Ethos

The Ethos is an organization from Xenogears On the outer surface, the Ethos is one of the leading religions in the present day and also greatly participates in the excavation of ruins. In reality, the Ethos is a subsidiary organization of Solaris used to gather information on and control the surface dwellers.

History and purpose
The Ethos is one of two organizations established by Solaris to help in controlling the surface dwellers. After the war 500 years ago, Emperor Cain and the other rulers of Solaris determined direct control of the surface would be difficult, so they chose to utilize indirect control instead. An Imperial Special Foreign Bureau was established, which over time became two separate organizations, the Ethos and Gebler. The Ethos handled excavations on the surface as well as spying on the populace. Through its network of Ethos facilities across the planet, a large amount of information would be gathered and funneled to Solaris. While initially Gebler's military forces would receive orders from the Ethos, eventually the organizations fully split into two.

Present day
In the present day the Ethos's false facade is one of the two dominant religions on the surface, the other being that of Nisan. However many of its members, including Billy are completely unaware of its true purpose and have faith in it. The Ethos is headquartered in the Aquvy region although they have various branches across the world. The Ethos employs Etones, whose responsibility it is to kill the Wels that plague the Aquvy region. Beyond simply sending goods and natural resources to Solaris, the Ethos also sends people seeking salvation there to be used for manual labor.

In secret the Ethos has been planning to break away from Solaris and establish domination of the surface on its own. A key part of this was the 44th Salvage Plan, which commenced approximately 16 years prior to the events of the game. The Ethos researched and excavated resources from the Zeboim civilization and was monopolizing it for itself. However, Solaris comes to find out about these plans and through its agent Bishop Stone arranges for the entirety of the Ethos leadership to be killed. The true purpose of the Etones, who served under Stone was to observe and eliminate any corrupt people within the Ethos. The party arrives at the Ethos Headquarters just in time to witness the Pontiff and other members of the Ethos leadership be killed by Stone's assassins. The party discovers the truth about the Ethos through the databanks held in the Ethos Headquarters and being told about it by the Etone Verlaine, before he is killed by Stone.