Factions of Dharrenal

Throughout Dharrenal, various groups, guilds and organizations struggle to achieve their goals and interests. Some are allies, other enemies and others operating for their own personal gain and benefit. Some organizations' goals are political, others for glory, others for coin and others still for knowledge. Some guilds are well known and others secret. All employ the use of mercenaries and adventurers to further their ends.

Listed below are some of the most powerful and important players in the world of Athas. Each is available as an option for player characters to join at any time, should they wish. Also included is a brief description of their mission statement and goals, as well as the region's primary headquarters.

### **Arcanamirium (N; Ozmit Empire)**

The Imperial Academy of the Arcane Arts is Dharrenal's foremost magical academy, and its ruling council of professors and researchers is known as the Arcanamirium. Practicality and generalism are emphasized there at the expense of flashiness, abstraction, and specialization. Journeymen are encouraged to practice and experiment with industrial and commercial uses for magic, and many of the Empire's export goods owe their higher quality to the innovations of an Arcanamirium wizard's transmutation. The Arcanamirium strives to populate the world with wizards who are capable of using magic to help those around them, not just in times of crisis but for everyday needs as well.

Their goal is for a more general and ascended field of applied magic. The wizards of the Arcanamirium believe that magic exists to be put to use. The academy recognizes that magic exists to be put to use. The academy recognizes that the more magic impacts the lives of ordinary people in helpful ways, the better its reputation will become among the masses. An angry mob with torches and pitchforks is less likely to materialize if the commoners know they owe their standard of living to the small magical improvements that the Maesters of the Arcanamirium favors.

They are a pragmatic organization and doesn't go in for complex ideology beyond its core tenet that magic can make the world better. The academy has one of the largest libraries of magic scholarship on the continent. Students can browse at will through the main stacks, which include every major scholarly work with almost every human endeavor.

Gaining prestige within the academy is often as simple as contributing new information, such as a new spell or magic item not found elsewhere in the school. Solving a high profile problem in a way that emphasizes the value of practical magic can bring prestige as well.

### **Aspis Consortium (NE; Lucan Coast, Ozmit Empire, Brazeg)**

Their goal is profit above all. Morals, laws, loyalties, and national boundaries fall by the wayside in the name of wealth. The Aspis Consortium superficially acts like any other merchant and trade cabal, but unlike them, it actively manipulates the market and its patrons to achieve its vast wealth. From the lowest dock worker who cares for nothing save for earning his promised pay, to the soldier of fortune willing to spill blood for coin, the Consortium's masters rely on the supreme power of human greed to further their dark aims.

Their members are in it for themselves and their own profit. But they realize that by working within the Consortium's loose framework and increasing its profit, they enrich themselves, even if they must be the tools of their superiors at times, while likewise using inferiors as their own pawns. Members will often do anything in the name of profit, from smuggling to market manipulation by extreme means, such as engineering a crop failure or sinking ships to lower availability of imported goods, and obtaining exclusive development and import rights by any means necessary.

There is no central headquarters but they regardless maintain powerful centers of influence in small regions of influence.

### **Bloodstone Brothers (N; Polczek)**

Central Dharrenal, especially Polczek and the western reaches of the Ozmit Empire if rife with temporary causes, flash-in-the-pan territorial conflicts, and leaders who temporarily have more money than warriors or sense. As such, the area is a prime breeding ground and destination for mercenary groups of all persuasions. The Bloodstone Brothers are well known not only for their battle prowess, but also for their benevolent treatment of noncombatants they move among. As such, they are highly sought after by settlements who seek protection but don't want to risk becoming the target of those they hire.

Their goal is protection, but at a price. The Bloodstone Brothers are in the mercenary business to make a living, but prefer to do so without harming common folk. Most missions the Brothers take on involve protecting innocent villagers from bandits or monsters, and their relationship with their immediate neighbors is peaceful and protective. On occasion, however, they have been known to hire themselves out to guard caravans, barges, and even visiting diplomats.

The Bloodstone Brothers see examples of both failed authoritarian governments and the destruction that lawlessness an bring all around them. They provide a service and expect to be paid for it, but consider themselves several steps above the common bandits who prey on travelers. They do not harm innocent people, they don't obstruct travel, and they don't break an oath freely given. They understand that the strong prey on the weak, but while they don't make themselves predators, their protection comes at a price.

The headquarters of the Bloodstone Brothers is called Bloodstone Keep, based on a tor of gray stone veined thinly with bloodstone, abutting one of the numerous tributaries of the Sellen River. The massive rock is hollowed with ancient dwarven tunnels and features many small peepholes disguised as flaws in the stone, which allow the Swords to observe river traffic. Capped with a small fort that serves as a barracks, Bloodstone Keep serves as a base of operations for the group. The Swords patrol an area several miles around it, keeping the land clear of bandits and monsters. A few farmsteads in the area provide the Brothers with food and basic supplies in exchange for this protection.

### **Church of Razmir (LE; Slazka)**

Members of the Church of Razmir infiltrate the lands around northern Dharrenal with gifts and honeyed words among wealthy and wretched alike, protecting their identities from retribution with their enigmatic masks. Meanwhile, they work behind the scenes to cultivate political power and prosperity for their friends. Their demagogues wield the power of the mob; their emissaries consolidate support through extortion and enforce loyalty through magic and mind-altering drugs when ordinary persuasion and intimidation prove insufficient. Faction missions typically involve gathering resources or contacts to establish footholds and recruiting bases in new areas, strengthening and supporting the cult's allies, and thwarting the efforts of established religions and other enemies of their faith.

They seek to advance the cause of the Living God, the only deity willing to walk and dwell among humanity, spreading the gospel of his greatness and his superiority to the distant and uncaring "false gods". Members seek to undermine and defame other religions and their adherents, exposing other deities and their servants as corrupt, greedy, and self-serving. They show their loyalty to Razmir (the titular 'Living God') by becoming like him, growing his flock through charity, bribes, and persuasion--and when that fails, through threats, drugging, kidnapping, murder, and even open war against unbelievers.

The cult prizes obedience and loyalty in members, allies, and subordinates; the litany "the Church is mother, the Church is father" punctuates every rite and prayer. Cult members take what they can when they can, but they are careful about violating local laws and risking exposure and bad publicity for the cult. Cultists are extremely secretive and willing to lie, but if forced to swear a pact, they will keep their word. Working covertly behind a mask of good works, the cult uses any means to discredit and destroy enemies; it is merciless in punishing failure and pitiless when harm comes to those in the way of their goals.

### **The Crows (CN)**

A clandestine organization of master thieves, smugglers, spies and saboteurs. They are known for their reliance, their discrepancy and the quality of their work and information. The Crows operate in secret and sell their services at an extremely high price. While they have little scruples about their jobs and little real morality to speak of, they will never turn on or betray a client and they are known to actively refuse any work from slavers.

### **Dark Archive (Ibrido)**

Ibrido was once a center of culture and was an important religious site in the Lucain Coast. Even though the city no longer reflects that, the extensive catacombs and vaults beneath the city remain, as do their caretakers.

The Dark Archive strikes to maintain order in the Vaults beneath Ibrido. They seek out dangerous relics and retrieve them for proper storage and research in the Dark Archive. Study and understand hazardous phenomena, and harness these occurrences' power for the faction's benefit. Build alliances with like-minded organizations, but never allow an artifact to fall into the hands of another.

### **The Emerald Enclave (NG, Vanar)**

A far-ranging group that opposes threats to the natural world and helps others survive the many perils of the wild. Members of the Emerald Enclave are spread far and wide, and usually operate in isolation. Some act as guides, leading caravans through treacherous mountain passes or inhospitable terrain. Others might volunteer to help a small village prepare for a long, brutal winter. Others take up arms to combat the forces of the unnatural--such as undead or aberrations--or to secure or protect certain holy, wild places.

### **The Exchange (LN, Ozmit Empire)**

Although it's small compared to many other trading outfits in Dharrenal, the faction aims to build an extensive trade network that allows it to deliver nearly any good to any location--for a price. Undermine or acquire rival monopolies while allying with powerful producers, merchants, nobles and contacts to further grow the business.

The Exchange has lofty aspirations--it wants to become the continent's dominant trading company, acquiring the competition or otherwise putting them out of business, while expanding the types and amounts of goods it handles.

### **Kitharodian University (LN; Ozmit Empire)**

The Kitharodian University (aka "KU" or "the Kith") is the largest of the Ozmit Empire's universities and one of the largest educational centers in the known world. The Kith allows anyone to visit its campuses and it's not uncommon to see the Emperor himself, Emperor Alden Ozmit, to visit during banquets and fundraisers. The educational program at the Kith is rigorous and even some of the Empire's most gifted students wash out before graduation. They are known to sponsor archaeological digs and often send out agents to ruins or other locales to recover artifacts or other knowledge to further the university's understanding.

### **Kusari-Gama (LN; Lucain Coast)**

For centuries, secret cells of monk warriors have silently gathered to mold their brothers and sisters into perfect warriors. Although their martial art forms are diverse, the clans of the Kusari-Gama are united by their single-minded dedication to the perfection of their individual crafts, as well as to a secret purpose: preparing for a hidden war yet to come; the Last War. Although originating in the Jade Empire across the sea, the Kusari-Gama silently spread throughout the Lucain Coast and now, a millennium later, are slowly building a quiet presence across Dharrenal.

### **Lantern Bearers (NG; Nyevka)**

Founded in response to the Lament, the Lantern Bearers (or *Shin'Rakorath* in the Aelish tongue) hunt their twisted drow brethren. The very existence of the drow is a source of shame to elves. To prevent that shame from spreading, committed elf rangers keep watch for drow activity, trying to keep their existence a secret from the rest of the world while searching for end the threat of the drow once and for all.

### **Liberty's Edge (CG; Polczek)**

The members of Liberty's Edge seek to spark revolution in decadent old empires and to civilize and educate the ignorant peoples of lost and unknown lands. They press for abolition of slavery and the punishment of those who perpetrate it. They bring the torch of freedom to the world's darkest places and banish mysticism, diabolism and fear. A member of this faction often performs acts of sabotage and diplomacy while carrying out their duties and should be willing to bend the rules of tyrannical law in order to plant the seed of liberty, even when doing so requires questionable techniques.

This faction has sprung up as an independent, third faction in Polczek's civil war. They aren't much of a player, but some believe that they could achieve a real foothold in the struggle under the right circumstances.

### **The Low Rollers (CN; Lucain Coast)**

A thieves' guild based in the swamp town of Gambon, the Low Rollers have a reputation known across Dharrenal. They are also known as enforcers and informants, and have their hands in various criminal activites, though they are not involved in slavery of any kind. The Low Rollers are not bandits and must be hired out by clients. They are often hired to perform impossible heists. Led by the conman and thief known as **Roark**.

### **The Ninth Battalion (LG; Iron Empire)**

The foes of dwarves are many. Besieged throughout history as they have been, it is inevitable that from time to time, despite the best of defenses, a dwarven clan is wiped out and its few survivors are scattered. Rather than be subsumed by a neighboring kingdom, many survivors instead choose a life in the Ninth Battalion: an inter-clan of disenfranchised warriors dedicated to the stalwart defense of the dwarven people. Whenever one of the Thaigs' enemies threatens their home, the Ninth Battalion will soon be there, answering their kinsmen's call.

### **The Order of the Gauntlet (LG; Alfine)**

Many paladins and clerics of the Stormlord, the Platinum Champion, and others have joined this new organization, seeing it as--finally!--a way of making common cause against the evils of abroad in the world. This militant Order is ready to lash out at the moment evil acts, and not a moment before. When evil breaks laws, agreements or commonly accepted codes of conduct, the Gauntlet strikes fast and hard, without waiting for the blessings of distant temples. Evil must be met in the field and smashed, or it will swiftly overcome all.

### **Wayfinder's Society (N)**

Sometimes called the "Adventurer's Guild". Members of this faction are dedicated explorers, hunters, tomb raiders, historians, vagabonds and adventurers, embodying the key tenants of their organization. They roam the farthest reaches of the world seeking lost relics and answers to riddles older than the gods. These heroes brave vine-choked jungles, ascend snow capped peaks and comb sun-seared deserts in search of buried tombs and monuments to bygone ages. Focused on exploring ruins as well as securing artifacts from those who don't appreciate them, the Wayfinders have an insatiable sense of curiosity and make excellent members of larger expeditions. They often take inspiration from the exploits of the early Wayfinder **Devin Gest**, aspiring to become as famous as that legendary adventurer.