The "wandering treasure keepers" (流浪の財宝管理者 Rurō no Zaihō Kanrisha?) are an unnamed group who preserve the remains of notable people.[1]
Principles[]
The group was originally an organization tasked with eternally preserving the remains of holy men and women, deep in the snowy British mountains. According to Aleister Crowley, they would come to specialize in preserving noteworthy individuals, on the level of Robin Hood and Jack the Ripper, with it being noted that the death of someone that charismatic was a powerful thing and nearly an eternal amount of time was needed to soften the blow and ease the people's sorrow. The corpses of such individuals are frozen to preserve them. The likes of Anna Kingsford and the previous Imagine Breaker were part of their collection, and nearly Aleister himself in 1947.[1]
Following the ransacking of many occult sanctuaries in World War II, which forced them to evacuate their treasures and taught them how national borders were not a trustworthy defense, the group would spread its most dangerous treasures out into disguised stashes at temporary locations across the world, rarely staying in one place for very long.[1] The disguises that camouflage the stashes are ones likely to involve large-scale refrigeration equipment, including restaurants, laboratories, factories, harbor warehouses, refrigerated trucks, cargo ships, wood dryers, and others, the disguises changed as often as need to protect the treasures.[1]
The organization's structure has a central group and onsite groups with the stashes hidden worldwide. Extreme information restrictions in place by the central group mean that the onsite people don't know what they are storing. The group wasn't even given a name to keep people from tracking them.[1]
One of the group's stashes is located in the kitchen of a popular restaurant in Shibuya's Miyashita Ark.[1] In the cold space, seven large freezers are lined up by a wall, with food materials in the front camouflaging the true treasure at the back. Anna Kingsford's body was stored in the fifth one.[1]
Background[]
The group were involved with the previous Imagine Breaker, which the Golden Dawn would steal and modify for their own purposes. Conversely, the body of Anna Kingsford, mentor to Westcott and Mathers - two of the Golden Dawn's founders, would become part of their collection.[1]
During World War II, as many sanctuaries were being ransacked and the occult sphere was struck with anxiety as the German army advanced, the group saw the need to evacuate their 'treasures'. Taught that national borders were not a trustworthy defense, the group would afterwards only keep their most dangerous stashes in temporary locations, scattered around the world rather than all gathered in a single location. In 1947 when he met his 'death', Aleister Crowley would almost become part of their collection, only avoiding that fate because Heaven Canceller put him in too perfect a state of suspended animation.[1]
Closer to the present day, the group would come to use a restaurant in the Miyashita Ark in Shibuya, Tokyo, as a camouflage for one of their stashes, possibly being behind the opening of the shopping mall itself.[1]
Chronology[]
New Year's Eve Arc[]
- Main article: New Year's Eve Arc
On December 31st, during the events in Shibuya, Aleister Crowley and Kihara Noukan visited the treasure stash located in a restaurant in the Miyashita Ark to retrieve Anna Kingsford's body for use against Anna Sprengel.[1]