The Songbirds

The Songbirds

A master guild of Assassins, Thieves and Vagabonds lead by the illusive twins Wren & Nightingale. Their mark is that of crossed black daggers, their hilts chisseled into the images of their patron songbirds. It is said that each individual member recieves their own crafted dagger, legend says that one joins the guild when they come across one of these daggers and take it for their own.
Many Songbird Guilds have cropped up about the human kingdoms, in Enroth, Kerrigen and the once united Kingdoms of Vyre. Pockets have also arisen in small human Elven settlements in Eriador such as the kingdom of Bargrad or the old Elven city of Fallroad in Anorsyl.
It is not known how many of these branches of the guild are communicating with one another or if indeed their masters Wren or Nightingale are even the same person in any such place.
Moreover much of the gang is still veiled in secrecy, they are career criminals that is for sure, and their expertise in strongarming authorities and keeping notoriety is world renowned.

The Wren & The Nightingale

The tale of the Wren and Nightingale is ancient and partly forgotten by the annals of history, only surviving in the tongues and rhymes of the men who cared enough to recite it, though it holds within its poxied rhyme the origins of this shadowed organisation.

"It was in one Summer-dale In one swithe secluded hale, Could be heard no greater tale Of Wren and sister Nightingale,
who heard song stiff, stark and strong. while theirs was soft and loud among. An either at the other squawk And forgot themselves when moved to talk.
And either side the other cussed. That they cursed the other the other wussed. And hear and heard the others song and found together their song was strong.
The Nightingale begun her speech. In one hurne of one breche. And sat upon one near bough. That were about blossom enouh'
In our vast thick hedge Intwined with spire and greener sedge, Nightingale was happy to see rise. A chirp of song that made her seem wise.
"W'ilst your song seem happy and gay, Mine sing choires sad and fey. W'ilst your tune soundeth stong and stark My voice carries long and dark."
When the jungle cat calls again, Our song combined its ears offen' an where one can fly but I cannot Or where one sings what I shall not
I will call upon thee, From this blossom bough tree. An' my place you will take, an' yours I will never forsake." -Excerpt from The Wren & Nightingale FA-1205

The poem concerns the journey of a Wren and Nightingale who begin at odds but are united by the presence of a hunting cat. The birds find that by singing together they can trick the cat into thinking they are more terrifying then they actually are. As the poem goes on the birds get braver in their tricks, eventually fooling the cat into giving them their eyes and claws blurring the line of predator and prey.
It is thought by some scholars that this fable was made as an explanation for the appearance of a rare strain of Owl bear in Vyre, one which sports a much longer face and beak, and one that would sing in a distorted and eerie bird song which seems to resound in the poems rythm and description as the combined tunes of a Wren and nightingale.

From Fire to shadows

It is not known if The Wren and Nightingale are truly brother and sister as they claim. It is known that if they are mortal humans it is unlikely they have always been the same person, the organisation was founded around the end of the War of the Dragon Queen as notorious hoard thieves taking advantage of the enormous wealth garnered by the slaying of Tiamat and the time recompense.
The pair garenered official guildship when they were hired by King Breval "the bight" of Albion to steal back the crown of Albion from Dwarf lands. Whilst the crown heist was successful the twins never returned to Albion, instead taking refuge in Cardras and auctioning the crown between the kingdoms for more of a profit.
This is the first and last time The Wren or Nightingale ever had names beyond the alias: Neishan and Rosmerial Roshem were Albions most wanted for almost One-hundred years until the Arch-mage Bahram ruled that officially the twins must either be dead or too old to serve any kind of sentence. It was decided officially that the current songbird guilds were merely successors and copy cats.

The Sibling Bond

Neishan and Rosmerial had a habit of appearing seemingly everywhere and nowhere, when caught off guard they were never found together except the one occasion and the one that was found would always suddenly vanish before any justice could be done.
When orchestrating attacks or ambushing pursuing troops they would suddenly appear together driving off the now off guard attackers and easily overpowering any security or defences.
There were several accounts of the twins being on other sides of the world minutes before they appeared in one place together, Black Inquisitor in charge of their capture in Eriador ruled this must have been the effect of powerful and precise teleportation magic that left seemingly not trace within the weave.
Hundreds of years after their founding, the Wren and Nightingale were captured trying to steal from the palace of the Empress and the Yawning portal in Callonde at the same time.
It seems when captured by the guard, the pair switched places right into the hands of the Black inquisition and a hoard of angry adventurers all at once. Despite being hanged for crimes dating back to the war of the Dragon Queen the pair reappeared months later seemingly unscathed.

Type

Guild, Thieves