The Jaeganrad, the Linden Gallows Gang, and the Syndikor Ministry

Below are three groups that are new additions to Krevborna. We have a version of the mythical "Wild Hunt" that is actually anti-human insurgents, a Wild West-esque gang of banditos, and a group of Church-sanctioned exorcists.

The Jaeganrad

The Jaeganrad is a group of pomenysh insurgents regarded as savage, inhuman terrorists.

    • The Jaeganrad fights a guerrilla war against mankind in Krevborna, hoping to one day reclaim their land.

    • The Jaeganrad ventures forth from Aeldentree to raid human settlements and wage a war of terror against humanity.

    • Powerful fey from the Verdant Lodge support the Jaeganrad.

The Linden Gallows Gang

Squires who do are judged unworthy to join the Knights Labyrinthian are cast out into the wilderness in shame. Most die. A handful of the survivors have found each other and banded together as a posse of bandits calling themselves the Linden Gallows Gang.

    • The Linden Gallows Gang share the Knights Labyrinthian’s mania to collect artifacts from Grail Tombs, but they are more apt to ambush successful delvers than they are to explore vlaak dungeons themselves.

    • Like the Knights Labyrinthian, the Linden Gallows Gang are skilled gunfighters, though they lack the Knights’ mystical techniques.

    • The biggest coup a gang member can achieve is to kill a Knight Labyrinthian in a duel.

    • The Linden Gallows Gang are led by a dhampir pistolero named Wagner Highcross.

The Syndikor Ministry

The Syndikor Ministry is a special branch of the Church of the Holy Blood tasked with performing the sacred rite of exorcism. 

    • Clergy selected to join the Syndikor Ministry are invariably marked from birth by obvious spiritual gifts.

    • Though some Syndikor exorcists are permanently stationed in the Church’s larger bastions, others wander the land to confront malicious demons and spirits.

    • As an occupational hazard, members of the Syndikor Ministry are prone to becoming hosts for unclean spirits; “fallen” Syndikor are mercilessly hunted by their compatriots.

The Danse Macabre and the Hounds of Velun

Below are two factions in Krevborna. The first was inspired by one of my player's riffs from his own game in the setting. The second has been around in the setting for a very long time, but this is the first real write up they've gotten.

The Danse Macabre

Ostensibly a traveling dance troupe specializing in horror-themed performances, the Danse Macabre is actually a secret society of voodoo priests and priestesses who use the opportunities afforded by their recitals to exert magical influence over their audiences.

    • Each of the Danse Macabre’s recitals is potentially a ritual enacted through dance.

    • Possible goals of a recital include causing madness within a crowd, dominating an audience member’s will, or harvesting an attendee’s soul as arcane fuel.

    • Members of the Danse Macabre relentlessly train their bodies for strength and agilitye; they make for surprisingly dangerous combatants. 

The Hounds of Velun

The Hounds of Velun are a secret society of monarchists devoted to restoring a lost heir to Krevborna’s vacant throne.

    • Most members of the Hounds of Velun are drawn from aristocratic families who lament the loss of power and influence they wielded before the Uprising.

    • The Hounds of Velun believe the royal line was not wholly extinguished; they search for an heir possessing a direct blood tie to the last tsar.

    • The Church considers the Hounds of Velun to be enemies of the faith; since the Church wishes to rule Krevborna as a theocracy, a new tsar would threaten its plans.

The Sisters Carnifexa and The Skarabasca

Two more factions and organizations you can drop into a Krevborna game. Look, if you think I wasn't going to add battle nuns you don't get the setting at all. And of course you need a clandestine criminal organization.

The Sisters Carnifexa

The members of the Sisters Carnifexa are professional monster hunters who have been trained for combat at Kairn Volkov, an ancient mountain fortress in the Karthax Mountains. 

    • Originally a branch of the Church specialized in slaying unclean monstrosities, the Sisters still wear clerical vestments common to militant nuns.

    • The Sisters Carnifexa recruit new members exclusively from Krevborna’s population of orphaned and unwanted female children. 

    • The training regimen the Sisters Carnifexa subjects their young charges to is referred to as the Trials; the Trials are grueling and sometimes fatal.

    • According to hearsay, some of the children collected by the Sisters Carnifexa are experimented upon in the vlaak laboratories they discovered in the depths of their fortress. 

    • The purpose of the Sisters Carnifexa’s experiments is to mold them into “perfect warriors” to be used as weapons against supernatural threats; those who survive these experiments are rendered stronger and more resilient, and they often possess strange powers.

The Skarabasca

The Skarabasca is a powerful, shadowy criminal syndicate operating throughout Krevborna. 

    • The Skarabasca commits mundane crimes, such as heists, robberies, and assassinations, but the organization’s true specialty is dealing in alchemically enhanced intoxicants.

    • The goal of the Skarabasca is to either destroy or assimilate all rival gangs and criminal organizations in Krevborna. 

    • Upon joining the Skarabasca, a new member chooses a grandiose or fanciful name for themselves, such as Broken Sword, Eldest Daughter of Pain and Fortune, Steel Serpent, or Omen of the Seven Sorrows. 

    • The members of the Skarabasca revere Morokain, the immortal first murderer described in the Holy Blood Bible, in hopes that, like him, they will remain uncaught and unpunished for their crimes.

The Requiem and The Rooks

Two factions in Krevborna! One is an order of magical math monks and the other is the setting's equivalent of the Pinkertons. 

The Requiem gives an organization for characters to belong to for people who like to play D&D-ish monks in the setting, which has proven to be a surprisingly popular option over the years. 

Nobody in my games ever seems to trust the Rooks, but unlike the real-world Pinkertons WotC can't send them to your house over some illicit Magic cards.

The Requiem

The Requiem is a monastic order of warrior ascetics who believe that study and contemplation of the divine mathematics underlying all creation is the true path to spiritual redemption. 

    • Each monk of the Requiem inscribes their body with angelic seals and complex mathematical formulae to channel the power of the divine. 

    • The ascetics of the Requiem prize cold, passionless logic.

    • Monks of the order venture into the world to obtain evil or accursed magical artifacts to be taken for safekeeping in the well-protected vaults below the Monastery of Saint Menoch.

The Rooks

The Rooks are a guild that engage in clandestine investigations, strike breaking, and bounty hunting.

    • The Rooks maintain guildhalls throughout Krevborna where they can be contracted as private detectives, hired muscle, spies, discreet couriers, bodyguards, and manhunters. 

    • Over the years, the Rooks have gained renown for disrupting the illegal slave trade in Piskaro, capturing several bandit chiefs, and solving a number of mysterious murder cases. 

    • However, rumors that the Rooks will take innocent lives for the right handful of coins continue to dog the organization and tarnish its reputation. 

    • The Rooks have established routes upon which specialized agents deliver mail and parcels sent through their guildhalls.

The Knights of the Helkrieg Vow and the Knights Labyrinthian

Below are two "knightly orders" in Krevborna that are nothing like knightly orders in practice.

The Knights of the Helkrieg Vow

The Knights of the Helkrieg Vow are a group of templars, witchfinders, inquisitors, and monster hunters associated with the Church of Holy Blood. 

    • Though the Helkrieg Knights hunt all manner of supernatural horrors, they hold a special enmity for the undead and view vampires as the ultimate expression of evil.

    • The ultimate goal of the Helkrieg Knights is to conquer and reclaim the lands of Sibersk.

    • Of the Church’s many factions, the Knights of the Helkrieg Vow are among the most militant, unbending, unforgiving, and secretive. 

    • One secret that the Helkrieg Knights assiduously hide is the fact that the master of their order, Castor Leonidas, has fallen to darkness and currently serves Countess Alcesta von Karlok as a corrupted revenant knight.

The Knights Labyrinthian

The Knights Labyrinthian are a mystical conclave of gunslingers and rangers who are the heirs of a defunct order of knights sworn to protect pilgrims and penitents journeying to sacred sites.

• Although they are now knights in name only, the Knights Labyrinthian act as guards and guides for caravans traveling through Krevborna’s dangerous wilds.

• The Knights seek and study technology left behind by the Vlaak Empire and are particularly interested in any magical firearms found within Grail Tombs.

• Due to their frequent quests into the Grail Tombs, many of the Knights Labyrinthian inevitably fall into madness.

The Apostles of Dawn and The Crucifuge

Two factions in Krevborna. This time we've got mad scientists and necromancers!

The Apostles of Dawn

The Apostles of Dawn is an underground confederacy of wild and romantic inventors who share the goal of pushing science beyond the boundaries of rational thought. 

    • The goal shared by the members of the Apostles of Dawn is to create new forms of weaponry to fight back against the monsters that trouble Krevborna.

    • The weapons invented by the scientists and engineers of the Apostles of Dawn are experimental and often as dangerous to the wielder as they are to their targets.

    • Many members of the Apostles of Dawn believe that the derangement of the senses leads to scientific breakthroughs; as such, drug usage is rampant throughout the faction.

The Crucifuge

The Crucifuge is an order of necromancers fascinated by the possibilities of using magical, diabolical processes to bolster the power of the corporeal undead. 

    • They experiment with novel ways of combining dead flesh with demonic essences to birth new forms of undead. 

    • The necromancers of the Crucifuge revere Malistrad’s henchman, the specter known as the Grim Reaper.

    • They consider their dark work to be a form of worship. 

    • Members of the Crucifuge are sometimes employed by the vampire lords of Sibersk to craft undead monstrosities for their personal armies.