The city is entirely self sufficient, it has both agricultural and industrial divisions that are capable of supporting the population but only by a bare minimum. The Order controls all of it. They are the undisputed law. Food is rationed, jobs are assigned and everyone must contribute. Those that refuse are banished to the desertion zones.

No one has challenged the Order's control in over a century. Speaking as messengers of God and designers of salvation, they became the dominate religious and political force of the new era.

With the use of ancient science and military journals they managed to rediscovered technologies that were thought to have been lost. This helped establish their credibility among the people. With that technology they built an army that would help police their interests and push forward their divine message of Faith, Obey and Survive,

Despite their considerable military prowess, the Order does not maintain its control entirely through force. Despair has made humanity complacent to their will. Desperate to feel hope again, they willingly sacrifice their lives for the acceptance of an eternal being who demands unconditional love and obedience and who might one day spare them the horrors of reality. It is a lack of hope that gives the Order of Holy Rebirth its power. They preach a corrupted message of hope to the hopeless and with it they've achieved total control over whats left of the human race.

He started his career as a Holy Guard solider. He met Valkin very early on after being assigned to him on prisoner duty. The two formed a mutual respect for the other. Benson was young and influenced by Valkin's skewed perspective of the world. This experience left him with too many moral questions that needed answering.

He left the H-Guard seeking out his own path. He spent years roaming the desertion zones and wastelands before finding his own identity. Ultimately, what he found was ambigious faith in the hope that someday humanity would overcome the weaker parts of it's nature and prevail in the conflict it had brought upon itself.

Upon meeting Valkin for a second time, after his transformation, he promised Val that he would always be there for him when he needed him and that he would never give up hoping for a better world for wither of them. It was within this promise that an unspoken friendship was formed.

Benson is Val's only true friend.

His shady dealings stretch far and wide through Houstown. Few people even know he exists because he's able to cover his tracks so well. The Order is aware of him but tolerates him because of their dealings in the past.

He lives within the desertion zone, just outside the borders of the city, at the request of the Order. For several years he's made his living secretly pleasuring aristocratic woman seeking new and thrilling sexual experiences.

It's a risky endeavor as the Order would surely kill him, as well and anyone seeking his services, if they found out. But again, Harak is a resourceful vampire and has ways of hiding his activities.

His political glory days of are long since gone now. His choice to focus on family and more administrative duties have long since removed him from the spotlight, much to the dismay of his wife Emily and his mentor Simon.

After retreating from public office he devoted all of his energies into raising his adopted daughter Chastity. Upon learning the truth of her conception and the Order's mysterious plans for her, he hired Valkin to try and save her.

Joesph Vern was one of his greatest success's and failures. Upon Joseph's decision to retreat from the active role of Commanding Disciple, Simon decided that the role of elusive puppeteer was no longer necessary. He stepped up to the forefront as an experienced and hard line believer in the divine mission and quickly won the support of the public.

Each H-Guard is trained in both theology and combat by the Order. By offering a religious context to their duties, the Order maintains an unquestionable loyalty from the H-Guard. They are soldiers fighting a holy war, dedicated to the preservation of the Order and God's will.

They serve with a brainwashed fervor. Their training begins at the age of thirteen and ends at eighteen, the most impressionable years of life. Those that fail the training are labeled as pariahs and are generally driven out of the city by the public.

All families of Houstown are obligated by law to volunteer at least one of their children for the H-Guard. While not a popular law at first it was soon accepted as a reasonable sacrifice for God's will to be carried out.