The Founding Fathers

ccupying the north-western area of The Dawning Empire within Avlar's Folly, the Founding Fathers represent the last remnants of the kingdom of Avalon during the time of Avlar's brief rule over the continent.
Led from the city of Trinity, The Pearl of the Empire, members of the Founding Fathers hold faith and tradition in high regard. The organisation is governed through a theocracy, as the many of temples of The Avanís Pantheon within Trinity representing the administerial hubs of the Fathers.
This faction is the organization that can claim to have existed before The Maw opened and Avlar's ascension. They took over stewardship of the city in the wake of The Maw's opening. As fear gripped the people of Trinity and its surrounds, enterprising clerics used faith to unite the people and survive those dark decades of history, superceding the nobles that had sided with Avlar during his conquest.
As the Dawning Empire was founded and the Davistan line of Emperor's was founded, it was the Founding Fathers that gave the first Emperor the wealth and resources needed to start construction of Hope, the city of Dawn, and so the Crown has long been entagled with this incredibly powerful faction.
Membership, and in turn leadership, of this organisation is incredibly diverse, due to the nature of the many gods of Daënfel. Power is ceded to the Prelates of Trinity, one representing each of the Nine living deities of the Avanís. Each Prelate looks after a section of the organisation who are solely devoted to that one God, meaning that the organisation is always at war with itself. The conflict, however, does not weaken the Founding Fathers, but instead weeds out the weak and lets the strong climb to the top - igniting devotees to all the different Gods with a burning passion. Against the external threats of this world, the Prelates quickly put aside their differences and unite to squash that for.
The Prelates themselves defer to the High Prelate - an elected official from amongst the other Prelates. The High Prelate has the final say in matters that divide the rest, and it is in the High Prelate's god's glory that Trinity is devoted during their reign. Mostly recently, the High Prelate was Lavernis of the Astronomer, however he recently met a tragic end.. Heated discussions are taking place within Trinity about who will succeed him.
At the northern end of Avlar's Folly lies the ruins of Avalon - the main source of wealth for the Founding Fathers and a hotly debated topic. The Prelates have an almost feverish obsession with this place, constantly sending adventuring parties, treasure hunters and other henchman into the monster-infested ruins in search of treasures of yore. The trinkets, magic items and artifacts of Avalon make up much of the more powerful magic items seen across Daënfel today, and it is through the scavenging of these ruins that the Founding Fathers can afford to hold power in the region. As new relics are discovered, the powers within Trinity shift with them, and so it is a constant race within the city to find adventurers powerful enough to survive the Lost City and bring back wealth and glory.
In addition to this, the Founding Fathers perpetrate much of the racism that is felt within the Empire. A city of humans, they have long looked down at the gnomes for surpassing their greatness during the height of Avalon's power, or feared the orcish raids in the foothills at the edge of their borders. As such, it is their doctrine which forces the 'human-centric' views that has seeped into the culture and ethos of some of this world's inhabitants.
The Weavers & Spinners Union and the Conclave of the Fifth think of the Founding Fathers as the "old guard", whose thinking is outdated and holding the rest of the Empire back from meaningful progress. However, none can doubt their zeal, might and deep-seated roots within the political structures of the Empire, marking them the most powerful of the organizations in the Empire, second only to the Emperor himself.