Factions of Vel'Nathar
Vel'Nathar is home to numerous factions whose influence varies from one region to another.
The groups below are among the most active across the island and may serve as allies, rivals, patrons, employers, or adversaries. More detailed entries cover their histories, goals, organization, and internal conflicts.
The Lowlands
The Iron Assembly
Vel'Nathar's governing council, seated in Stormhaven. The Assembly oversees national law, taxation, infrastructure, defense, and matters affecting more than one region of the island.
Its members represent different communities and interests, and disagreements within the council are common even when it presents a united position publicly.
The Cobalt Lyceum
Vel'Nathar's foremost arcane academy, headquartered in Stormhaven. Founded during the recovery from the Upheaval, the Lyceum studies magic, altered ley lines, and planar phenomena.
Its scholars also advise the Iron Assembly when magical matters affect public safety or policy.
The Violet Eye
A secret society of psions and mages embedded within Stormhaven's wealthy and influential circles. Its members gather secrets, manipulate perception, and quietly interfere in political affairs.
Among those aware of its existence, the organization is often referred to simply as the Eye.
The Ravenmarked
Vel'Nathar's network of spies, informants, and covert agents. Ravenmarked operatives work throughout the island, gathering intelligence and maintaining contacts wherever discretion is required.
Their work often serves the Iron Assembly, but their reach extends well beyond Stormhaven.
The Ironwake Cartel
A powerful criminal syndicate rooted in Stormhaven's docks and trade districts. The Cartel controls smuggling and black-market networks while using legitimate businesses, shipping interests, and financial pressure to protect its influence.
Its operations extend along many of Vel'Nathar's major trade routes.
The Redwake Brotherhood
An outlaw movement with strong roots among Stormhaven's dockworkers and poorer districts. The Brotherhood opposes both the Iron Assembly and the Ironwake Cartel, though individual cells differ considerably in their methods.
Some protect local communities or expose corruption, while others turn to theft, sabotage, or open violence. Redwake cells are also active in parts of the Northern Highlands.
The Brasswright Collegium
A society of artificers, engineers, and inventors with major workshops in Stormhaven. Its members work in machinery, construction, magical artifice, and other technical trades.
The Collegium also maintains close ties to the Greyspires, where mining, dwarven engineering, and access to Galarium support more specialized work.
The Riptide Cloister
A secluded monastic community based on a small island off Stormhaven's coast. Its martial traditions draw on movement, balance, and practices associated with the sea and tides.
The Cloister rarely involves itself in mainland politics, though individual monks sometimes travel throughout Vel'Nathar.
Eastmarch
The Greenroad Fellowship
A fellowship of scouts, guides, and roadkeepers who patrol Eastmarch's major routes. Members escort travelers, report hazards, maintain trails, and assist settlements unable to support permanent patrols of their own.
The Starpath Seekers
Wandering scholars and mystics who follow ley lines and investigate unusual magical or planar activity. They are most often encountered in Eastmarch, though their journeys frequently carry them toward the Bleakthorn Wilds and elsewhere across Vel'Nathar.
The Tidemarked Consortium
An alliance of smugglers whose coastal network has expanded into Eastmarch through its rivers and inland trade routes. The Consortium specializes in moving goods around tariffs, inspections, and official ports.
The Mariners' League
A professional guild of captains, navigators, merchants, and shipowners. The League supports exploration, maintains trade standards, and contributes ships and crews to coastal defense.
Greyharbor is one of its principal centers of operation.
The Ravenmarked, Ironwake Cartel, and Grey Banner Company also maintain a significant presence in Eastmarch.
The Bleakthorn Wilds
The Veilbound Order
An order of wardens, exorcists, hunters, clerics, and mages trained to confront dangerous magic, hostile spirits, curses, and planar disturbances.
The Bleakthorn Wilds remain one of their most active regions. Members investigate supernatural incidents, maintain wards, perform exorcisms, and contain threats that cannot safely be destroyed.
The Wraithroot Circle
A druidic circle that believes the changed forests of the Bleakthorn should be understood rather than simply contained. Its members study altered growth, spirits, and the unusual natural magic of the Wilds.
Their methods frequently bring them into disagreement with nearby settlements and the Veilbound Order.
The Briarbound
A small and feared druidic sect that has embraced some of the Bleakthorn's most destructive transformations. Its members practice dangerous forms of wild magic associated with corrupted growth, bodily alteration, and creatures changed beyond what most druids consider natural.
The Burrowshade Crucible
A Giznat alchemical guild based in Tindleburrow, producing medicines, reagents, and specialized concoctions.
Its alchemists employ apprentices and couriers to gather ingredients and unusual materials from the surrounding regions.
Order of the Broken Thorn
A martial order operating around Blackridge and the Vale of Forgotten Voices. Its members patrol dangerous ground, guard old sites, and contain threats that cannot safely be left unattended.
Their traditions combine martial training with practices developed for surviving the western Wilds.
The Starpath Seekers and Ravenmarked also operate within the Bleakthorn.
The Greyspires
The Kazruk Wardens
A dwarven order responsible for sealed vaults, abandoned passages, and dangerous sites beneath the Greyspires.
The Wardens inspect old seals, maintain restricted sections of the deep roads, and prevent unauthorized entry into places considered too dangerous to reopen.
The Gloombreakers
A brotherhood of mountain rescuers, climbers, and guides operating throughout the Greyspires and Northern Highlands.
They recover travelers caught in avalanches, collapsed passes, white squalls, and other mountain disasters. Their knowledge of difficult terrain makes them valuable even to experienced expeditions.
The Brasswright Collegium and Violet Eye also maintain interests within the Greyspires.
The Northern Highlands
The Cairnvoices
Skalds and oral historians who preserve clan genealogies, songs, local histories, and accounts of important events.
Members travel between Highland communities carrying stories from one settlement to another and recording new events as they occur. Their testimony carries considerable weight in communities where oral history remains important.
The Old Crown
A clandestine network of traditionalists and monarchist loyalists who seek the restoration of Vel'Nathar's former royal line.
Support is strongest among Highland families that retain old loyalties or believe the Iron Assembly has failed to replace the authority once held by the crown. Its sympathizers are scattered rather than organized into a single public movement.
The Grey Banner Company
A professional mercenary company with a major stronghold near Stonecross.
The Company accepts contracts for caravan protection, border security, armed escorts, and other military work throughout the Highlands and Eastmarch. It maintains a public position of political neutrality while under contract.
The Redwake Brotherhood and Gloombreakers are also active throughout the Highlands.
The Shattered Coast, Isles, and Maritime Realms
The Wind-Crowned
Navigators known for crossing difficult waters throughout the Shattered Coast and the Isles of Alven'Nathiss.
Their pilots are sought after for routes involving dangerous currents, storms, reefs, and unfamiliar waters. Some members possess unusual knowledge of winds and currents connected to elemental magic.
The Lantern-Keepers
Wardens responsible for enchanted lighthouses along the Shattered Coast.
They maintain the beacons, watch dangerous stretches of water, and preserve the rites associated with their protection. In isolated communities, Lantern-Keepers may also serve as weather watchers and rescuers.
The Tidemarked Consortium also maintains extensive operations along the coast.