Hooligans

It seems the Sarvek Empire is cluttered with so many big power players - the Emperor, the military, the Sanctuary, the Noble Houses - but there are also a number of groups that care nothing for the old ways or the old rules. Each group has different motivations, but all upset the status quo. The following list isn’t complete, but it does provide details for the biggest and most disruptive groups.

Wrathnar

Over the years, deadly mercenary bands - deniable assets - have formed and offer their services to whatever Noble House bids highest. These men, collectively known as the wrathnar (an old word that means "illusion" or "what is there but not there,") are commissioned by the Noble Houses to conduct caravan raids, kidnappings, assassinations, sabotage, espionage, blackmail, and all other manner of terrible deeds against rival Houses. No House or Crown official will ever admit the wrathnar exist and operate throughout the Empire, but no one doubts it, either.

Most of these groups use a legitimate mercenary front, hiring soldiers to Houses to serve in their standing forces, but the real money is generated by the secret operations that happen behind the scenes.

While any rogue with a sword and an attitude can call himself a wrathnar, only four groups have any real assets or present any appreciable threat. Each has its own style of working, fighting, and dressing, but all cater to the Houses’ covert operation needs. Their company names are: the Blood Dire, the Jesters, the Blood Brotherhood, and the Black Flags. Encountering these men is a great way to get murdered and never found.

Free Blades

In recent years, a new force has gained considerable clout. An underground rebel group has drawn members and organized operations in the First City and all ten holy cities. They call themselves the Free Blades, but their agenda isn’t clear, because they sometimes attack Imperial military targets – defying the Emperor openly and damaging his assets - but at other times they attack only Serene targets and claim to have no ill will towards the Crown. The Sanctuary denounces them as threats to the crown when the rebels attack an Imperial target, but little is said when the Sanctuary is the victim. The common people are divided in their opinions. Some say the Free Blades are just wrathnar in need of paying contracts. Others swear they’re honorable warriors fighting the injustices and excesses they see corrupting the Crown and the Serene.

Each major city has a local chapter of Free Blades, led by a proctor. The individual chapters maintain very loose ties to neighboring chapters, with the idea that the obliteration of one chapter will not jeopardize the rest. Each chapter maintains a secret base of operations where they can plan, rest, and refit in relative safety.

In some cities, the Free Blades are extremely successful. Their ranks swell as their presence is embraced by the common folk and tolerated by the Noble Houses. In other cities, the chapter operates with a starving skeleton crew that barely manages to survive.

Wraiths

The Wraiths are raiders, kidnappers, and rapists. They operate out of a hidden fortress deep in the northern reaches of the Mirrored Mountains, where they can slaughter caravans with impunity. They’ve been know to commission their skills and talent to certain organizations, leading some people to see them as wrathnar, but they’re really just well-trained bandits and woodsmen who respect and fear only one thing: their leader, Killjoy.

Pirates & Smugglers & Slavers, oh my!

The Crimson Sea is plagued with pirates that prey on merchant and transport ships traveling between the northern and southern Sarveki cities. They’ll take just about anything as loot, and all survivors are taken as slaves. Some loot winds up on the Sarveki black market. The rest is kept by the pirates or used to pay the tithes required by the Drake Riders, who allow the pirates to dock in safety on Dragon Island. Slaves are also traded to the Drake Riders. These unfortunates are used for work, combat, sex, and as food for the drakes.

As with the wrathnar, anyone with a ship and a crew of cutthroats can call himself a pirate captain, but a few wily rogues are living legends. In every coastal town along the shores of the Crimson Sea, mothers frighten their children with stories of Jason the Bald, Calvin of Kelbarn, and old Commodore Sharky.

On the southern coast, in the Strogan Sea, pirates are not nearly as much of a problem, because they have no safe haven on either side of the Sea. However, smugglers are a common nuisance. They ship black market goods and slaves between Sarvek and Strogan. While slavery is outlawed by both nations, a thriving underground market and high demand makes slavery a lucrative venture. Likewise, an illegal market has developed for weapons, armor, spices, and other items that can be found in one country but not the other.

Few smugglers or slavers live long enough to make a name for themselves, but one slaver in particular is known feared equally by all who live on the shores of the Gulf. Known as the Octopus, he heads an organized slaving organization that fears no authority and respects no title. They snatch any homeless or vagrant they can find in the alleys and urban recesses. They take travelers out of their tavern beds. They strike inland and capture entire families of shore fishermen and farmers. They’ve even raided caravans and stolen blood kin of the Noble Houses. Strogun Totem Voices and Sarveki Serene are especially valuable prizes.

Despite the substantial bounty on his head, the Octopus has never been caught. Even though his ships have been taken and boarded many times, he always escapes. Some say he can actually turn himself into an octopus and swim into the safety of the dark depths of the Gulf.