Shepherds of Khul

Structure

The Shepherds of Khul are organized into cells spread across the continent along with two headquarters. One, in Adi'nia, deals with the day to day mercantile matters of the organization, namely the buying and selling of stock. The other, in the capital of Khul, handles administrative issue, including the distribution of cells.
Each cell reports to a boss ranger, who is directly responsible for their cell's activities and for enlisting local help in accomplishing those activities. Several bosses, in turn, report to one of several regional chiefs in a country. The regional chiefs then fall under direct command of an overseer who handles operations across the entire country. Finally, overseers report, usually by proxy, to the Master Shepherd in Khul and the Chainkeeper in Adi'nia. The lowest ranking members, known as rangers within the Shepherds' ranks, are responsible for the actual kidnapping and cons and scouting for both product and local assistance.
Locals are given the rank of ranger only nominally. They are completely expendable. True Shepherds refer to them as chaff. However, they play an important role in the shepherds: they are the face of the Shepherds. Nearly all shepherds are natural born Khul citizens, but since their operations are illegal in most nations, they use locals in their day-to-day activities to help avoid detection. Further, the actual selling and exchanging of slaves is done in Adi'nia, because, should the organization be tracked there, no nation is willing to retaliate against the merchant kings on whom they rely too much for trade.

Public Agenda

The Shepherds are slavers and so take great care not to make their activities public, except in Adi'nia, where slavery is completely legal. They prey on the homeless, small groups or single travelers, and other people who will not be missed or are easy targets. They have a significant, if quiet, presence in many major cities where they use cons to lure people into being captured, then smuggled out of the city. The Shepherds primarily target women.

History

Slavery has existed in Khul for centuries, but the Shepherds were not formed until after the Drake Plague that wiped out most of the female population and a significant portion of the male population.

"Flesh is gold."

Type

Illicit, Syndicate

Demonym

Shepherd