By purpose I mean, what do they do? Why are they united under one banner? Bregan D'Arthe (forgive my spelling) is a house of mercenaries, and The Harpers of old were interested in maintaining a balance in their lands, speaking in very broad terms.
All I really know about my society, is that it will be very dark gothic, something right out of Ravenloft. I picture the armors in finely crafted plate armor, or flawless decorated robes, etc. Nothing savage about them, very high class elite. Also, they'll worship a god collectively, but I'd like a core purpose for their union beyond merely sharing the same god and beliefs.
So what are some ideas? Anyone want to help me brainstorm? So far I've come up with
-mercenaries
-maintaining balance
-realm domination
-seeking immortality
That's really about all I've come up with. None of which really strike me, or of course have been done before. The reason I list them is to give you an idea what I'm looking for. I just need a purpose, something that makes logical sense to unite powerful warriors and sorcerers, etc, all under the same flag. After that I think I can easily fill in all the details to give it depth and lore, but I can't get started until I can come up with a clever, core purpose.
Penny for your thoughts?
The government could be a kingdom or an empire. I would go with empire. The ones that fight against the empire on the battle field could dress up all fancy. For those trying to take it down from within the borders would wear more mundane cloths.
The secret society could be the descendants of the old noble family of the land or the noble families from different kingdoms that have all been conquered by the empire.
When I say repressive government then I mean that it can be as evil as you can imagine. The empire could practice slavery, sacrifices (human and animal), do gladiatorial games, summon up devils, control and raise dead, and segregate races.
edit - Damn, I just realized I posted this in a wrong thread :D The organization I suggested is not very Gothic-horror now, is it?
A Dark Secret....
A Chained Lord, whispering in the shadows....
The Thing that SHould Not be?
Maybe they protect the world - against itself, though. At *ALL* cost.
Chthuoid ties?
Although the conventional way to kill gods is to be really badass (mass leveling), they search for other approaches more akin to assassination and using more skill and wit than brute force.
To that end, they collect all data available on gods and, from time to time, have actually engeneered confrontations between gods just to collect data. (note: this is in a Planescape like setting, so lots of different worlds with deities around). They use what we consider the scientific method, ie collecting date, forming ideas, confirming ideas.
Even the gods are oblivious to their existence and goal. They have labs on different worlds, and only a few know the true goal of the research.
This organisation believes that the power gap between mortal and god should be lessened, that way they would become accountable for their actions. Although not evil by nature, they have a ends justify means approach.
However, there have been secret organizations, typically in repressive countries, dedicated to good and freedom. Like all of the rebel groups in France after Germany occupied it.
The key factor about secret organizations, is that they need to be secret for a reason. Either there is an overwhelming force that would destroy them, they are scared of the people, etc.
the secret society to fight the Manchus (and later, foreigners) is a classic trope.
[cough]Anti-Commonwealth Propaganda![clearsthroat].
Commonwealth: A true Commonwealth is this nifty form of Government where every act of Government, Law, Constitution, and Sovereign requires the Direct and Regular Approval of Every Citizen. The COncept being that the Government can never take away the right of an individual to an Equal Share of the Benifits and Obligations of Citizenship (Resource Share).
To do so is a Crime under Commonwealth Law called Conspiracy to Sedition (and Treason). A Hegemony is any structure of Non-Commonwealth Government that seeks to replace it (Centralized Republics, Empires, Kingdoms, Theocracies, Plutocracies, ect.).
As a Hegemonist organiztion your Secret Society might be devoted overthrowing rival States and establishing its own "Order" from the Ashes.
If baddies then what about the likes of an organised group of worshipers of the Chained God. Ultimately they are working towards the end of EVERYthing, but they could well be doing it in a very decadant and gothic way.
Or they could be a merchantile group looking to rule the world through finances, this could touch well on the 'fantasy -mafia' idea earlier mentioned. People could be wondering how the bandits are so well equiped and trained, finally leading in to the power base of the 'Guild' (to give a random name) where the arisocracy of merchants have very regal looking protectors and high levels of ritual in their meetings and planning.
Or if you are looking for good guys then a simple and instantly strong image and goal is the eradication of a certain type of creature, undead, werecreatures, abberations, etc... (probably the best for the gothic Ravenloft plans you have are devils or undead as the enemy).
A final idea is to look at the Warhammer 40K Inqusition. This group addapted to fantasy can act as goodies or baddies (or both) and is focused on protecting people through extreme methods and a very narrow view of what is acceptable.
Hope these ideas help.
Add to this their "scientific" research on the nature of vampires and their weaknesses that have led them to believe there are some different varieties with different immunities, so you have to test each one thoroughly (and in many cases agonizingly), and in all likelyhood they're going to conclude the subject is a vampire no matter what.
They have an esoteric link, maybe...
A Dark Secret....
A Chained Lord, whispering in the shadows....
The Thing that SHould Not be?
Maybe they protect the world - against itself, though. At *ALL* cost.
Chthuoid ties?
The idea in bold could be very well-executed in a Lovecraft-inspired campaign. In Lovecraft's stories, there's often the theme that a little bit of knowledge can be a very dangerous thing. Perhaps in your gothic-horror world most people are ignorant of the things that go bump in the night, and this secret society tries to keep it that way, even to the extreme of hunting down and killing people that know too much. Hence, as the PCs in your campaign find out more about the horrors of the world around them, they become more likely to draw the attention of this group as well.
Well, a society dedicated to keep people from knowing too much is excellent.
However, I find that if the members are actually members of other organisations (city watch, foreign intelligence services, hotel management and anything in between), the pure spread of the organisation and their reach will help illustrate their danger.
And add to this one or two signature powers of sorts to the group, to let the players smile gleefully when another member is revealed.
They could be a secret order with a mandate to insinuate themselves into all walks of life to monitor events, awaiting some portent or event to ensure that an event takes place that will shape the world, or to prevent that event from happening. They might want to undermine worship of one god or another to weaken it, so another god could overcome and replace it. They might be dedicated to the accumulation and storage of knowledge, or the advancement of technology, and keep themselves hidden so some specific group or entity that is opposed to their work can't destroy them or their accumulated knowledge.
"oh noes invasion of the body snatchers!"
Legend has it the other Passions (gods) locked Death up under Death's Sea. This didn't prevent people from dying, only prevented mass annahalation.
The Keys of Death believe that if enough blood is spilled on the ground, Death will be freed to ravage the land once again. And blood must be spilled under a specific ritual. A blade must be used, not magic. Blood must soak the land, so no poison assassinations..
It would be intresting if a faction of the vampire hunting society was controled by a rival vampire. There really should be drow involved somewhere within a secret society such as this.
Perhaps there is annother faction controled by a vampire who created the orginization to put adventures who would hunt vampires into traps so it could have a society of sheepish humanoids to feed off of.
The two vampires could use their faction to hinder the other factions.
There is sure to be some power hungry human wanting to hold a faction. Perhaps a theif who looks to use the secret society as an excuse for him stealing and a way to infulence the judge that his indescretions are for the "greater good".
Part of the fun can be you never quite know who can be a target. So a smart orginizer would have tests that vampires couldn't achive. Part of the conspiracy could be sorting out who might be loyal members by the inner circle. Or at least that is what the inner circle tells themselfs unaware they are being manipulated by others.
Stuff like:
gunpoder...
printing press...
steam engin...
mechanical clocks...
spyglass...
devices for astronomy and navigation...
kompass...
a way to produce cheap, everyday magical items...
special materials that can disspell or cut through magical defenses...
special materials that ward against magic...
Not the PC race, but the acquired template from RotD.
They used to be humans, elves, dwarves, they are the true origin of the Dragonborn race, and they are more powerful as well.
They live for hundreds of years, and have wings.
Kobolds. I can't tell you any more, they will know.
This means they hunt undead, making them potential allies of the PCs.
This means they also hunt people who have been raised/resurrected/reincarnated, making them potential enemies of the PCs.
Not too mention what they do the clerics and wizards that raise (un)dead!
They likely try to stop mortals from gaining immortality, so may guard secrets (or plant faulty knowledge) to thwart attempts at immortality.
For what its worth, in my world, this organization does exist, and is tied to a religion; so you have a mix of clerics, paladins, and assassins working together to keep dead people dead.
That sounds like Raven's worshipers.
All I really know about my society, is that it will be very dark gothic, something right out of Ravenloft. I picture the armors in finely crafted plate armor, or flawless decorated robes, etc. ...Also, they'll worship a god collectively, ...
So what are some ideas? Anyone want to help me brainstorm? So far I've come up with
-mercenaries
-maintaining balance
-realm domination
-seeking immortality
...I just need a purpose, something that makes logical sense to unite powerful warriors and sorcerers, etc, all under the same flag. ...
A secret society that wears expensive armors? :D
Well if everybody fails their spot checks maybe they are really secret.In spite of that a purpose for that society can be:
- Get rid of enemies of humanity (sentinels like) that plot against the sanctity of life with there mere existence (so nazi)
- Protect a secret so harmful that if anyone finds out there will be chaos around (Code Da Vinci, The Man in the Iron Mask,etc, ).A easy way to do this is saying that the secret is the father of the king is a peasant, so he will loose his power if anyone finds out.A complex way to put this on is on the movie The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear.
- Revenge.They used to have more power but the new ruler took most of it, so they really want to settle the score (Robin Hood is a good sample and I think some of the Harry Potter books too,Forty-seven Ronin is a legend that you must check out too).