Black Souls

A mercenary guild operating in Kreneah and Volen continents

Written by T-J

History

Nearly 400 years ago, a mercenary guild, The Black Souls, was born. They started protecting trade caravans and royalties. It eventually turned into a guild for hire by anyone with enough coin. Their expertise is caravan escort and protection, seeking missing people, hunting down rogue pillagers, protection services for villages and guarding duties. There are also rumours about assassins among Black Souls as various realms have used their services from time to time.

Early days of the guild

The very first Black Soul was Ernost Kolvo. He formed a mercenary gang after he got sacked from the castle of Opeh for playing cards while on guard duty. Ernost started offering protection to caravans travelling between Havenlash and Flaireire. Traders first got the impression that they need to pay protection money, but after seeing Ernost and his men saving a few caravans from bandits, business and reputation started growing for Black Souls. Soon after, more people joined Ernost and the small mercenary gang changed into a guild, with Ernost as the guild grandmaster and his old friends as masters of the guild.

Pact with kingdoms

After first one hundred years, Black souls grew larger force that many kingdoms even had in their armies. This lead to restlessness among royalties in all three continents. Demands for disbanding the guild came from all continents and there were attacks against guild’s safe houses all around Volen.
Guilds fourth Grandmaster, Paolo Maldovi, formed a pact with eight kingdoms, which ensured that guild will not run a coup on any royalties during the next three hundred years. If the Black souls broke the pact, Guild would disband and all members would hang from the gallows. Pact did not include all kingdoms in three continents of Anair, but Guild honored that pact with all kingdoms.

Guild today

Today, Theoren Buck is the grandmaster, who has a tedious task in keeping the guild together. Factions inside the guild have formed a threat to the existence of the guild. Many powerful characters have risen to the ranks of master of the guild and they have gathered supporters for their ambitions where the guild should head in the future. Brothers faction is the only fully loyal faction inside the guild as other factions are looking either splitting up from the guild or looking to take over the guild. Also the 300 year pact has just ended which specially Royals faction is embracing and demanding that no such pact would be done again with any kingdoms.

Principles of the Black Souls

Contract is sacred. There is no such thing as a failed contract. If the guild member dies while on contract, other Black Souls must take over and fulfill the contract. Only the Guild lieutenants can revoke a contract, and that has only happened twice in the guild’s four hundred years of history.
Guild always protects its members, unless A Black Soul has made a treacherous act against the Guild. All members get full leather armour suit and a bow or a sword when joining the guild. When members rise in the ranks of the Black Souls, Guild provided more benefits. One of the most sought benefits is rare Custovian warm blooded horses, that are excellent for Black souls because of their speed and agility and therefore a match for Black souls who only carry light armours while on duty.

Type

Guild, Fighter / Mercenary

Kreneah faction

Guild started in Volen, and it spread out to Kreneah, eventually. Today Black Souls in Kreneah are keen on separating from the main guild on Volen, as they see no benefits from working with people from the other continent. Paying 20 percent dividends to main guild in Volen is a big problem for the Black Souls in Kreneah. Faction’s Master Sepho Teel has been running the faction for 10 years. Main issue is sharing the profits on the guild level, but Teel also has big ambitions to have greater power over decision inside the guild. He has threatened many times to form an own guild in Kreneah. Also, the kingdom of Sabella is supporting Teel on the continent. This makes Teel much more confident, but also extremely power hungry.

Brothers faction

From the beginning of the guild, members have been as brothers with each other. Brothers Faction wants to respect traditions. The biggest advocate for traditional brotherhood is Tolano White, who has been the master of the brother faction for two decades. He rose to the ranks of guild masters after being ten years in the guild. He is a fair leader and he supports the guild in any situation. Tolano White met Theoren Buck already in his early years at the guild and he considers the guild grand master as his personal friend.

The Fallen

The Guilds most notorious members have formed the Fallen faction. Name took place as a joke when the Tolano White of the Brothers faction called assassins as fallen members of the guild. White does not tolerate assassinations himself, but understands that specially royalties and major trade houses work with the guild from time to time in shady deals. Fallen faction has many ambitious members looking for power and leaders haven’t seen too much time at the helm of the faction. This is because of many accidents and food poisonings among the leaders, which is quite befitting to faction of assassins.
Current leader is the master of the gray magic, Lisan Juanero. Ms. Juanero is the first woman in charge of any faction in the guild. She is fair to her allies, but extremely deadly to her foes. It is common knowledge, that previous leader’s charred body is a trademark of Ms. Juanero’s magical capabilities.

Royal faction

Most ambitious guild is the Royals who see guild much larger than it is today. They seek a kingdom of their own. They say 400 years of history requires a bigger legacy, a kingdom of their own. Royals are a threat for many kingdoms, which has caused revoking rights to passage to certain kingdoms in Volan after the 300 years pact ended between the guild and eight kingdoms.
Ele’ar Cavo is the master of Royal faction and he claims to have royal blood in his veins. Cavo is a very ambitious man, and he seeks a kingdom to rule for himself. He is using Royal faction to his own purposes. Kreneah faction is favoring Cavo’s plans for a Black Souls kingdom as it suits their own independence goals from the guild.