Tyverian Organizations

Despite the Empire’s official stance of absolute unity under Adrael, several factions with clashing agendas remain, or have appeared in the Realm, carved out of conflict like everything else in Tyveria. Most of these organizations operate independently of the Imperial Court, and some do it against the crown.

Maghyr Houses
There are dozens of maghyr houses in the Realm, with varying degrees of political and magical power. Most have grudgingly submitted to Adrael, but many still plot behind the Emperor’s back, and some have never let go of their goal to overthrow him.

Gladiator Orders
Arena fights are a widespread form of entertainment, sport and popular culture across Tyveria. The best gladiators become true celebrities, with glory, wealth and cult followings, or even an offer of vampyr status in the service of a noble house.

One of the quickest and most accessible paths to rise in Tyverian society, although certainly one of the most dangerous, is to join the gladiator orders - collectively-owned mobs of trainers, arrangers and sports managers that handle the warriors, arrange the fights and cash in the bets. Most gladiator orders are at least partly associated with the Crimson Crow, whose delegates invest heavily in star athletes and fixed matches, but their business is considered legal and family-friendly.

Every major city in the Empire has at least one or two gladiator orders, which seek out potential fighters in the slums, mines and farmland. Being chosen or accepted into a gladiator order is the biggest social leap available to young Tyverian peasants, who become wealthy celebrities overnight - if they survive.

The Zumari Clan
The only Tyverian organization with no human members, the Zumari are a Nwoda sky dwarf clan that settled in the Empire generations ago as vassals to the Blood Empress. The Zumari retain their Nwoda culture, customs and magic arts, but work under Tyverian law as traders, agents, enforcers, suppliers and transporters - and mercenaries for the Crimson Crow.

The Zumari Nwoda will deal with everyone regardless of faction, nationality or social rank, and have always been careful not to take sides in maghyr conflicts; as soon as one side hires them for a job, they offer their services to the opposing side as a courtesy, at the same price. This led to Zumari killing each other in a few occasions, so they have adopted the policy not to accept assassination or raiding missions inside Tyverian territory - it’s bad for business to kill a potential customer. But there’s always employment for a flying corsair, and the Zumari will gladly bring down any mark outside Imperial airspace.

The Zumari consider themselves independent and charge everyone for their services, be it the Syndicate or the Empire. They must still pay a tithe from all their earnings to House Dasmedi, as the Zumari headquarters is in Kara Gilpan, but this tribute is often reduced or waived in exchange for carrying messages, passengers or sensitive cargo for the House.

The Crimson Crow Syndicate
While it accepts ties to no Realm, and its headquarters lies outside all acknowledged borders, the Crimson Crow Syndicate, the largest criminal organization in Valerna, had its origins in Tyveria. It began when Ysvalian knights assassinated the maghyr lord of Kara Tibor, the City of Crimson Spires. The city was an important hub of human trafficking to all corners of Tyveria, and the Ysvalians sought to liberate some of their own children, sent to the City after the Blood Geas. What they achieved was far worse. When Tibor was left leaderless, its remaining maghyr ulani established martial law, expecting to quell any possible dissent by preemptive force. The people hit back, and the city fell to civil war. Two dozen maghyri were slaughtered over the course of a week. The Imperial House, weakened and decadent at the time, wrote the whole city off, and the Crimson Spires became a no man’s land, a lawless region outside the Empire’s control. For a while, citizens survived by looting or establishing small turfs within the city, which eventually grew into powerful gangs. In time, these gangs formed strong militias and smuggling consortiums, which fought each other until they decided to join into a single force, one that would bring order to what had become a city of crime. Thus the Crimson Crow Syndicate was born.

The Crimson Spires have become the touchstone of all criminals and cutthroats across Valerna, and its masters, while not a unified faction by any means, maintain a semblance of rule in the city by the law of terror. The maghyri let them be, in exchange for a cut of the action, in turn providing the Syndicate with a legal front through which to smuggle their illegal goods. When the Blood Emperor rose to power, he realized the Crimson Crow was too powerful to disband, having infiltrated every city and every transaction across the Empire. However, the High Chancellor had already set a plan in motion to bring the Syndicate over to the Imperial House, offering the same agreement they had with the various maghyr houses, but now with the sanction of the highest power in Tyveria. The Syndicate accepted the High Chancellor as one of its independent leaders, and now the Crimson Crow is an ally of the Crown - somewhat shaky and untrustworthy, but an ally nonetheless.

Nowadays, the Crimson Crow is an open secret - everyone knows of their existence and their activities, and everywhere knows where to look for them. But if you cross them, nobody will ever know what happened to your body. They handle continent-wide smuggling of weapons, drugs and jewelry, human trafficking, extortion, racketeering, skimming off mining and alchemical operations, gambling, political assassination, gang activities, a black market of tomb raiding and magic artifacts, and even financing unsanctioned ships to explore the Unsailed Waters in hopes of finding undiscovered trade ports or resources. The Syndicate has slowly muscled in on the territory of every other criminal gang it has come across, even infiltrating the Allarian Undercurrent and Grand Guild.

The Syndicate’s reach is such that they remain the second authority after the Emperor in certain slums of certain cities, and the only authority in many others. Even with the Breaking of the Pacts and the rising collectives across the Empire, the Syndicate remains the best option for many peasant families and disenfranchised youths with nowhere else to turn to for sustenance or social advancement. And the City of Crimson Spires, their nest of vice and corruption, remains unconquered, unaffiliated and impregnable.