Factions
Overview
The kingdom has no king. What it has is several powerful groups all acting as though they might become the next dominant power, and a great deal of violence filling the gaps between them. The following is a guide to the major players as a well-informed person of Aurentium might understand them.
The Three Lords
The great southern lords hold most of what remains of the kingdom's functional territory. They were all present, in some form, at the events surrounding the king's death. They have not agreed on a successor and are not, currently, openly at war.
House Caelius — The Legitimists
Lord Godwin Caelius. Seat: Varenford.
The Caelius family has served the crown for generations, and their wealth sits in the river plains and farmland of the south-central interior. Lord Godwin is a careful man, not a cruel one — he wants order because disorder costs him money, and because he genuinely believes in the institutions his family has served. He is backing the Serentine regency because a legitimate succession means the machine keeps running.
Godwin Caelius was present at the king's death. He has said nothing publicly about what happened in that room. His house wizard left his service the following week.
House Grenn — The Marsh Lords
Lord Halvard Grenn. Seat: Grimholt.
Grimholt is a stilt-town on the eastern marsh — timber walkways over dark water, fishing boats and shallow-draft vessels working the estuary lanes where larger ships cannot follow. House Grenn has grown wealthy through trade that doesn't appear in customs records and influence that operates through channels polite society pretends not to notice.
Halvard Grenn makes enemies precisely, when it serves him, and is very patient about consequences.
Ships flying no house colours have been seen putting into Grimholt's smaller jetties at night.
A merchant who claimed to have overheard Lord Grenn speaking privately at the funeral was found drowned in the harbour a week later. The magistrate ruled it an accident.
House Serentine — The Regency
Lord Lucien Serentine (child). Regent: Lady Marta Serentine. Seat: Portmaren.
Portmaren sits at the mouth of the great river — the deep-water harbour that feeds Auremar's trade. Lucien Serentine is eleven years old. His regent, Lady Marta — an aunt by some accounts, a stepmother by others — is not. The Serentine claim to succession is nominally the strongest of the three lords, being the closest surviving relation to the royal line. Whether that closeness was manufactured is a question people are not asking loudly.
Lady Marta was seen in private conference with a Vesper priest two days after the king's death. The priest was not from the Grave Aegis garrison.
The Aurellionite Church
Not a military faction, but an institution with significant reach, wealth, and the loyalty of much of the population. The church's crisis following the death of the royal line has made it volatile. A church deciding what it believes is a church whose next move nobody can predict.
The high clergy in Auremar are managing the narrative carefully. The regional clergy are less coordinated.
See Religion for full detail.
The Vesper Faithful
The small Morthanic priesthood attached to The Grave Aegis and a handful of highland shrines. Previously marginal — tolerated by the main church, ignored by the lords. The breaking of the seal has made them suddenly relevant. They were the guardians, notionally. What does it mean that the seal is broken?
Brother Cael Dun, the priest at the Grave Aegis, has reportedly not panicked. Whether that is reassuring depends on your interpretation.
Some within the Vesper order are saying quietly that the breaking of the seal is not a failure — that Morthanos is not trapped. That he is returning.
The Gilded Order
Not a faction anyone openly admits to belonging to.
A mercantile brotherhood, some say. A mystery cult, say others. What most people agree on is that they are wealthy, secretive, and interested in old objects — particularly those connected to the founding period of the kingdom. Members, when identified, tend to carry a small golden scale motif somewhere: a coin, a belt buckle, a wax seal.
They have been buying. Old weapons, old jewellery, anything associated with the founding period. The prices offered are extravagant enough that people don't ask why.
A name surfaces occasionally among those who deal with them closely — the Aurum Coven. Nobody who repeats it seems certain they should have.
The Fort Garrison
Nominally commands the Wyrmway pass. In practice: a skeleton crew of soldiers, one Vesper priest, and a growing number of refugees who've stopped because the road north no longer feels safe.
- Commander: Edwyn Cael — young, earnest, aware he is out of his depth
- Castellan: Aldous Brek — old, competent, the reason anything still functions
See The Grave Aegis for full detail.
Related Pages
- History — Background to the current crisis
- Geography — Where each faction is based
- Religion — The church and the Vesper faithful in detail
- The Grave Aegis — Your immediate situation