Founding and Organization of Luminis Mundi
Luminis Mundi was founded in the early 13th century by a dozen counselors of reigning Kings, Queens, and an Emperor. They were the most highly educated men on the planet at that time. During their careers they had all come to realize that their personal fortunes, and that of their lords and their kingdoms, gained in wealth and power with each step forward in the well-being of the general populace. They also knew that total control of large territories tended, in the long term, to result in stagnation, followed by unnecessarily long periods of rebuilding.
They resolved to use their power to assist scientific and artistic advances. They resolved to think and plan in terms ranging from weeks and months, to centuries and millenia. Knowing that wars were inevitable, they resolved to use them to balance the competing ideologies of their rulers.
In one month's time, they established a system for bringing new members into Luminis Mundi which is still followed today. Every year children from all over the world, picked for genetic diversity and high probabilities of intelligence and creativity, are taken from their parents at birth. They are raised by a series of nannies and moved from mansion to mansion in secluded locations. They are tutored by the leading scientists and artists in every field of human interest.
They learn mathematics, biology, philosophy, propaganda, literature. They learn fencing, aikido, ballroom dance, and can play several musical instruments. They can build furniture, fix automobile engines, and arrange flowers. They are gourmet chefs and distillers of moonshine. They speak at least five languages and can engage in animated discussion with the most intelligent people on the planet. They can also tell a good joke.
By eight years old, the number of recruits is cut by half. By sixteen years, another half. At eighteen, another half, but from these are picked many of the first tier puppets. Only one young adult becomes fully vested in Luminis Mundi every five years.
Members of Luminis Mundi do not communicate with each other. They do not have parties together on yachts. They do not engage in ritual sacrifices in the candle-lit dungeons of Medieval castles. They do not call each other or send each other letters. They don't email or text each other. Members of Luminis Mundi do not know each other's identities.
Luminis Mundi is a conspiracy of values and ideals, not one of people.They value the expansion of human thought and creativity.
An Example
The Black Plague was an unexpected setback, but commoners saw that priests had no special defense against the disease, thus religion's grip on the uneducated mind was loosened. Luminis Mundi found it easier to fund the investigations of scientists and scholars. The direct result was the Renaissance period.
A Struggle Begins
They do not communicate with each other, but they can feel each other tapping, pulling, and threading the strands of the global network of people, governments, and corporations. Some of them hold strong to the original resolutions of the founders. Others use their power for personal gain. Over hundreds of years a precarious balance was maintained, until the common upbringing led to a shared conclusion among the Lumini of the early 19th century: the exploding population of the planet, driving over-consumption of resources and disposal of waste products, was likely to lead to a massive population crash within 300 years.
The web of control stayed together but began stretching in two different directions. One group believed that an acceleration of the population crash was the only way to save enough resources for extending the life of humanity itself. The other group believed that advances in technology and education would enlighten the lower classes and they would self-limit reproduction.
By the 1970's it was a foregone conclusion that humans would not limit reproduction in a timely manner. It had become clear that collapse would occur sometime between 2020 and 2050. The two sides of Luminis Mundi began to pull apart.
One side began the effort of educating the public about the dangers, while funding promising technologies for new methods of manufacturing and transportation. The other side fought the efforts of education and continued their push for accelerated collapse by focusing on increasing oil/coal production and consumption, and on weapons of mass destruction.
A Rude Awakening
Two men met for the first time at a dinner party overlooking a bay on the Mediterranean. It was immediately obvious that they were twins. A brief discussion about upbringing, early homes and tutors was enough for each to realize that the other had become a member of Luminis Mundi. The initial excitment was tempered when they discovered their goals were diametrically opposed. They agreed to disagree.
Secret No More
It became clear to one of the brothers that in 2008 the world would reach a critical mass in the number of people ready and willing to work for the transformation to the next economy and a new world. Realizing there would soon be no need or reason for the further existence of Luminis Mundi-either because of a transition to a world of distributed power and wealth or because of a collapse in population--Walker X. Bush decided it was time to reveal the nature of the secret brotherhood.