The League of Due Hierarchy

• Goal: Promote the legalization of slavery in places that currently forbid it and protect the rights of slaveholders in places that allow slavery.

• Size: Small but widespread, the majority of its members can be found in towns and cities ruled by tyrants or dominated by evil races. Only nobles can join, and in areas that permit slavery, one must own slaves to be a member.

• Alignment: Evil.

• Philosophy: “The great civilizations of the past recognized that some people are born greater than others and allowed society’s betters to sell the lowly into bondage. As the world rebuilds, mighty empires will emerge among nations that recognize the righteousness and necessity of the fundamental social order.”

• History: The League (called the Shacklers by its detractors) sprang up when the world began its slow recovery from the disasters of the past. Leadership: The Shacklers’ ideological leader is the scholar-queen Fusane, monarch of a small, prosperous city-state located on a major trade route.

• Headquarters: Ostentatious League halls appear in numerous national capitals, situated near the local palace or congress hall.

• Activities: Members of the League appear at governing institutions to lobby in favor of slavery proclamations and decrees. Members also undermine attempts to establish egalitarian rule. The League secretly funds harassment, sabotage, and assassinations of prominent enemies.

• Enemies: The Fellowship of Free Souls, a political movement opposed to slavery and authoritarian rule, swears to topple the League.

• Factions: An increasingly vocal group of slave traders and wealthy merchants argues for full membership regardless of birth status. These individuals want the League to set aside its other political aims and focus solely on promoting slavery.

Weeping Rose Heresy

In a bizarre twist on commonly held doctrine, this heretical sect espouses the belief that Torog is a benevolent deity who has taken the torments of world upon his shoulders so that the innocent need not suffer.

• Goal: The tenets of their faith do not permit slaves to turn against their masters. Individuals that are released from bondage, however, maintain their faith, congregating in subterranean abbeys sanctified to the King that Crawls.

• Size: This faith is a small but increasingly gaining support among individuals born into slavery.

• Alignment: Unaligned.

• Philosophy: “As the chosen peoples of the King that Crawls, we persevere in the face of adversity and willingly take on the burdens and pains of others.”

• History: Cynical theologians posit that the heresy might have been established by the league of Due Hierarchy, an authoritarian sect that promotes the spread of slavery, though no evidence supports that claim. The true origin of this faith remains an enigma.

• Leadership: The Weeping rose has no central leader, though cells exist in various slave communities throughout the world.

• Membership Requirements: inductees into the faith are said to have been granted a vision of the Weeping rose in their dreams. Many etch the symbol on their flesh as a sign of their devotion.

• Activities: Followers of the Weeping Rose Heresy are noted for self-flagellation and their darkly humorous view of the world. They take up causes or tasks that no others dare.