Spoiler: Major Hunter Factions Spoiler: Wilted Rose The Wilted Rose: "Driven by their goals and perhaps their madness, they will stop at nothing to cure the world of it's supernatural rot, whether you wish it or not. Yet, the hope they bring to the commonfolk cannot be denied." "Bunch of dumbasses, all of them. If the big bad wolf is so scary, maybe stop trying to murder it. Corner the animal. It bites back. What the hell do you expect?" The youngest and relatively newly formed order, only two hundred years old at the most. Their origins if they are to be believed stem from the days of an unruly mob of villagefolk who had reached their breaking point under a werewolf clan's attacks and took to their lair with nothing more than torches and pitchforks. The results...were as expected. However, the village's survivors were naturally only the strongest and smartest left standing. The offspring inherited their parents grudges. Then those children raised their children's children to fear and despise the supernatural. Those parents take took after revenge for the death's of their parents, took the lives of clansmen and kinsfolk that took theirs as revenge. The never ending cycle has caused most generations to only hone and sharpen over time. The Wilted Rose while having sizeable numbers, operates under training and stealth. Picking their moments like a coiled snake ready to strike. Almost anyone can be a member if they desire to kill monsters, but most are born into it as part of the hunt. Their main concerns are often driven by vampires and werewolves, but that doesn't mean they will turn a blind eye to everything else. While not considered the highest priority, they are reaching a stage where they can no longer be ignored as ordinary rabble. Many eye their growth warily. Spoiler: Church of Aquer Church Of Aquer: "The time of the crusader has not ended it seems. Always more work to do. If you walk the high path, they are your greatest friend. The light has never truly left." "They're looking for monsters everywhere but their churches." Since the founding of the religion rooting even farther back than recorded history, there was always those who follow the light either as a tool to defend it's sheep, or as an excuse to act without impunity. The church of Aquer is rife with much of both. Being perhaps both the best and worst of what hunters could be in one faction, the only thing they can often agree on is the need to carry out the inquisition. In most countries, they often have no need for subtlety, given permission to act as they will. However, it can never easily be determined where they and aren't welcome, with many people who have no relation to criminals or dark creatures to feel the need to lie to them out of fear. Their main address is routing out witches and devilry wherever it may lie. However, this has often been warned by other factions that their often nothing more than a mouthpiece and tool for the aristocracy to remove problem people. Currently, despite their wealth of resources, their internal stability and grips on power have weakened their organization. There's many rumors and gossip of soon imploding into a internal civil war to purify it's own heresy or at least lay the claim that's what it's doing while it silences it's own critics. Spoiler: Underworld/Bassard Underworld/Bassard Family: "Sell swords and mercenaries specialized to deal with the problem. If you can afford it, a powerful ally. Default on your debt, however, whatever fate you hired them for to avoid will soon appear to be an attractive alternative." "Barely literate thugs. It's almost impressive that for all the fancy cannonfire of the churches and foundation, you can accomplish the same thing with just a bunch of thieves and whores." The criminal underworld while not an organization that hunts the supernatural specifically, has more investment in keeping the problem under control than even some of the other outfits. While they're not shy about adopting werewolves, witches, and whatever else among their ranks, they are not a place for chaos. Money doesn't do you any good when the world is completely on fire, after all. Even much of the supernatural needs connections to get things done, and they have them. Whether they can be used with or against you, depends on what they get out of it. While much of the country and it's region all has to deal with it's own gangs and crime, it's a not so well kept secret there's essentially the main four families that run everything. The Bassard's in particular having adopted and specialized "pest control" as a new business to touch things like the aristocrats and soldiers, the churches won't do. Though the Bassard's hardly turn away the pay that comes with normal assassinations. Morals don't have much place in the criminal underworld, but rules do. While they are inclined to simply leave business as it is with much of the vampiric aristocrats. often loyal customers, allowing rampaging monsters to run wild and destroy marketplaces, our people who still own them money is not tolerable. Werewolves usually make the top of their shit list, but so do witches getting a little too cute at hurting harvests and by extension, overall profits. Spoiler: Vokira Foundation Vokira Foundation: "To fight against them, knowledge is the best weapon we have." "Their passion for knowledge eclipses their wisdom, I see." Since the scientific method had took over in popularity, there were many groups that had latched onto it and create the industrial era. And the Vokira are no exception. Their main pursuit is often knowledge for the sake of knowledge, and if possible, the progress and advancement of humanity. If their are truly things beyond human, is it not possible that such things could be studied, and even used? While they desire to analyze magic and full understand it's inner workings with the physical world and learn the secrets behind a werewolf's morphology, their main focus are not things that can be easily described even among them. They lie beyond the stars. Things that should not exist. Incomprehensible to man or nature. Things that defy all logic and reason with their actions and their being. Yet they do. Yet it does. The discovery of these entities and learning about them has often become a driving point for the Vokira Foundation's study. One that has catapulted their research into things other scientists and arcanists could only dream of. Yet such break throughs come with a cost. To get the knowledge that they demand, deals must be made. Hands must be shaken. Prices must be paid.
Spoiler: Major Supernatural factions Spoiler: vampire nobility "I can attest that unlike the rest of the vampires among nobility, Anslem is the only one who will never try to lie or deceive you. He's very upfront that this is his world and that you area guest in it." The lord and de facto ruler of the countryside of Oudenberg, and the power among powers in vampire circles. Nobody knows the exact story of how he became what he is, but he didn't take long before spreading it to others among his allies and using his powers to amass massive influence among country wide affairs. While the nobility was always decadent and corrupt, most have only seemed to have worsened since the change. While not necessarily the most directly powerful vampire in terms of combat prowess, there's no small amount of corpses made by those who expected he would be a pushover. For the most part, most hunter organizations are reluctant to attempt to hunt him despite his nature being a known secret among hunters. He keeps the more depraved of his kind under control and has positioned himself in such a way that allies and enemies need him to much to be willing to get rid of him. Due to this tactic, he's often in as many joint business ventures as rivals in competition with the criminal underworld. With a growing number of non nobility being turned among the commonfolk, the lord mainly views others of his kind who are not among his kind as pests. It's as simple as that. There's only so much blood to go around and he'd rather not go to wars for resources unless necessary. Though, things have changed with him seeming to have taken to attempting amass large amounts of wealth in a series of impulsive moves, seemingly out of character for him... “As the saying goes, do not fear the man who knows a thousand curses but fear the one that knows the one that can actually kill.” Morelli Clan: Saphira Morelli‘a origin story is not fully known but a few widespread beliefs is she was likely a former courtesan or a wandering healer. Whatever the case of what she was, she rose to prominence with the growth and spread of her clan. Selective in their choices of who gets the bite, not just anyone can become part of the Morelli. Wealth or status won’t cut it. They seek to assimilate the best and brightest from military tacticians to scholars. But what really put them on the map was the ability for their clans to access old blood magic. While not the only vampires can do it, there’s no other clan that can do it was aa impressive consistency and every member shows at least some magical ability. Unlike the magic of witches, vampires have no soul to give, and while they tap into equally dark magic, the magic of the clan often taps into the forces of blood, life, and death, itself. Powerful to what they do, they still lack the diversity that a witch possesses, but only a fool would underestimate them because of it. Spoiler: Witch Covens While witches aren't known for their incredible levels of organization or being as open about their members as others, the existence of a few covens is known by some, though the details remain unclear of their actual size or how powerful they actually are. Wives of The Harvest: A name that comes up a lot when hunters track someone who made a deal of some kind. As expected, any deal with them comes with a price. Their main focus from what is gathered is that there's a theory their actions are less out of pure malice, but more a kind of test of sorts. Fundamental in the old druidic ways, the most common theme of their actions seems to be the belief humans are corrupted too much by their material nature. Their contracts are usually meant to be punishing, but never intentionally impossible and seem to be preying on the souls of those whose greed or refusal to give up their material comfort to uphold their end of the bargain. The things they ask are unlikely to be of actual value to them personally, but things they know someone needs or wants. The luxury of cloth, or never eating more than gruel. The exact purpose of what they do with the souls who fail these is unclear, but they can almost have a much more dangerous side of casting plagues and floods on villages they believe do not value the earth. The Beating Heart Sisters: Oracles of some sort. Often just as willing to offer their insights of the future to hunters as much as those they prey on. They enjoy their secrecy immensely and seem to even at times confuse each other with all the layers they put upon it. The few bits known is they answer to some sort of Witch Queen, though the identity is uncertain. Despite their oddities, their usually considered low on the threat list but can be unfathomably cruel to those they feel have wronged him. Their payments is often whatever they believe is fair and you have no way of knowing if the amounts to a small piece of string or your own eye until they ask. Disciples of the Black Book: While formally a group that mostly had it's presence on it's home continent, several nobles and merchants who have visited the country have later returned home having adopted it. The main force behind the initial surge in their presence being established however, was from former soldiers returning home after the war. While many are, they are not innately a religious group, but rather a order of sorcerers and warlocks who practice in very old and strange magic. While more widely accepted in their home continent, if not still often heavily regarded with suspicion, they often keep to secrecy in other parts of the world, though there's a few high profile followers who don't make a secret of their desire to learn the arts of golems and making gold. Though that is merely the naive's idea of what they can truly do. As a order, they typically try to keep to themselves and focus on trying to build and don't enjoy having to engage in affairs they don't feel concern them. However, they can turn surprisingly cutthroat at a moment's notice if they sense an opportunity and see weakness in their enemies. They will always ask themselves what gains them the most advantage before making promises to anything, but it's no secret, they have more distaste for the church even more so than most magic users usually do. Spoiler: Werewolves "Only a mindless beast bites without thinking. The Mother Tree's existence proves they know what they are doing. That may make them far more dangerous." "The werewolves went and invented a bureaucracy and pretend it shows how tough and badass they are. Politics never evolve." Werewolves aren't exactly known for their manners and court graces on the best of the day, but as anyone who observes them closely would know, if you were to call them anti social, you'd be wrong. Due to most packs typically not having the numbers and resources on their own to challenge things where brute strength is not enough, alliances must be made. They perhaps have even the most complex webs and networks that might only make sense them. An alliance born as roots under the Mother Tree. With being from so many different countries and from different avenues, it's rare for them to hold a proper summit aside from in times of emergency. But as most know, if they do call one, it should not be taken lightly. Only if they already decided what they will do are they going to call for a counsel. The counsel is compromised of many pack leaders all meant to hold an equal say...though many question how true this is in practice. As a rule they don't tend to centralize power making it hard to remove any one tribe and put the rest down, but this also leaves them heavily disorganized and often slow to act while they are left to mull decisions. Currently, the counsel remains paralyzed and busy with infighting after the recent elected head of the mock union had fallen to assassins of the church. While revenge is a given, how to do it, to who, and who should put themselves at risk are all the questions that keep them from taking any action. Following the death of president Tarkan, Vizier of Al-Simiya, he is succeeded by Aleya, warrior queen of the Merbi. While known for her combat prowess and that appealing to many of her supporters, her lack of strategic state planning or desire to industrialize has put her at odds with modernists of the alliance, especially with her tribe's overall growing irrelevancy to compete with increasingly industrialized countries and all the perks other factions enjoy from using them. However, her aid to assisting weaker tribes establish themselves and grow their connections to have more standing against the major tribes has won her a sizeable amount of support, though uneven. Going against the beast's nature, they don't always make a move on instinct. But once they do, it will be from a position of power. Spoiler: The Sensation "When the Youngest first made the Expression, the Sculptor had it's first dream. Once it made the echo, it knew. It had saw the Oldest happening upon a trapped being. Wandering it's land, but with no eyes to see. Taking pity upon the trapped being, it sang. And the being screamed. By the silence of those who walk, that which becomes the enchantress, may never sing." The lack of knowing anything about them, who could be a member, or how long they have existed, and perhaps have been around for even longer that, only aid into making them a group that nobody with any level of common sense wants anything to do with. Compiling full information is difficult, and even much of it's own cult doesn't seem sure of the full details and true nature of many of their gods, but they do know a few things. They're gods are not devils. They're not angels. They're something else entirely. Things that sleep in the darkest abyss of the oceans, or lie in cosmos beyond the stars. Little is established on just what exactly they are, but they know many of them can't manifest into the world directly. Many have their humans or spawn do the acting for them. Perhaps even fewer of their entities even know humanity exists. Whatever the reality is, even witches and devils want to give them a wide berth. Even among the low standards of the underworld, knowingly working with The Sensation is only if you're desperate. The only faction that tends to give them legitimate friendless is the Vokira Foundation, and often times, it comes with them discovering more than they wanted to know.
