The First Men of Gemnos

More than 11.000 years ago, men and women were created by Gemnos, by the Twins, or so the legends go. Those men and women, the first batch, if you will, are collectively called the First Men of Gemnos. They were paired in families by the Twins, and to this day, 57 families still exist around the world of Gemnos. Maybe not all of them can run an unbroken line to the First Men of Gemnos, but by and large, those 57 families are recognized as such. All of them wield power to some extend. Some are wealthy merchants, some are nobles, some are even kings and emperors. One way or another, they have over the years influenced the direction of life on Gemnos.

Cult of the Dragon

And the Oracle said: In the Year of the Broken One, a great purge will strike Gemnos, causing never seen death and destruction. From the ashes the dead dragons will rise and rule, as they were meant to. So I have seen, so it will be.

From Draconis Lore

Cult of the Dragon is a quasi-religious cult that venerates dragons and believes that undead dragons will at some point assume their rightful place as rulers of all of Gemnos.

This is why the cult spends it's time equally between hoarding gold to gift to the dragons, making alliances with evil dragons and last but not least, convincing and helping those dragons become undead dracoliches.

The cult has existed for about 400 years, and so far, no one knows where they came from. They are widespread across the lands of Gemnos, but as far as it is known, the different chapters or cells are extremely independent and there is no central organization.

The most prominent members are necromancers and priests, but the dragons have worshipers of all kinds.

The Black Robes

Worshiping gods distracts you from your true master, Magic. They are a waste of time, as they can not help you get all you want from life, only you and magic can do that. So take that symbol and destroy it, before I polymorph you into a mouse and feed you to your familiar.

Yii, Black Senator, year 5491 

The Black Robes are an organization of wizards. They have been the ruling class of Uruak for more than 600 years.

In the old days, the Black Robes were rarely seen outside their borders, but around 300 years ago, something changed. After many years of internal rebellions and wars against kings of the 100 Kingdoms and the Empire of Ortygal, the Black Robes seemed content with what they had and focused on keeping it, instead of expanding further. 

The next logical step was to build embassies in big cities all around the world, to keep lines of communication open with all potential allies or partners - or something.

At the top of the organization, you will find the Black Senate. The Black Senate is the ruling body of the organization and of Uruak. The Black Senate is comprised of 101 Black Robes, each chosen for their individual qualities or because of their alliances. The Black Senators rarely leave Uruak and generally spend a lot of time hatching plans and ruling Uruak.

The rest of the Black Robes are divided into cells. Each cells consists of 7 people, and although not all of them are necessarily wizards, it is rare that a Black Robe does not practice magic in some form. A cell usually runs a city, a town or a number of villages reachable within a day's travel. The cells also serve outside the borders as each embassy typically holds a cell.

While any race can be found amongst the Black Robes, humans are by far the most prevalent. However, no matter the race, they all have in common that they remove all hair above the chest and instead decorate themselves with tattoos instead of eyebrows, beard and hair.

Given that they run a huge country, he Black Robes are not at all a secret organization, but they are very secretive. This coupled with their non-aggressive expansion (the establishing of embassies everywhere) without a purpose has caused a number of rumors about them and most common man outside of Uruak are very distrustful (and usually very afraid) of them. Yet some are inadvertently drawn to them, after all, they have a vast magical knowledge, especially of magical items.

Also, since their embassies are always considered Uruakian soil, local laws do not apply there. This fact is not widely known, but it has certainly come to some's attention that it can be significantly easier to procure certain items through the Black Robes.

The Short Brothers

The Short Brothers' are more like a cult than like a guild. I once interrogated one of their low-level operatives for more than a week. I did unspeakable things to the half-man, and yet, he wouldn't give up anything about the guild or the other members. Zealots!

The Short Brothers, commonly called the Brothers, is a nation-wide halfling-only thieves guild, run by Jack, the King in the Shadows.

Although membership of the guild is for halflings only, they are frequently employing big and strong members of other races as muscle, when that is needed. It is not uncommon for leading men of the guild to have 7' foot tall bodyguards.

The Short Brothers primarily deal in information, ladies and boys of the night, fencing and gambling, but as many other shady operations, not much is known. Of course, rumors abound about them. Many of those rumors center around the Brothers having much more power than they appear to have. Some even go as far as claim and they from behind the scenes run most thieves' guilds in the Seven Army Nation, all while keeping their hands clean with the authorities. One thing is for sure, the Short Brothers always seem to know a lot about just about everything, and often before others. Some say that all halflings are secretly working for the guild and that the many traveling halflings help pass on messages and information, while others say that Jack uses devils to communicate with the other cities. The truth is probably somewhere in between.

What is known, is that Jack runs the guild from Laketower and that every single member seems to be utterly and completely loyal to him, even though most could never have never met him. Is it fear, is it devotion? Hard to say for sure.

The Death Dancers

The Death Dancers? What a quaint notion. You do realize that no such organization has never existed within our church, right? Those are just lies spread by other divine agents. Probably by the church of Torax. I can assure you that our Dark Lady needs no mortals to get her souls. She just takes them, if it is their time.

 - High Raven Hrolar, Starkhold

The Death Dancers are an ultra-secret, outlawed branch of the church of the Raven Queen. Following a version of reality that none other are privy to, the Dancers see themselves as the prolonged arm of the Dark Queen, bringing death to those that deserve it, those that should have died. At least, that is according to themselves. Or rumors. Some perceive them as nothing more than very expensive and effective assassins for hire.

Either way, the Death Dancers, said to be cloaked in black and wearing raven and gold masks, allegedly leave no one alive who sees them. The magically-trained orphans raised by the church of the Raven Queen strike at night, in the dark, with their silver daggers and never leave any clues.They do leave behind a black raven feather whenever they kill.

The Black Mass

It's kinda ironic - or frightening perhaps. Despite the fact that Kranak was the head of a church that kidnapped thousands of people and tried to turn them into undead, despite all the vile things he did against our fair city, he will always be known as the father of Krakas the Dark.

 -José Stark, year 5846

The priests of the Raven Queen were for a very long time exclusively run by women. Around 5310, that changed and the Black Kings were formed. A male-only fraction of the church, which through the years grew to power, a in some parts of Gemnos even managed to wrestle control from the women.

The Black Kings were focused, nay obsessed with the death aspect of the Raven Queen. Only through death could you truly understand the Dark Queen, only through death could real power be gained. In fact, all members of the fraction had to die before joining. Not for long, obviously, because it resurrection was not the way to come back, nor was undeath. No, you had to die, just for a minute or two, then be brought back through the will of another priest, if you wanted to join.

At first viewed with some distrust by the general population, the Black Kings soon found themselves admired. Dying for their faith, only to come back, even stronger. Now that was something even the common folk could admire, and in some areas of Gemnos, the Black Kings flourished.

After the Second Demon War, when people returned and built what is now Starhold, the Black Kings had a huge part in the rebuilding and their power in Starkhold grew. Come 5750, it was a forced to be recognized.

High Priest Kranak took office and was not only running the church, but also a close advisor of the Starks.

However, unbeknownst to everybody outside the church, the Black Kings had begun to push the teachings of the Raven Queen in another direction. Obsessed with death and power, the clergy had begun experimenting on live victims to create intelligent and obedient undead. They thought they could find a way to create an unbeatable army and conquer the Seven Army Nations. For years, literally thousands of people disappeared and were experimented upon, and had the experiments been allowed to go on, surely the Black Kings would have been able to complete and perfect their necromantic ritual.

Unluckily for them, someone in the dark of things decided to spill the beans and the Starks were told what their close allies were doing in the dark dungeons of their temples.

High priest Kranak and all other Black Kings were brought to justice in Starkhold and had their heads chopped up, while (allegedly) the Death Dancers of the Dark Queen brought swift justice to all other followers of the Black Kings. In a few weeks during 5797, the Black Kings, along with their temples, were no more.

Of course, as everyone knows now, Kranak left behind a son, Krakas, who would soon grow to be even more infamous than his father.

House of Nobles

The House of Nobles, or just the House for short, has been the main advisory voice to the warlords of Ironville Crossing. Each of the 100 noble families has a seat there, and they meet once a week to discuss where Ironville is heading and what can be done. Whatever they agree and vote on, is presented to the Warlord.

Traditionally most warlords have always been present at these proceedings, but according to word on the street, Sophie Ran has yet to show her face in the Mandate, which is the name of the building where the meetings are held.

The meetings, which are famous for sometimes lasting days, when tempers are hot, are otherwise closed to the public.