The Circle

The Circle is comprised of Sprin'Torel's upper class elites, bringing together most of the world's wealth to determine how they should use it. Even though many of the rich are still entrenched in corruption and greed, the ones who make up The Circle yearn to share their riches to sustain society on a whole.

History
Early in Sprin'Torel's history, as members of the population slowly started to accrue more wealth than they knew what to do with it, some of them decided to come together to decide how they would use their money to benefit everyone. They took it upon themselves to decide what was best for society and decided they would continue accumulating wealth in order to distribute it.

Historically, members of the various ruling families have also been members of The Circle - if not close to them. Even governments that were not monarchies had ties to The Circle, though they knew better than to use their influence to force themselves into positions of power. While they did discuss the idea of manipulating the people in order to ensure they rules everywhere, they knew that above all else, they needed the people's trust. As such, in countries that are democratic, they let the people decide whether or not the members of The Circle were worthy of leading them while spreading the wealth around.

Though some have taken issue with these elite members of society essentially running the world from the background, The Circle has made efforts to be as transparent as possible. As such, they made all their records open to the public and in an easy to access library. While this has eased some qualms that the people had, The Circle knows that the people will never fully be comfortable with what they do. Realising this, they worked even harder to maintain their public image, focusing on more philanthropic goals and furthering society by funding some of the other factions, such as The Asylum, the Gold Helms, and even the Maester Academes to a smaller extent.

Over time, people have grown to just accept that The Circle will always exist and that they at least pretend to have humanity's interests at heart. In turn, The Circle do try to do their best for all of society, seeking to spread their wealth wherever they see it most needed.

Philosophy
The Circle firmly believe that they have been given a gift that must be freely given to all. These elites are sometimes considered to be misguided in their beliefs regarding what is best for society, and some think that if they truly cared, they would simply distribute the wealth to everyone. In spite of this, The Circle believe that along with their wealth, they have more fiscal wisdom than anyone else, and that they alone know what is best for everyone. While many take offense with this, The Circle exists in the unique position where it's difficult for anyone to really stand in the way of their choices.

While they stand at the top of the world, that hardly means they can't help others climb.

Notable Members

 * Jasper Vess
 * Founder of The Circle
 * Thomas Addams
 * Leader of The Circle when they decided to fund the Gold Helms and the Maester Academes
 * Diana Stevens
 * Personally raised the most amount of money for charitable purposes, currently numbered at 185.2 million Fists
 * Val Isaac
 * Created the most charitable organisations, currently numbered at 34