In the Heart of Clockwork: Factions and more for Alza’um

Typical Mayhem in the Streets…

The smoke bomb, particularly the toxic vapor.  Only one group could produce something like that in such short notice, the Chymists!  How desperate someone must be to turn to terror, such inadequate rubble will be eliminated from the city in due time.  Mark my words, the Consortium shall rightfully reign over the future. – Gelzeer, Assistant Lead Mechanic for the Consortium of Machine, at Primus Security Foundation HQ

Despite splitting off from the world above, internal politics breeds their own issues; whether in the splendorous city proper or its bayside proxy.  Various guilds vie for dominance, whether through honest or underhanded means.  That’s not to safe that attempts at sales within the market can’t be a front for devious sabotage and spying… if not acts far worse.  Some could argue that those who protect the city from these biased extremists are biased and extreme in their own right, favoring a repressive status quo and neutrality that inhibits both progress and tradition alike.

Even before these new issues had arisen, turmoil stewed within the city since early days.  Wicked cults that twist the worst of ancient tradition, cruel slavers and exploiters masquerading as market movers and shakers and general violent madmen.  None the less, the city boasts quite the strange history for one that is otherwise pretty young.

Author’s Note: I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, create a timeline as well as faction related stuff for my mini-setting.  Plus, maybe an extra monster or two in an update.  Also, the factions, alongside the monsters, can easily be repurposed for a more steampunk-oriented setting.  Though, there’s no need to have the setting a dark and gritty urban setting deep within the ground.

 

 

A Brief Timeline of Alza’um (and Bashar)

110 PRE – Outcast tinkerers, creators, lunatics and weirdos meet in undisclosed locations, seeking a new land to claim their own.

109 PRE – Thanks to the highest magic available to them, countless supplies are brought over to help build an isolated oasis deep within the foreboding desert wastes.  Construction begins on a town forged on visions of artifice.

107 PRE – News reaches out to Nelexit’r, a cruel and totalitarian regime commanded by a powerful desert dragon.  She becomes curious of this city of artifice, sending troops to go forth to conquer.  War destroys much of the wondrous city, killing many of the denizens as well.

106 PRE – The artificer legion rebuilds for war.  Against all odds, their call for help is heard by other outcasts and crafters alike.  The ruined outpost city gets a significant bolstering aid.  For the first and last time, the group marches upon their enemy land.  In revenge, the artificer army quickly gets carried away.  The foul dragon is smart enough to realize when her losses are too great, but that’s not enough for the scarred numbers of early Alza’um.  The city is razed and many civilians are forced to either join the tinker enclave or find another land to migrate to.

104 PRE – The city, rebuilt once more.  However, plans detail an idea to dig into the rich earth itself and build downward.  That way, very little would be lost to raiders and attackers.  One of Nelexit’r’s enemies, a troupe of Clockwork Mages, travel far and wide to take up arms alongside their arcane constructing brethren.

101 PRE – Years of excavation and quarry delving unearths massive chunks of space, as well as incredible mineral deposits.  Mines form to explore this further, as resources from above are gradually scrapped to help with construction down below.

96 PRE – The first couple of layers of the underground city are formed, far more rudimentary and basic than later versions.  This version takes many cues from dwarven strongholds of old.

92 PRE – Further expedition calls for gradual revision of the city.  Plans are made to intertwine artifice creations into the very fabric of this underground space.  Mines, however, unearth strange creatures.  New challenges arise as the hardiest among them help to clear out the beasts, to make way for further development.  Denizens criticize the reckless expansion against the environment.

88 PRE – Renovations for the city result in the older portions somehow being pushed down as new creations stack on top.  More and more newer layers supersede the old ones.  Fearing curious onlookers, a decoy village is built up above.  Alza’um Village is a simple place, more stripped down than their original city.  However, they give the “villagers” some level of technology.  This place is comprised of lower class citizens and reformed prisoners.  Despite squalid conditions compared to the city below, there is far more freedom in many regards.

85 PRE – Alza’um citizens attempt to harvest nearby ruins for resources, unearthing all means of horrific things in the process.  The scavengers mostly flee, leaving the disturbed tombs for any would-be adventurer, hoping the monsters will take care of outsiders.  However, a terrible curse befalls the city, in which enough of the city will be consumed by its own greed and power hunger, undoing much of the progress it had already made.

78 PRE – A power vacuum arises when the founding artificer, Kareem, dies in his sleep.  A “temporary” council forms to oversee all matters.  However, the reaction of the public quickly sees them as a permanent fixture.  They quickly turn towards bureaucracy as they become comfortable in their position.

77 PRE – A nameless settlement of wizards arises from the ruins of the dragon’s dominion.  Familiar with Alza’um, they attempt diplomacy.  To avoid another war, Alza’um simply accepts the mages into their enclave.  Many adapt and take up active roles in technomancy.  However, others retain a stubborn and conservative approach.  The Mechanists and the Chymists form from this split.  The council worries that this split might accelerate division issues within the city.  The two guilds are closely monitored.

75 PRE – Bosses and leaders of various industrial plants and factories have begun to bribe the council to look the other way during inspection seasons.  Work situations worsen, workers feel more flustered, morale declines.

70 PRE – The city becomes divided over the Chymist and Mechanist conflict.  Civil warring breaks out between the districts as much both magical and technological is damaged.  Ultimately, the council’s own private forces break up matters, violently.  An ultimatum is made; cooperate or suffer severe consequences.  Most comply, the ones who didn’t were either executed or stripped of all rights and forced into slave labor.

68 PRE – Further excursions have resulted in first contact with the underground world.  Specifically, a warren of ratmen.  The chittering hordes lead into action almost immediately.  Still damaged from the brief civil war, Alza’um is caught off guard.  Alzam loses much, but eventually succeeds. The Primitivists form in the warrens in secret.  They launch their first offense in secret by attracting underground creatures into the city to attack.  Waves of monsters are eventually warded off, but blame never goes to the Primitivists.  Many rats are treated the same as the “war criminals” from a few years prior.

65 PRE – Bashar begins construction, as coastal resources make for a viable trade town distraction. Its mission?  Expand outside trade without the main city interacting with outsiders.  Outsiders helping with construction of Bashar find their way into Alza’um proper.  The council gives them an ultimatum, work as agents of the city or be vanquished.  They choose the former.  Two small trade ports are taken over with great ease.  The denizens of the lands are forcefully assimilated into a “better” existence.

62 PRE – Conquered and living in fear as the minority, the ratmen send diplomats in attempt to improve their situation, at request of some shaman elders.  Their first candidate is a disaster, being quickly replaced.  The warrens are reborn as the Smolderforge Warrens.  Many traditionalists disapprove, giving the Primitivists a foothold within the warren.

59 PRE – Prayers to a Dark God have been very much received.  The Primitivists realize that outright annihilation of Alza’um failed before.  However, doing what they did to them might work better.  Vaporous poisons are infused with dark power from fell rituals and the blood of their very own to create a wicked miasma hex.  Their plan comes to fold; don’t destroy the hairless things, replace them.  Several elder shaman who become aware of their schemes are assassinated shortly after.  Blame is brought upon the Patriots of Alza’um, for their bigoted ways, even though they had nothing to do with it.

58 PRE – Days before the plan is ready to be put into effect, several members of their cult defect and inform other ratmen afraid of the “strange shamans”.  They go off to warn several channels before getting to Alza’um proper.  As the city orders evacuation to the surface, the enraged Primitivists strike early.  Any denizens infected by the strange clouds that sweep through the city is left behind in quarantine.  Roughly 84% of the city escapes.  However, about 6% more comprised of escapees were infected.

57 PRE – The city is locked down, while a quarantine zone above ground is made for infected while cures are researched.  All infected gradually become ratmen.  Even those who weren’t infected feel themselves going mad, as they’re kept away from the comforts of the city for many months.  Much of the village was converted with more “covert” magitech, to keep some semblance of normal life in check.  However, a large population in a small town left for terrible living conditions and much violence for the better of one year.

56 PRE – The residents are resentful and shell-shocked by their experience.  An antidote is dispensed upon the quarantine as well as circulated into the city.  At first, the infected no longer spread the plague.  Plus, the subjects stop acting feral, but either go mad or fall into despair over their accursed state.  Many ratmen mutants deny treatments to return them to normal, fearing more damage.  Those who do take up the option aren’t fully brought back to their old selves, most becoming sterile as well.  Alza’um demands an immense reward for any Primitivist brought in dead or alive, preferably dead.

53 PRE – The manhunt for the primitivists pushes them deeper underground, into the dreaded shadow lands below.  The cult experiments on all sorts of monsters to retaliate against all who face them.

50 PRE – To ease tensions, the Council decides that Smolderforge is part of a greater Alza’um state and ratmen are given citizenship.  Many residents of both nations are less than pleased, but shrug it off.  The more nationalistic groups on both sides aren’t happy with Smolderforge being part of a larger Alza’um state at all.  Many riot at this happening, only to be quelled by the state.

47 PRE – Dark elves, and their slave hordes, surge through the greater Alza’um., laying siege while capturing who they can.  It is considered that they were tipped by the exiled primitivists.  Ultimately, superior fire power pushes back the flooding armies after much is already done.

46 PRE – Chymists petition using the countless preserved dead as reanimated servants to help alleviate work stress.  Mechanists are horrified by this, suggested augmentations for the workers instead.  Squabbling leads to neither being approved yet.  Meanwhile, ratmen have trouble integrating into Alza’um proper, while many of the mutants decide to stay near the warrens.

43 PRE – Many more traditional ratmen are dismayed over their warrens being converted into something more akin to the city above.  Also, many of the more “successful” rats have moved into places within the city, while less successful humanoids have begun to move near the warrens themselves.  Racial tensions begin to stir, which are only agitated by elite groups.

41 PRE – Hordes of the undead from the disturbed tombs of the past are bolstered by primitivist necromancies, far stronger than what the chemysts have available.  Due to the anti-religion stance in Alza’um, they are once again caught off guard.  However, accepted faiths, as well as philosophy-priests, help to repel enough to ensure that devestation is minimal.  However, the lowest levels suffer the most.

36 PRE – Riots break out in the lower sectors of the city.  Unfair conditions, being ignored by various powers and being the source of amusement has tipped many over the edge.  Private security teams and all sorts of law enforcement are deployed to “stop” the escalating situation.

35 PRE – A census in Bashar reveals that the trade city proxy has been doing quite well for itself.  While surveillance has been minimal and from a safe distance, they haven’t received much data within the city, except when it involves weird technologies and magics being funneled back to them.

34 PRE – The relative peace in Bashar breaks up when revolutionaries from Alza’um stage an attack alongside extremists from the port city.  Things go horribly wrong and create minor rifts that unleash shadow abominations in the city.  While mages and artificers push the beasts back, small pocket rifts still exist within the city, which can suck people into a hellish alternate dimension.

33 PRE – The Council caves to the protestors slightly, who have eased up on the extreme revolution a little.  However, restrictions of necromancy become more harsh (beyond sanctioned use for the Chymists.  This mostly includes animating bodies for mundane tasks.  Likewise, plans for augmenting workers goes into effect.  The latter goes a bit far, creating more machine than man.  These creatures are dubbed “Mad Adam”, named after their builder.

31 PRE – The Mad Adams manage to break of their controls and assist in protests, providing substantial threat.  Fearing another mass civil war, after so much has happened, work reform is looked into.  Meanwhile, pirates attack Bashar, making off with many strange wonders.  Many pirates stay to establish underground guilds.

30 PRE – Many primitivists are captured by exploration teams that delve into the shadow lands.  Some of them renounce their allegiances and agree to aid the council.  However, the current regime ends up constantly outsmarting them at every corner.  The rest are given the axe, figuratively and literally.

24 PRE – While ratman have existed on the council, there were largely ineffective.  Another, Eep, is appointed to the council.  He helps to open up space within the city and warrens for development, while helping to preserve areas for those less obsessed with creating new magical projects.  He often butts heads with the other members though.

15 PRE – Restoration efforts are made to help bring the aging city into the next age.  Steam works are incorporated into much of the city’s strange frame.  In fact, it suits the city quite well.  However, attempts at making work better didn’t go very far.  Complaints return.

14 PRE – Anarchists from Bashar have covertly sneaked into Alza’um for a while.  Their observation of the worse work conditions than Bashar itself motivated them to spark a protest among the citizens.  However, it was quickly accelerated into destructive rioting.  The chaos is quelled by security and militias, after a long urban battle resulting in long standoffs.

9 PRE – The Council approves plans to not only expand the city as a whole, but further self-sustainability.  Interest in the outside world is still low, despite attempts to convince the population otherwise.  Council Chairman Abirgist passes away in his sleep, resulting in a shift to an even half humanoid, half ratman split.  Days later, Sprig Dugaltor, a gnomish mechanist, is appointed the new position.

3 PRE – Alzam City has expanded outward, after the warren forces repelled any attempts of digging deeper. The city has almost doubled in size, with the caveat of being more cramped.  However, the anatomy of the rodent people makes this easier to deal with.  Trade picks up with Bashar as well as the village above.  Several campaigns lead through twisted warren labyrinths and into the darklands themselves.  Soldiers are greeted by warped and mutated horrors, caused by the cult.  These creatures are sickly, warped and pure evil.  And worse, they’ve spread throughout the dark lands below!

Current Year, Reform Era.  Chunks of Alza’um propose becoming their own City States.  Much of the population, alongside the council, considers this to be madness.  However, in light of massive expansion for a decade, this seems logical to many as well.  For the time being, they are still united.  And while Smolderforge has been begrudgingly welcomed, outsiders are still held with contempt.  That has only changed for the lucky few allowed to see PARTS of the city.

*PRE = Pre-Reform Era (The Present Day Alza’um)

 

 

Factions of Alza’um (and Bashar)

Note: Few factions are unique to Bashar, most are just extensions of existing groups from Alza’um itself.  Most just have a different name.

• Ordo Chymist Divinus: A conservative group who wants expansion of technology and magic to go at a slower pace, while more traditional forms of magic maintain a valuable place within society.  Their splinter group of the Chymists acts as their eyes within Bashar.
  • Goals:
    • Preservation of classic magical arts
    • Instruction of traditional magic as an alternative to newer forms of the arcane
    • Speed development of true magic, slow development of arcane technology.
  • Beliefs:
    • Focus on technology only dilutes and waters down what true magic has to offer.
    • Arcane secrets are what has pushed magic further into the fringes, instill knowledge and educate the public to keep the arcane arts alive!
    • Contemplate new schools of the mystical, but only share with the worthy.
  • Member Traits:
    • Akin to other factions, these mages are staunch traditionalists in some regard.  While they don’t reject technology, they’re skeptical of it and believe that overly relying on it is a self-destructive trap.  Magic must flow as a living energy, transferred through the body of its crafter.  They feel that losing this element defeats the point of the arcane, reducing it to some gimmick to push into alien devices.
  • Ranks:
    • Hedge Wizard (rank 1)
    • Sorcerer of the Lost Arts (rank 2)
    • Preservationist Mage (rank 3)
    • Pure Arcanist (rank 4)
    • Arcane Protectorate (rank 5)
• Consortium of Machine: A futurist group that believes that investing in new methods for magic and technology is the way to better civilization. They believe in rapid progress.  Likewise, the Mechanists are their extension within Bashar.
  • Goals:
    • Create a more automated society, less desperate on the sweat and blood of fallible common workers.
    • Help advance the city, maybe beyond, through a variety of innovations and inventions.
    • Beat back the gods themselves through progressively more powerful artifacts that bring the mere mortal on par with the divine!
  • Beliefs:
    • Ethics gets in the way of creation.  Build, explore, create something anew.  Imagination is the truest key to the unknown!
    • Traditionalists only shackle everyone from exploring their true potential.  The next stage for civilization is a few projects away!
    • Artifice and Technomancy are the superior forms of magic, cutting out dated concepts like ridiculous body language and babbled jargon outright.
  • Member Traits:
    • To the Mechanist, success is built and refined.  Likewise, civilization will continue to build itself up, as long as great thinkers and brilliant builders aren’t inhibited.  Less interested in brawn, this guild is obsessed with reapplying the brains, even for creations of war.
  • Ranks:
    • Tinker (rank 1)
    • Experimental Crafter (rank 2)
    • Arcane Artificer (rank 3)
    • Technomancer (rank 4)
    • Forge Master (rank 5)
• New Primitivists:  Luddites who hate advancement of magic or tech. They want an agrarian society that reveres nature.  Everyone else in the Alza’um Territories hates them.  However, most of them reject the terrorism of their predecessors.  Unlike the Chymists, their goals are far less arcane magic oriented.
  • Goals:
    • Encourage citizens to leave their technocratic life behind.
    • Show validity in olden ways and traditions.
    • Peacefully shut down the city above.
  • Beliefs:
    • Dependence on the machine will bring everyone down.
    • Workers will be destroyed or replaced by the machine in the end.
    • Tradition will vanish if we don’t preserve it.
  • Member Traits:
    • While not inherently technophobic, members are often critical of tech developments.  They see a threat in innovations taking over the lives of not just investors but the inventors as well.  Many follow The Old Ways, and that’s not just the rats of smolderforge.
  • Ranks:
    • Classicalist (rank 1)
    • Olden Protector (rank 2)
    • Warden of Tradition (rank 3)
    • Spirit Leader (rank 4)
    • Eternal Elder (rank 5)
• Alza’um Patriots: Exceptionally brash and proud in keeping Alza’um their city-state, they want little to do with Smolderforge.  The current law keeps them from doing direct harm to the ratfolk, but they’ve found other ways to cause suffering.
  • Goals:
    • Return Alza’um to its former glory
    • Defend and honor all that this glorious new nation has to offer.
    • Continue to bring greatness to the city through wonders of craft and creation.
  • Beliefs:
    • There is no land greater than the high city of artifice.
    • Everyone outside of the city is a backwards outsider, unworthy of its creations.
    • Interaction with those rodents was a mistake.
  • Member Traits:
    • All members have an extreme pride of their beloved city-state.  It is life as they known it!  However, many get carried away in their love of Alza’um.  Ironically, many have become the very thing that their ancestors fled from to begin with; judgemental and narrow-minded pride.
  • Ranks:
    • Child of Alza’um (rank 1)
    • Serving Patriot (rank 2)
    • Adamant Loyalist (rank 3)
    • Alza’um Zealot (rank 4)
    • National Champion (rank 5)
• Smolderforge Nationalists: Loyal to their chieftan, they see the council as usurpers and dishonorable conquerors.  Some are purists who even loathe the mutants created by the primitivists as well.  They not only want sovereign independence, but to overthrow Alza’um outright.  Some are vengeful enough to want to take it over.
  • Goals:
    • Push the hairless things back, reclaim what is ours!
    • Make superior versions to their ideals, bolster our forces and our power.
    • Build an underground stronghold unlike anything the inferior hairless things have ever seen.
  • Beliefs:
    • Being left alone by outsiders is nice.
    • Subjugating and harnessing hairless ones is nice too.
    • Smolderforge should become its own powerful and independent state, not a tacked on accessory to a tacky city above.
  • Member Traits:
    • Members are jaded, filled with resentment and a possible hatred.  They want nothing more than to split off from Alza’um at least to the wholesale demise of the city at most.  While they view themselves as a fallen people on hard times, they are motivated by revenge against Alza’um.
  • Ranks:
    • Slithertail (rank 1)
    • Ruggedhide (rank 2)
    • Tunneleye (rank 3)
    • Crushingfang (rank 4)
    • Dread Rat (rank 5)
• Cosmopolitans: A closed off world is an atrophying world, that’s their motto.  For them, society needs to be aware of the world around it for it to continue and evolve.  Otherwise, it will suffer a slow and lonely death.  However, their methods of welcoming the globe do move towards the over the top at times.  In fact, their penchant for producing propaganda in favor of the city rivals even the most fervent of patriots.
  • Goals:
    • Inform the world on the greatness of Alza’um, including all sorts of propaganda.
    • Find ways to let outsiders into the city.
    • Fight against the isolationism and rampant xenophobia prevalent in the culture of Alza’um.
    • Help bring outside ideas into the nation, including religious beliefs, which they feel will help build new cultural ideals and identity within the city.
  • Beliefs:
    • Bring fresh ideas into the city, outsiders can only help to expand a stagnating land.
    • The city is going to fracture and turn on itself if it stays isolated.  Without acknowledging the world around it, everyone will go stir crazy.
    • We must prove the prejudice of the denizens wrong by showing the wonders of the world and its wonderful people.
  • Member Traits:
    • They often carry a well meaning, but often naive global perspective.  They imagine the world outside as some glorious realm of possibility.  And for those who have traveled?  They often filter out the negative and accentuate the positive.  That’s not to say that they’re wrong.  Their fears of a decaying society without direction have resonated with the populace more and more.
  • Ranks:
    • Land Ponderer (rank 1)
    • Country Strider (rank 2)
    • World Wanderer (rank 3)
    • Realm Traveler (rank 4)
    • Reality Shaper (rank 5)
• Pirate’s Guild: They aim to exploit Alza’um’s follies for personal gain, spread technology to the outside world, possibly subvert hierarchy and gain a stake in all of this.  In the end, they want to either take down the city or take hold of it.  They’ve just started to catch onto the angry underground that’s bubbling up.  Within Bashar, this secret group has made their own claim within the ports and the ghettos since several crushing defeats at sea.  Many illicit goods and contraband have funneled their way into markets thanks to them… and they don’t plan on stopping.  They deal in secrets too.
  • Goals:
    • Crush the competition through any means necessary, especially the Division.
    • Subvert bans through contraband and unleash an unstoppable black market.
    • Exploit all society has to offer for your own gain, but don’t turn on your fellow pirates doing so.
  • Beliefs:
    • Pirates care little for society, but using it to your advantage is useful.
    • Ethical markets leave a big bubble that you take use for your own ends.
    • Pirates aren’t against horrible deeds.  But, mutiny?  Unforgivable.
  • Member Traits:
    • They fit the description of the worst buccaneers, privateers, corsairs and other high seas sailing brigand and outsider possible.  That’s not to say all are inherently evil or malicious.  Many are disgruntled misfits and contrarians who intentionally live on the fringes of society at most and of opinion in the least.  Many are forced to take unsavory actions as a means of survival and avoiding detection.
  • Ranks:
    • Covert Sneak (rank 1)
    • Cunning Bandit (rank 2)
    • Panache Wielding Brigand (rank 3)
    • Scourge of the Seas (rank 4)
    • Dread Lord of Piracy (rank 5)
• Church of True Ascension: Once a cult producing weary looks, this religion has made a name for itself within the shining jewel beside the sea.  The church’s tenets involve self-improvement, enhancing one’s self through empowerment and eventual ascension beyond the mortal plane.  While many find the last point to be quackery, the rest of their teachings have been seen as motivational and helpful.  However, their actual goals are to harness the energy of those who align with them to resurrect a dead “god” that their church continues to worship in secret.
  • Goals:
    • Channel power between their subjects and the church
    • Augment and improve society, encourage apotheosis
    • Revive their dead deity
    • Feed the inexperienced demi-gods to their all-powerful slumbering eldritch god.  Our great god takes from them already…
  • Beliefs:
    • Always find ways to build upon yourself, always find ways to improve.
    • Sculpt yourself into an ideal image.
    • Power is to be shared, not selfishly controlled.  By sharing with the Church, you’re only helping yourself faster too.
    • Those who are loaned power are a temporary step to the ultimate goal.  Let them feel power, they mean little in the longterm.
  • Member Traits:
    • Worshipers within the church believe in becoming something truly posthumanoid, building and rebuilding the self into something greater.  Many are fervently devout to the clergy, practicing their dogma as a method of training and harnessing the best of their abilities.  To them, these rituals and practices will help them towards the next steps in life and “post life”.
  • Ranks:
    • Training Acolyte (rank 1)
    • Enhanced Faithful (rank 2)
    • Augmentationalist (rank 3)
    • Divine Spark (rank 4)
    • God Served (rank 5)
• Helpers’ Commune: An altruistic charity that seeks to undermine the establishment, while helping the less fortunate stuck in the strange city.  The group is filled with missionaries, anarchists, rebels, pirates and more.  However, some get overzealous in their “stick it to the establishment” ideal, resulting in violence in the streets.  This guild hangs on by loose threads deep within the ghetto, as there have been attempts to eradicate them.  Though, their own plans put to action would probably result in eradicating other guilds in return.
  • Goals:
    • Defend the weak, aid the downtrodden
    • Spread ideals of unity, collective society and the peoples’ might
    • Subvert order they find oppressive and help instill revolutionary sentiment
    • Combat oppression themselves, even through more extreme means.
  • Beliefs:
    • We can’t allow those over cruel and cold regimes to suffer, we must help them.
    • The ideal society is one where the systems of the wealthy are undone and a peoples’ society replaces it.
    • A strong community leader is a much better cause than stuffy bureaucrats who care about their own wealth and regulation.
  • Member Traits:
    • Members are heavily communal, to the point of giving up notions of property in most cases.  They hate any “holdouts”, especially if need comes up for a “shared” item.  While currently small, they have big ambitions and bringing their high idealism to a whole state or even country.  However, their methods of doing so are quite off-putting and could likely result in a lot of widespread and targeted violence.  While they don’t exactly believe in meritocracy, they do provide ranks based on “service to the people” and overall contributions to society and the commune.  But, the more zealous of the faction has caused members to attack themselves, in fear of some not true to the cause or selling out their name to other guilds.  This paranoia ultimately keeps them from advancing their goals.
  • Ranks:
    • Assistant (rank 1)
    • Dedicated Comrade (rank 2)
    • Devoted Communal (rank 3)
    • Revolutionary (rank 4)
    • Champion of the Worker (rank 5)
• Trader’s Division: The closest thing to a publicly visible government that Bashar has. This informal council of merchant princes, nobility with a claimed stake and sneaky bureaucrats come together to form some sense of order within city limits. Of course, they try to keep their influence from being too noticeable, so guests and residents alike don’t pay too much attention to them.
  • Goals:
    • Success is imperative, for your own business and the guild.
    • Help the guild control the market, preferably through honorable means.
    • Use connections to slowly assimilate the worthy into the cause.
    • Expand to all corners of the world over time.
  • Beliefs:
    • Follow the Acquisition Codes, they are the guidelines to a happier market.
    • All businesses within the guild are a family.  Disrespect of one is disrespect of all.
    • Those who are customers of a guild business are worthy, all others have yet to deserve respect.
  • Member Traits
    • A Trader of the Division isn’t just part of a market guild, they’re part of a great family.  The united businesses are obliged to lend a hand to their fellow trader.  Likewise, many resources and assistance are made available to active members.  However, they can’t be expected to always remain honorable on deals and dealings.  The guild has pushed many businesses into less ethical means in order to be supportive.  In fact, attacks against non-guild businesses (in one way or another) are not that uncommon.  But, attacking a fellow guild member is paramount to high treason.  However, those who actually matter are those who have proven themselves to be the barons of the business, the kings of capital, the monarchs of the market.  They are given preferential treatment.
  • Ranks:
    • Tradesman (rank 1)
    • Marketeer (rank 2)
    • Grand Magnate (rank 3)
    • Master Tycoon (rank 4)
    • Industry Commander (rank 5)

 

IMAGE CREDIT: Anabaptist Riots – Barend Dircksz

Made by Doctor Necrotic, for Doctor Necrotic Media

 

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