Revenger Sluagh

Revenger Sluagh is a Dark Guild active in Fiore.

## Overview

Compared to many other Dark Guilds, Revenger Sluagh is somewhat atypical; though their ultimate aims are at least as horrifying, they have no plans to seize powerful magics or artifacts, destroy or conquer the world, resurrect any ancient dark powers, or do anything that might be described under the umbrella heading of "supervillainish." Seemingly, at least, the Sluagh's pursuits are far more pedestrian: they performs thefts, assassinations, or any other dark deed imaginable for anyone willing to pay them.

However, a canny observer might notice small inconsistencies: the way the Sluagh freely take public credit for the worst of their atrocities and often distribute pictures and recordings of the immediate aftermath or even, in some cases, the killings themselves in progress, or they way they actively charge less for jobs committed against the rich than against the poor. These policies have the effect of promoting fear, particularly fear of mages by non-mages, class divides between the rich and poor, and political tensions between individuals wary of betrayal and assassination. This is all in keeping with the Sluagh's ultimate goal: to foster an environment of fear, hate, and violence, quietly chipping away at the world's peace in the hopes that something, someday, somewhere, will break, plunging everything into anarchy, which Sluagh Guild Master Herne calls "the State of True Nature." The incredible wealth of negative emotions created by the State of True Nature is also an ideal environment for the use of demonic Curses, a fact likely to cause the loss of thousands if not millions more lives than the State of True Nature would already claim, as well as to bring about the degeneration of magic use worldwide, further feeding a vicious cycle to perpetuate the State of True Nature and bring an age of primal, unending darkness to Earth Land.

Despite the horrifying nature of their purpose, however, Revenger Sluagh manages to avoid most serious efforts to exterminate them by appearing to be a smaller threat than they truly are; aside from internal matters, such as hunting down and killing defectors, the Sluagh only ever act as hirelings for others, making them secondary targets at best next to their employers. Furthermore, many of their employers are in fact politically powerful individuals who quash governmental actions against Revenger Sluagh lest their own involvement with the mercenary Dark Guild be discovered.

Membership in Revenger Sluagh lasts until one is dead or no longer able to complete jobs; one does not simply quit, and indeed the Revenger Sluagh guild mark is an actual tattoo, enchanted to resist any magical attempts to erase it, rather than a simple magic stamp, to make removal next to impossible. The magic used to protect the Sluagh mark has the side effect of making any other markings placed on the bearer equally difficult to remove, resulting in some Sluagh members having various marks from infiltrated Guilds scattered in various places across their bodies.

Unusually for a Dark Guild, Revenger Sluagh has a reputation for honor; if the Sluagh enter into an agreement, they will hold up their end of the bargain. They are not traitorous by nature, and they do not tolerate treason in their members or allies.

## Guild Structure

Like most guilds, Revenger Sluagh has three distinct levels of membership: there are the Dark Guild's ordinary members, who number about forty, organized in eight to ten teams at any given time; the twelve Revengers, roughly equivalent to S-Class or other upper-level mages in another Guild; and finally the Guild Master, Herne Windsor, a powerful Transformation and Bows mage also known as Revenger Thirteen. Notably, while the vast majority of Revenger Sluagh's members are mages of some kind, magic is not technically a requirement for admission, and Diomedes Lorn, Revenger One, is suspected by many of the members to possess no magic or even magical artifacts of significant power whatsoever.

### The Twelve Revengers

The Twelve Revengers are the most powerful members of Revenger Sluagh. While normal members work in teams, completing jobs as assigned by Herne, each Revenger typically works alone or as part of a temporary alliance with a few of the other Revengers, and while they are expected to complete the jobs Herne assigns them, they are given a significant amount of leeway in choosing their own assignments and pursuits, with Herne typically only assigning certain jobs to certain Revengers when he feels them especially suited to a particular Revenger's talents. There is no formal trial to become a Revenger. Instead. when a position opens up, Herne just appoints whoever he feels most suitable. Alternately, any member of Revenger Sluagh can become a Revenger by killing one of the current ones in a fair fight; this is how Mira Dreadnot gained the position of Revenger Six, which, having not yet been killed, she technically still holds.

## Trivia

* In Irish and Scottish folklore, the Sluagh are the horde composed of the spirits of the restless, sinful dead.
* Revenger Sluagh's ranks include at least one Dragon Slayer, Regia Nitriss, a Second-Generation Acid Dragon Slayer.
* Upon joining Revenger Sluagh, all new members are required to fight a practice bout against Diomedes every day he's available until they can land a hit on him. Most, even powerful mages, spend at least a month doing this, and nobody has yet managed to succeed on the first try. This is not Diomedes's best effort.