The Ebony Gauntlet

### Areas of Influence

All southern kingdoms, mostly focused on Antar, El Sherdan, Náraleth, Renünion and Vonrim

### Symbols and attire

Armor and especially gauntlets coated with lead, black clothing and capes with white outlining or highlighting, brimmed hats or tricornes worn with facial masks, a single well-hidden ghost ink tattoo of a hand with an eye in the middle

### Motto

"The gauntlet watches"

The Ebony Gauntlet is an ancient order dedicated towards controlling and balancing the use of magic across the Realm of Mortals. Their main task is to keep the world safe from overambitious, reckless and dangerous magic-users who might otherwise destroy the balance of the realm or cause irreparable damage to it. It is said that the Ebony Gauntlet has existed in different forms across the years and that it was originally founded over 3000 years ago, soon after the Draconian Wars had concluded. Their ways have changed as their name and symbolism has and the current iteration of the Ebony Gauntlet is considered to be quite strict on the use of magic, especially arcane magic. They offer their services to many kingdoms and have a strong presence across the south. All of the southern kingdoms acknowledge the threatening power of magic if left unchecked and so the existence of the Ebony Gauntlet is mandatory. As such, they get considerable support from all nations and have significant influence over all southern kingdoms, even if they operate mostly behind the scenes and try to stay out of politics and confrontations between nations. They are primarily a neutral organization composed of special operatives that do the tasks they were trained for; guard the use of magic and hunt down rogue mages.

Even if the Ebony Gauntlet has some harsh views on magic, many of their operatives wield magic both as a tool and a weapon. After all, an appropriate use of spells can often work better than just swinging a sword. Their own mages like to specialize around dispelling, counterspelling and divination. They even employ some psychics but with great care as the field of psychic magic is still quite unknown and volatile. Divination is obviously needed to locate and keep watch over suspicious individuals or groups. Counterspelling is used in direct confrontations in order to quickly neutralize targets. Dispelling is used for repairing damages and preventing further misuse. Psychics can perform all of these tasks quite effectively and their specialized talents are used for gathering information more directly through means of questioning and mind reading. Other forms of magic may include ways to hide their members, such as *Disguise* and *Invisibility*. They are prepared to use spells such as *Antimagic Field* and *Globe of Invulnerability* on a large scale if need be. Ebony Gauntlet operatives are also known for carrying magical devices that can replicate the effects of such spells. If a situation is particularly dire, the Ebony Gauntlet may resort to using forbidden or dangerous spells to solve their problems. The ends justife the means, as some would say. In addition, the Ebony Gauntlet employs golems, especially magebane and lead golems, for combat and guard purposes. On top of these different tools, the Ebony Gauntlet is perhaps the largest user of lead on Énelya. Lead is used as a means to protect their members and hideouts. Lead can be used effectively in combat as well since it can shut down certain casters if used correctly. The importance of lead is reflected upon the symbol of the Ebony Gauntlet which shows a gauntlet made of lead. The gauntlet itself has an eye and different magic symbols engraved on it, as a way to symbolize the watchful nature of the order and its role as the keepers of magic.

The Ebony Gauntlet operates secretively and it is hard to say where exactly their headquarters is. Similarly, information concerning their leader and members is shrouded in mystery. They take great care in staying on the move and keeping one step ahead of their opposition. This effectively gives them the element of surprise wherever the next conflict may be. Because of this, their members are prohibited from disclosing their membership to others. A member of the Ebony Gauntlet will show his symbols only when it is absolutely necessary. Sometimes a group of agents is mobilized as a unit and put together by a higher-ranking officer, in which case these agents will use masks and other apparel to hide their true appearance. The Ebony Gauntlet performs their duties swiftly and disappears as quickly as they had appeared. They might even use multiple fake organizations to cover up their own operations and have also resorted to false flag attacks in order to draw out their opposition. It is safe to say that the Ebony Gauntlet has a dedicated base in every major city in the south, generally provided by the local governing body or ruler. If one were to guess, Antar would be a great candidate for a main base. The Ebony Gauntlet hires whoever they find worthy to join and all civilized races are accepted among them. They find it useful to have a mixture of races as this promotes the ideas of universal rules and laws regarding magic and also allows them to easily employ appropriate people in every region. With the help of the local guards and other military forces, the Ebony Gauntlet works towards rooting out dangerous mages and strikes them down without remorse. They also work in unison with many other orders, including Radiant Sun paladins, Black Star knights and the Shieldbearers. Of course some opposing groups and societies of powerful mages have formed because of the oppressive nature of the Ebony Gauntlet, but the order will seek them out all the same as their power is greater than any other organization on the continent of Énelya.

One may ask what constitutes as dangerous magic. According to the Ebony Gauntlet, excessive summoning, creation of portals and demiplanes in secret, privately contacting powerful creatures from other planes, fabricating valuable materials, manufacturing a large amount of constructs or raising a significant amount of undead, use of demonology or using destructive spells to damage the environment or citizens are all good examples of dangerous magic. The definition for dangerous magic may vary depending on the region and for example, the Ebony Gauntlet does not operate within the Dead Kingdom of Vhenan as they were purged from there after the nation was overtaken by necromancy. However, one can safely assume that if someone uses magic in public for significant personal gain or to cause harm, create disorder or destroy property, the Ebony Gauntlet will come after them. Some exceptions are made in the case of mandated scholars, such as those that hold higher positions in universities as their research on dangerous magic is a valuable source of information to the Ebony Gauntlet. However, if these scholars go rogue or abuse their magical knowledge, they can be severely punished, even more so than other criminal mages. The Ebony Gauntlet also actively seeks out sorcerers, wizards and other casters not associated with any order or group just to see if they have the potential to become a danger to the public. The Ebony Gauntlet holds sizeable records of these types of people and provides them to rulers, government officials and other officers. This is an effective way to provide clarity concerning sorcerers and witches, ones who usually live by their own rules or travel on their own. The true duty of the Ebony Gauntlet to the southern kingdoms is the gathering of information concerning magic-users which in turn allows these nations to develop effective countermeasures and take action against those who would seek to harm them or their people.