The resistance stretches its history back to the first sword raised in the fight against the Dragon Empire some 160 years ago. The weight of the countries, peoples, and cultures crushed under the heels of the court are remembered through the ongoing struggle.
In the present, the resistance remains in the shadows. Maligned by the Argent Court’s propaganda as outside agitators and enemies of progress, the disparate factions are slowly bringing themselves together, preparing their stores of materiel for the coming storm.
Within the council chambers, however, the air is heavy with a storm of ideological differences. All agree, readily, that a new united world is required but the nature of this new society is cause for contention between the different factions of the resistance.
In keeping with the game Armour Astir these factions were written collectively at the table, although I will shout out The Assembly as being separately conceived of and fleshed out by Luke.
The Free Duchies of Nald
A relic of the old world, a place of rich tradition and entrenched social stratification. The Free Duchies of Nald are a union of 7 individual nation/city-states aligned by their proximity within the Spine Mountains, and their ongoing war with the Dragon Empire.
The land of the duchies themselves is protected by an ancient warding ritual called The Vow, which all the members states of the Duchies maintain through the contributions of trained channelers of their lineage. Traditionally, this duty falls to the first child of the ruling family, who are always trained in the magical arts.
The area around Nald is contested, and has been a site of ongoing war for almost 150 years, the cities themselves are built deep into the mountains. Cities of carved stone, and flinty eyed people long-used to war.
Details
- A magical warding ritual called The Vow has protected the Free Duchies of Nald from conquest by the Empire, and they have been fighting to keep their outer holdings for 150 years.
- They have rich natural resource deposits, including both a large quantity of readily accessibly formulate.
- The cities of Nald are carved deep into the earth, and the traditional vocations and culture of the cities are mining and carving. They eat mushrooms, and farm large termite-like insects deep underground.
- The Free Duchies of Nald have a deep-seated grudge with The Protection Guild, as they have been at war with their forces primarily over the long years.
- A culture of magical learning pervades the cities, with each noble house keen to produce an eldest scion of exceptional talent, to contribute to both the upkeep of The Vow and their dukedom’s standing within the union.
- They provide a great deal of material support to The Resistance, along with some dedicated and powerful channelers.
- Values:
- Their sovereignty.
- Their tradition.
- Their nobility.
- They are:
- Disliked by The Shifted Sands due to their strict hierarchical/feudal society.
- Disliked by The Tears of the Great Ash Eye due to their dismissal of the magic of the Great Ash Eye.
- Liked by Quake as their traditional holdings retain the natural landscapes, and their society values working within and amongst the earth.
- Their type is Military.
Quake
Quake are a group of eco-fighters who have grown over the past 80 years or so. As the wasteland grew out from the seat of the Argent Court and the wheels of the Grand Unified Mining Concern rolled out over the land, the many displaced peoples were forced into new lives into the grimy cities of the new Empire.
But the old lore remembers a time where the great, deep forests of the west spanned for leagues upon leagues. It remembers the great old gods of the forests, the venerable trees and the sheltered glades.
Quake formed around these cultural memories, the death of the world must be halted, our children must be given a new world of green to steward. A new world to make into their own songs and stories. There is no means to extreme for the end of the Argent Court, the reclamation of the world, and the protection of the old forests.
Details
- Small cells of dedicated guerrillas work in a disorganised harmony, destroying supply trains and mining platforms of the Mining Concern with improvised explosives and daring raids.
- Each cell might have a handler or coordinator connected to the wider Quake faction, but contacted is limited between Quake cells.
- They provide disruption deep within Empire controlled territory, scattered intelligence, and dedicated operatives willing to take on any mission to the Resistance.
- They hate the Grand Unified Mining Concern, for reasons that should be obvious.
- Values:
- The natural world.
- Folklore and community.
- They are:
- Disliked by The Shifted Sands due to probably having blown up their comrades at some point.
- Disliked by the Fallen Dragons who see their methods as bloody and extreme.
- Liked by The Tears of the Great Ash Eye, who align with their veneration of the natural world and a return to the culture and values of the world before the dragons.
- Their type is Guerrillas.
Fallen Dragons
The dragons are, indisputably, gods. They are a source of divine magic, and came to Karral from beyond the stars, gifting mortals with knowledge of the techno-magical arts.
Within the Silver Church, there are those who believe that the Empire has gone beyond the divine designs of the Argent Court. The bureaucrats and new lords of the Empire grow fat on the toil of the workers below them, and the boot of the Protection Guild executes the will of capital rather than that of justice.
This secretive sect permeates the structure of the Silver Church from the lowest clergy to (so it is rumoured) some of the upper ranks of the cardinals.
Details
- Shadow-church within the Silver Church, operating in secret amongst the ranks of the clergy.
- Well coordinated network of members permeating a large portion of the the Dragon Empire’s society.
- They provide critical intelligence and diplomatic efforts to the Resistance.
- Values:
- People of any kinds.
- The power of the dragons.
- Their faith.
- They are:
- Disliked by almost every other Resistance faction, but especially The Tears of the Great Ash Eye, as the inquisitorial order of the Silver Church have been persecuting Ash worship for over a hundred years.
- Their type is Scholars.
The Tears of the Great Ash Eye
The veneration of The Great Ash Eye has been a fixture of life on the planet of Karral for countless ages. Cultures the world over have worshipped the huge planet as a source of magical power, and it features heavily in many cultures folklore.
With the rise of The Silver Church as the state mandated religion of the Empire, and the inception of the Inquisitorial Order within it, Ash worship has been persecuted down into the shadows and deepest hearts of many peoples and cultures. The Tears formed out of the long years of this crushing pressure, a cult of worship venerating the old god Ash and drawing power from it.
It is rumoured in the Empire, although hardly a conversation for polite society, that groups of underground Ash worshippers meet in almost every major city. Deep in tunnels and catacombs, and out in old temples still standing in the wasteland.
Details
- Cult of persecuted Ash-worshippers, numbers unknown, but capable of drawing incredible magical power from the planet.
- Surprisingly large membership in actuality, although they are not well-coordinated.
- The magic of Ash is rooted in shadows, illusion, and the unseen, making their coordinated military effect one of assassination and careful wetwork.
- They hate the Silver Church, having been long-persecuted by them.
- Values:
- Their faith.
- Their freedom.
- They are:
- Disliked (although by degrees) by the Fallen Dragons who see them as worshipping false gods.
- Liked by Quake, who share similar ideals and goals.
- Their type is Agents.
The Assembly
The Assembly was born in an Empire factory, a collective of labourers working on some of the most clandestine military techno-magical items came to a consensus and elected to conduct a ritual entwining their member’s souls and minds together irrevocably, and forming a tightly bound anarcho-syndicalist union.
The Assembly now forms a being of nigh-unknowable collective thought: a distributed hive-mind with its own purpose, aims, and goals. While it does (according to its members) exist as an entity, it seems to exist separately from the material world and cannot be contacted directly except by the mortal members of the Assembly.
Individual members of The Assembly have a techno-magical implant embedded in their head, and a flat affect. They often take unpredictable, seemingly purposeless actions, as directed by the consciousness of the Assembly. However, their connected nature makes them invaluable communications and intelligence operatives for the Resistance. The Assembly is also unquestioningly dedicated to the freedom of labourers, and the destruction of capitalist forces.
Details
- Magical hive-consciousness, extant on a distributed substrate composed of portions of the mortal member’s mind.
- Each mortal member has a piece of arcane techno-magic machinery embedded into their skull, and have a distant affect. They often take slightly unpredictable actions in alignment with the goals of The Assembly.
- The Assembly is now scattered across the continent of Karral, and as each member can communicate with all the others, are an invaluable means of communication amongst the Resistance.
- They hate the Grand Unified Mining Concern, having liberated themselves from the appalling conditions in their factories.
- Values:
- No one really knows exactly.
- Their labour and contribution and commitment to the collective Assembly.
- They are:
- Mistrusted, but tolerated, by almost every other Resistance faction.
- Liked by The Shifted Sands as they share values of labour freedom.
- Their type is Strange.
The Shifted Sands
As the desert wasteland grows, and the sandships of the Grand Unified Mining Concern trawl across it ferrying supplies and prospecting for pockets of Formulate, the workers on these barges and mining crews wonder more and more why they are paid a pittance for their toil.
Mutineers, deserters, and destroyers of company property, a new breed of sand-pirate has arisen across the western continent. Operating stolen sandbarges, customised looted mining rigs, and stolen Ardents and Astirs. In the last ten years, a league of pirates under the command of the legendary captain Dead-eye Maven. She now controls The Shifted Sands from the deck of her sand-barge the All’s Fair.
Now running a bloody campaign of piracy against the powers of the Dragon Empire at large, the Shifted Sands are a pirate league of considerable might, and are proving difficult to pin down by the forces of the Protection Guild.
Details
- League of sand-pirates, operating an array of stolen sandships, Ardents, and other looted vehicles.
- Membership made up of primarily ex-workers from factories, mines, and supply caravans of the Grand Unified Mining Concern.
- Provide stolen goods and transportation for the Resistance.
- They hate the Grand Unified Mining Concern, having mostly liberated themselves from the appalling conditions in their mines.
- Values:
- Their freedom.
- The fruits of their labour (loot).
- They are:
- Disliked by the Fallen Dragons for being base criminals and thieves.
- Disliked by the Duchies for being base criminals and thieves (and having poor manners).
- Liked by Quake for their disruptive actions against the Mining Concern.
- Their type is Bandits.