Using Societies in a Campaign (CShaH)

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This chapter details a number of sorcerous societies. Each DM must decide which of these exist in his campaign and their actual goals and plans. The above descriptions are a starting point for enterprising DMs. The societies can be used as listed, altered slightly, or changed dramatically to fit into a campaign.
A few standards should be maintained in order to retain the feel of a sorcerous society in action.
The standard of primary concern is secrecy. These organizations don't advertise their power (or even their existence). They are composed of so few members that it would be dangerous to reveal themselves to their enemies, so they move in the shadows. Societies that go after the characters will be especially careful to keep their identities secret; everyone knows how unpredictable and dangerous wandering heroes can be.
The second important standard is planning. These societies tend to plan out their activities in exacting detail. They do this to avoid loss of control in a situation and to carefully coordinate the activities of a large number of operatives in widely separated areas. As a DM, you will have to plan out the activities of sorcerous societies in your campaign. You don't need to come up with the detailed plans of every society in your games, but you should know which ones are involved in the adventures you are running and what they are doing at that time.
The most comprehensive way to do this is to create a timeline. Decide which societies will have an effect in your campaign and set out their goals for the next year, month by month. Spend a while deciding on how they will go about achieving these goals, using the descriptions in this chapter as a jumping off point. Then, go through your timeline and make a few notes for each month, noting what the various sorcerous societies are going to be doing. As you go along, you'll probably notice that some of the societies' activities are starting to overlap. This is perfectly all right. If there are areas where one group's activities will interfere with another's, decide which group will be victorious and make note of any changes that might result from the conflict. This type of "event timeline" doesn't take a lot of time, but it adds considerable depth to a campaign. It will allow you to drop rumors into the game of events in other cities, piquing the interest of characters and possibly foreshadowing events to come.
The third important factor to consider when using a sorcerous society in a campaign is that one or more of the characters may join one of the societies extant in your campaign. You must decide from the outset whether or not to allow this sort of interaction between characters and the sorcerous societies.
In some cases, this can be beneficial. Groups like the Shifting Sands can serve as a springboard for adventure without unnecessarily restricting a wizard character or the rest of the characters in a group. There are those, however, that can become a hindrance to your campaign as they are very restrictive as regards their members. It is suggested that the following groups be excluded from those available for characters to join: the Red Eyes, the Viziers, and the Brotherhood of the True Flame. All other societies should be relatively easy to work into a campaign and will do much to further your own story lines.
Once you know which groups characters will be able to join, you can start dropping hints about these societies. Perhaps an elementalist will feel as if he is being watched from time to time, and may even catch a glimpse of one of these watchers. The character discovers that he sees the same people all over Zakhara, always nearby and yet seeming to take no notice of him. Eventually, one of these watchers may come to the character and strike up a conversation. As time goes on, the character will find more and more of these individuals coming into contact with him, and after time he may finally be asked to join their group. Foreshadowing is very important in the area of sorcerous societies. If a character feels as if he or she has been watched for some time and deemed worthy, he will take the group more seriously and respect it more than if the offer were simply sprung on him "from out of the blue."
All of this information is provided as a guide for DMs and does not have to be used in your campaign. But always make sure to know how you are going to handle sorcerous societies in your campaign and handle them in a consistent manner. This will make them more real for the other players and will give you a clearer picture of how the societies will act and react in regards to one another.