The Ring of Death
The silent assassins
The gentleman in the chair was clearly dead, obvious from the way his eyes were wide open, looking at a ghost long gone. The only clue as to what had happened could be seen on the wall behind him, a giant circle of symbols drawn in chalk, the symbols matching the ones found in the rooms of the other 9 dead congressmen.The Ring of Death is an assassins guild, it is however not an organization out in public with what they do. Their assassination are very easy to recognize. They leave a mark near the body, drawn in white or black chalk. No one knows who is in the guild, how it's run or how targets are picked except for the members of the organization.
Hierachy
The Ring of Death has a leader often refered to as the Assassin King or the King of the Assassins. He's also known by the name Scar as he has a very distinctive one running from his temple to his collar bone. He is a mysterious figure only seen directly by the most trusted members. Under the Assassin King there are the Generals who are also his most trusted advisors. Under these members there are the Scouters (also known as mission leaders). Then there are the leg-assassins or the legworkers. Lastly, there's the messengers.'
Roles of the different categories:
Assassin King: He is the one who is the head of the entire organization, he choses which offers to take and who to kill. He is only ever in direct contact with his generals to make sure of his safety. The other members know who he is, as he had to be a General earlier.
Generals: They are the ones who make sure that there is a post somewhere in the city with their flag on it, these are the places where the messengers can write down requests and offers from possible customers. When the messengers have the information it's delivered to a safehouse and the Generals personally deliver it to the Assassin King.
Scouters/Mission Leaders: The Mission Leaders Job is to first scout out the location the assassination is going to happen at, so a propper plan in terms of exeqution and escape can be planned. They then inform the leg-assassins of the detail before the mission and they're the leader on the mission, making sure that everything happens as it is supposed to.
Leg-assassins: The leg-assassins are the ones who actually kill the target as well as make sure the distinctive mark is left on the scene of the crime so that everyone knows who did it.Messengers: The ones who get the offers from the possible customers, they stand at certain outposts for certain amounts of time before moving to another part of the city.
The Name of the Guild
The origins of the name come from the distinctive mark the guild leaves at every scene of assassination they commit. In the beginning no one knew what to think of it, but it is now so well-known that everyone knows exactly what it means. Even though the organization is hidden in the shadows they are pretty well known. The name was given by the public and has stuck ever since. The guild had no name for themselves so they have resulted to call themselves that as well.
The symbol left by the guild is always the same circle with 12 mysterious sumbols, often drawn in chalk somewhere near the assassinated victim's body. Other than the mystery behind the murders themselves, everyone always ask how they have the time to draw the circles at every singe scene without ever being discovered.
History
The guild was founded in 675 AK by a man called Aterin Kaledin. The first members were him and his band of thieves, who all worked together to steal enough to make a living. They were all orphans or runaways who had no place to go, and so they became their own family. They started out by robbing wealthy people, and in some places they were forced to kill them when they were close to being discovered. They gained new members by taking young boys with no homes or families of the street. They promised food, work and housing as well as a new security system. They did fulfill all the promises and they also trained the boys to be messengers and later assassins.
Then they heard of a man who wanted to pay a handsome sum for the assassination of his own brother. The guild accepted the offer, but were only ever in contact through messengers, each time a different one. This was so that there was no trail of the actual killers and no one would get in trouble.
To make sure no suspicion fell onto the brother, the group decided that they would leave a symbol that pointed towards something more sinister. They found a random old symbol on a ship that came into the habor and drew that on the floor when they had killed the target.
Assassin Kings
| The first Assassin King (Aterin Kaledin) was in the position for 26 years. That is the longest any Assassin King has ever had the position. He was only replaced when he died by natural causes, he was proceeded by a general that he chose himself, on his deathbed. |
When the ring is on the floor, death is at your door.
| Role | Number |
|---|---|
| Assassin King | 1 |
| Generals | 7 |
| Scouters/Mission Leaders | 78 |
| Leg-assassins | 456 |
| Messengers | 159 |
Holy freak ! What a rich and perfectly organized article ! I didn't especially watched all the articles featured each week, but if all are that well worked, I will definitely get a deeper look ! Still, I love stats in World Building, and you fill me with those rich schemes and amounts :p (If it is not too intrusive, is it possible to know the CSS or BB Code you used to do your tables ? :3)
Thank you so much for the comment! I usually just use a generator like: https://www.teamopolis.com/tools/bbcode-table-generator.aspx but the ones with images in them are actually vector images I made with Inkscape, because the image ruined the setup of the tables and my knowledge of code is not very good...
Thanks ^^