The faction began 27 years ago in the city of Veyrun when six performers were dismissed from the court orchestra after playing a satirical requiem at the wrong noble funeral. Rather than vanish into obscurity, they turned humiliation into opportunity. Their first manager was not a patron but a disgraced auctioneer who recognized a market for music as status, not mere art. He arranged a private concert for three feuding houses and made sure each house believed the other two would be present. The resulting frenzy of envy, secrecy, and expensive gifts financed their next tour. They learned early that the wealthy do not merely want music. They want witnesses, exclusivity, and the feeling of being chosen. Their watershed moment came seven years later during the Orchid Masque, when a patron died mid-performance after confessing a treasonous affair to the leader in a lull between songs. The sextet escaped blame by producing a forged confession naming a scapegoat, and from that night forward they became more than entertainers. They became curators of reputations. Since then, every tour has been half performance and half invisible negotiation, with each concert leaving behind a trail of favors, fears, and compromised secrets.