her fire.Whether she fully understands the extent of our reach throughout her life or not, she has been one of use for decades already and is now our face for public consumption.Archimedes (renamed "Jareth" by the family as a pet) has been assigned to the Wayne family.

It is impossible to overstate the impact that the Arkham bloodline has had on Gotham's rich history. In the beginning, one Ezekiel Arkham held the role as one of the founders of the settlement that would one day grow into our city. One of the family's more recent additions has been Amadeus Arkham's founding of the most renowned Arkham State Hospital. The name, their blood, and the city are forever bound.Originally, it was said the Arkham's settled in what is now Gotham City in search of medicinal plants that could have benefits in promising longer life. From that, their ambitions grew from simplistic medical suppliers, to a robust pharmaceutical company, ere of course the family's history with madness turned their attention toward psychology.This history and their pursuits made the Arkham's continuously formidable within the Court's great ranks. Though there are no Arkham's by name or blood now on our Court, the influence of their psychological approach to problems solving remains key to our continued influence over legal and industrial leadership.Buttons has been assigned to the Arkham family.

Military industrialists. Our dear Kane's know the dreaded, grisly business of conflict unlike anyone else on the Court or otherwise. Given old Jacob's current position as our Voice, it is no surprise that the family has made great use of their knowledge, acting continually as council to the Voice in matters involving any dispatching of our Talons, feral or Polias-built, for their work.Though whispers will tell you that the family is quick to anger and often embittered by more personal slights, no action has ever made threat to our Court's existence. Taking down competition and wielding the Talons as if they were a personal army often has little to do with our shared goals and ideas, but no actions have or ever will endanger us. The Kane's are trusted wholly with this power. The Voice has our continued survival always at the forefront of his mind.This arrangement makes perfect sense, particularly given the current climate and state of things. Turbulence continues, but we stand strong.Pudge has been assigned to the Kane family.

Joseph and his wife Maria Powers are senior Court members and take residence in Gotham's most exclusive real estate and Court nest: The Orchard Hotel. Hotels across the city, including the derelict Atlantic Bay, fall under Powers family ownership. Maria also operates the art gallery run out of The Orchard Hotel's ground floor.The Powers family hosts numerous nests for the parliament.Maria, like many members of our parliament, hides in plain sight. She can be distinguished by the plumage on her shoulders, an open coat which resembles wings, clawed nails, and a necklace referencing the eyes and beak of an owl.Tootsie has been assigned to the Powers family.

Though the Court will always have an elected leader to speak for us as one whole and make the final decision on matters voted on by the Council, it would be far from prudent to operate without a contingency plan in place.Following the election of our Voice, a second election takes place to elect the Court's second Voice, the Echo, who must remain anonymous at all costs until the individual assumes their role as the Voice. The Echo will work alongside The Voice to ensure continuity, however The Voice and The Echo must never travel together.The Echo and his close Council under the direction of The Voice will guide us to permanence in the wreckage of Gotham.Coco has been assigned to The Echo.

Having made their fortune running Gotham City's Ferry Service, and having been noted as the city's first real estate magnates, the Wycliffe's know virtually every inch of this city's housing and development. Seeing its early potential, they acquired several key plots in what would become Downtown Gotham, before spreading their wings north to almost every acre. They were at the forefront of the city's industrial boom in the 1800's, and such made them invaluable to us.The Wycliffe family helped to secure the very foundations on which our Court is built, and subsequently began flourishing from in the 19th century. The family may not command the same level of respect as our dear Founders, but there are few who can claim to have played such a major role in our continued successes.Command of the Wycliffe's seat on the Court has recently been past from Bridget to her son, Augustus.Beau has been assigned to the Wycliffe family.

Oil Barons. Over the generations, the Moody family has used their vast fortune to support Gotham's artistic community. The Palace Theatre has forever had the potential to become the epicentre of Gotham's arts scene, making its proprietor a natural fit for the court. Having this sort of influence specifically is paramount to shaping the culture of our great city, and the Court's substantial backing has helped to raise the Palace's profile considerably. Some of the greatest sought-after talent has performed within our city's bounds.Pierson Moody, the family's long-dead patriarch loved Gotham down to its bones, and paid little attention to our inner workings. Perhaps it was ignorance, or sought-after peace. Since his passing, his family grows closer to our inner circle, involving themselves in more than Pierson could have imagined.Such blooming loyalty has not come without its pitfalls, however. The breakdown of current patriarch Atticus' marriage to Rosalind was high-profile, and something of a threat to our secrecy. Fortunately, however, Rosalind took the children with her upon vanishing. The money won in the settlement, as agreed by us, was all she required to disappear into the world, at our mercy. Should we hear from her again, it will only be the one time.Atticus and his new wife, Grace, are to be kept close to the fold, as it's thought she isn't entirely comfortable in Court. A repeated failure on Atticus' part will not be condoned.Errol has been assigned to the Moody family.

While the Waynes will forever be seen as the Founding Family of Gotham City, it took them many years to accept our invitation to become members of the Court. Initially, we existed as two sides of the same one: one representing the stick while the other, the proverbial carrot. The Waynes, however, have been known to lack vision, and perhaps the courage to do what's necessary. That was, of course, until Alan Wayne joined our ranks.The architect was the first to build our nests into Gotham’s infrastructure by eliminating the thirteenth floor from every building and allowing just enough hidden space for us to convene in comfort. He was the first individual in the history of architecture to do so. His designs also feature owls perched among the mouldings. We were so pleased with his work, we fostered the Alan Wayne Trust for Assisting Young Architects: a front means for progressive additions to Gotham’s skyline. Each funded building’s hidden thirteenth floor belongs to us. Every 10 years for the past two hundred years, another building has been erected for us.Our relationship with Alan, however, came to a disappointing demise. He became grotesquely vocal of our presence and fear mongered to all within range. He resorted to boarding his windows to seal himself inside, but it proved futile. Urban legend believes Alan Wayne jumped into the sewers, never to be seen again. In truth, a Talon was sent for his head. As per our tradition, he was stabbed fifty times and left to decompose in the sewer. All that could identify him were his dental records.Many years later, Thomas Wayne proved himself a nuisance. He rejected the ways of the Court. Believed he could fundamentally “change” Gotham by parting ways with us and going rogue. He donated one billion dollars to a the Gotham Renewal Fund, which according to his will was intended to reshape infrastructure and eliminate the likes of us and our established order. We knew of his son. He was warned not to speak too broadly or we would send the false prophet to supersede him. Thomas thought himself above the Court. He acted upon his own will, we raised the devil in his forgotten son, Arthur “Joker” Wayne. Joker subverted all Thomas was trying to achieve and returned the city to a state of controlled pandemonium.Bruce Wayne, the younger heir, locked himself away in his tower instead of taking action. Decades have passed and still the parliament has decided that his older brother has the will and the influence to bend the city to his will; that he is worthy of the Wayne legacy and a position within the Court. We have taken every precaution to keep Bruce a far distance from us and have sentenced him to death, however Court member Arthur made his terms maddeningly clear:Under no circumstance are Talons permitted to exterminate Bruce Wayne. The consequences internally would be too dire should Arthur turn.