Organizations (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.

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.

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 leader 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-Chelaxian 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 who. 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.

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.

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. In 4483, both Garath and Jenkson disappeared to be replaced by a previously unknown son and daughter, respectively. The new Lord Arkona and his female cousin picked up where their fathers left off.

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 pover and privacy of House Arkona.

Traits: Reflexes, Charm.

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

Power: 28

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.

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.

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.

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.