Organizations

Military Units and Adventuring Groups

Cloudgatherers

A paladin of Gabriel, Änder Yulias has been known as "The Wolf" ever since he was thirteen, and singlehandedly killed a group of Arrak-worshipping berserkers who tried to raid his small farming village. He hunted them like a one-man wolf-pack, tracking them for days and picking them off one by one, from weakest to strongest.

At twenty-one, The Wolf joined the order of Gabriel as a paladin, and immediately rose to the top of their fighting branch as a master tracker and bowman. In the Fifty-Fourth Battle of Ktarr's Field, he killed seven officers of the opposing army from far outside the theoretical accurate range of a short bow, changing his nickname to "Sniper Wolf". It was shortly after this battle that he went on his own way, gathering together a band of righteous warriors who became known as the Cloudgatherers.

At the age of twenty-six, Wolf settled down to raise a family. Fifteen years later, Wolf's wife was killed by highwaymen, and Wolf re-started the Cloudgatherers, with his son, two of the original group, and two newcomers. When Wolf and the new Cloudgatherers tracked the highwaymen back to their base, the criminal organization turned out to be surprisingly large. Wolf earned a new nickname that day: "Bloody Wolf", the man who killed over fifty bandits with his arrows, and inadvertently defeated a criminal conspiracy that turned out to involve several prominent leaders of kingdoms supposedly at war.

When Wolf and his group discovered the evidence that linked the highwaymen to various politically powerful dragons in different kingdoms, the Cloudgatherers came under fire from assassins and full-scale mass assaults sent by those who had status and power to lose from a revelation of the conspiracy.

It was then that the Cloudgatherers became dragonhunters.

At the current time, Wolf is over seventy years old, hence his newest title, "Old Wolf". Although somewhat frail, he is still vigorous and in fine fighting condition. His resistance to old age probably has something to do with his strong elven blood.

Except for Old Wolf, none of the current Cloudgatherers are members of the original group. It's uncertain if the Cloudgatherers will outlast Old Wolf's death.

Aside from Old Wolf, the current roster of Cloudgatherers is:

Barracuda Jones, an Eastlands tribal warrior who uses the net-and-trident, or "piscator", style of combat. Tough and generally silent, Jones is good at a lot of things, but especially at wilderness and underwater combat. He also has a variety of mental wild talents, but prefers not to use them as they give him terrible headaches the next day. He comes from an ascetic discipline that preaches celibacy as a means of clearing the mind of all distractions. Naturally this means that he is irresistable to the opposite sex.

Prism Greylight, a deadly assassin. Prism's style of fighting makes extensive use of poisons, traps, and the occasional backstab. Although Prism is dangerous with his enchanted dagger "Striker", he reverses thief wisdom by saving the backstab for the coup de grace rather than the first blow. With the extreme mobility born of his long training, Prism is also the team medic, using his lightning speed to quickly dish potions around. He joined the Cloudgatherers after the murder of his parents.

Kelvin and Maxson duValle are twin half-elven Transducers. They use their magic as a team, often transforming each other's spell effects, using the left-over energy from one spell to power another. They also have a tendency to use their spells as bizarre defenses—they're particularly good at destroying opponents' momentum by draining the kinetic energy off them. (Also, Kelvin casts a nasty Finger of Death by powering the spell using the kinetic energy of the opponent's vital organs. It's hard to save vs. death when your heart is already slowing down.)

Eternal Guard

Heaven and Hell are the two elite military units of Andragar. Both are designed almost entirely for special operations, rather than for field combat. Dark Eternal chooses not to keep a large standing army, in keeping with his philosophy of conquest. Instead, he counts on Heaven and Hell, the most highly trained soldiers in the world. There are many individuals who might outmatch an Eternal Guard member, but nowhere are as many skilled warriors gathered together as cohesive units.

Heaven is the combat-oriented branch of the Eternal Guard. The unit is organized in fives—one Aegis Knight commands five Heaven Knights, one Knight Blade commands five Aegis Knights, one Lune Knight commands five Knight Blades, and the Dragoner commands the five Lune Knights, bringing the total membership to around eight hundred, allowing for reserves and special operatives.

"Special operatives" would include the ten or twelve "wandering warriors," people with exceptional innate talent who are raised to Arc Knight by the age of seventeen, then sent to wander the world as they see fit, gaining in power and experience, to eventually take up the position of rank-and-file Lune Knight, or to contest for the rank of Dragoner in the event that the post becomes empty. Although these wandering Arc Knights are officially equal in rank to the commanding Lune Knights, in practice they are expected to prove themselves before they can take the privileges of their rank. When appointed, an Arc Knight receives an Arcblade, a magical sword that begins as a standard longsword, but gradually changes its shape, appearance, and powers to match its wielder's fighting style and inner spirit. (Lune Knights, when appointed, receive a Luneblade, a similar weapon. If the Lune Knight was formerly an Arc Knight, he retains his old Arcblade.)

In game terms, Heaven members tend to be warrior-types, or at least have a warrior class; or, conversely, to be very combat-oriented mage-types. Sometimes a Diabolist, Occultist, or Mystic crusader will join Heaven, in which case that candidate is carefully screened for loyalty, and often intentionally given assignments that will test his trustworthiness. "There is no place for God in Heaven", the ironic saying goes. A Heaven Knight, the lowest rank, will be 5th level. An Aegis Knight will be between 6th and 9th level, a Knight Blade will be between 8th and 12th level, and a Lune Knight will be at least 13th level. The Dragoner himself (or herself) might be any level up to 25th, or even higher. Furthermore, beginning with Aegis Knight, the Heaven members receive special training from Dark Eternal himself to unlock their innate mental powers—therefore, all ranking Heaven members have some sort of arcane casting ability. And finally, all members of Heaven practice the Eternal Capital style of swordsmanship, a difficult style that is considered to be one of the most dangerous in the world.

The five Lune Knights are Dekar Raviede, Danae Sparrling, Darm Sobredaño, Dián Dan Shi and Lisse Devlin. Each commands a brigade of 155 soldiers. Each brigade consists of five 31-man platoons. Each platoon consists of five 6-man squads. Many platoons give themselves special names; for instance, the 3rd Platoon is the "Snake Handlers," the 11th Platoon is the "Fighting Vipers," the 12th Platoon is the "Urban Champions," and the 13th Platoon is the "Rolling Jinx."

Hell is quite a different proposition. Hell is Andragar's "black ops" group. Although its existence is assumed, its organization and membership are shrouded in mystery. It's believed that the unit consists of assassins, thieves, mages, and so forth, but there has been little solid proof. Despite suspicions, Hell has never been solidly connected with any occurrence of any kind. However, if even a third of the many rumors are true, Hell is responsible for internal security and external intelligence. Causing crooked politicians and rabble-rousing resistance leaders to "disappear", assassinating key rulers of opposing kingdoms, stealing technologies and magical items—nothing is beyond Hell‘s reputed grasp.

How much is truth and how much is falsehood may never be known, because not a single member of Hell is known personally to anyone but the highest levels of Andragarian government. In fact, it is entirely possible, if not likely, that Hell does not exist at all, and is entirely a product of the common assumption that a Heaven presupposes a Hell. If so, then Dark Eternal must be highly amused that most of the continent acts in fear of a group that does not exist in the first place. However, the fact that Dark Eternal himself refers to Heaven as part of the "Eternal Guard" implies that Heaven is not the whole of his elite force.

The Warriors of Destiny

A fiercely militant anti-Andragar fringe group centered in Eridu. The Warriors of Destiny believe that to repel Dark Eternal's invasion will require the determined effort of every man, woman, and child in the Silver Coast, not just the Seven Stars. The Warriors of Destiny are controversial; not everyone believes their apocalyptic spiel, and the warriors themselves tend to behave just like any other pissed-off paramilitary hate group. Furthermore, the Warriors of Destiny believe that the Silver Coast has a strong identity and future even without the Seven Stars . . . during the Dragons' Reign, this is probably a naive view.

The Samurai

The hobgoblin word "samurai" literally means "servant of the state." Hobgoblin warriors of the early Second Age, condemned as Chaos-spawn, obtained the respect of the elven kingdoms by swearing themselves to selfless and hereditary service as warriors. They took on the name "samurai," and swore to serve their masters with their very lives. Although modern hobgoblins serve members of their own race, or dragon overlords, the theme of death before dishonor continues in hobgoblin culture.

The term "samurai," however, fell into disuse immediately after the beginning of the Dragons' Reign. Almost all of the existing hobgoblin samurai either died fighting for their elven lords, or committed ritual suicide shortly after the elves were defeated. After dragons took over the world, new hobgoblins came to serve them, but since the dragons did not demand any of the vows of service that had evolved around the samurai tradition, the new hobgoblin retainers did not take on the title of "samurai."

Around 1750 DR, a warrior named Vansander deLeon emerged in the southern Patchwork Kingdoms, leading a small band of ragged mercenaries in skirmishes between dragon warlords. He and his men used a new fighting style which, although not overwhelming, was superior to most; and they used stealth and trickery to a degree not often seen in the Patchwork Kingdoms, where militaristic leaders tended to prize brute strength. What made these mercenaries particularly valuable, however, was the exceptional quality of their weapons. A few of them had mastered a new and secret style of swordsmithing, which produced weapons of near-magical sharpness.

Perhaps ironically, deLeon named his group "the Samurai," and issued a public proclamation of their "code of honor," whose key tenet was loyalty . . . to gold. The Samurai have beautiful and immaculate weapons, but otherwise, they give every appearance of being vagabonds of the basest type. They dress in rags, they seldom bathe, they sing dirty songs in public, and their primary recreation is the mass consumption of ale or hard liquor. A few people have seen them composing poetry, or painting, or playing instruments . . . but they seem to be shy about sharing these more refined pursuits with the public. Perhaps they feel they have an image to maintain.

In 1767, the Samurai were hired to fight Heaven for possession of one of the Patchwork Kingdoms. By this time, deLeon had achieved an amazing level of skill, and was considered one of the most deadly fighters in the known world; and his Samurai were equally dangerous. To the amazement of observers, the Samurai and Heaven dealt each other some startling losses. It was a clear-cut case of an irresistible force meeting an immovable object. This battle ended with the abrupt rout of the samurai, however, when Vansander engaged the commanding Lune Knight and promptly disappeared from the battlefield.

It was later revealed that deLeon had performed his most deadly attack, ironically called the Heaven Draw, just as the Lune Knight used a Time Mage spell called Future Trap. Future Trap knocks an attacker into the future a short distance, based on the power of the attack. Since deLeon's Heaven Draw was so powerful, he was knocked into the future more than just the usual few seconds. Instead, as it turns out, he was cast two hundred years into the future. He recently resurfaced in 1990, and was delighted to find that his Samurai had grown and thrived without him. Having resumed leadership of the group, he has whipped them into fighting shape and is, again, making a royal living selling his peerless blade to the highest bidder.

Steinmar's Destroyers

The oldest of the large mercenary armies of the Patchwork Kingdoms, Steinmar's Destroyers are a fixture of the region's endless battles. Steinmar's Destroyers are run like a regular army, complete with recruiting posts and discharge pensions. Due to their size and organization, Steinmar's Destroyers are sometimes hired as the entire armed force of a fledgling nation. Part of the reason the Destroyers have existed for three generations now is that they treat war as a game of tactics and strategy instead of a contract of mutual destruction; if they feel that their position guarantees a loss, they'll give up the field, and they trust their opponents (usually cautious mercenaries themselves) to do the same.

The Arashi Guntai (Army of Storms)

The dragon Rivenlight founded the nation of Tempest after his hobgoblin nation was conquered by Shadow-watcher and Skybreaker of the Kingdom of Sune. Rivenlight travelled south with a core of hobgoblin elites until he found a territory weak enough for him to easily take possession. His hobgoblin bodyguard was called the "Storm Warriors," and as Rivenlight expanded his territory, the Storm Warriors grew, forming the elite backbone of his army. These two hundred years later, few of the Arashi Guntai are actually hobgoblins, but the name remains.

The most unique aspect of the Army of Storms is its powerful airship corps. Whereas the airships of Lan'yaria are used mostly for troop transport, the Tempest fleet has mounted powerful and expensive magical artifacts on their ships, allowing them to strafe the battlefield with withering spellfire. When the enemy flies, levitates, or teleports onto the airships themselves, they're met by the elite aerial marines, the Red Wings. Since few warriors can fit on the airships, the ones who are selected are the best of the best—although fewer in number, the Red Wings are believed to be equivalent to Heaven in skill and power. Their leader is Karl Schoenmar, a self-titled "Slash Knight" who has perfected a bizarre fighting style involving aerodynamic axes spun on short chains.

Institutions

Eldorado University

There are other colleges and universities on the continent, but all are restricted in some way. Some cater only to nobles, some have extremely high prices, some can be entered only with the sponsorship of a dragon. Eldorado University, however, was founded with the intention of selecting students based exclusively on their merit. Wealthy students pay their own way, less fortunate students receive scholarships, but all applicants must pass a rigorous series of entrance examinations designed to assess not only a student's gained knowledge but his innate intelligence. In this way, students coming from inadequate lower schools may still be accepted at the university.

The Great Library of the University of Eldorado is the largest physical repository of knowledge on the continent, with nearly 250,000 books. The Sealed Library, within the Great Library, has fewer than 2000 tomes, but is said to contain such terrible secrets that any four books, used correctly, would topple or destroy nations.

The Repository

This structure is mentioned again on the religion page, but it deserves a brief mention here. The Repository is the central temple of the Archdemon Jodin, called the Scholar. The Repository is said to contain literally all knowledge that exists; but one must make sacrifices in order to gain that knowledge, and the Headmaster of the Repository is a ruthless negotiator. Furthermore, he uses the demonic power of Jodin to place "usage rights" on the knowledge—usually, you may act on the knowledge, but never let it be known to others. If you must know something, and all other routes of inquiry fail, then visit the Repository.

The Seminary of the Burning Rose

A seminary in the prosperous Seventeenth Ward of Gereval, on the banks of the Aberlan River. The seminary trains young people from all over the continent to become priests or minister of the churches of the four archangels, and the churches of a select few of their allies. Gereval's Cardinal Rallness Uthener [Raphael] is Chairman of the Board, and the headmaster is Father Heike Hinomura, a hobgoblin priest of Michael and a fierce disciplinarian.

Among the rest of the faculty are:

Philosophy and Logic—Rev. Geoff Lasterman, a brittle old man with bad eyesight and a surprisingly low-pitched voice. He tends to teach from one viewpoint in one session and then switch to an entirely different set of convictions for the next. Whether he does this to challenge his students, or simply out of senility, is unknown.

Theology and Symbolism—Sister Alma Vectra, a plain young woman with the burning faith necessary to ignore the occasional contradictions in her subject matter.

Strategies of Faith—Captain Orden Talliger, aging Crusader of Michael. Sort of a cross between a retired Marine and a southern Baptist minister, Captain Talliger trains very competent fighters, whether they like it or not. A great believer in the redeeming value of push-ups.

Natural Science—Brother Kale Kimball, a priest of Uriel and former alchemist. Left the Alchemists' Guild at Quadragon Crafter when his lover was killed in an explosion. Joined the church of Uriel as an alternative to necromancy, learned that death really is just a transition, and he'll be able to join his lover in the Celestium (he spends most of his off-time in seances keeping their long-distance relationship going.) To support himself, he teaches at the seminary.

History—Father Gerard Blackhall, a huge bald man whose combination of size and priestly robes make him look like a boss. He carries a sorcerer's staff everywhere he goes, still burned and scraped from the battle in which he wrested it from the fingers of his screaming opponent. He's an Urielite who doesn't take shit from anyone, but he's personable if you talk to him on his terms. And he makes history truly come alive, even though he views it exclusively as a tapestry of blood and pain, with advances in technology and living standards existing only as momentary anodynes to the eternal drama of men and dragons. Father Gerard is infrequently accompanied by his guardian angel STEELMAN, who looks like a giant armored knight with a huge sword. STEELMAN hardly ever speaks.

Mysteries and Devotions [Raphael]—This class is taught by Mother Rosa Lanford, a kindly old woman who has done her best to successfully embody the virtues she believes in, and who has seen and done nearly everything possible within the hierarchy of the Church of Raphael. She even served as Cardinal of Gereval for a time, before leaving that position in 1940 DR. Now she instructs candidates for priesthood in the secret knowledges of the church, sculpting within them the spiritual and mental landscape necessary for eventual empowerment with the granted powers and spirits of Raphael. Later, she will teach the techniques necessary to maintain and increase one's holy powers.

Mysteries and Devotions [Michael]—Father Jamsheed Cadash, a retired Crusader of Michael. Lived through the Two Tiger War, in which the priests of Michael and Lisanne all but destroyed the demon lord Argus. Despises demons and all those who worship them, and attempts to pass this hatred on to his students. A family man, often holds backyard barbecues to which he invites all his students.

Prayers and Meditations [Raphael]—Father Crengé Rakárn, one of the rare dwarven priests. In his case, his natural determination and disciplined mind have made him one of the most accurate, if not the most powerful, Raphaelite spellcasters in the Gereval area. He is skilled at teaching even the most idle and unfocused of students how to control their mind and let Raphael's power act through them. He is also, necessarily, the music instructor for the seminary's Raphaelite students.

Prayers and Meditations [Michael]—Father Tsukuba Yashi is a goblin, who mastered his craft as a hobby while working as a librarian in the Church at Ilium. Eventually, his excellent spellcasting was recognized with a promotion to full priest, and his transfer to the Seminary of the Burning Rose.

Below the official surface of the seminary is a power struggle between the east wing and west wing janitors. The east wing janitor, Terrence Clochman, is a vindictive and suspicious soul who does his level best to ensure that any infraction of rules is punished to its fullest, especially if the infraction would require him to do extra work. To this end, he has mastered his wild talent—he can exert mental control over small animals. Using this power, he has eliminated all rats from the seminary, but he personally nurtures a small family of mice, who act as his eyes and ears. It is said that Mr. Clochman knows everything that goes on in the lower seminary floors, although his religious respect for the masters keeps him from spying on them. Special note: I came up with this gentleman before reading the Harry Potter books, but I confess that his resemblance to the creepy caretaker at Hogwarts is striking.

The west wing janitor, Jedediah Zirsky, was newly hired for this season, as the old janitor retired. Jedediah actually has a position that is technically more prestigious, as the west wing includes the library and gallery, as well as some of the advanced classrooms and laboratories. Jedediah is much more friendly with the students, an attitude that has won him the dislike of Mr. Clochman.

Mage Guilds and Traditions

A guild of mages is an organization devoted to the instruction and control of a specific type of magic. Each guild trains mages, and reserves a say in how they use their power in the future. Some guilds allow their mages to act freely, hiring on with whom they choose and pursuing their own ideals, as long as the mages pay yearly dues (or a tithe of their earnings). Some guilds act as brokers for their mages, meaning that all hirings must proceed through guild channels. Some guilds charge an exorbitant fee to train a mage, but then place no future restrictions on how he uses his powers.

The guild system arose in the confusion after the destruction of the elves. Previously, arcane magic had been almost exclusively an elven science. Suddenly, other mortals were free to explore what was once secret. Immediately, dragons stepped in, recognizing unfettered magical study as a source of potential trouble. Almost all guilds are headed by dragons, and no one guild is allowed to gain undue influence. In fact, mage guilds often war among themselves, as dragon guildmasters attempt to gain control of more "subjects." The most recent and spectacular such war was the conflict between the Explodists and the House of the Eternal Flame in the mid-80s.

A tradition is the opposite of a guild. The traditions are very loose systems of magical training that were begun by mortal mages who refused to join guilds. Today, traditions are passed down from master to apprentice, and students of the same nominal style might have a very different set of spells and powers. In general, a tradition mage has a smaller spellbook and weaker spells than a guild mage, but makes up for this with a greater selection of metamagic feats.

As with most lists on this site, this one is incomplete. There are many guilds and traditions that are not mentioned here.

Explodists

The Explodists are the pure firepower of the arcane world. As their name suggests, they specialize in direct-damage evocation spells. The lead singer of the Silver Coast rap/jazz group Just Cause is a part-time Explodist, and his line "When I battle, I'm breakin' city walls down to gravel" summarizes the guild's viewpoint. Their dragon leader Chroma created such Explodist standbys as Lock, Arm, Exploding Thunder, and their ultimate spell, Chroma Thunder. They also get particular mileage out of simple spells like Iceball and the passive-aggressive Lightning Field.

House of the Eternal Flame

The House of the Eternal Flame specializes in controlling the wildest elemental forces of nature. Although they're invaluable on the battlefield, with duration-based evocations such as Firesnake and Shardstorm, they also have a strong niche as providers of long-lasting elemental enchantments, such as walls of fire, elemental resistance, or power sources for machinery. Turbines at factories are often turned by steam from a semipermanent Eternal Flame fire spell, and the rare airships are powered by Eternal Flame magic. (These airships are even "inflated" by the House; the flotation cells are lighter than air because a controlled flame burns away the oxygen within them, creating a partial vacuum.)

Where the Explodists exist almost entirely as mercenary battlemages, the House of the Eternal Flame feels a higher social responsibility. This can border on self-righteousness, and their disparaging remarks about their rivals led to a bitter war of words in the 1980s. Eventually, the House of the Eternal Flame struck the first blow, and outright warfare occurred, with mage duels endangering public safety in every major city. When the affair was settled, it was found that Chroma, dragon guildhead of the Explodists, had used infiltrators to provoke the war, and he was ousted from the guild by his nearest dragon subordinate.

Bone Phoenix

The Bone Phoenix tradition consists of necromancers who seek immortality by embracing undeath. Unfortunately for the world, their slow progress toward lichdom usually leaves them with no respect for life at all. In sharp contrast to more responsible necromancers such as the Hand of Absolution, the Bone Phoenix necromancers are usually villains of the most evil variety. Their more common spells include Armor of Bone, Death Guard, and the classic Animate Dead, while the greatest masters can raise zombies with all their abilities from life, drain the souls of their victims into a pool of reserve arcane power, or even revive at full "health" when their mostly-undead body is sufficiently damaged.

The Hand of Absolution

The Hand is the arcane branch of the Church of Uriel. Although they practice arcane magic, they are considered lay clergy of Uriel, and have an access to Uriel's secrets that informs all their spellcasting. They can dispel undead with ease, paralyze or kill by manipulating life energy, and even revive people who've been dead for less than a minute. Their most feared magic, the Litany of Absolution, requires a group of Hand members to combine their powers for thirty seconds—but at the end of the casting time, the victim is propelled directly to the Celestium, with no saving throw.

The Pillar of Reality

These mysterious illusionists devote all their energy to improving the realism of their illusions. They aren't concerned with quick casting, or flexibility; their sole concern is that their work be absolutely indistinguishable from real life. This means, of course, that their illusions are very hard to disbelieve; as a result, they're often contracted to provide an illusionary dreamworld where fighters can practice their abilities. The elite forces of many nations play wargames in these illusionary arenas. The Pillar of Reality is also rumored to be working on a secret project which involves the introduction of highly realistic illusions into everyday life, perhaps as a new form of entertainment medium.

Psychic Investigators

Wherever there are rumors of ghosts, mysterious artifacts, unexplained murders, interplanar anomalies, magical monsters, or wild talents, you can often find a Psychic Investigator on the scene. The world has grown tame since the First Age, but there are still occasional outbreaks of oddity; these are the Psychic Investigator's food and drink. They are masters of psychomancy, clairvoyance, augury, and detection magics of all kinds. They can travel across planes, and often maintain a roster of extraplanar contacts. They can travel swiftly (if dangerously) across normal space by entering the Spirit World, a section of the Astral Plane. And they do have an assortment of combat spells to defend them against the mysterious and unpredictable forces they often face at the end of their quests for truth. The PIs are a tradition, not a guild, but they tend to stay in contact and share information.

Spellbreakers

The Spellbreakers are one of the most respected guilds, among both laymen and mages. They specialize in the dispelment of unwanted magical effects; in the reinforcement of desired magical effects against dispelment; in the removal of curses and blessings; in warding against magic of all types; in active counterspelling; and finally, in the destruction and warding-off of most types of magical items. Most Spellbreakers also spend a year or two at another mage guild as part of their training, to give them at least one school of non-Spellbreaker magic to round out their training. This makes a trained Spellbreaker a valuable part of any group that expects to encounter magical opposition.

The Spellbreakers' Guild, headed by dragonrank human Evantin Barious, is one of the few mage guilds that involves itself in politics. Based mostly in the Silver Coast, the Spellbreakers played an important part in thwarting the Ilium Assault, Dark Eternal's 1980 invasion attempt. The guild is known to keep its promises, charge fair prices, and always lean just a little towards the side of good.

Transducers

The Transducers' Guild is a very loose assortment of mostly crackpot mages who specialize in transforming energy from one state to another. The guild is so poorly organized as to be practically a tradition. Their powers are bizarre: they can power their spells with nearby sources of energy, they can transform the effects of their spells into new spells, they can channel hostile energies into their own spells. If you cast a fireball at an opposing mage, and his counterspell turns it into a tasteful dinette set; if a nearby waterfall stands still for a second as he lights the forest on fire with a lightning bolt; if the forest fire suddenly extinguishes itself as the mage casts a defense; if the kinetic energy of your charge is suddenly drained away as the mage casts a magic missile; you're probably fighting a Transducer. Obviously, this style of magic shows its weakness when there are no sources of energy nearby.

Transmuters (Alchemists)

There is a Transmuters' Guild, which focuses on traditional transformations and alterations. In modern times, however, this guild is simply the high end of the Alchemists' Guild, a very powerful intercontinental guild that controls the creation and sale of magical potions. It was founded by Aven Yulias, a mortal mage of great perseverance and business sense, and has remained in mortal hands for fifteen hundred years. A chapter of the Alchemists' Guild can be found in every major city—usually forming the nexus of a full-scale shopping center— and an Alchemist of some type is licensed in nearly every town. Their products are widespread and affordable, meaning that nearly every household has light healing potions for first aid, curing potions to ward off illness, and nutritional potions to guarantee good health. Of course, Alchemists' Guilds also carry a wide assortment of more powerful and specialized potions for the benefit of the warrior or adventurer, although purchasing some of the most powerful may require an official license, a bribe, or a military disguise (for instance, no Alchemist in his right mind would refuse to sell to a Heaven Knight).

The simpler and less powerful potions can be prepared by any mortal with sufficient training and education. A study of arcane principles is required, but actual magical ability is not necessary. This type of potion creation is called "craft alchemy," and it is practiced by Triangle, Quadragon, and Pentagon Crafters. (The ranks of the Alchemists' Guild are geometric.) The more powerful potions involve the exertion of magical power, and are created by Hexagon, Septagon, and Octagon Masters. The highest rank of the Alchemists' Guild, the Eternal Masters (symbolized by a circle), are largely administrative.

The Alchemists' Guild does train traditional Transmuter-style mages, of course, but since the Guild has focused so strongly on commercial alchemy, these Transmuters have no signature spells that set them apart.

Artificers

The Artificers' Guild is dedicated to the creation and sale of enchanted items. Magical items are extremely time-consuming to produce; the creation of a simple Sword +1 could take up to five years of intermittent rituals, performed whenever astrological conditions are propitious. Something as powerful as a Holy Avenger or a high-end Ring of Protection could take decades. As a result, their prices are exorbitant. A Holy Avenger, for instance, has never been seen on the open market for less than ten thousand gold pieces. For reference, one gold piece is a week's pay for a well-off middle-class urbanite.

In an attempt to offset this weakness in their pricing scheme, the Artificers' Guild spends most of its time finding new ways to cut corners in their rituals. Most magical items have deficiencies built into them. This makes them more affordable, but also means that their user must have a tactical and strategic awareness of their drawbacks. An Ice Brand, for instance, might gradually chill its user to the bone, forcing him to fight quickly. A Ring of Airy Water might have an ever-decreasing area of effect. A Wand of Fireballs might require a "warm-up" time before each shot. You'll find that almost every magical item in the Dragonhunt setting has some sort of drawback, and the more powerful the item, the greater its flaw. (The game design philosophy behind this is that player characters are strong enough as it is!)

Since the Artificers' Guild caters mainly to the well-heeled, its customer service is second to none. Each visitor to a major chapter of the Guild will be assigned a "personal item consultant," and all their future sessions in any chapter will be conducted with him or her via long-viewer and tellstone. Use the expertise of your personal item consultant well—he wants repeat business, and so he'll try to recommend items that will increase your lifespan!

Criminal Organizations

Thieves' Guilds

Each city in the Silver Coast has a formal Guild of Thieves, which controls the upper end of criminal activity in the city. The Thieves' Guilds don't concern themselves with street crime or small-time drug dealing; but if a skilled professional makes a living by burglary, confidence, extortion, or large-scale drug dealing, that professional is either a member of a Thieves' Guild or targetted for elimination.

The Silver Coast Thieves' Guilds were established with the tacit agreement of the Seven Stars of Fate. The wily Noble Mercury realized that the devil you know is better than the devil you don't; and so he has nurtured the most reasonable and socially-responsible criminals of every generation and put them in charge of the seven Thieves' Guilds. Thieves who are caught in criminal actions are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, of course: some get off for lack of evidence, but many go to prison, and a few hang. But the point of government complicity in the Thieves' Guilds is that for the most part, the burden of crime is lower in the Silver Coast than elsewhere, because the Guilds themselves refrain from hitting the people too hard, too often.

The Thieves' Guilds are closely allied, and the guildmasters of the seven cities often work together to solve their problems. This simply adds to the difficulty of breaking into the the Silver Coast underworld; throw one rock, and you stir up seven nests of hornets.

Street Gangs

In the Silver Coast, street gangs exist to pick up the trash the Thieves' Guilds don't want. They handle street-level drug dealing, muggings, small protection rackets, and minor robberies and burglaries. Unlike the Thieves' Guilds, they are constantly chased and persecuted by law enforcement. Rival gangs often engage in skirmishes. Every now and then, a young criminal of real potential gets involved in a street gang; in the Silver Coast, he's usually hired or killed by the Thieves' Guild before he can make his gang a real competitor.

In Andragar, street gangs fill the same slot: they're the bottom end of the criminal pipeline. In Andragar, however, there is no organized top end. The higher levels of criminal society are made entirely of independent operators, held in a delicate balance of power. Insofar as there is any organized criminal union in Andragar, it's the Church of Ghoster; but Ghoster's disciples are few and far between, and seldom form anything like an organized unit.

In the Lan'yaria Republic, the gangs are organized into two nations, each descended from a different group of anti-Republican dissidents. But with the rise of the Ruido Grande, those gangs have been rendered irrelevant. Although they still exist, and they still perform street crime and have gang wars, they have no effect on the real balance of power in the Republic, which is held entirely by the Ruido Grande.

El Ruido Grande

The Ruido Grande is the monolithic criminal syndicate of the Lan'yaria Republic. They came into power in 1973, in the "Shadow City" neighborhood of Credo Vallar, under the leadership of Dmitri Cipangueza, an outsider with no previous criminal record. They quickly came to dominate every aspect of criminal activity in the area, overshadowing the local street gangs and even completely infiltrating and emasculating the local police.

This initial florescence of the syndicate came to a sudden and explosive halt when Dmitri hatched a plot to literally take complete control of the city government, putting the entire city under his own form of terroristic martial law. The two major street gang "nations," the Sinister Brethren of the Iron Cross and the Revised Scholars of Justice, put aside their differences and united under the leadership of an Imperial newcomer named Darm Sobredaño to revolt against the crime syndicate. In a brutal riot on the Via Corregio, the syndicate was defeated, though not without the deaths of dozens of innocents and criminals alike.

Dmitri Cipangueza was forced into hiding for a year. Street legend holds that when he visited his grandfather after the Via Corregio Riot, his grandfather said "You made a big noise out in Credo Vallar, eh?" When Dmitri returned, he named his organization "El Ruido Grande," the "big noise." With a fury, he broke the backs of the Credo Vallar gangs once and for all, and established the Ruido Grande as the dominant criminal organization in Lan'yaria.

During the second expansion of the Ruido Grande, they attempted to move into Gereval, where there is no solid criminal governing body. They might have been successful, especially with the leadership of the cold-blooded Pilar San Federico, but they were stymied by the rapid action of investigator Diomedes Crenshaw, Arc Knight Alekh Tarraquene, highwayman Nock Kimmerand, and dwarven gang member Markio Gleagh.

Assassins' Guilds

For the most part, murder for hire is handled by freelancers; there are hundreds of hired thugs, and dozens of talented professionals, eager to kill for money. However, there are a few organizations that deal in such matters. The Church of Ghoster is known to accept contracts. The Knives of Fate in the Kingdom of Sune are sometimes called to settle vendettas between nobles in both hobgoblin kingdoms. In the Patchwork Kingdoms, a dragon team called The Reavers takes search-and-destroy missions against individuals, although stealth is never a consideration. In the Lan'yaria Republic, the Ruido Grande has several hitmen who work for hire. And although this has never been confirmed, it's strongly suspected that the Church of Gabriel has stealthy hunters who are willing to kill anyone provably evil—and if someone wants to make a donation to the Church in thanks, well, that donation can't be officially linked to the killing.