Societies, Guilds, and Groups

Feel free to add more groups not covered by other scrolls here that are not on the Strolen v1.0 site.

-The Crimson Lotus Magicians: A mysterious guild of mercenary sorcerors who dress in red and orange

-The Sleepers: A secret society of beings who worship a being known as the Ascended Sleeper. Always wear masks crafted like the faces of owls.

-The Blue Sash Society: A guild of assassins who wear blue sashes.

-The Emerald Order of Most Honorable Moneylenders: A guild of moneylenders who have connections with the Empty Cloaks.

-The Empty Cloaks: A thieve's guild founded by the fox-spirit Invisible.

-The Dog-Headed Society: A guild of monks dedicated to the god of valor and loyalty.

-The Chimidirists: A secret society of people who practice the art of Chimidiry.

-The Uncut Wheat Guild: A sort of medieval farmer's union.

-The Chain-Breakers: Opposers of slavery everywhere.

-The Order of Three Bones: A guild of necromancers, chirurgeons, and osseologists (scientists that specialize in bones).

-The Guild of Morticians: A guild of necromancers.

-The Blue Lampsmen: The official city guard of Jeffsport.

1) Priests of the Fallen Order- religous zealots that perform blood rituals and sacrifices. They are working to sway the public from their moralistic lifestyles and opening up to their culture and god.

2) Knight's Blade- An order of knights that are all highly experienced and dedicated to the vanquishing of evil brigands and despotism.

3) Blood Stain- A local street gang that is backed by an assassins guild.

4) Dockery Boys- A union for dock workers to protect themselves against port authority and charge incoming merchants a user's fee for using their docks, manpower and protection.

The Seekers: Holy order that is devoted to the truth. Experts in interrogation and problem solving. Sought after to make deals, approve contracts between kingdoms, solve high profile crimes.

The Wicked Brew: Subcult of the assassins clan. Specialize in the creation and brewing of poisons. Expert chemists on the dark side.

The Lost Cohort

The Lost Cohort is a cohort of the Arcturan legions that split off of the army during a long ago civil war. The Lost Cohort split from it's legion when the leader wanted the centuries of the cohort to perpetrate brutal acts against the populace which they were putting down. The Cohort fled the field into the hills. It has become a sort of Merry Men-esque band of outlaws, who drop in and out of the provinces, striking against Imperial authority and then disappearing.

The Lost Cohort has become a strange sort of splinter culture, that has dwelt alone in the wilderness as a separate brotherhood for centuries. It is composed of 7 or 8 centuriae (640 men or so), plus their families. It has become commonplace for cousins to marry, since the gene pool of the Lost Cohort is not terribly large.

The Tens are groups that act, in effect, like Mafia gangs in our world.They wear black leather jackets with a '10' patch on the back and carry swords. If anyone who is not a Ten member is caught wearing a patch, he or she is beaten up very badly.If they are seriously threatened then the verious chapters can join together to make one large and very dangerous gang.They force stallkeepers, shopkeepers ect to pay 10% of their profit or face serious violence.

Having said that, the Tens will keep other criminals away, and in the event of a major disaster they stop their extortion in that area and help to get things back to normal.Like any good parasite, they try not to kill their host.

The Anchors are an underground vigilante society that patrol the docks and streets of Pier Point town, after the city got so lawless that even the City Guards were attacked. Elements amongst the more law-abiding members of society formed the secret group, who's members wore blue hoods that covered their faces when they went out on their missions. Their targets were the criminals that were making ordinary people's lives a misery, and their weapons were simple clubs,hammers, and ropes.

Often they do not have to kill, a beating or the smashing of the criminal's hands with hammers is enough to stop his or her crime wave.If that does not work, or if the criminal was a murderer or a rapist, then they knock the criminal unconsious and then hang him or her (normally him) from one of the bridges over the River Nine.They try if possible not to target the innocent but mistakes have happened.A favourite Anchor trick is to get a criminal to chase one of their members down an alley where a group of their members is waiting in ambush.

The 'official' named organisations of Midian, in no particular order

Church if the Rising Night, Atrum Ortus (fan creation): once a secret society, now a cult, dedicated to the destruction of the Undead

Darklings: dubbed the 'Gothic Mafia' by some players; dabblers in social control, and backed by assassins; source of the Phantom classes

Way of the Blade Guild (fan creation): the first & foremost Midianite adventurer's guild; based in Argent, Formour

Shadowed Skulls (fan creation): a treasure-hunting, training, and mercenary guild; perhaps the most influential in Midian

Rolling Iron Guild (fan creation): trading/mercenary guild; transports expensive & dangerous cargo

Sundered Guild (fan creation): public-relations guild for Orcks, Ogres, Hobgoblins, and Trolls

Knights of the Temple: holy order of nights belonging to the Temple of Light, one of two such knightly orders of that church

Crimson Order of the Knights of the Shadows: also known as the Death Knights or Shadow Lords; this order of knights-errant are vile mercenaries who dabble in necromancy

Syndic's Union: formed by mutual agreement of disparate Syndics by Claxxon; this allows for something quite similar to international banking in Midian

BlackGuard's Warband/BlackGuard's Armada (fan creation): two names for the same mercenary force, depending on whether encountered on land or sea; this army was the one that encountered the Orcks during the Scourge War, and now runs the Northern Protectorate in Osterre

House Obsidrian: an influential, but fairly typical Elven Great House; responsible for siring Volgor, the necromancer

The Press Gang

In a few of the larger towns where the printing press is in use, and the rulers are not too strict about what can be printed, there are newspapers. If somebody is murdering reporters and escaping capture, or if someone is suing a newspaper for a large amount of money and has a strong case, or if a judge is being a real pain, the secret Press Gang will be called in by the newspaper owner to deal with the problem.

Depending on the situation this could mean anything from a quiet warning, to a murder.The Press Gang (each big newspaper has it's own) also protects reporters, steals secret documents and on occassion, even creates news stories by doing highly illegal things like inciting riots or even creating undead.

Why make stuff up, when history is there to provide you with a ton (English, not Metric) of great ideas.

KNIGHTLY ORDERS, in medieval Europe, societies, or brotherhoods, of knights sworn to chastity, poverty and religious discipline. Orders were formed both to achieve the ideals of chivalry and to advance Christianity by the performance of military and other services, e.g., the protection of pilgrims and holy places and warfare against infidels and heretics. The first such societies, the Hospitalers and the Templars, both formed in PALESTINE during the CRUSADES, were international in membership and interests. Subsequently, the LIVONIAN ORDERS, the TEUTONIC KNIGHTS, and various orders devoted to fighting the MOSLEMS in Spain and Portugal had more strictly national interests and memberships. The Knights Of Malta, also an international body, was a later continuation of the Hospitalers. Many of these orders, as they increased in size, wealth, and power, became involved in secular politics; as a result the temporal authorities were sometimes obliged to suppress them, as when PHILIP IV of France moved to crush the Templars.

After the close of the Middle Ages, many of the kings of Europe instituted secular orders of knighthood both to add chivalric luster to the royal courts and as a way of honoring members of the nobility and forming an aristocratic elite bound to the king. Among the most famous of these secular orders are England's Order of the Garter and Order of the Bath. In modern times, knightly orders, such as the Order of the British Empire, have been established as a means of honoring meritorious service to the state.

TEUTONIC KNIGHTS (too-tahn'-ik) or Teutonic Order, German religious-military order founded ab. 1190 at Jerusalem during the third CRUSADE. Patterned after the Templars and the Hospitalers, the new Order played only a small role in the affairs of the Frankish-Christian states which had been carved out in Palestine-Syria.

Around 1210 the Knights became involved in European affairs, and the Order reached the height of its influence and power during the 13th and l4th cent., when it conquered Prussia, converting the inhabitants to Christianity or replacing them with German colonists. By the end of this period, the Order, which after 1225 also included the LIVONIAN ORDER, with its cap. at Marienburg (Konigsberg after 1466), ruled a large domain along the coast of the Baltic as far as Russia. Following major defeats in the intermittent war with Poland (see TANNENBERG, BATTLES OF) in the l5th cent., the Order acknowledged Polish sovereignty. There followed a period of gradual but steady decline. In 1525, the Grand Master of the Order accepted PROTESTANTISM, and the former holdings of the Order in Prussia became a duchy under Polish protection. The Order's few remaining possessions in Germany proper were secularized in 1805. Biblio.: Krollmann, C., The Teutonic Order in Prussia (1938).

LIVONIAN ORDER (li-voh'-nee-un), Livonian Knights or Knights of the Swords, German KNGHTLY ORDER, founded in 1202 by the bishops of Riga to christianize the lands lying along the Baltic Coast, i.e., Livonia (N. Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia). In 1236, following their defeat at Siauliai by the Lithuanians, the Order became a branch of the TEUTONIC KNIGHTS, although it retained its autonomy in the Livonian Region. An attack by the Order on Novgorod led to its massive defeat by Alexander NEVSKY at Lake Peipus (1242), and in the years afterward the Order was steadily weakened by Russian and local opposition and by the Protestant Reformation. It was disbanded in 1561.

Well noted books on the subject:

The Queen's Orders of Chivalry (1961)

Orders of Chivalry (1887)

Chivalry and Sorcery first ed, 1979