F A C T I O N S

The Navy

Port Heritage is synonymous with "Navy." There is a reason that Port Heritage's leader, Hylaine, takes the title "Admiral of Dragons." The Naval Fleet is a staggering 50-ships strong, each carved in the terrifying visage of ancient dragons with cannons in their mouths -- all armed with devouts, wizards, and soldiers trained in the art of land- and seagoing-warfare by the prestigious Naval Academy.

To Port Heritage's noblefolk, the Navy represents an honorable way to claim glory and power; to its urchins and downtrodden, it represents a pathway to security and kinship. It is no secret that the Naval Academy recruits from the street orphans of Port Heritage too frequently for it to be mere coincidence.

Everything else about the inner workings of the Academy, however, is a trade secret that officers are willing to protect with their own blood.

The Navy also trains and oversees the Port Heritage City Guard, though this is a far less glamorous job, saddled with the tedium of daily peace-keeping, rewarded with a fraction of the respect commanded by their seafaring peers.

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The Magisterium

Moving libraries, mysterious glowing crystals, enchanted items, secret magic tests. The wizards of the Port Heritage Magisterium are bookish researchers, unlocking the unknowns of the Godsea's magical properties to open the way to magical knowledge for all.

At least, that's how they once were known.

The Magisterium of Port Heritage is a somewhat distant faction, more concerned with dusty scrolls than the everyday governance of the city-state, but they ought not be underestimated. There are rumors of their connections throughout the city -- everything from magical possession of Port Heritage's leadership and dastardly plots to bring about the end of the world, to the belief that the wizards are seeking a cure to death itself, which they will nobly bestow upon the poor and needy.

Run by a Council of Archmages, the Wizard’s Guild is in the business of academic schooling, research, community support, and diplomacy. Any member of the Port Heritage public can petition the guild for support, and those petitions and requests are reviewed and voted upon in monthly meetings by the Archmage Council. To its members, the guild can grant access to research facilities, laboratories, special materials, spell components, and even the helping hands of volunteering wizards.

Theoretically, they are above the petty political squabblings of common men...

But is it truly possible to overcome power's corrupting influence?

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The Goldhands

In a society where only half the citizens are literate, scribes are more than mere scribblers. Guild-accredited scribes are lawyers, business-owners, contract-makers. If you find yourself in the courts, you want a Goldhand behind you. If you fall into a large sum of money, you want a Goldhand behind you. If you have a less-than-legal endeavor that you want to come out squeaky-clean, you want a Goldhand behind you... so some say.

The Goldhands' Guild operates as part bank, part legal consultancy, part chamber of commerce, staffed by accredited scribes. Scribe-apprentices train for seven years in brutal conditions before promotion to a full role. Merchants enroll in the Guild for all of the benefits, luxuries, and protections that the Guild provides.

Only so much can be done with scimitars, gunpowder, and spells. The Navy needs coin to set sail. The Wizards need coin to fund research. Even pirates take on jobs for coin, though in polite society, one would never accuse the Goldhands of fraternizing with such folk. The fact remains: money is power, and the Godsea's funds consolidate in Port Heritage, snugly within the Goldhands' fabled vault. The fact that Port Heritage is home to this financial center is one of the top reasons that the city-state ranks as a global superpower.

For this reason, although Port Heritage's official leader may be Admiral of Dragons... shadow-shrouded whispers sometimes label Tentaclino, master of the scribes' and merchants' guild, as the "Admiral of Gold."

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The Black Flags

Ten years ago, the ocean was trapped in the throes of the dark age of piracy: a scourge of unaffiliated crews scrabbling for territory and riches. It was this conflict that reigned terror upon the Godsea and left thousands devastated in its wake.

Then Captain Maythias Makallion (The Pirate Queen; The Lioness of the Lost Seas; The Crazy Cat Lady That Just Boarded My Ship) rose to power and united the faction.

Today, the Black Flags are a collective of seagoing marauders who all fly under the same banner. With their impressive fleet, they hold control over the majority of unregulated waters and have vowed to lay claim to the rest. Most pirates are more than willing to die for their clan: though rough and rugged, the group is known for taking in those who have no home elsewhere.

While the flagship of the Black Flags is the Golden Traitor, there is a complete hierarchy of pirate lords that oversee the faction’s vast fleet, each one specializing in a different aspect of piracy. From merchants smuggling legendary goods, to bounty hunters scouring the depths of the ocean, to spies stationed behind enemy lines — it is clear the Black Flags have a hand in the going ons of the Godsea.

Every traveling merchant and wayward Navy ship lives under the constant specter of the pirate threat. Landgoers whisper that one day, the pirates may finally be powerful enough to claim an entire island as their own... perhaps even Port Heritage itself.

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The Red Dynasty

The Red Dynasty is a maritime empire, of many scattered island-states, ruled by a high priest or priestess that holds the title of “Ruler-Priest, Ornament of the Pantheon” and guided by a small council and legislative bodies beneath them.

In recent history, the Red Dynasty crushing the Southern Isles Rebellion sparked the invasion of the Southern Sea and the start of The Second Great Expansion: a series of bloody conflicts that served as the foundation for its territorial, expansionist campaign. Invasions into peripheral areas, the stomping out of uprisings amongst dominated nations, the razing of towns to maintain order led to the eventual conquest of nearly 40 million people, along with the displacement of 10 million others forced to assimilate into Red Dynasty held cities and islands or ran out of the Southern Isles all together.

A mishmash of all sorts of cultures, races, and beliefs, the Red Dynasty is a peaceful nation -- as long as its cities honor the pantheon of six gods above any others, and eschew the heretic idea of a Seventh.

Before now, Port Heritage has always remained neutral as the Red Dynasty has expanded. On occasions, the Red Dynasty has requested anchorage for its armies at Port Heritage, which Admiral Hylaine has denied without much consequence. However, Port Heritage's importance as the financial and trade center of the sea has left many terrified that the Red Dynasty's gaze will eventually turn upon them...

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