The following page is a secret brief that is only available to those affiliated to your faction (or who have gained the information through other channels). It represents a significant investment of IC time and effort. Please do not copy and paste the contents to other players.
With that proviso you may feel free to communicate the information IC using your own words. Of course, your faction may not like you spreading their secrets, and if you are caught doing so you may face IC consequences.
Let it be known that Roger Billington is no friend of the Quiet Places. Nor is James Green. They have failed the most basic of hurdles to join our number.
No stigma attaches to the Keeper whose shrine they found. She followed protocol.
Any attempt to aid either Billington of James Green in finding our shrines will be met with severe displeasure.
-Murasaki Blue
Time was when the Keepers had someone who would talk to Computer and keep it company. This was an unbroken line for hundreds of years.
Yet now, it is broken. Consult the quietness inside you. Would you like to train?
-Murasaki Blue
The Keepers are a loose coalition rather than a rigidly structured group, although with the rise of Murasaki and Isosceles Blue in prominence, it seems they're trying to instigate a “qualification system” which would codify the already-extant trends of “elevating” those who discover new places for shrines, those who successfully protect shrines against incursion (whether that be by changing ship architecture, diverting or otherwise “taking care of” exploratory missions, or simply closing relevant doors), and, perhaps oddly, those who create and decorate the shrines themselves.
However, it's not a sect which is renowned for ambition. Many choose to join simply because they like having a place where they can escape the hustle and bustle of the populated sectors.
One thing that is perhaps less obvious about the Keepers of Quiet Places is that they encourage a mindset of escaping the woes and bustle of work for a few moments each day. Personal introspection is a common theme for those first getting to grips with becoming a Keeper, as when the world becomes truly quiet, the only thing left to listen to is yourself.
This mindset led a Keeper long ago to engage Computer in a philosophical debate about the nature of the self. The debate continued almost for the Keeper's entire lifetime, and was even picked up by her successors. While the conversation was long ago and mostly forgotten, the stories tell that something about the conversation left Computer changed somehow.
Some of the Keepers have even suggested that this proves something fundamental about Computer - that any being capable of considering the self in such detail and being moved by the experience must have a consciousness, and that the Computer itself is therefore on a philosophical level a conscious being, and alive.
Hush, hush. Whisper who dares. (Keeper motto)
Friends, this is a time for extreme vigilance. I have little doubt that traffic in the byways of the ship are about to skyrocket, as BOB herders compete in their dratted League and the Cartographers try to violate the precious secrecy and calm of our shrines.
These must be protected at all costs, particularly the library on Toroid 4, and the oldest of our shrines in Sector 2C's low gravity sections (which, it appears, are soon to be raided by the grasping claws of the Recyclers). Theoretically, we should not be averse to like-minded folk joining our number; however, even a reverent crowd would create traffic and noise. A crowded haven is no longer a place of solace and respect.
That said, perhaps we can come to an agreement with the Cartographers that should they find one of our Quiet Places they make a note, or footnote, somewhere, and do not actually make the location public. I am not known for my social skills. I rely on you to judge the mood of the ACTP accurately, and do all that is necessary to protect our interests.
Also, go forth. Discover more suitable places. Protect them. Revere.
May you live in quiet times.
- Murasaki Blue (Keeper of Long Standing)