The Enlightened

The Enlightened are a polytheistic religious order from the Architect Verse. They are known to worship all of The Fears, whom they believe to be divine deities that lost some of their power after their leader, "God", was imprisoned in The Gate. Most of their intentions are currently unknown, but they are often known to stalk and prey upon people that have been "Marked", Runners who have had at least one encounter with the Fears and found a marking on their hand shortly afterwards.

Background
The Enlightened can be found in almost every Architect Verse, albeit differing slightly in each one. For some reason they are able to retain their basic beliefs regardless of how different their histories and goals may be in a given universe, a trait that is a mystery even to the Architect himself. The amount of people in the Enlightened varies in each Architect Verse, but every version holds strong connections to the Sentience, an anarchistic cult that worships The Archangel as a deity. It is speculated that their connection comes from the Architect and Pawns being mentioned in the Sentience's holy texts, as well as their shared hatred of the Timberwolves cult.

Kryesor
The Enlightened's origins come from a speaker named Andonsar. A great mind of his time, Andonsar envisioned a brighter future, governed by a cult of "supreme enlightenment". Much influence for The Enlightened's creation came from the infamous Illuminati. The Enlightened may have, at one time, been a branch of the Illuminati in the Architect Verse timeline. Historical evidence and documents suggest that the Enlightened's existence dates as far back as 1200 AD. The Enlightened believe that the Marked are the direct descendants of Andonsar, thus holding a fraction of his DNA, and with it the ability to gain access to The Gate, a passageway from Doom into Kryesor.

In Kryesor, they are an extremist terrorist organization with similar traits to a traditional doomsday cult, believing that their world will crumble at some point in the near future when The Architect is released into Kryesor by the Marked. Although they are extremely secretive to the public and the media, The Enlightened have multiple hidden churches throughout different Architect Verses. Each one of these churches has been blessed by a "High Priest", extremely influential members of the order who are believed to be a prophets sent by The Architect to help "spread Enlightenment" throughout the world. Many of these High Priests are in fact Spoken, who have been sent to regulate and monitor The Enlightened's actions, often manipulating them into doing The Architect's bidding. Several former members of The Brotherhood of Exiles have also defected to the Enlightened in order to escape the war being waged in Doom. This may be caused by them partially retaining a psychic link with their former master, and may explain the reasoning of rogue Pawns, such as Capper, who have done so in recent years.

Trivia

 * The Enlightened are known for their liking of cryptology, generally speaking in letter to number words during communication over Twitter, YouTube or other forms of social media.