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| − | ==The Guilds==
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| − | <blockquote>Vustus gazed out across the colossal manufacturing floor, his dry eyes barely able to make out the far wall through the heat-mirage and smoke. He gazed impassively at the huge furnaces-class elementals, massive stampers, and ant-like moving workers.</blockquote>
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| − | <blockquote>''Master of all I survey,'' he thought contentedly, ''each indentant like a brick in a wall. Well, not all quite square bricks'', he mentally amended, his burn-scared callused hand loving stroking the flame-lash he wore on his hip. ''Some indendants need more encouragement than others''. Other Fabricators preferred to focus on enhancing various elemental bindstones or finding better ways to do things, but he had always enjoyed ... motivating ... his workers. His excellent efficiency ratings set the bar for other departments within the Phoenix Guild.</blockquote>
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| − | <blockquote>"Fabricators Vustus," wheezed an overseer as he jogged up. ''He's got the black-lung sickness, sure enough'', thought Vustus, eyeing the gasping man, ''but his quotas haven't been quite high enough in the past to afford a visit to a wellbeing Magus. If he doesn't clean up his act soon, he's going to end up demoted back to indendant''.</blockquote>
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| − | <blockquote>"Yes, overseer?" rumbled Vustus, through his expensive ash-mask; he kept his quotas up.</blockquote>
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| − | <blockquote>"There's a problem with one of the cauldrons, sir," panted the overseer.</blockquote>
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| − | <blockquote>"What type of problem, overseer?" the Fabricator growled. ''Damn, I hate having to drag information out of an indendant!''</blockquote>
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| − | <blockquote>The overseer opened his mouth to answer, when suddenly the twanging cry of over-stressed iron giving sang out across the manufacturing floor. Both men turned to face the sound just in time to see a one of the huge overhead liquid metal transfer cauldrons come off its rail and drop squarely into an equally large quenching vat below. Billows of steam sprayed out for a few seconds, scalding nearby workers, before the suddenly cooled cauldron shattered into a spray of iron shrapnel. Vustus watched impassively as the no longer contained viscous liquid copper flowed around the legs of the nearby steam-blinded indendants. All across the factory floor the sounds of human screams started up as random victims noticed burned off feet and sucking chest wounds.</blockquote>
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| − | <blockquote>A nearby gurgling noise drew Vustus' attention and he looked down at the surprised face of the overseer as lifeblood spurted out from where a piece of shrapnel had torn out his neck. ''Too coincidental for accident, must be some type of industrial sabotage'', thought Vustus, ''probably the Salamander Guild, we've been outselling them in this market recently. Not my business, really, I'll let the Ursers deal with it.''</blockquote>
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| − | <blockquote>''What'' is ''my business is keeping this facility producing at top efficiency''. Vustus sighed. He could see a lot of long days ahead cleaning up the mangled metal and contracting new indentants. ''At least I have a convenient scapegoat'', he thought, grinning down at the now silent corpse from behind his mask. ''He won't mind, and this way he doesn't have to suffer through black-lung''.</blockquote>
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| − | The Guilds are the financial heart of (Name of World), managing, organizing, and controlling commercial enterprise across the land. Naturally, this gives the Guilds immense power and influence, and they compete with each other for wealth and status as often as they contend with the Church and the Families.
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| − | Chances are that any person working in a legitimate job in any city on (Name of World) is a member of, or subject to the regulations of, one of the Guilds. In fact, the Guilds frown on individuals who set up independent operations, and frequently make their displeasure known in ways that are...''unpleasant'', to say the least. It is rare that an "independent" businessman needs a ''second'' visit from the Hellforged to realize the error of his ways.
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| − | Guild factories and businesses employ the bulk of the population, who spend long hours toiling in less-than-healthy conditions to scrape together enough pay to feed their families.
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| − | ===Guild Organization===
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| − | Though the Guild responsible for any particular areas of enterprise - cindersmiths, or flamebinders, for example - may have slight variations in structure or use slightly different names for various levels of responsibility, the general structure of a Guild is a complex hierarchy based on business acumen, debt and credit, and sheer cutthroat ruthlessness.
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| − | ;Guildlords
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| − | :These are the head of a particular Guild, and are usually possessed of an uncanny deviousness, political savvy, and a frighteningly calculating nature. After all, they lived to make it to the top.
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| − | ;The Sanctum
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| − | : The core management of each Guild - like a Board of Directors. Each Sanctum directs the affairs of their Guild, aiming for maximum profit at whatever cost. Competition between Guilds is fierce, but rarely erupts into open violence. Some say this is because even Guilds must respect the law, but others suggest that there is a secret True Sanctum that commands the individual Sanctums of each Guild. These whisperers claim that the True Sanctum has a sinister agenda beyond pure profit, to which goal they are gradually guiding the guilds.
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| − | ;Fabricators
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| − | :Specialist guilders who focus on construction and tech-making. They are also pyro-scientists, and if there is a Guild research facility or factory its most likely run by a Fabricator.
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| − | ;Usurers
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| − | : Financial experts who handle the money side of things. They usually rank lower than Guildlords and Fabricators, and are less respected, but no less vital.
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| − | ;Journeymen
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| − | : Everyday guildsmen and -women, handling day to day guild business.
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| − | ;Hellforged
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| − | :''"Yeah, I've seen them. Loaded down with more brands, brass, and fireware than a whole flock of the Cardinal's guard. They can burn hot, but they aren't too bright. They've got hearts of ash. If you ever get close to one that still has human eyes, you'll notice that they aren't really human eyes anymore. More like a doll's eyes. Sure, when their sparks are stoked, they're full of rage enough to tear through anything. But when they're idling? They're hollow men. They've got the sinister purpose and all the personality of a knife blade."''
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| − | :Sometimes people need a little ''persuasion'' to come around to seeing things the right way. That's where the Hellforged come in. Guild Hellforged are little more than heavily augmented killing machines, loaded down with flamebindings, specializing in the use of steamtech exoskeletons, and covered with brands and subdermal obsidian core implants. They are fearsome warriors, but in exchange for near-unstoppable power, they have subsumed their will to the Guild.
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| − | ;Indentures
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| − | :Low-ranking workers, they form the bulk of Guild laborers. Their contract requires them to comply with Guild restrictions and regulations.
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| − | ===Life and Death in the Guilds===
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| − | '''Benefits'''
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| − | * Money: Guild members are rich. The more you brownnose and claw your way up the corporate ladder and conform to their ideas the more credit you get. This gives you access to bigger and better and more bindstones.
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| − | '''Drawbacks'''
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| − | * The more you subsume self to the interests of the Guild, the less individualistic you become. You become one of the herd, stuck in a rut, indistinguishable from any one of a thousand other indendnats. You wear the same bland clothes they wear, listen to the same dull music they do, and carry the same credit balances they do. Also, bindstones have some type of physical control: you need to push a button or flip a switch or verbally tell it what to do.
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| − | '''Powers'''
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| − | * Most people just carry bindstones around. Guild Hellforged have the option of wearing an integrated suit of elemental armor with dozens of bindstones built into it. Hellswords, ash-masks, even a built in class four cipher! No one else is as tough as you are; tattoos and prayers can't stand up to the pure durability of a bindstone when it comes to channeling flame.
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| − | '''Termination'''
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| − | * Of course, you can leave at any time, but your contract specifies a 'no competition' clause, so other Guilds won't hire you. Also, all credit balances become due upon termination of employment.
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| | ==The Hadar== | | ==The Hadar== |
Flamepunk:Main Page -> Flamepunk: People, Culture and Factions
People
Culture
Factions
The world of Flamepunk is one of infighting, competing influence, and power brokering among powerful factions that seek to control the world, the people, and the magic. However, three major contenders for the role of "world domination" have arisen through the twists of history. These factions are:
The Guilds: Massive corporate conglomerates with a tight grip on the throat of the (Name of World) economy.
The Church of the Holy Flame: a sprawling religious bureaucracy that appeases the people while perpetuating the use of flamebinding magic.
The Hadar Families: clans of criminal families woven together by a web of debts, marriages, and contracts going back thousands of years, the Hadar are involved in enterprises both legitimate and criminal.
The following sections compiled by Mock from posts by CasperLions, Asklepios, Daneel, Brousseau, Broblawsky0, TheLoneAmigo, and probably others whose names I missed!
The Hadar
The Hadar families are criminals whose power rivals that of the Guilds. With fingers in every pie and at every level of society, they are dealers in sin and blood without equal. The Hadar tattoo themselves with images of black flames; it is whispered that they have made pacts with dark elemental lords, who grant them the power to douse flames and shatter lights.
"The Hadar" is the collective name for a group of powerful families who are one of the supreme military forces on (Name of World). The Hadar are involved in society at many levels, and find themselves coming into conflict with the Church and the Guilds. Hadar enterprises are frequently street-level, but they are by no means "common crooks" or unsophisticated thugs.
All Hadar are honor-bound to never betray their Family, regardless of the potential benefit for doing so.
Hadar Organization
Though individual Hadar operate indpendently for the majority of their work, they are all fall into the following hierarchy.
- The Families
- The true power behind the Hadar, and the feudal lords of all who serve them. Some Families are truly caring for their communities, while others seek only power and influence. The Families are interlinked by a byzantine web of contracts, marriages, and debts, and so rarely go to war against each other. It is not uncommon for Family members to hold ranks in the Guilds or in the Church, allowing Hadar influence a foothold in those organizations.
- Hadar Shadows
- The Hadar Shadows are expertly-trained warriors who specialize in the use of smokecraft to accomplish their goals. They can bend smoke to their will, using it to create confusion, poison their enemies, and extinguish flame-based weaponry.
- Hadar Ashwalkers
- "You must be talking about the Ashwalkers, what they call their Hadarram. I don't really know how they do what they do, but they say that the Ashwalkers can somehow harness an inner flame. Even without brands or fireware, they can still manifest many similar abilities. Any blazer along the Wick or down in the Embers can score a set of flamebound knuckles or a firetongue, but Ashwalkers have been seen to catch blasts of flame with their bare hands and hurl it back at their attackers or mold the flame into a sort of lance or whip to lay waste to everyone around them. They can run across flying sparks. I've even heard rumors about real masters being able to sheath their whole bodies with a solid fiery aura that lets them stand toe to toe with an infernal engine."
- The Hadar Ashwalkers are paragons of inner discipline, and have harnessed the very flame of their soul as a weapon and as a guardian. They can project searing heat from their bodies, see into the infrared, and guard themselves from the effects of fire. Together with the Shadows, they are the elite soldiers of the Hadar.
Life and Death among the Hadar
Benefits
- Family: everyone fears the Hadar; they are a family. Hurt one, and they are all after you. Join a Hadar family, and know they have your back. Also, respect; you have the flashy clothes, the hottest new mounts, and you move to the front of the line at restaurants and clubs.
Drawbacks
- The other families: it's a tough life, constantly getting blood revenge. After you're seen enough violence, it can be tough to remember the original reason why you're fighting; the flame Rage shades everything red. Also, loyalty only goes up the chain; you're expected to do what you're told. You steal what they tell you to steal, you threaten who they tell you to threaten, and you kill who they tell you to kill. And Flame forbid you get romantically involved with someone who's not family.
Powers
- The Hadar are masters of rune tattoo binding. No one else has your speed and reaction time with flame; bindstones and prayers deal with forces outside yourself, but your flame is a part of who you are, and you use it as instinctively as another walks.
Hadar Termination
- Blood in, blood out. You're in the Family for life ... literally. And sometimes you just Burnout.
Flamepunks
- They may copy Hadar rune tattoos as rune scars without fear of reprisals, but the secret of how to apply rune tattoos is kept among the highest ranks of the Families. Generally, rune scars aren't as powerful or versatile as rune tattoos, and much more painful to get, and much more prone to Rage and Burnout. The Hadar view 'punks as raw street trash, without their sense of belonging, history or family.
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