Xanathar's Guild

In the shadows and backrooms of the city, people whisper of the Xanathar Thieves’ Guild. Also called The Eye, this organization is said to control Waterdeep’s criminal underworld. They are known slavers and run many of the street gangs in the city’s slums. They recruit heavily from goblins and monstrous humanoids in the dark tunnels of Undermountain, and are believed to have a stronghold in the underground smuggler’s city of Skullport.
Their symbol is a circle with ten spokes, like a ship’s wheel, or a sun, and many loyal members also bear stylistic tattoos of eyes.
The mysterious crime lord known as The Xanathar rules the syndicate from the shadows. No one knows what he looks like, and some whisper that he is a dragon, a fiend, or some inhuman monster.
It’s said that when the Shadow Thieves were broken and driven out of Waterdeep centuries ago, the remnants of the old thieves’ guilds were unified into a single, powerful organization by the strange and charismatic crime lord. The Xanathar deals in slavery, the trade of drugs, extortion, blackmail, gambling, and the acquisition and sale of smuggled magical items.
The Xanathar had a vice grip on the city’s crime after the destruction of the Shadow Thieves, but has seen his control weaken in the last year. The Black Network has recently made in-roads in the city’s organized crime, and some of the street gangs have pledged loyalty to them. Street skirmishes have erupted into a gang war in the Docks as the two crime syndicates battle each other for supremacy. Buoyed by the success of the Black Network, the Plague Rats declared independence, and the Cloven Nine have shifted their support to the Black Network.

Type

Guild, Thieves

Alternative Names

Xanathar Street Gangs Sea Wolves. Raiders, pirates, and enforcers in the Dock Ward. Grambar’s Blades. Assassins and cutthroats for hire in the Dock Ward. Kerrigan’s Sons. Bandits and caravan raiders based in the South Ward. Marrowsons. Brawlers and stree