Groups and Organizations

## Council of Eld

At the beginning of the Era of Life, many nobles were torn on their feelings of this new age. Many liked the prospect of infinite life but also feared what it would mean for those beneath them. With this gift being bestowed to everyone in all the lands, a small group of nobles felt that it was against nature itself that peasants were awarded the same gifts as nobles. This lead to the founding of the Council of Eld, a secret group of nobles who seek to further their power and distance themselves from the peasants, who they believed got more than they were owed. There are members across all four continents and almost every kingdom. Most interactions with this group aren't public, instead, the nobles focus on using their power to influence all of the kingdoms through legislation.

## Court of the Last Age

The heart of Brocilia, Court of the Last Age is a well-established and ancient court of vampires that live in Brocilia. Although Brocilia is governed primarily by members of the court, they are a distinct group. The court consists of all major vampires in the kingdom but only about half maintain seats in Brocilia's government. The court's control of Brocilia allows for the vampires to make various bureaucratic choices that benefit the court primarily. Although neighboring kingdoms and local populous don't enjoy their presence, the world has come to accept that nothing good will come to challenging the territory or control of Brocilia.

## Feast Traders

Primarily based out of Eladorin and Malanore, the Feast Traders is the second-largest trading company, specializing in food and various other sought-after perishables. The unique market space and high demand allow the company to flourish with trade routes across all four continents, even supplying some food to Brocilia through border towns. With the focus on perishables, Feast Traders have focused efforts on preservation causing many alchemy and herbalism shops to open along their major trade routes. The faster routes and preserving methods allow these shops to flourish with merchandise from across the world.

## The Ferret and the Crow

The largest organization in Kaelmoria, The Ferret and the Crow is an adventuring guild that spans the entire world and has existed for longer than any currently standing kingdom. Dating back to the year 143, the guild has continued to grow in reach, power, and members, all in part to the guild masters. This growth in power and reach is in part due to the steep cost of membership, just to be considered a member and receive various tasks is 25 gp per month with a more expensive membership at 100 gp that gives access to guild resources. All of this is funneled back into the guild to help pay for food and drink, potions and other resources, weapons and armor, magic items, and the guild's craftsmen that make everything. Since its inception, the guild has been a plague to any other guild that can get its name to the next town over. All previous guild masters have been champion adventurers, renowned for their strength, and have used their power to wipe out all competition. In addition to various other organizations, kingdoms aren't much to stand in the way of this major power. Although good faith with kingdoms keeps this guild in check, power-wise it exceeds the strength of three. The current guild master, Vernon Winters, is a powerful wizard who has advanced the guild significantly by creating various demiplanes to house the key buildings. This change allowed the guild to have equal focus across the globe, rather than a varied presence with focuses around major headquarters. In addition, Vernon has also pushed the guild's presence in various kingdoms further than any previous guild master. This has upset a few towns and kingdoms thus making passing adventures possibly receive disgruntled treatment or raised prices, the most these towns can afford without getting wiped off the map when the guild master hears of retaliation.

## The Forgehammers

Often seen as a stamp of good craftsmanship, The Forgehammers is a group of the most well-trained blacksmiths, and now other craftsmen, across the four continents. Although not much happens on membership and bureaucratic levels, this is a well-reputed group that seeks to mark all blacksmiths and their works they deem as high quality. Although there isn't much of an organizational side to this group, they do have a headquarters in the kingdom of craftsmen, Torgarde. This headquarters is used for deciding on a new member to join. The decision of what products are signed off by the group is up to the individual members, they never accept any blacksmith they don't believe can accurately gauge the value of a work.

## Fox Cloaks

The largest thieves guild, Fox Cloaks spans the continent of Vulnaar with minor control in Telaris. Although not the only thieves guild, Fox Cloaks is the only one to span more than a kingdom. In an attempt to avoid major investigation, this guild focuses on burglary and protection with a strict abstention from major crimes. The guild also has a large network across its controlled area for fencing stolen goods. To assist with its survival, during periods of threat to the guild, Fox Cloaks will often hire The Ferret and the Crow as protection. This prevents any kingdoms from intervening with the Fox Cloaks during the investigations and has let the guild survive many times in the past.

## The Oracle Order

The main religious group in Kaelmoria, The Oracle Order has followers across all kingdoms. Based out of Aldruthar, one major goal of this order is the eradication of the Court of the Last Age, it views the vampires as a sin and blight on the humanoid races. To expand its influence and gain followers, the order has leveraged the Era of Life as a gift from the gods to the people and send missionaries to preach about the possible miracles when following the order. The order also utilizes the Timeless Knights, an order of paladins that seeks to expand the influence of The Oracle Order.

## Rathian Trade Company

The largest trading company of Kaelmoria; Rathian Trade Company is a trading company based out of Torgarde with a focus on finished trade goods. This company focuses its efforts on Torgarde's high-quality goods and desire for exportation to make its gold. Torgarde also acts as an ideal location for a trading company, the unique position with regard to the inner and outer currents, as well as Brocilia, provides it with the most freedom in travel. Rathian Trade Company capitalizes on this to provide all of the kingdoms with almost all of the trade goods used.

## Rose Circle

The largest order of paladins, Rose Circle is an order based out of Eladorin. The primary goal of this order is to train new paladins in various oaths as a way to better this world. Although there is no specific oath taught, the oath of ancients is the most common. Each location for the Rose Circle trains a different oath, ancients is the most common because the main order hall has taught this since the order's inception.

## Timeless Knights

A smaller order of paladins than Rose Circle, Timeless Knights acts as a physical power to The Oracle Order. The Timeless Knights are based out of Aldruthar for closer interactions with The Oracle Order. This order of paladins follows the oath of devotion and oath of redemption. Beyond the core ideals of their oaths, the primary goal of this order is to assist The Oracle Order and thus primarily act as a subsect to them.