The Other Hand

The Other Hand is a major faction operating within the continent of Ahlus.

## Description

Originally holding control of the majority of criminal activities in Rydoon alongside their major rivals, the Lightfingers, the Other Hand has since expanded their operations to the other major settlements of the continent over the last several decades. Like the Lightfingers, the Other Hand maintains a number of legitimate fronts in the settlements from which they operate but maintains a looser level of hierarchical control than their main competitors. Instead, the semi-autonomous sects of the Other Hand work with relative autonomy across the continent, though are expected to offer a share of their profits and information on a monthly basis to the abstruse heads of the organisations. Fracture groups were common in the early days after their initial expansion, but swift and harsh recompense following on from thinly-veiled threats offered from on high have held most in line since.

## Goals

The Other Hand traditionally focused on working as hired thugs and enforcers, but in more recently has expanded its interests to include all manner of criminal activities, ranging from illegal fighting pits and gambling dens to active subterfuge, as facilitated by their partnership with a faction of changelings called the Gift of Life, who specialise in the use of tattoos and cosmetic transmutation.

When placed under scrutiny, operatives of the Other Hand fall back on claims that their income was earned through the numerous legally operating businesses owned by the group, the profits of which are used to fund further expansion, recruitment and acquisitions.

## Tenets of the Other Hand

* The loss of any fingers weakens the hand as a whole. Always aid your colleagues wherever you can, unless doing so compromises your own ongoing schemes.
* Only the Other Hand itself is beyond the scope of your plots and aspirations. Ensure that none grow confident that they are beyond our reach.
* Pay your dues in good time. While our profession prospers in the chaos of mismanagement of the settlements of the continent, some order must exist within the Guild to ensure continued success.

## Relationships

While general animosity exists between the Other Hand, the Lightfingers and the Arken Den, the differing sects of the Other Hand and their individual localised leadership means that the extent of these rivalries varies significantly from location to location. Some towns might find themselves periodically ravaged by skirmishes between the syndicates as the fight for domination, whereas in larger cities where prospective targets are abundant tensions may simply simmer from long stretches of time.

Nonetheless, operatives of the Other Hand are continuously pursued by members of law enforcement in the settlements from which they operate. Following a number of busts by city watches, the Other Hand has taken to maintaining storehouses outside of city limits, hidden in woodland shacks or caves in nearby valleys.

## Characters

With their continued growth in the criminal underbelly of civilisation, the possibility of the Other Hand's involvement in the lives of all manner of individuals has likewise grown. Just as is the case with the Lightfingers, the Other Hand is more likely to have had a presence for those within the lower throngs of society, recruiting from the downtrodden with promises of wealth otherwise unobtainable.

Recently however the Other Hand has also expanded its social influence by aiding a number of politicians into positions of power through coercion and blackmail. Slowly but surely, the Other Hand is revealing the cards it has held close for many years.

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