The Cartographers
The Cartographers was formed near the beginning of Queen Lufir Elturandis' reign. Believing it was of tantamount importance to understand their outlying lands, the previous queen pouring a massive amount of the throne's treasury to hire and form a group of explorers that would map the lands she called her own. Maps had been made previously but they were unreliable and often incomplete, only showing the important things to the group that made it. The crowning achievement of the group was the culmination of the Elturian map used to this day, and they long to explore beyond its borders.
This advancement allowed for Queen Lufir's forces to move throughout the region with greater accuracy than her rivals, providing a distinct advantage to her armies. With the passing of Queen Lufir, the Cartographers have not received nearly as much funding from the crown since the current queen believes more in the Reliquary's mission. However, they are not terribly without since the Cartographers have begun to provide other services such as arranging guards for travelers, or being the middle man for many adventurers since most of the members are accomplished adventurer's themselves given their line of work. Even though the Cartographers have begun to dip their toes in other lines of work, their group still has an insatiable wanderlust and desire to explore, catalogue, and map the world before them.
The Cartographers are broken up into two groups the Scribes and the Explorers. The Explorers head into the world gathering the raw notes on what different regions are like, and creating the rough sketches and distances of each location, landmark, gate, or other notable features. They then return to their home in Aldhon to give their findings to the Scribes, who organize the information and make it presentable.
Goals
The Cartographers' primary goal is to create maps of the surrounding area, making note of landmarks and settlements. They long to push past the borders of the maps they have created to learn what lies within the larger world, but they are met with peril. Currently they lack the necessary resources to mount expeditions of their own, however they pay decently for any information with enough evidence to back it up. With the withdrawal of a large portion of thier funding from the crown nearly 10 years ago, the guild has needed to come up with clever ways to keep operating towards its true goal.In addition to selling the maps they create, the group manages to raise funds through several operations. They act as a middle man between traveling merchants and new mercenaries looking for work as caravan guards. Some explorers are fondly referred to as "finders," having a knack for finding new locations that have value to the crown or other interested parties, due to the location's magical reserve, raw materials, fertile land, etc. Additionally, the group has recently been contracted out by the queen to act as de facto census representatives, helping the crown locate which settlements may be able to provide more tithes.
Most within the cartographers despise the need for these practices, though they keep the disdain amongst themselves. They long for the day that they are no longer needed and they can travel beyond the confines of their borders.
People of Interest
Biven Wolfeye
lawful good, male human Still leading the Cartographers in his old age, Biven was a good friend of the late Queen Lufir. He was asked to assemble a group of the first cartographers by the queen due to his work in creating the first maps of Aldhon and its surrounding area. The grizzled old man in his early seventy's refuses to rest, and insists on helping the scribes with their work during his downtime. He spends a great deal of time at court with the current queen, often attempting to convince her to allow his guild to continue their work beyond the borders, but he is often refused. His latest gambit is to offer members of his group as scouts to look into the movements of Naerfi Skjol in Algzul, but the queen has not given him a definitive answer on this yet. While many complain of Biven's old ways, they cannot deny his zeal and belief in their institution.Aywen Starquill
chaotic neutral, female elf One of the few scribes that does not balk at the idea of a rough night in the woods, Aywen Starquill is the Cartographers' best scribe. Even though she retired from being a true explorer some 15 years ago, she does not trust most of the reports from other explorer's, causing her to return to the field and confirm their reports. She believes that if she checks everyone's work, then in about 30 years she will be able to trust their word. The real reason, however, is that she really just enjoys the out doors and wants to catalogue things for herself. She has often considered taking up the mantle of a full time explorer, but the rest of the scribes would be lost without her. Aywen comes from a small snow elf village near Frahir. She doesn't like to speak much of it.Zinhorn Barkbrush
neutral good, male firbolg Zinhorn is the youngest member of the Cartographers. He came to the city of Aldhon 5 years ago after his grove was burned, with nothing left he sought a way to put his knowledge of nature to use. Though he is young, only about 18 years of age, Zinhorn is the best tracker and most promising "finder." He longs to be trusted to lead his own expeditions. Zinhorn is a rather excitable individual, always wanting to know every new person's story but he doesn't have the attention span to listen to the entire tale, often interjecting his own thoughts along the way. However, when he is on an expedition his entire attention is directed to the wilderness around him and there is not much that slips past his awareness.Vizen Gluz
neutral, male goblin A veteran of the organization, and one of Biven's original crew, Vizen Gluz is a quirky goblin. He spends most of his time in his work shop creating new and more powerful telescopes and looking glasses. He is so good at what he does that the Reliquary often commissions him to make telescopes for their observations of the night sky. He invented the first looking glass for his original goblin band so that they could look for threats... or targets, from great distances. Biven, seeing his intellect, rescued him from this band and offered him a place with the Cartographers. Vizen is obsessed with seeing all things, and is currently working with the Reliquary to create a lenses that will see magical ley lines. They have already created a monocle that will allow the wearer to see invisible items and creatures for a short time, but the crown has requisitioned them all to be used for the interests of the crown.
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