The Order of the Hands of Fate

The Order of the Hands of Fate are an elusive group of specially trained assassins, traditionally used by the Sun Kingdom royalty to keep their lords in check. Mysterious disappearances can be usually attributed to the Order.

## **History**

Formed before even the First Era to specifically remove other tribal leaders for easier conquering, the Order have been under the employ of the King and the royal class for decades within the Sun Kingdom.

Eventually by 55AT the Order was distanced from the crown and changed into more of a guild of mercenary assassins. The Order has remained extremely secretive throughout their history, to the point where the general public is largely still unaware of their existence.

## **Faction Dynamics**

Within the Order of the Hands of Fate, each individual member is referred to a Hand, the Hands follow a strict code of honor which they apply to themselves and their work.

### **Code of honor**

* Hands are forbidden to physically meet other members of the Order or contractors.
* Hands must give the target a warning any time before an assassination attempt is made.
* Hands must complete a contract once it is accepted.
* Hands must never admit to being a Hand or expose the Order.
* Hands must never kill the innocent or the undeserving.

Breaking specific codes results in different punishments;

* Meeting another Hand must result in a duel to the death, the victor has their honor is fully restored.
* Meeting a contractor requires the contractor’s death, after which the Hands honor is partly restored, to completely restore it, they must kill the dead contractor's target.
* Killing a target without any prior warning results in the Hand being sent to a Sun kingdom prisoner pit.
* Discarding a previously accepted contract, exposing the Order and killing an innocent requires the death of the offending Hand, either by killing themselves, or another member killing them.

### **Contracts**

As physical meetings with a hand is out of the question, the core method of communicating with any Order members is achieved through specially trained carrier hawks or falcons, referred to as eyes. Eyes can be found freely flying around forests around dusk, to call them down a special whistle should be sounded by a potential contractor.

Contractors then may attach a message outlining the basic details of the proposed contract, i.e. the target's name, where they frequent most and how much the contractor is willing to pay. Once a message is attached the eye will fly to where their hand owner is, unless it is followed by the contractor where it will instead fly in a random direction.

Typically a contract will be accepted within a weeks time, the only way the contractor will know if it has been accepted is by a hand leaving a notched arrow for the contractor to find. If a month passes with no sign it is safe to assume the contract was rejected.

Upon receiving notice of an accepted contract, the contractor is obliged to pay half the fee to the hand. This is achieved through the contractor stashing the payment and marking the location with chalk, if the contractor wishes for more specific requests, such as method of death or torture they may leave this message with the payment. Once the payment is taken by the hand, they will break the notched arrow as a sign that the contract is active.

To notify the contractor of a complete contract a hand will leave a small piles of ash in the contractor's home, which will prompt them to stash and mark the last portion of the payment. However, should a hand die while attempting to complete a contract, the target of the contract will be exempt from being targeted again by any hand.

## **Trivia**

* Eyes are trained to pull off any attached messages if they are placed in danger or someone otherwise attempts to capture it.
* As soon as rune crafting became available to the Sun kingdom he order have been using runes to ensure that if a message attached to an eye is removed incorrectly it will self immolate.
* Hands will give targets a warning that they should settle their affairs, or prepare themselves by making their eye to circle the target.
* When a hand accepts a contract and is waiting for prepayment they will watch the contractor until they are paid, meaning that a contractor can mark places with chalk that they would like signs to be placed.