Hivewatchers

The guild of roasp-keepers.

Each strain of roasp works in a different environment, and not all are hospitable. Guild wagons travel to places many consider haunted, through wilderness and along old roads. Poachers stalk them, eager to snatch a season's worth of hives in a single night of dagger work. Unscrupulous guards across the land squeeze laden caravans for far more than the agreed tariffs. For these reasons and a hundred other those watch the hives have pooled their considerable influence into a protective council.

The hivewatchers have good relations with the Journeymen and often hire escorts from among their ranks, or contracts with travails recommended by them. Broadly speaking, the guild is divided into two factions: the Towers deal in readily-available commodities like paper, glass, gel, and plastic, and the Wheels are concerned with rarities such as copper, silver, gold, and the more esoteric hives.

Aleph

Aleph is a guild responsible for fast communication. Their messengers are well guarded and employ all the fastest transportation available. Though they maintain more official outposts than any other guild, their headquarters is in the capitol of Jorvik, and constitutes nearly an entire block of that many-storied city.

Many heralds and those tinged with Ether find work with them. Though institutions such as banks and governments may employ their own methods of communication within themselves, any message or information which travels between such entities or from one person to another is likely to pass through Aleph's ranks at some point.

Exsanguinaries

The Exsanguinaries are radical human purists, who wish to see gnosis cleansed from the species and the world. To the less-devoted, that means keeping them out of political power. To the more fanatical, that means "ethnic cleansing".

The symbol of the Exsanguinaries varies from place to place, but it is always a sharp implement. There are sympathizers in every nation, though they are extremely sparse in Vye. In Jorvik, they find most of their support among the Osvithin party, though never anything official.

One of the worst-kept secret meeting places of the group is The Rib, a large manor-inn in the borderlands between Jorvik and Vye. This isolated settlement suffers frequent attacks by luxpucks, fueling its hatred towards all things semi-human.

Osvithin

Osvithin makes an issue of faith. They have strong ties with Acadia. The role of the government is to take care of the people. They favor strong laws that tend to benefit followers of their faith. Their interest in other Lands and Borderlands is primarily economic and aggressive to fund their social programs.

The bond of faith is NOT official, since Jorvik is technically a secular nation. Osvithin politicians refer to it all the time though, and a lot of its followers don't really get the secular thing.

The party deals with "oddities" and magic as little as possible; they're generally not comfortable with it. If they can't ignore them they try to shut them out of the state's affairs as much as possible. This is a trait the Unionsts attack whenever possible, accusing them of being "unrealistic".

Osvithin social programs wildly favor those who adhere to the faith's core tenets. Non-believers are not actively persecuted, but they find little support.

Definite hints of nostalgia and

Ayanism

Ayanism is a form of radical humanism and and atheism codified by Ayana Oumbengo around the onset of the Slow Burn. Ayana garnered a receptive audience through the world's failing communication systems, and her messages and thoughts have resonated through the subsequent millennia under her name. At its heart, Ayanism espouses:

  • Empathy for all things.
  • Responsibility for one's actions.
  • Rejection of spiritual agencies.
  • Compulsion to better onself.
  • Obligation to help others.

It is a wide-spread philosophy, with followers in Gasmithon, Jorvik, and many Borderlands. The prevalence of Ayanism and the abundance of the ubean have contributed heavily to the largely vegetarian lifestyle of the Lands.

The Autumn People

A loose network of necromancers, slavers, and grisly churgeons, the Autumn People view other humans as tools, stock, and meat. They are the only humans thought to be willingly allied with the viscerids.

Many think the Autumn People have a symbol by which to identify themselves to each other - a leaf, a skull, a rune, or some other such nonsense. They do not. Symbols are things of the flock - symbols get you caught.

They must then have a code word or a secret sign - a snippet of Tutsg'gac, a furtive handshake, a way to move the eyes. They do not. These are tools of the impatient and irrational, those who desire to be culled.

One person knows another. Only beasts mark their territory. Only the herd.

For some, autumn comes early, stays late through life where October follows September and November touches October and then instead of December and Christ's birth, there is no Bethlehem Star, no rejoicing, but September comes again and old October and so on down the years, with no winter,

Travails

Groups of travelers recognized by all who abide by the Treaty of Still Waters. A travail has an official start and destination, with an intent to be met at the end.

There are traditional points of departure and arrival for each type of travail. The group receives a dated charter from their origin addressed to some representative at the destination stating the intentions, members of the group, and planned route. This serves as their way of passage and any tolls paid will be stamped here.

Many groups give themselves a name, and sometimes a symbol. Their packages as well as their document are marked with these so they can be more easily returned if lost or identified if stolen. Groups that make the same trip repeatedly may use the same symbol as a sort of brand name, building trust (or ire) around it.

Travails are subject to several edicts in the Treaty of Still Waters, the most important being that of non-interference. Nations and Borderlands are allowed to extract reasonable tolls and tariffs from groups crossing their borders on route to another, but are not allowed to hinder their progress. Some portion of these tolls are expected to be spent on maintaining and patrolling passable roads.

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