Imagine if every myth, conspiracy theory and urban legend was true. Imagine if your worst nightmare came to life. Imagine a world where vampires hunt for mortal blood in dingy London nightclubs, where werewolves lurk in the sewers beneath Seoul, and where the undead prey on the living in the shadows of New York City. This is the premise for «The Secret World», Funcom's upcoming massively multiplayer online game set in the modern day real world.

The Templars stand on the far right of the political spectrum, morally incorruptible and uncompromising in their fight against evil. Unbelievers will call them self-righteous zealots but they draw their power from their unshakeable faith. A secret society as old as Babylon, their current base is in London. Ragnar describes them as the closest thing to being the "good guys" in the game , although their zeal causes them to use extreme measures more often than not.

At the opposite end are the Illuminati. Ambitious and ruthless, they use blackmail, treason and deceit as weapons in their bid for more power. Mortal enemies of the Templars, they were driven out of Europe in the 1600s and now operate out of an underground base in New York City. While the Templars are a little snooty about who they let into their organization, the Illuminati don't care what your background is as long as you have the motivation to claw your way to the top.

The Dragons are, as Ragnar puts it, the wildcard. It's a little hard to pin down their nature because they are the gray to the Templars' white and the Illuminati's black. They believe in the teachings of Sun Tzu's Art of War, their chief characteristic is patience, and they use deception in order to pit their opponents against each other. They operate out of a monastery in Seoul.