Organizations (Greyhawk Action)

Greyhawk Action!

Acadamae

The premier school of Wizardry in Ahlissa, Academae is divided into branches and strongly encourages specialization in its students. The most powerful branch is Summoning, but there are a total of eight branches. Seeing, Induction, Wards, Lies, Shaping, Charms, and Whispers.

Objectives: Maintain Acadamae as the premier school of wizardry. Produce powerful graduates, new spells, and magic items. Collect lore. Maintain discipline and pride amongst allumae.

Traits: Mind, Know, Impress, Specialty skill (Charm for Lies, Create for Ward)

Contacts: Access to important wizard jobs, spells, training, and lore. Very high prestige in Ahlissa, a master of Acadamae is as important as a landed lord.

Power: 34, Summoning 33, Seeing 24, Induction 31, Wards 28, Lies 29, Shaping 30, Charms 30, Whispers 32.

Aspis Society

A mercantile association set up by Queen Illeosa early in her reign to exploit the power vacuum left by the fall of the Crimson Fleet, the Aspis society is a cooperative effort for colonization and trade.

Objectives: Make money for everyone involved.

Traits: Mind, Charm, Ride.

Contacts: Trade, logistics, and foreign.

Power: 26.

Cerulean Society

By charter amendment, Korvosa does not allow merchants, laborers, or tradesmen to form guilds, but it does allow for a thieves’ guild. This causes legitimate workers no end of frustration and anger. Officially, the Cerulean Society has a monopoly as a theive's guild, but they are challenged by numerous ad-hoc organizations and gangs. The general policy is to either absorb or destroy such upstarts, but as long as they remain small simple dues is all that is required.

The Cerulean Society runs a fairly typical protection racket with excruciatingly smug satisfaction, as Guildmaster Boule provides his Cerulean Society with actual blue uniforms to wear when they come to collect, giving the guild the look of authority. The price a “client” pays for the Cerulean Society’s “service” varies, depending not on wealth but on a complicated formula known only to the guildmaster. Indeed, the wealthy House Jeggare pays less than a gold sail per year for its protection, while impoverished House Peltherianon cannot hope to afford to pay the hundred sails the Cerulean Society demands each month. The Cerulean Society offers its protective service to every noble house, as well as to wealthy merchants, the temple of Zilchus , and others who cross it. When a potential client fails to pay, it goes on a list provided to the gangs of cat burglars and second-story men legitimized by the guild, who then have the go-ahead to act on that information as they see fit. The guild works together with legitimate gangs to ensure they don’t overwork an area. The threat of theft and robbery at knife point is enough to make most potential clients pay up, so the guild is careful to not always extend the offer of this service to every potential target.

In addition to blatant extortion, the Cerulean Society also generates income by regulating the other gangs in the city. Twice per year, the Cerulean Society sends members and trusted agents throughout the city, again wearing its distinctive blue uniform, collecting dues from other gangs. A gang that pays its dues to the thieves’ guild gains a level of legitimacy that allows the guild to tap the gang’s members for the purpose of showing why the Cerulean Society’s protection is a valuable service. Those gangs that can’t or won’t pay the dues don’t last long. The swift eradication of such gangs by the thieves’ guild strikes fear in all who witness or hear about such events, further ensuring that gangs pay up.

Cerulean Society members do actually perform illicit acts of their own, although for the most part they leave thieving to the other gangs. The Cerulean Society maintains a monopoly on smuggling into and out of the city, which ties in well with its extensive drug empire. In addition to drugs, the society also oversees the importation of weapons, necromantic and demonic goods, and unusual creatures. It exports homegrown pesh, slaves, and infernal goods. Of course, because it so tightly controls the smuggling trade, anything illicit that comes into or goes out of the city passes through one of its warehouses, barges, or ships. Those who try to bypass the Cerulean Society in a smuggling operation can expect to go jigsaw shark fishing—as the bait. For reasons unclear to outsiders, the thieves’ guild only operates on the mainland and in East Shore. It never seeks out protection clients in Old Korvosa and only sends members there to collect dues from gangs in the district.

Objectives: Wealth and control.

Traits: Reflexes, Impress, Maneuver, Melee

Contacts: Criminal and extortion.

Power: 25. Smaller gangs are permitted to ascend up to power 20 before they enter the direct chain of command.

Criminal Gangs

A number of recognized gangs prowl the sewers, streets, and rooftops of Korvosa, and undoubtedly other groups exist that remain uncatalogued and unseen. Most of these groups, registered and not, incorporate or answer to the Cerulean Society .

Catsdew Lofties

This all-female cat burglar gang specializes in traveling across the Shingles of Korvosa, slipping into homes through chimneys, third-story balconies, and attic windows. The Lofties have perhaps the most cosmopolitan of all memberships, accepting into the ranks any female of any race able to prove herself in a test of acrobatics, coordination, and loyalty. The Lofties take pride in their stealth and only carry weapons to protect themselves from the predators who lurk in the Shingles. To date, not a single job performed by the Catsdew Lofties—successful or botched—has required a Lofty to attack anyone.

Objectives: Survival.

Traits: Reflexes, Maneuver

Contacts: Fences, other rogues.

Power: 14

Dusters

Taking its name from the distinctive overcoats worn by its members, the Dusters gang specializes in armed robbery, kidnappings, and harassing innocents. A spineless and dimwitted Flan bully named Kynndors Thok acts as the leader of this ham-fisted gang. The entire underworld community—with the exclusion of Kynndors himself—knows that the Dusters’ true leadership lies with Kynndor’s Rhenne girlfriend, who goes by the singular name of Marlessa. Rumors whisper that Marlessa has ties to the Sczarni and uses the Dusters as goons whenever one of the dons requires.

Objectives: Pride.

Traits: Body, Melee, Impress

Contacts: Criminal.

Power: 16

Rat’s Teat Boys

As much a shadowy rumor as a truly known gang, the Rat’s Teat Boys supposedly consists exclusively of wererats. This group apparently works its trade under the streets of Old Korvosa, although circumstantial evidence of its handiworks occasionally appears on the mainland. Every so often, the rumors say, the boys go on a “recruitment drive.” During these frightening times people suddenly disappear throughout the district, thought to be claimed by the Rat Teat’s Boys and made into foul lycanthropes. That people frequently disappear in the district even during the best of times doesn’t quell the near-panic these rumored enlistment periods engender.

Power: 18

Sczarni

The Sczarni is a clan of Rhenne that live up to the stereorype of criminal toughs. Organized Sczarni gangs frequently prowl the streets and sewers of Korvosa. They form, fight briefly against the Cerulean Society, and then melt again into the Rhenne population. The Cerulean Society and other gangs in the city struggle against these Sczarni uprisings, but they cannot afford genocidal sweeps of Rhenne (or even known Sczarni) among them, as so many of their own members (and leaders) hail from that people. Rumors state that the Sczarnis want to take down House Arkona, but the Rhenne hold so little power in the city that such an occurrence seems impossible.

Objectives: Very informal, swaggering. Mainly concerned with survival.

Traits: Reflexes, Melee, Maneuver

Contacts: Criminal, Rhenne.

Power: 13

Ironsoots

The oldest, largest, and wiliest of the city’s secret guilds has existed in one form or another for more than a century. Many of the workers who belong to this guild work for the Ironworks. The Ironsoots have become more active of late, recruiting in the dark taverns near the Ironworks and in the Shingles of Old Docks. Currently, the Ironsoots are led by Baris Trenchlow, a soft-hearted and thick-handed (some say thick-headed) master smith who apprenticed in more liberal Irongate, where he learned the values of solidarity. Because the city charter prevents its legal recognition, the union plans on launching a riot at the first opportunity to make the people of Korvosa pay attention. Baris Trenchlow believes that shutting down the Ironworks and rioting in the streets is the right push Korvosa needs to amend the charter again.

Objectives: Recognition, legality..

Traits: Body, Create

Contacts: Working class.

Power: 14

Korvosan Government

With a dual status as the capital of Ahrissa and a chartered city, Korvosa stands in two worlds, both ancient. One is the feudal world of Great Kingdom feudalism. The other is the charter of a semi-independent city jealous of its every right and privilege. The two clash in the government of city and country. Described here is the city government. Parallel to it is the country government with a feudal hierarchy. Both city and country have the king as their final authority, but the king is also only the first among equals in both cases.

Objective: To make the city and state grow and prosper under a strict regime.

Contacts: Formal hierarchy within each branch of government as well as informal status and respect among citizens of good standing.

Power: The city as such has a power of 37, as rich and powerful as a major nation. The various branches are described separately. The kingdom as a whole has a Power of 39.

Arbiters

More than judges, the arbiters also have legislative oversight. Any declaration the king makes must first face review from the arbiters. The main task of arbiters, however, is to try criminal cases and settle civil disputes. Depending on the gravity of the crime, as many as nine arbiters might try a single case (they always try cases in odd-numbered groups to eliminate stalemates). For most crimes and for all civil disputes, though, a single arbiter oversees the proceedings. His judgment carries the authority of the city’s leader.

Objective: To maintain law and tradition.

Contacts: Arbiters can count on support of the City Guard and their arbitation is law and carries enormous weight in Korvosa.

Power: 28. No arbiter has a Rank less than 18, but they do have assistants.

Korvosan Guard

The Korvosan Guard serves the city of Korvosa first, the king second, and the country third.

The Guard works closely with both the Order of the Nail and Sable Company, coordinating efforts among all three and relying on the Hellknights to muster Acadamae wizards when necessary in order to protect the city from every imaginable threat.

Objectives: It works to maintain order in the city, acting most often as a police force, but turning into a military operation whenever the city is threatened by external forces.

Contacts: In many ways, the guard is the city, forms the backbone of the administration and is the strong arm of the law where the arbiters are the mind and soul of the city.

Power: 30. Field Marshal Cressida Kroft leads the nearly 7000 soldiers of the Korvosan Guard, almost all of whom are human of Oerdian descent. Only full-blooded Oerdian humans can become generals or the field marshal, while only those with at least half-Oerdian blood (including half-elves) can achieve a rank higher than captain.

Sable Company

Hippogriff-mounted marines in defense of the skies and waters of Korvosa. Shipboard raids and airborne threats fall under the jurisdiction of the black-clad Sable Company, and its members offer aerial support to Korvosan Guard operations. First by tradition, and later by an addendum to the city’s charter, the Sable Company does not answer to the king. Instead, the commandant of the Sable Company reports directly to the Seneschal of Castle Korvosa. The Sable Company works closely with the Korvosan Guard and relies on its ties with that group to coordinate efforts with the Hellknights and Acadamae (neither of which the Sable Company gets along with).

Objective: Maintain the company in style and fulfill its duties.

Traits: Reflexes, Shoot, Ride.

Contacts: Very well regarded by citizens and highly prioritized for supplies; all members are knighted.

Power: 34. The captain of the company has a Rank around 30, but the actual leader is the Senechal of Castle Korvosa. No knight can have a Rank less than 14 and are recruited amongst nobility and the elite of the Korvosan Guard; it is not unheard of and involves no loss of status to give up a commission in the guard to join the Sable Company as a knight.

Martial Arts Community

Tough never official, there has always been an informal ranking of duelists in the city. The noble houses seek to monopolize this trough fighting codes and schools, but commoners constantly strive to outdo them on their own game. Some military men choose to enter the lists as well, but most fight only when ordered.

Objective: Excel and compete at arms!

Traits: Reflexes, Melee.

Contacts: Few outside the list.

Power: 24.

Orsini Academy

This famed sword school stands in the heart of Old Korvosa. The sound of steel on steel and the soft whisper of leather soles issue forth at all hours of daylight and sometimes deep into the night. Men and women, mostly young scions of noble houses, dressed in white from head to toe and wearing meshed-wire masks practice the many elegant skills of fencing. Vencarlo Orisini himself rarely bothers to instruct these days, allowing one of his senior students, Dengaro, to lead the class in exercises.

Endrin Military Academy

These whitewashed buildings act as barracks for Fort Korvosa’s small garrison of Korvosan Guards and Sable Company trainees, as well as classrooms and sparring rings. Within these storied buildings, foul-mouthed drill sergeants have taught new recruits how to be Sable Company marines for decades. The academy serves a secondary purpose, as it also trains junior officers of the Korvosan Guard to act as liaisons between the two groups, allowing for joint operations and continued mutual support. These liaisons have proven vital in preventing jurisdictional conflicts between the company and the guard for more than two centuries.

Noble Houses

Most noble houses are a branch of a larger clan, and as organizations they include many people who are not family members as retainers and agents. Somewhere withing five to ten ranks of the Power of the house, you mill be considered a clan member and might be adopted or married into the family. Of course, there are many distant relations far lower in rank than that.

House Arkona

Although an old family that predates even the founding of the empire, House Arkona had sunk into poverty and faced the very real threat of extinction. In desperation, Lord Garath Arkona purchased a caravel he named Reprieve. The Reprieve set sail for distant and exotic lands. After many trials and setbacks, the Reprieve returned to Korvosa. The shipment they brought back more than returned House Arkona to a place of prominence in the nobility. Overnight, the much derided house went from among the poorest noble families to second only to House Jeggare in wealth. Lord Garath and Jenkson Arkona indulged in nearly every vice available, from drugs to cruelty to pleasures of the flesh. Rather than bankrupt the family again, they used their influence to acquire control over the trades in which they showed the most enjoyment.

The current lord of the house, Glorio Arkona, attempts at every opportunity to lift up the poor and provide them with enough sustenance to survive. To that end, he has leveled several buildings the family owns, including a tavern and a brothel, to make room for massive low-rent tenement apartments. These actions have made Glorio the most popular nobleman among the city’s many poor and destitute and has caused no end of anxiousness and worry from his family members.

Goals: Maintain the power and privacy of House Arkona.

Traits: Reflexes, Charm, Impress.

Contacts: Controls crime and corruption, particularly in Old Korvosa.

Power: 28

House Bromathan

Nivek Bromathan sacrificed his life to protect Waydon Endrin from a Flan assassin, gaining his family the honor of nobility as a reward. Lord Valdur Bromathan IV loyally serves the temple of Hieroneous as a minor priest. He breaks the chain of House Bromathan lords serving in the Korvosan Guard, a tradition going back to before his family joined the nobility. This split with tradition has put him at odds with the rest of the house, many of whom serve in the guard or the Sable Company. Valdur, however, received the blessing of his father when he declared his intent to enter the clergy as a youth. As it always has, House Bromathan remains a relatively minor noble family. Its fortunes tend to stay relatively stable, neither rising nor falling any great amount. The house remains ever loyal to House Endrin, just as its first lord, Nivek Bromathan, was loyal beyond measure to Waydon Endrin.

Goals: Maintain the honor and prestige of House Bromathan.

Traits: Body, Melee, Impress.

Contacts: Military and church.

Power: 22

House Endrin

It took more than a quarter century for the empire to recognize the great accomplishments and service of Waydon Endrin. The emperor granted the family a noble title, making his son Lucien the first Lord Endrin. Like his father before him, Lucien sacrificed himself in defense of the city he loved. Unlike his father, though, Lucien left no heir, and, as his twin sister Brieanna had already married into the Jeggare family, House Endrin appeared destined to die out after only one lord.

Brieanna sent a letter to her cousin Ponchus in Rauxes, convincing him to move his family to Korvosa to take up the lordship. Ponchus had to complete his tour of duty in the Imperial Army before he could move south and claim the title. As an officer in the Korvosan Guard, Ponchus went to the grave in the same way as his cousin and uncle before him, firmly establishing a tradition of service and sacrifice the family continues to this day. House Endrin has produced more Commandants of the Sable Guard (12 of 30) and Field Marshals of the Korvosan Guard (8 of 18) than any other house. Since the founding of Korvosa, it has also gone through the most lords and ladies, all of whom served in the military and more than half of whom died in combat or from injuries sustained therein.

To this day, thanks to Brieanna Endrin’s marriage to Montlarion Jeggare’s grandnephew, the two families remain close. Despite its small size and relatively recent entitlement, House Endrin controls considerable influence in the city due to its strong alliances with other founding and military houses.

Goals: Maintain the honor of House Endrin and the power of Ahlissa.

Traits: Body, Charm, Melee.

Contacts: Military, financial.

Power: 26

House Jeggare

Descended from a nephew of the famous philanthropist whose name appears in many places around Korvosa, this branch of the Jeggare family attempts to carry on the generous reputation attached to its name. House Jeggare controls the second-largest share of dock space in Korvosa, allowing the family to bring in ridiculous amounts of gold in its brisk trade. The church of Zilchus estimates that nearly a quarter of the city’s privately held assets are controlled by the Jeggare family, making it a powerful and influential noble house, as well as the wealthiest. House Jeggare survives the sometimes cutthroat politics of Korvosa by keeping a line of credit open for the monarch and other noble families, and by acting as the chief financial backer of both the Korvosan Guard and the Sable Company.

Goals: Maintain the wealth and prestige of House Jeggare.

Traits: Mind, Charm, Know.

Contacts: Military, financial, fiscal.

Power: 28

House Leroung

Even before Jessa Leroung founded the University of Korvosa, the ancient and esteemed House Leroung served the Aerdy as teachers, instructors, professors, scholars, and sages. To this day, House Leroung maintains extensive libraries in the three largest cities of the former Great Kingdom. The family’s fortunes and powers have fluctuated little since its founding, and, although many of the younger nobles of the family gladly wade into the dirty politics of court life, the lord or lady of House Leroung rarely bothers with such things. Indeed, lovely Lady Eliasia Leroung, current headmistress of the University of Korvosa, is considered an ally by most other noble houses, including those at odds with one another.

Goals: Maintain the prestige of House Leroung.

Traits: Mind, Know.

Contacts: Academic, Diplomatic, Fiscal.

Power: 24

House Ornelos

Not just one of the most politically powerful noble houses in Korvosa, House Ornelos also controls the Acadamae. More lord magistrates came from this family than from all other houses combined, and to this day the family keeps at least two advisors at the ear of the monarch. The influence this family exerts does not end at the throne, however, as Ornelos scions are scattered among all the city’s most powerful institutions. In Korvosa, it took little time for Lord Volshyenek Ornelos to establish himself as a major power player. He bought a magnificent manor house on the mainland (long since demolished) and was instrumental in the defense of the mainland holdings during the Third Battle of Mainshore. Lord Ornelos led a contingent of Korvosan Guard spellcasters during the final assault that broke through the Shoanti defenses to conclude the Siege of the Grand Mastaba. Shortly thereafter, he founded the Acadamae on Citadel Hill. After the founding of the Acadamae, House Ornelos gained even greater control over the affairs of the city, placing the first (of many) scions in the office of lord magistrate. House Ornelos has resisted converting to devil worship, the Acadamae’s infernal shift notwithstanding, but it remains loyal to both Ahlissa and the Aerdy. Today, the house’s influence comes not just from its control over the Acadamae, but also from the many advisors it has placed at the ears of the monarch, other noble families, and important institutions throughout the city.

Goals: Maintain influence and magical ascendancy.

Traits: Mind, Know, Shoot.

Contacts: Administrative, Magical.

Power: 29

House Zenderholm

Lord Lacertus Zenderholm brought his family to Korvosa at the tail-end of the great influx of Aerdy immigrants. Today, House Zenderholm members serve the city as arbiters, magistrates, lawyers, and diplomats.

Goals: Maintain influence and face.

Traits: Mind, Charm, Spot.

Contacts: Administrative, Fiscal.

Power: 27

Order of the Nail

Some 15 miles south of Korvosa stands Citadel Vraid, the black-iron fortress of the Hextorian Order of the Nail. From its grim fastness, this autonomous legion of law-bringers seeks to enforce its own harsh vision of order, meting out law with blade and iron-shod boot.

Objectives: Unconcerned with the petty trivialities of morality, Hellknights are fanatics of law, adhering only to their harsh order and their own unyielding vision of honor.

Traits: Body, Mind, Impress

Contacts: As the guarantee of the safety and faith of Acadamae, the hellknights have the right to discipline wizards of the academy, a right that is rarely used except as a threat when the mages are reluctant to do their duties. While the people hate them, they also fear them, and few would even consider going against the direct order of a hellknight.

Power: 32. The order of the nail has other strongholds, but the chapter in Korvosa is the leading one.

Performing Arts Subculture

Korvosa is a city known for magic and industry, not performing arts. Theaters are few and even pub entertainment is scarce and not very well paid. The whole performing arts scene of Korvosa can be considered one loose organization, with several venues. The guild prohibition also applies to artists, making a formal ranking impossible.

Objectives: Survive and earn a few silvers.

Traits: Reflexes, Charm

Contacts: Plebeian.

Power: 16.

Marbledome

See Pathfinder Society - Scenario 07 - Among the Living.pdf

This gleaming fixture in the Heights is home to Korvosa’s opera company. Owned by House Jeggare but managed by the tyrannical Touran Palastus (known more for his temper than his managerial talent), the opera company produces mediocre performances that bleed gold. House Jeggare considers a performance that breaks even a resounding success. Performers here receive poor pay and poorer treatment, and they quickly lose their love for the arts. Many leave the city, seeking better treatment even at the cost of prestige.

Lately, Touran’s near-sadistic bile-spewing outbursts and abuses have become milder and less frequent. Some wonder if he has possibly found love. Others more cynically assume an addiction to pesh.

Kendall Amphitheater

Korvosa’s proximity to water and its extensive and famous Vaults make sinkholes a relatively common phenomena in the city. Only rarely do these sinkholes expand to as much as a dozen feet or more in diameter. The largest recorded sinkhole in Korvosa’s history opened up just north of the Pillar Wall. Engulfing an area nearly 300 feet in diameter.

Unfortunately for the city, the sinkhole did not occur naturally, and for the first time the people of Korvosa came in contact with ankhegs. Fortunately the hero Mina Kendall could contain the situation, at the tragic cost of her own life. Three years later the city grand opening of a massive open-air auditorium the named after their savior.

Today, Kendall Amphitheater partially hangs suspended above the sinkhole’s opening. A complicated series of arches and pillars holds it aloft, while two concealed sets of stairs allow descent into the large Vault beneath it.

While the amphitheater primarily hosts open-air performances (as well as performances done beneath the vast sloped roof covering most of the stage), it does occasionally present games and contests. Due to safety concerns none of the games involve actual combat or bloodshed. Instead, feats of strength, races, obstacle courses, and other such contests prove quite popular with the patrons and amphitheater owners.

Bard's End

Standing just a block from Kendall Amphitheater, visiting actors of varying fame frequent the Bard’s End, as do musicians, performers, and actual bards. A relatively small stage dominates the inn’s common room, and a night never goes by without some kind of performance being held.

Exemplary Execrables

Refurnished with gaudy gold-colored paint and massive glass “gems,” this former temple of Pholtus has found a new life as the home of a perverse and detestable theater of all things foul, gore-slicked, and unnaturally pornographic. The theater’s owner, a repugnant sore-covered human named Pilts Swastel, employs the city’s “best and brightest” performers of unmentionable acts.

Numerous acts rotate through the theater, with any particular performer putting on a show four or five nights a week. The theater’s acts include gore-filled plays with faux tortures, false murders, fake rapes, and other fabrications meant to horrify and sicken the audience. By far the most popular act, though, is the so-called “death play,” in which a masked performer gruesomely “murders” a volunteer from the audience for all the rest to enjoy.

Nearly as controversial as the theater, Exemplary Execrables also offers an attached museum (with a separate admission fee, of course). The museum offers exhibits such as “Two-Dozen-and-Three Severed Heads,” “Unwanted Fetuses,” and “Instruments of Torture and Murder.” This last exhibit, the most popular of them all, features a working guillotine, complete with an attached chalkboard counting the number of fingers lost to overcurious patrons (the current count stands at 37). All other instruments and devices in the exhibit have been disabled or blunted to hinder inquisitive fools from maiming themselves or others.

Seekers

Aka Pathfinders.

A large, informal network of sages and treasure-hunters, the Seekers exist all across the Flanaess and beyond, but each branch of the organization, indeed each member, is quite independent and allowed a lot of lassitude. Members are, however, obliged to keep a journal and this journal belongs to the Seekers.

Objectives: Discover and hoard lore. Brag about discoveries and enrich members.

Traits: Mind, Know, Spot

Contacts: Provides information and acts as an organizer of expeditions and a channel to sell loot.

Power: Worldwide 36. Sandpoint chapter (Perrenland): 33, Sasserine Chapter (Amedia Jungle) 29, Karlstad chapter (Ahlissa) 23.

Darklight Sisterhood

This small and secretive group of adventurous women is loyal to Aerdy but is a private spying and adventuring network loyal and serving many of the same roles as the Seekers. Darklight sisters contend with and even recruit Pathfinders and retired Pathfinders, although the sisterhood lacks the size, coordination, and resources of its competitor. So one-sided is the competition between the two that most Pathfinders don’t even know the sisterhood exists.

Upon officially becoming a member, a sister drops her family name and takes up the name of Darklight. What reputation the sisterhood possesses varies greatly depending upon who is asked. Some see Darklight sisters as cruel witches working for immoral Aerdy, harnessing infernal energies to cloud the minds of women and seduce foolish men. On the other hand, those in Korvosa who know of the Darklights see them as loyal Aerdy merely performing necessary services for the people.

Objectives: Discover lore to reestablish the ascendancy of the Aerdy.

Traits: Mind, Know, Spot

Contacts: As a secret society the sisterhood has strong internal ties but few external contacts.

Power: 26.

Temples

The people of Korvoas are pious but practical. They support religions that support their way of life and crowd to cults that offer them increased status. After the construction of the Panthon of Many temple small public shrines are discouraged and worship of the many less-famous gods have been centralized there, but private shrines in homes are still common, as are tiny memorial shrines at the site of significant events.

Bank of Abadar

More than just a temple to Zilchus , the god of trade, the Bank of Abadar also serves as the city’s main bank. The temple serves every banking need, such as security boxes (said to be the safest in Ahlissa), saving and investment accounts, loans, and even writs of credit. Beneath the temple, in well-guarded lead-lined chambers, the rumored Golden Vaults of Abadar house the Korvosan Mint. Archbanker Darb Tuttle and the clerics of Zilchus work closely with the ministers of City Hall, the arbiters of the Longacre Building, and the Field Marshal of the Korvosan Guard. They love their city and work from every legal angle to protect it and support its continued growth.

Objectives: Uphold life and harmony between people.

Traits: Mind, Know.

Contacts: Financial, legal, City guard.

Power: 31.

Fateful Church of Pharasma

Pharasma is a legendary figure in Ahlissa, a Flan matriarch who married an Oerdian lord and helped meld the Flan and Oerdian peoples together. Seen as something of a traitor among the Flan, she is worshipped as a saint in Korvosa. Her church focuses the worship of Oerth and the Oerdian Wind Gods.

In the center of Sepulcher ward stands the Cathedral of Pharasma, the office and home of Bishop Keppira d’Bear of the Fateful Church of Pharasma and a retinue of lower-ranking clerics and faithful warriors. The Grand Cathedral has served as a secure location multiple times, and despite a half-dozen sieges by undead, it has yet to fall.

Objectives: Uphold life and harmony between people.

Traits: Mind, Charm, Impress.

Contacts: Plebian, religious.

Power: 29.

Pantheon of Many

Built in anticipation of Korvosa’s milennial, the Pantheon of Many holds within its massive octagonal white-marbled walls shrines to all Oerdian deities. The pantheon respects all of the deities it serves—even the evil and chaos-loving ones—so all 17 spaces are equally sized. Clerics of the represented deities tend to their shrines, performing rites (those that do not violate Korvosan law, anyway) under the watch of a pair of impartial observers. No sacrifices of creatures, intelligent or not, is allowed within the pantheon.

Objectives: Find unity in faith (yeah, right).

Traits: Mind, Impress.

Contacts: Very mixed.

Power: 24.

Sanctuary of Shelyn

The smallest of the independent temples in the city, the sanctuary of Shelyn is dedicated to Lirr and ranks among Korvosa’s most beautiful buildings. This square building engulfs a small interior courtyard decorated with statuary, murals, and beautiful flowering plants. Although crowded with artwork and plants of natural beauty, the sanctuary looks full but never cluttered.

Objectives: Promote art.

Traits: Mind, Reflexes, Charm.

Contacts: Arts and fine crafts, noble.

Power: 23.

Temple of Asmodeus

A propaganda piece and warlock facility rather than a temple, the cult of Asmodeus tries very hard to attract worshipers, but with little success. At this point, it is more of a social club for the rich and magical than a true religios site. Archbishop Ornher Reebs dedicated the new temple in an appropriately infernal way, sealing a pact using the blood of 13 virgin sacrifices. This dedication sent shockwaves through the city, and Korvosa’s citizens threatened to riot, until changes were made in the dedication ceremony, succubi substituted for the original pit fiends, and the bloodletting was limited to let the young women survive.

The church of Asmodeus occasionally competes with the church of Zilchus for the right to verify and bear witness to contracts. Rumors persist throughout the city that the temple of Asmodeus actively supports and encourages the slave trade.

Objectives: Gain respect as a genuine religion.

Traits: Mind, Charm, Impress.

Contacts: Noble, magical.

Power: 24.

Temple of Hextor

The church if the tyrant has a feudal power-base in Ahlissa, centered on the great noble fiefs outside the city. In Korvosa, the temple is a part of Castle Korvosa and a rather austere edifice built into the fortifications.

Objectives: Maintain power in an iron grip.

Traits: Body, Melee, Impress.

Contacts: Noble, Military.

Power: 27.

Temple of Aroden

Old and crumbling, the temple of Aroden in Old Korvosa honors Hieroneous, but has lost almost all of its former splendor. A pitiful trio of clerics attempts to maintain the building as best they can, holding services every Sunday for a constantly shrinking number of curious observers and older holders-on. Twice the city has threatened to raze the building and raise a new temple to a different god, but each time the trio was able to muster enough support from citizens to spare the building.

Objectives: Avoid despair.

Traits: Body, Melee, Impress.

Contacts: Almost none.

Power: 13.

Temple of Sarenrae

Named after an early bishop, this church worships Sotillion and is a temple of healing and wealth. The temple is on Citadel Hill and is the finest (if not largest) temple in Korvosa.

Objectives: Preside over happiness and health.

Traits: Body, Create.

Contacts: Commoners, very wide contacts.

Power: 28.

Theumanexus College

The campus for this small wizard school occupies the grounds of the former manor of House Galdur. The retired wizard adventurer and newly hired Acadamae teacher Yaris Verso purchased the manor. When Acadamae made its infernal shift soon thereafter, Verso donated his Korvosan home to a few idealistic colleagues who left Acadamae for the new school.

Where the Acadamae only teaches specialists, Theumanexus offers a generalist approach to wizardry. Students and faculty of the Acadamae somewhat justifiably look down on those of Theumanexus, who in turn do their best to ignore the taunts and cruel pranks of their more famous competitors.

Objectives: Maintain the status of non-infernal wizardry.

Traits: Mind, Know

Contacts: Academic, wizardly.

Power: 27.

University of Korvosa

University of Korvosa possesses a reputation for greatness. Founded by Lady Jessa Leroung, the University of Korvosa consists of five major buildings in close proximity, forming the main campus, as well as three satellite buildings nearby and two in other wards. Courses include history, theology, geography, and mathematics.

Objectives: Status, excellence.

Traits: Mind, Know

Contacts: Academic, Administrative, House Jaeggere.

Power: 29.