View table: Organizations

The Bastion Council is responsible for the defense of The City. Before the Gloaming the council guards against outside threats of the world, and prepares for the inevitable arrival of The Nightmare and after the arrival, the Bastion Council coordinates with allies for the defense of The City and any allies it has made.

The Bastion Council is nominally independent from the The City Council, though as both are appointed by the same powerful factions in The City, there is plenty of politicking over who gets to lead the Bastion Council and what its priorities are. Overall, however, the Bastion Council gets to concentrate on its task, and gets whichever resources it needs from the rest of The City.

The Bastion Council commands multiple organizations, one of them being the Office of Shadows, responsible for espionage, and another being the Monster Guard consisting primarily of various monsters held on tight leash using enchantment spells and rituals.

The church of Thornos is less worried about worship and temples, and spends more time dealing with the needs of the Dwarven community of The City and whichever world The City is in.

They petition The City Council for evacuation of dwarves, physically and spiritually help those dwarves already in the city, and try to keep the peace among the various Dwarven factions.

The City Agricultural Union primarily operates out of the districts of Willowfield and The Meadow and represents the majority of the agricultural interests of The City. The Agricultural Union is a true community, working very closely with one another with a common goal of keeping The City fed.

Though the union does not sponsor a Watch department, though do have the Field Watch which keep an eye on the fields and livestock pens to guard against thieves or predators. The unkind might also call them the union's enforcers, using their muscle to do the union leadership's bidding.

The City Agricultural Union controls the bulk of the food that The City produces and wields that control like a hammer. Merchants and specialty organizations deal with more exotic items and emergency procurement, but for affordable and consistent pantry staples like greens, grains, bacon, milk, and eggs, the CAU reigns supreme. Most people think of Willowfield and Little Hollow as idyllic communities full of friendly, good-natured people, but those that have dealt with the union tends to disagree.

The Order of the Lightning Keepers is a druidic order from The Old Lands, having integrated into The City long before the appearance of The Nightmare. Though back then they were simply known as the Rooftop Order.

They are the originators of the city tradition of roof-top gardens and bird roosts, and still maintain many bird roosts themselves. However, these days they are more known for their command of lightning, which they can direct from the top of the pylons surrounding The City and fragments, when The City is attacked directly by outside forces.

The Monster Guard is a coalition of casters, artificers, experts, and others devoted to the understanding and utilization of the varying creatures that populate the planar spectrum. Long-term, they fill a subterranean menagerie of kaiju-esque uncontrollable monsters to release when The Nightmare inevitably reaches The City gates. Until then, they have two goals: the first is to explore new planes for creatures of unique potential. The second is to catalogue, study, breed, and find use for the varying creatures they discover in order to better The City as a whole.

Besides being useful in defense, the faction also harvests a number of poisons, toxins, extracts and useful material components from their menagerie which are used in The City or sold to the outside.

Originating from The Green Depths, the moon druids guard several fragments that were carved from that world, and attempt to spread and safeguard nature within the other fragments and The City itself.

When The City was in The Green Depths, the Moon Druids and The City made a covenant of common defense against The Nightmare, and when that fight inevitably failed, the Moon Druids had earned a place in the city.

However, as time has now gone by some in The City are starting to wonder whether this is a promise that is worth keeping, when the Moon Druids and their fragments now seem like a drain on the resources of The City rather than a boon. Meanwhile some of the druids are dissatisfied with how The City plunders the wilds of the worlds that it passes through for resources.

The Night Watch is sponsored by Night's Protectors. Though they serve as standard watchmen in the immediate area around Dawn Keep, they can also be found around the city aiding in the hunt for The Surrendered and other dangers to The City as a whole.

Not many in number, but generally well respected. Though some dislike the fact that the Night Watch doesn't do much against organized crime, considering it a political issue.

An organization dedicated to the protection of The City, specifically against The Nightmare and its agents (such as The Surrendered). The order is generally regarded well by citizens, the city council and many of the other organizations, being both apolitical and apparently incorruptible.

Many people serve the Night’s Protectors, either as initiates or in a logistical role, but the face of the organization are the knights. These have all pledged the Soulforger Dedication and wield weapons or armor that is magically infused by their earnest desire to protect The City.

Their seat of command is in the Dawn Keep.

The Nouveau Riche is a small faction, consisting of the newly rich and powerful. They're a relatively new faction, founded and headed by entrepreneur Hugo Clementine who built up his merchant guild to be the powerhouse it currently is.

This faction consists of merchants, entrepeneurs, entertainers and architects.

They have a reputation for solving all their problems with either money or overt violence, but also for giving a fair chance to talented individuals from lower class backgrounds.

The Office of Shadows is an organization of spies under the Bastion Council that officially does not exist, but is also well known throughout the city. Though it is the subject of plenty of rumors, and a few very public and very splashy incidents, in general it manages to keep a tight lid on most of its secrets, including the knowledge of who are part of the office.

The most well known member is the head of the Office of Shadows, the ancient elf Eredeth, who has been called before the The City Council on multiple occasions. Again, despite the fact that his organization does not officially exist.

The Planar Conservatory is an organization made up of a group of druids, botanists, and gardeners that have the goal of trying to preserve as many species of plants as possible from going extinct due to the Nightmare.

They started as a splinter group from the Moon Druids that wanted to focus on saving individual species of plants from the worlds that the city visited. They were initially just a seed bank, but they rapidly realized that they would need some way to fund their efforts, and began to cultivate and sell some of the plants that they had collected. This has grown to the point where the Conservatory is the sole provider of many plant-based goods, as they are the only ones left who have access to them.

The plants of the conservatory are crucial to the functioning of The City, as many have been lost to The Nightmare, but are still needed as alchemical reagents, spell and ritual components. Even some of the ritual components needed for the Arcane Matrix are supplied by the Conservatory.

There is a huge focus on secrecy among the organization. They do not allow anyone who isn’t working for them into any of their greenhouses, and anyone who does come to work for the Conservatory is magically bound to secrecy.

The Green Knights are the guards for the Conservatory bases, and can sometimes be seen escorting goods or individuals of the organization in The City. They can be easily identified by the green leather armor and elk antler helmets that they wear.

They are also rumored to have a shadowy cabal of spies and assassins that assist in making the organization's secrecy ironclad.

Led by Vemon Gerlaeth the Remembrance of Highgarden were originally a small group of surviving elves that were pulled into The City before darkness consumed their world of Green Fields, talented craftsmen and artisans and a handful of honored warriors and fledgling mages.

Over the decades of life in The City they have prosecuted organized and random crime violently and mercilessly, promoted the care of all residents of the city and lent their people's skillset to a number of projects launched by other factions in order to gain resources and influence. The end result is that his ranks have swelled to an obscenely large number of militia and volunteers for violent and non-violent work of varying levels of complexity, the majority of the people that act as Peacewardens are not always suited for martial combat, but pursue their duties with fervor. Even actions that would be legal in the past that take advantage or disenfranchise your neighbors are harshly cracked down on as a rule with few exceptions.

They have consistently prioritized the distribution of any excess resources to be spread to the destitute and "less thans" in the streets that the Peacewardens patrol and proselytize to. This has left the organization swelling with new recruits, and a continuously growing reputation among the lowest classes.

Its members are sometimes referred to as Remnants.

The City Council leads the civilian affairs of The City. Its membership is composed solely of representatives of those factions in the city that are influential enough to convince everyone else that they need to be on the council.

Notable Factions on the Council[edit source]

"The Grannies" are part of an old magical/herbal tradition from Green Fields, continued in the agricultural fragments outside The City, where old (and sometimes not so old) women share folk remedies and natural secrets while growing special herbs in their gardens. Some of these "secrets" are common to all women-folk of the Greenfield farmers, but some are kept only by the Grannies.

The remedies of the Grannies are simple: a tonic for back pain, a tea for fertility, a charm to keep rabbits out of the garden. Nothing flashy that the arcane academics of The City have been able to latch on to. Though, rumors that the Grannies meet in the corn fields during the summer solstice to perform some kind of grand (or nefarious) ritual has existed since before they joined The City.

The Grannies are mostly halflings due to their origin from the Green Fields, but in the decades since they've joined The City, intermixing of the ancestries has included a handful of humans and other races in their ranks.

The nobles of the Old Lands as immigrant nobles from newer worlds. Their power might not be what it once was, but they still hold a lot of wealth and connections. Some noble houses fall, losing their money and power, while new arrive to take their place, but a core remains to carry through the group's responsibilities.

One responsibility is the courthouse in Highhall, where people may be brought to be judged under the old laws when the people demand it.

The Wardens is a militia made up of members of the city who vary from trained soldiers to normal citizens. During normal times they act as a city watch, demanding tribute from the areas that they protect in order to equip and pay their members.

The Warden's are quite militant and focused on utilitarian decisions so as to best strengthen their numbers and capabilities, but are also quite decentralized. Each unit of the Wardens are their own little suborganization, with their own rules and behaviors, though they technically obey their high command: a small council of 10 members (the Marshall, the Speaker and the 8 commanders) who have their headquarters in the Crownwall district.

Under normal circumstances, the leadership doesn't have much control of the majority of the membership. They do have direct control of a not insignificant number of elite units, which they use to exert their will when necessary.

And in times of crisis the entire Warden membership do come together to defend The City, obeying their oaths without fault.