Vindicators

The Vindicators are a Vagabond faction, united by their will to bring equality to Hireath. They are a small activist force devoted to the end of slavery and classism, and use guerrilla tactics toward achieving these goals. They are also vehemently opposed to the Cult of Digend.

## Daily Life

By the necessity of their dangerous lifestyle, Vindicators dedicate much of their time to training and exercise, as well as basic maintenance duties around the base. No Vindicator is too big or small (and especially not too important) to help with cleaning, gathering, equipment maintenance and many other mundane duties that make up the majority of the Vindicators existence. Although they are known for their raids, being out fighting takes very little time out of their week.

They don’t live on a set schedule, and while tasks are always completed, they aren’t necessarily completed by any sort of plan. The only set times are for the two communal meals every Vindicator shares in - one in the morning, another in the late evening.

Planning said raids is generally much more time-consuming. Vindicators constantly have scouts out looking for potential targets, such as trade caravans or wealthy travelers. Larger raids, such as the attacks on Crucible and Dark District, took months of planning, and these types of endeavors usually involve the brain power and special skills of every available Vindicator.

The Vindicators live a rather spartan lifestyle, affording little luxury and having just enough supplies to distribute to stay afloat. Resources are recycled, reused and shared as much as possible, and absolutely nothing is wasted. Important resources, such as armor and weapons, are dutifully maintained. Outside of a few personal effects, Vindicators rarely have many possessions. A contempt for wealth is a unifying factor among the Vindicators, who value their friendships and contributions more than earthly riches. This contempt extends to Vindicators who are greedy or seem to be too stuck with “Aodhian ways”.

Space and resources are extremely limited at the Vindicator camp, and new recruits often have a hard time adjusting to how little privacy individual Vindicators have. As a result, Vindicators often share very casual familiarity through their activities and become accustomed to jostling one another and existing close together - or at least come to tolerate it.

Especially during winter, when heavy snow and darkness makes moving outside difficult, the base can feel quite cramped.

### Covertone

Covertones are a free faction item for the Vindicators, and includes a basic string.. You may add the artwork to your characters reference if desired.

Covertones are small, softly glowing rocks. The rocks are white with an opalescent hue reflecting pinks, purples and greens, and even in their rough, unpolished form make for rather pleasant looking decorations.

Each Vindicator has one, and they are expected to carry it on them at all times, but especially so when outside the bases. The rocks can be fashioned into jewelry, embedded into clothing/armor or carried as is, depending on owner’s preference.

Coverstones are each imbued with a mysterious form of memory manipulation that keeps the Vindicators from knowing the locations of their bases. This information is completely hidden - they can not describe the route there, draw a map or even estimate approximate distances. This knowledge can also not be forced from them with the use of any memory or mind-altering or snooping blessing, including Changeling, Telepathy, Memory Manipulation, Dream Walking etc. They simply *do not know* and this effect can not be canceled. The only way to do so would be to come and leave a base without a rock on your person and then never put the rock on again.

Despite not *knowing* where their bases are, the Vindicators can completely effortlessly return to them. The sensation is similar to just walking and letting your legs carry you - until you realize you have arrived at your intended destination. This works even if the Vindicator is completely lost and has no clue where they are.

## Cultural Notes

The Vindicators are a small and close-knit group of idealists, dedicated wholly to the goal of true equality among equines. They pool their skills and resources, combining their strengths in well-planned attacks on the establishments that oppress and harm others.

Because they believe so strongly in equality, there is no true hierarchy among Vindicators. They are, however, familiar with their allies' skills and tend to defer to expertise among their peers. The Paladin's wisdom is sought to finalize any plans, and almost all missions are carried out under the Paladin's supervision, but he is truly a "leader" and not a "ruler"; the Vindicators have no formal rules and give no formal orders. Their structure is purely based on cooperation, and with such a small number of people to organize, it succeeds.

Due to the close quarters they share, Vindicators have a culture of being generous, helpful and cooperative among one another. That being said, the faction is also filled with big personalities, arguments and clashing opinions are, at times, inevitable. Because their work demands unity, Vindicators are encouraged to (safely) settle their differences in the sparring ring, or if the conflict escalates, have them be mediated by the Paladin, an Elite or sometimes the whole community. Solutions often require both sides to compromise.

For a variety of personal reasons, the Vindicators are unified by a hatred of the rich and powerful and seek a redistribution of power and wealth that benefits the marginalized equines of Hireath. Vindicators also have an interest in thwarting intercontinental conflicts due to the massive suffering they cause, although their limited numbers have never allowed them to do so. While some Vindicators are peaceful idealists in their wishes to change the world, majority of them are revolutionaries, ready to fight and die for the cause. Everyone, however, is radical enough in their beliefs to throw away a comfortable life in favor of their principles.

While Vindicators have mostly focused on the struggle against slavery, they do occasionally stop cultist attacks on innocent travelers, or intervene to protect someone they deem to be oppressed. The Vindicators will usually not help anyone who seems to be well off, or even from Aodh in general - in fact they are known to attack and rob wealthy travelers and trade caravans in addition to slave shipments, although they usually avoid killing anyone.

### Religion

The Vindicators have no central religion, though due to the majority of their members being from Onea or Eithne, many of them worship Kaia or Ignacio. It is typical for Vindicators to not be particularly religious, as they may feel abandoned by the gods of their birth herds.

As such, there is no prejudice against worshiping any of the gods (or no god at all), but the Bunker only contains Kaia and Ignacio "Shrines" in form of simple paintings, while the Fort has similar “Shrines” for all gods, including a hidden one for Digend. Some of the more devout members choose to have smaller, often even more crude altars at their individual bunks, or carry small prayer totems on their person. Vindicators have no official religious customs or rituals, and tend to be privately religious due to their divided backgrounds. However, many Vindicators still beseech the gods in hopes of gaining a blessing, as these are invaluable for their dangerous work. Blessings suited for fighting and information gathering are particularly popular.

In the event of a Vindicator's death, a group prayer is said to the deceased's patron god in their honor.

### Guidelines

The Vindicators don't recognize any official government, but hold these values as guidelines for their daily lives:

I. **Protect the weak, subjugated, and downtrodden. Give voices to the voiceless, and defend the defenseless.**

II. **Never tolerate those who abuse or take advantage.**

 III. **Redistribute what is taken. Take only that which you need.**

IV. **Safeguard one another in all things. We are one, born of the same blood.**

Repeatedly acting against this ideology, deliberately thwarting missions, or significant failure during a mission are all causes to be excused from the Vindicators. Though there is no stringent guideline on exactly how much one has to do before being kicked out, it is generally understood that those not cut out for the Vindicator lifestyle will eventually be removed from the Bunker.

In the rare case where someone has not only broken the rules, but is clearly vengeful towards the Vindicators, they have been executed to protect the rest of the group.

## Operations

The Vindicators actions in pursuit of their goals consist of two main components:  raids, and aftercare. Traditionally Vindicators have staged small to medium scale attacks, frequently on slave trading caravans or other limited targets, releasing the slaves and leading them to safety while avoiding direct combat engagements that would have made them vulnerable.

Currently, the Vindicators are at an impasse. Eithne is nearly impassable to larger groups due to kirin and Chevalier activity, and the land trade they relied on for supplies and recruits has ceased. This has shifted activity towards intel and covert operations. They also aim to impede the Heralds of Ash whenever the opportunity presents itself, as the threat they pose to all life in Eithne is perhaps even more pressing than the issue of slavery.

### Raids

Although Vindicators can be opportunistic - for example when robbing rich travelers - their raids are never random. Vindicators rely on scouting and intel to target slave traders, public slave auctions in Northern Eithne, as well as trading and military caravans in Onea. These attacks are mostly conducted along War Lord’s road. Vindicators never attack Onean settlements, and only rarely strike at minor Aodhian villages that don’t house major slave populations; not because of any sympathy, but because the risk would not be worth the reward.

Although *deaths* are now rare, injuries are commonplace, ranging from minor to severe. As Vindicators don’t have sophisticated or sterile working spaces, infections are still a concern, and close quarters lend themselves to easy spread of seasonal illnesses. All Vindicators are aware of the inherent dangers of their work. Cadets, as well as injured or sick Vindicators, are not allowed to participate in missions, instead remaining the safety of the base.

The most famous Vindicator raids are the Crucible raid of Near Year 1700, where Vindicators managed to severely damage the building, as well as free great numbers of slaves; and the Great Spring Raid of 1701, where they blew up part of the Dark District to release 80% of Aodh’s labor slave population, amounting to thousands of equines. Strikes such as these are carefully planned in advance, with several contingencies in place to minimize Vindicator losses. On major operations, it is vital that everyone sticks to the plan.

In order to remain unpredictable, the Vindicators do not have a pattern or an "average" amount of time between their supply theft and liberation raids. Sometimes they will intentionally lie low for months, and sometimes stage several attacks within days of each other.

### Freed Slaves

The Vindicators aspire to not simply abandon the equines they release from bondage. From small scale raids, every horse they free is brought to a secret Vindicator safe house. The bases are not used for immediate housing of freed slaves due to safety concerns, although Old Bunker was sometimes used in this way. In addition to official safehouses, Vindicators have a network of allies and sympathizers who can occasionally shelter and offer work for newly freed slaves. Some of these freed slaves go on to establish new places for future refugees to be sheltered at, keeping in contact with the Vindicators long after their rescue.

Things become more complicated with larger raids. When masses of slaves are released, it is often not possible to track them all - Vindicators are few, and panicked equines don’t flee in exactly orderly fashion. They help as many as they can, but it's not uncommon for some to slip through the cracks.

This became most apparent during their greatest success in the  Great Spring Raid of 1701, when thousands of slaves were released at once with only thirty or so Vindicators participating in the Eithne raid.  With the complications that arose on the mission, thousands of slaves were left wandering Eithne. Some were recaptured, others died or were killed - and unbeknownst to the Vindicators, numerous slaves ran into the gathering kirins, and were slaughtered by them.

### Bases

For over ten years, Vindicators made their base in The Bunker, a secret underground base in Onea. After the

Bunker’s location was betrayed during Summer of 1701, Vindicators split into two new bases: the New Bunker, originally controlled by Dinah, and the Fort, originally controlled by Shale. After the death of Dinah in spring 1702, the Vindicators were once again unified. The New Bunker now acts as the main living base, while the Fort is used for training, mission briefing, and receiving messages from the Kingfisher Inn. Both bases are always occupied.

#### The Old Bunker

Created by the combined efforts of several Earth Manipulation blessed Vindicators, the Bunker was a well-hidden underground complex that houses the Vindicators. It exists in the forests of Southern Onea, a long day's march from the War Lord's Road.

The Bunker is three levels deep, with each level made of a series of small rooms framing a larger common square chamber. The upper level, which is about two stories beneath the surface, consists of a common area housing weapons and battle gear, as well as other more everyday items needed topside, to allow Vindicators to quickly grab supplies on their way to the surface.

The second level of the bunker houses a more hospitable common area, with a huge fire pit in the center of the room. This space is used for twice daily meals and general socializing during downtime.

The third, bottom level of the bunker is the least "finished", and is mostly used to store extra rations or as overflow during emergencies when a particularly large number of people need to be housed.

### Safehouses

Vindicators operate 6 major, permanent safehouse locations in Onea and Sirith. They previously had some influence in Eithne too, but have since lost contact with all of them due to settlements being destroyed by the kirins.

The permanent safehouses are used not only for housing freed slaves, but also for gathering intel, funding and contacts.

Read more about the safehouse locations *here!*

## History

Hundreds of years ago, there was a schism within the Vagabonds who worshipped Digend. Some of them wanted more extreme means - blood, carnage, panic and fear. They believed that Digend would only rise by the means most extreme and heinous. But others, they desired to worship Digend with valiance; to be change rather than mere chaos.

Vindicators in their rudimentary form were borne out of the smaller splinter faction, while the larger group would go on to become the Cult of Digend. The two factions have hated one another ever since.

Vindicators existed for generations in this state - a nameless group of activists and idealists, pursuing the common good and freedom of all equine kind. They would ambush Cultist bands, rescue travelers, hunt down dangerous individuals, and free freshly culled slaves. Their numbers were tiny - only twenty or so individuals, and their members rarely lived long lives.  It did not take many of these short generations for their roots to be forgotten - only the animosity remained of their link to the Cult. Worship of Digend was abandoned and forgotten.

Eventually, their members began to be predominantly come from among the freed slaves, and their focus began to shift. Instead of going after any nefarious activity they could find, they began to target exclusively slavers, and the very occasional Cultist campsite. They called themselves the Vindicators, and began to consider themselves a true, separate faction for the first time.

Their numbers were rarely more than a dozen; mostly escaped slaves and Onean criminals. They moved along the trade routes between Eithne and Onea, attacking slavers to liberate their prisoners, or storming Aodhian settlements to break slaves free. While they had courage, they were poorly organized, and untrained. Their roster changed frequently as Vindicators were captured, and replaced by new freedom fighters.

Their numbers dwindled every raid, only bolstered by freed slaves, whom the Vindicators could not support or assist beyond offering them the chance to join.

Then, something changed.

Twenty years ago, Dinah was a slave the Vindicators had freed, a powerful fighter  who had the organization they needed to succeed. With her among them, their fortunes began to change.

Fifteen years ago, she was chosen as their leader, the first Paladin. She had a natural magnetism that brought the Vindicators to order. She helped them create a home base in the Onean wild, trained Soldiers, and helped them hone their skills to become more careful yet no less zealous than before.

With their new emphasis on planning and cooperation, the lives of the Vindicators changed forever. The losses they sustained became more manageable; while their work was still dangerous, death was now a possibility, rather than an eventuality. They constructed an infrastructure that gave them the capacity to help the freed equines beyond releasing them, and formed tentative alliances with likeminded people around Onea, Eithne and even Sirith.

Their numbers grew quickly, and with it, their ability to do good. Recently, however, there was a splinter within the faction: as their plans have become more ambitious, they have also overreached their capabilities. And as of late, it feels as if their luck is running out - a string of bad luck ending in the death of their beloved Paladin, Dinah.

Read here for the full in-game timeline of Vindicators!

## Ranks

* Paladin
* Elite
* Keeper
* Soldier
* Support
* Cadet

Get the Vindicator reference base here!

## Joining the Vindicators

The most common and easiest way to become a Vindicator is to be freed by them. For many who have only ever known slavery, staying with their liberators and gaining a new purpose is a natural choice compared to the unknown randomness of the Hireath’s wilds.

After the reveal of a traitor in their midst, Vindicators have become more selective and careful with their ex-slave recruits, and usually observe and interview them carefully before allowing them the chance to join, unless existing Vindicators are able to vouch for their identity. Most ex-slaves are still offered the opportunity of joining, and those who wish to do so will join their ranks as Cadets before “graduating” to full duties.

Sometimes, people in the Vindicators' network of allies may choose to join. To become a member of the Vindicators, at least two current Vindicators (or just the Paladin herself) must vouch for a candidate's character and capability. The Vindicators do not discriminate against disability, and are open-minded about what strengths every individual can offer, but everyone must prove at least one great practical skill. For their first month in the Bunker, misconduct can cause a candidate to lose the endorsement of the Vindicators who vouched for them, at which point the candidate would be removed.

* **Please note** that due to there canonically having been very few surviving Vindicators prior to Dinah becoming a Paladin (15 years ago), new Vindicators with a background of joining prior that will no longer be approved.

## Herd Relations

While Vindicators try to keep track of any conflict brewing in Hireath, they mostly meddle in the affairs of Aodh and War-Forged.

For years, Vindicators were largely protected by the mystique of their numbers, with their calculated strikes leading their enemies to overestimate their numbers. However, along with the location of their original Bunker, the traitor was also able to supply fairly accurate estimates on their numbers.

### Aodh and War Forged

The vast majority of the populations of both Aodh and War Forged hate the Vindicators, and are likely to react to them with fear and aggression. There are some outliers who sympathize with them, and may provide aid, but their radical means have led to an ever decreasing public opinion of the faction.

Anyone suspected of being a Vindicator is likely to be arrested by either herd's government officials; slavers and raiders are likely to try and kidnap or kill Vindicators. People suspected of being Vindicator allies are prosecuted to the highest degree in Eithne.

For years, the Vindicators shared a somewhat turbulent relationship with the Aodhian Smugglers. While majority of the Smugglers viewed them as terrorists, and Vindicators for their part saw Smugglers as apologists using half-measures, there were a few radical Smugglers who cooperated with Vindicators via rendezvous points on Eithne's borders. Allied Smugglers were the few Aodhians that Vindicators offered any true admiration, and their sole contact inside the walls of New Valore.

During the events of the Great Spring Raid 1701, the relationship between Smugglers and Vindicators was irreparably damaged due to the Vindicators abandoning their shared plan, and destroying a part of the city. This betrayal angered the smugglers, and also brought the wrath of Aodh’s law enforcement upon them at a never before seen might. As a result, the Smugglers have cut all ties with the Vindicators.

### Heralds of Ash

Heralds of Ash are a new and aggressive faction  in Eithne. Despite sharing in the Vindicators hatred of modern Aodh, they are not allies - the Heralds have sworn to destroy all of Aodh, slaves included. They will kill any Vindicators moving on their land, making traversing Eithne extremely dangerous, or at times even impossible. Heralds are hated by the Vindicators, and seen as a pressing threat to all life in Eithne - and perhaps all of Hireath.

### Breim

Vindicators don’t really have a relationship with Breim beyond a few safehouses in Sirith. Some of their members, past and current, have come from this faction, and Vindicators generally hold a fairly positive opinion of them. Vindicators have been able to occasionally trade with the Point.

### Serora and Talori

Due to sheer distance, very few Vindicators have ever been to Sedo or Aquore. Those of their members who originally came from these factions speak fondly of them (albeit the Talori ones seem to have… Spotty memories) but there has never been any real interaction between them.

### Cult of Digend

The only group the Vindicators loathe more than Aodhians are the Cult of Digend. They are an enemy with no clear plan and the sole objective of maximum destruction, and the only opponent that the Vindicators can never predict. The Vindicators manage to protect some travelers from stray or straggling Cultists and work furiously to undo the damage the Cult does at every opportunity, but are making little progress in stopping the ever-growing Cultists. The Cult, with its creed based on tormenting the weak and spreading pain, stands for everything the Vindicators are trying to abolish in the world, and is their deadliest foe.

### Unaligned Vagabonds

The Vindicators’ relationship with Unaligned Vagabonds is as many-faceted as this assorted crew of wanderers and vagabonds itself. Vindicators will generally frown upon the actions of violent thieves and mercenaries, but they also seek to ally themselves with like-minded individuals among all the unaligned Vagabond ranks.

Some unaligned Vagabonds have special distaste for Vindicators due to Vindicator raids causing Eithne to become impassable and Onea dangerous to them, but like always, most unaligned Vagabonds hold their own opinions of matters.

## Notable Figures

* Dinah, The Paladin. The first Paladin of the Vindicators, leader of the faction up until her death at the hooves of the kirins in spring 1702.
* Shale, a young Vindicator who became their second Paladin after Dinah’s death.
* Ike, Group NPC. Ike is the current owner of the Kingfisher Inn, a secret Vindicator safe house that offers shelter to traveling Vindicators and a place of work to freed slaves.