The Thrice-Damned

The Thrice-Damned is a major faction operating within the continent of Ahlus.

## Description

Considered little more than a band of pirates by most of the continent, the Thrice-Damned instead portray themselves as individuals repeatedly rejected by society, and determined to make a life for themselves nonetheless. The nomenclature of the organisation comes from the trio of wrongs that the original members believed they had experienced, damned first by the misfortune of their birth into the lower classes of society, second by the unjust laws of the Radiant Triumvirate and then again for a third time by society itself when the ones they had called friends and family rose up against them in response to their protests against the government.

Since then the Thrice-Damned have largely lived atop the waves, having fled the city of Viridell with a menagerie of trade barges, fishing boats and other vessels. Some have colonised the coastlines of the Cobalt Sea, subsisting and maintaining lives divorced from the governance of the Triumvirate, but most instead live a mobile existence upon the deck, with harbours and ports operated by the Thrice-Damned rarely marked on maps due to their short-lived nature. Over time, their numbers have grown as others wish to break the chains of contractual obligation.

There are rumours that the Thrice-Damned do in truth maintain a headquarters, a vast floating township obscured from view by mists and fog and capable of moving from place to place to evade detection.

## Goals

The Thrice-Damned are a motley collective of ship captains with no official leader, though a few amongst them claim the title through a combination of charm, might or guile. Initially the Thrice-Damned targetted only vessels operated by the Radiant Triumvirate and their associates, but as the lucrativeness of such pursuits became increasingly more obvious, such distinctions have been made less frequently.

In doing so, the original intentions of the Thrice-Damned as a group protesting against the actions of the Radiant Triumvirate have been largely lost, and with it general ideals of liberty have taken centrestage.

## Tenets of the Thrice-Damned

* No single individual should define the constraints of another. Live with freedom in your heart, acting in accordance with your own wants and needs.
* A lawless life is not one of senseless violence. Mutual respect binds a greater bond between souls that any legal charter or edict signed by baseline fools atop ivory towers.
* Matters that affect the Thrice-Damned as a whole should be voted upon by the whole of the Thrice-Damned. Any that wish to offer their voice to the dialogue should be facilitated to do so as long as it is reasonably practical to ensure.

## Relationships

Membership to the Thrice-Damned is considered a criminal offense by the Radiant Triumvirate, who routinely charge any individual aboard a vessel that pillages a merchant vessel with sentences of theft of the entirety of its cargo, damage to private property and assault with the intent to harm or kill, depending on the circumstances. Subsequent fines are thusly impractically large for any individual to pay, allowing the Radiant Triumvirate to instead sentence offenders to extended hard labour camps toiling in lumberyards and mines under the guise of paying back what is owed.

The Thrice-Damned's relationship with other organisations varies significantly, with some captains embracing criminal tendencies more readily and working alongside groups such as the Other Hand and Lightfingers for sake of smuggling, while others instead offer protection services to merchant vessels through treacherous waters. Conversely, some merchant guilds have historically paid off captains of the Thrice-Damned to ignore their vessels while targetting their competitors, while others have instead hired other mercenaries to hunt down Thrice-Damned ships on their behalf.

## Characters

Some members of the Thrice-Damned join the group for love of a life upon the waves, revelling in the freedom of the open sea. Others instead delight in the riches that a life of larceny can yield for those adept at avoiding its constant dangers. Whether vicious gales, denizens of the depths or other sea-going vessels, you may have experienced half a dozen or more life-threatening perils in your life so far.

 2
 3
 4
 5
 6