Thief: The Dark Project Retrospective
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The city is populated by three sects. There's the Order of the Hammer, or the Hammerites. They're a dogmatic, theocratic religious group who follow the works of the Builder, their deity. And as is so often the case for those who approach life as a hammer, they see everything as nails, including Garrett. The Pagans, almost unmentioned in this first game of the Thief series, but absolutely integral to the plot, are a primitive, almost animalistic group. Equally unexplained are the Keepers, the secret society who trained Garrett, and aren't as ready to let him go as he is them. Their involvement is gentle and refined. (Both groups are explored in much greater detail in the following two Thief games.) How much you learn about them really depends on how much effort you put in.
Take notice of the details, read the quotes from various texts during the beautiful cut-scenes, make sure to pick up all notes and parchments you find, and listen in to the conversations of others you sneak up on, and you can start to piece together an intricate and involved world that's been meticulously conceived and realised. This graceful design would go on to be bettered by Deus Ex two years later, but Thief's delivery will always be the subtler.
