Cauldron

Cauldron is a secret immanent to the Parahumans setting.

Modus operandi
The ultimate goal of the organization was to kill Scion - the path to completing that goal involved building an army of parahumans able to combat him. In order to do this, long-term stability needed to be maintained, which meant shutting down certain threats before they became a problem and ensuring that Earth Bet was welcoming to all parahumans and superhero culture.

Cauldron was a capable organization due to the manufacture and development of the vials. This made numerous superpowers available to its members of "staff", but the unpredictable process and side effects also made them highly morally questionable. These powers included interdimensional transport and memory erasure. It used this to keep its operations hidden.

Sales
Cauldron is constantly on the lookout for new customers, having landing/mock-up sites for those looking for power related technologies or services. They favor motivated and skilled people. Strong social connections or a background in law enforcement are a plus.

When selling powers to people they go out of their way to up the price of the vial, partially to weed out those who do not have sufficient commitment to a parahuman lifestyle and partially to get people into Cauldron's debt by agreeing to favors in exchange for a more powerful vial.bramflakes: They don't need the money. The price they charge is an idiot filter, to weed out the ones who aren't serious about being a cape and keeping to Cauldron's terms. If a multi-millionaire applies, they'll ask for a billion. There's also likely a psychological element - in Battery's interlude, Doctor Mother starts out with a figure that she knows Battery can't pay, and then lets Battery haggle it down to something she can afford, in exchange for more favors. I suspect that Cauldron does this to nearly every applicant, in order to make them feel indebted to Cauldron before they even take the vial. edit: Wildbow: Nice post. Right on the mark. On the subject of why they don't always hand out powerful vials - they don't always know the power level of a given vial. They've got this landscape of Eden, they take pieces of it, make it into concoctions and feed them to people. One vial might have fantastic results in one situation and peter out or end up horrific in another. So they've spent the last 30 years figuring it out, trying to get as many vials to people as they can in the most constructive way they can. When they do get a set of powerful vials, they try to hold on to them and give them to the people they can make the most use out of. Often those are people in power (ie. the mayor of a town with a lot of capes, who then gives it to his son), people with access (an ex-PRT captain with the potential to be Director), or people with money. eSPiaLx: But why would doctor Mother have those special vials locked away in Cauldron's basement? Weren't those supposed to be really powerful? If Cauldron had given them out earlier, wouldn't there be a decent (or heck, crappy is fine too) chance there would be anothe Legend/Alexandria/Eidolon? Wildbow:Just as much of a chance of there being a Grey Boy. Of the person taking the vial and losing their mind. It's a last ditch measure. - Wildbow on Reddit
 * As for why they don't hand out all the powerful formulas, several reasons:
 * Powerful formulas are more likely to result in Case 53s There's likely a limited supply of the very best vials, so they'll only make them available to people that meet the most stringent psychological requirements (to avoid repeats of Grey Boy)
 * Fighting Scion is the main goal, but to accomplish that they need to utilize natural triggers too. This means creating and/or maintaining large organizations that natural triggers can join, and coexist with first-world institutions without everything descending into parahuman feudalism. That way, when the final battle comes, they have a few dozen organizations to rely on (both hero and villain), rather than thousands of independent cape micro-states. That means they need weak and medium-strength capes to fill out the ranks of the Protectorate, the Elite, the Guild, the Suits, and so on. Number Man's interlude shows him shoring up these organizations when they're facing financial difficulties, and Accord seems to be able to get vials to boost his ranks pretty easily too.

Social engineering
They went out of their way to set up several powerful parahuman groups around the world,
 * DoctorNobody: Absent Cauldron's meddling...
 * Wildbow:Think bigger-scale.

Absent Cauldron's meddling, there's no PRT for one thing. There's no Suits, no Red Gauntlet, no Elite Sentai group or whatever I called them, no Elite; all groups that Cauldron set up or supported. Non-parahumans in the West end up taking a more aggressive stance against parahumans, as certain voices aren't silenced, and without the Protectorate as an example, things are just more anti-parahuman around the world as a whole. Heroes are fewer and farther between than in conventional Worm - you've got an awful lot of shades of grey and people doing their damndest just to get by. The Chevaliers and Miss Militias of the world are staying right where they are, in small town X or Turkey-occupied Kurdistan, and they're helping their town/country and only their town/country. For the most part, parahumans are taking over where they can take over, and because the population is so hostile, they're forced to be a little ugly or harsh to quell dissent, or they're nice and constantly watching their back/focusing far too much on just keeping things functioning. Assuming that Cauldron's operatives maybe killed Eden but then just sat on their hands/died, the Endbringers don't exist, the cauldron vials aren't spread out, and there's less of the really powerful parahumans here and there who're capable of acting decisively. Gates to other worlds are left open, feeding into Cote D'Ivorie, spitting out more than a fair share of Case-53 like monsters, only in a very tightly occupied space. If West Africa survives, it's either as a world power or as a mutant-occupied area. If they find Eden's corpse, well, you've got a whole other mess, because they're going to be less careful and organized about it. Assuming they don't accidentally revive Eden, there's going to be a lot of failed doses. Further, the major threats that Contessa and Number Man deemed too dangerous to leave alone weren't necessarily eliminated (either because Contessa herself didn't pay a visit, or because Cauldron didn't contrive to have said parahuman put down), so there's more Ash Beasts, Blasphemies, Sleepers and the equivalent roaming around. There's no Parahuman Containment Center, so there's no place to put the really dangerous villains. What do you do with the villains who can't be killed, like Gavel? You maybe try to wrangle some giant-killers like Flechette/Foil, but how many of those guys are there, really? You're talking about infrastructure, but quite honestly, infrastructure wouldn't survive the 90's. By the mid-2000's, getting food from the agricultural states to the areas with the highest population density (ie. New york) is a struggle, because of bandits, threats, organized crime, disorganized crime and more. - Wildbow on Spacebattles to keep make sure there were united fronts.

Nemesis Program
A Case 53 with a trigger phrase (or something similar) that makes sure that they lose, they also released nemeses that were perfectly normal.

Terminus Program
Based on projections everyone will eventually end up with powers. To preempt this cauldron tried to set up precedents of good parahuman leadership to serve as an example for others.

They were ready to brainwash capes to do this.

This was a high priority project that outweighed many other concerns.

Structure
Doctor Mother largely made decisions for the group, with advice from Contessa and others. She acted as the spokesperson when talking with leaders of various groups.

Cauldron has many human and parahuman personnel in its internal staff, including parahumans that are effectively acting as tools, carrying out roles and functions like pieces of a greater machine. This approach also applied when operating outside, when needed they would tap a decentralized network of agents to handle operations.

PRT Response
Cauldron was largely ignored under Chief Director Costa-Brown's tenure. After she was replaced, given the circumstances of her stepping down, the policy changed. Cauldron capes in positions of leadership were removed and any heroes found to be doing business with Cauldron were effectively frozen from advancing in The Protectorate.

Following revelations during S-Class threat action, the PRT took a more direct stand against Cauldron influence. Cauldron capes were removed from leadership positions.

With the death of Alexandria the PRT started removing Cauldron connected capes more fastidiously. What Case 53s that remained were not screened.

Background
Doctor Mother and Contessa formed Cauldron after Eden crash-landed near Contessa's home and was killed by Doctor Mother. They learned that the Entities' cycle would lead to the end of the human race and began formulating plans to defend humanity, including reducing conflict and maximizing the number of parahumans present for the final confrontation.

By extracting and refining parts of Eden's corpse, Doctor Mother and Contessa were able to produce vials that granted powers. After Scion appeared on Earth Bet in 1982, they began to more widely test those vials on terminally ill patients. Hero and Doormaker both triggered in the founders' first batch of ten vials. This process could also cure subjects of their illnesses, and Cauldron subsequently provided vials to Alexandria, Eidolon, and Legend.

Cauldron expanded its operations throughout the 1980s and established a headquarters that spanned several dimensions. During the mid-1980s, it recruited the Number Man and William Manton as full-time staff. Alexandria stayed with them for two years after she gained powers and helped to implement Cauldron's plan for integrating parahumans into society by forming the Protectorate alongside Hero, Legend, and Eidolon.

William and Balminder's separate betrayals changed their operating protocol.

Cauldron also created Gray Boy, and it allowed him to exist as he was the most viability as an anti-scion contingency after Eidolon. When the Slaughterhouse Nine began killing more parahumans than Gray Boy was theoretically worth, they manipulated Glaistig Uaine into killing him and taking his power so it could be used later if needed.

Cauldron was targeted by The Simurgh during her attack on Madison, Wisconsin in 2009. The Simurgh used Professor Haywire's technology to break into one of the dimensions Cauldron was located in, costing Cauldron a stock of formulas and releasing several Case 53s. The Travelers triggered using the lost formulas, and Noelle Meinhardt's rampage in Brockton Bay led to Cauldron being publicly outed and the creation of the Irregulars.

Story Start
Was backing Coil and his work.

Post-Leviathan
Called in a favor with Battery to save the Siberian and Shatterbird.

Post-Echidna
Their position was exposed and Contessa was tasked with suppressing the information. Contessa was later retasked to the security of the Cauldron Compound after several prison breaks.

Timeskip
Helped the formation of The Slaughterhouse Nine-Thousand.

Post-Timeskip
Supported efforts against the same group.

Gold Morning
Many plans fell through.

Cauldron's headquarters were badly damaged in 2013 by Scion.

Ward
Cauldron is splintered into two notable rival factions – the one led by Teacher has occupied and fully staffed Cauldron's old facilities, while Number Man and Citrine maintain their own operations more focused on The City.

Trivia
however they intended to help humanity, whatever the final result, compared to the intentional destructive testing.
 * In a note of ever present irony, Cauldron took Eden's position in the grand scheme of things,