New Faction: The Endurnotkun
Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2022 12:30 pm
The Endurnotkun
The Endurnotkun (literally: The Reuse) are a small faction within Radenor, consisting of members of the Scarlet Watch, high-ranking nobles, and both high-ranking and low-ranking members of the Mages Guilds in Radenor. The purpose of the Endurnotkun is straightforward: they wish to strengthen the Guilds and the martial might of the Four Kingdoms as a bulwark against invasion from foreign power, and to solidify their position within Radenor's shifting social fabric as the avant-garde of modernization raps at their door.
History
The Endurnotkun was born out of a simple idea: what if there were a means of making criminals more useful to the state? While many contemplated means of rehabilitation, or work release into labor camps, or indenture to upright citizens, the founder of The Endurnotkun, Lady Byqvist of Northradica, knew these to be the soft-hearted delusions of idealistic fools. Perhaps a thief could be taught not to steal or a murderer not to murder or a rapist not to rape, but they had already demonstrated what was within their nature, and natures did not change. No, criminals were criminals: morally repugnant and spiritually irredeemable. Releasing a murderer, even after they had allegedly reformed or repented, was just inviting a fox back into the hen house. Many of these self-same criminals were bound for the executioner's block anyhow, so releasing them would simply allow them to attempt to escape their fate. There had to be a way to recoup some use out of these wayward citizens of Radenor.
After many spirited conversations on this vexing issue with her dear friend Hildegard, the Archon of the Demrek guild chapter of Northradica, they hatched an idea that would become the core of The Endurnotkun: initiate criminals into magic under the supervision of a Guild mage sworn to secrecy, train them into some proficiency with the skill, then sunder them. Northradica would benefit from the increased prevalence of sunderscraps, which could be used by the guild or sold in trade, and the criminals would die for a worthy cause: consolidation of power for Lady Byqvist and Archon Hildegard. That was 4603, and with the Lady and the Archon having a series of delicate conversations broaching the prospects to the other Guild chapters, the Endurnotkun has spread to have some small presence throughout Radenor: in the Vesterhal chapter of Jorikford, the Raviken chapter of Sheorlund, and a shaky toehold in the Novilanc chapter of Tilema.
While Lady Byqvist's ambitions had been at first to merely consolidate power in Northradica, the increased scope of the society she has set in motion has allowed her to become more important within Northradica as a well-connected and wealthy noble fostering ties between the Four Kingdoms. It has worked out reasonably well for her, albeit not how she intended. Participating Guild chapters also see their stars rise. Sunderscraps are useful, rare, and expensive commodities, and a Guild that is producing more of them is performing their sacred duty in keeping Radenor safe from unregulated, unauthorized magic.
Guilds that have an active chapter of the Endurnotkun require a fair bit of set up, but once established it's reasonably self-sustaining. Criminals are initiated while in solitary confinement in jail. If they die, they are buried in a potter's field. If they live, they are transported with their initiator to the tower under cover of darkness and confined to a locked floor, formerly for Novus, but now designated solely for Endurnotkun. Their initiator trains them in magic until they attain the desired level of mastery. They are then drugged and sundered. The initiates are told that this is the only way for them to avoid a prisoner's execution, which is technically true, and many assume that they will start a new life as guild mages, which is also chnically true. It's just that their timespan in that role is intended to be much shorter than they are encouraged to believe.
Once they've gotten their foot in the door within Guild chapters, it is not uncommon for members of the Endurnotkun to take over Sundering duties from the Watch. This is highly desirable for the Watch: Sundering is a discipline of magic and as such it makes them uncomfortable to practice it. With that stripped from their duty list, they can focus on deadening themselves to the effects of magic, which makes them more effective at their jobs. It is more common by far for the Guild mage members to take up Sundering in their stead. As they are already dispatched to capture rogue mages or iconoclasts as it is, and it's already the case that sometimes those encounters do not end peacefully, the mage initiates of the Endornotkun can then bring home bonus Sunderscraps for their masters.
In the case of especially dangerous quarry, such as powerful iconoclasts or infamous rogue mages, special Enddurnotkun hunting parties will be commissioned with the stated aim of taking down threats to Radenor, and the side ambition of harvesting as many sunderscraps as possible. To that end, the ultimate goal of such hunting parties is to bring the targeted mage to the Sunderwell on Lady Byqvist's estate in Northradica. This takes careful planning and the use of specialized magic or drugs to keep the effected mages tranquilized and unable to harm their captors for the duration of the journey, but the rewards can be substantial. Should that prove logistically infeasible or the quarry more dangerous than anticipated, they can be harvested in the field, instead.
Membership & Rules
Members of the Endurnotkun are kept to a strict vow of secrecy about the nature of the program, fearing that if people found out that guild mages were giving criminals magic, however temporarily, it could cause unrest. Members of the Scarlet Watch or sympathetic members of the nobility sometimes wear a calligraphed E pin or signet ring, but just as often, there are no signifiers, rituals, or regular meetings. Each chapter has a high-ranking noble as a sponsor who covers the cost of guarding and transporting the prisoners in return for a cut of the proceeds on the sale and trade of the sunderscraps that are eventually harvested, and either the explicit support of the Guild Chapter's Archon or the deliberate ignorance of someone in power turning a blind eye to something they don't want to deal with. Guild mages who are members train the criminals in the requisite magic that is to be their eventual output, and Scarlet Watch members guard the floor they are kept on as a special assignment from either the Noble patron or the Archon, depending on the setup at the Chapter in question.
Motivations for the lower-ranking members vary. For the Scarlet Watch members, it is about increasing the supply of sunderscaps availble as a means of defense against rogue mage attacks. For Guild Mages, it can be done for kick backs, to strengthen Radenor, or academic interest. The Sunderer's motivation is often the most straightforward: membership provides an opportunity to ply their craft on a captive audience.
Other than secrecy, there are few rules to being a member of the Endurnotkun. Prisoners are to be treated no worse once they've been initiated than they would be in prison, though in Radenor, this is not a high bar to clear. Sunderscraps are to be remanded into the care of the Endornotkun leadership as soon as is feasible so that they can be crafted into an artifact, traded, or sold as desired.
Ranks
Initiate: The lowest and most common rank within the organization. Most members do not progress beyond this rank, instead leveraging their position in the society for promotion within the Watch or Guild chapter to which they belong. Initiates, including any nobility who wish to join, are sworn in by the ranking member of the Guild or Watch within their chapter, then are set to work pretty immediately. The expectation on Initiates, especially non-nobles
Warden: Wardens lead a cell of Initiates in the acquisition of sunderscraps. There can be multiple Wardens within a Guild chapter depending on the scale of the Endurnotkun operation within it. Wardens may meet one another and discuss how their efforts are progressing, but they are discouraged from extensive cross-group chatter, or from knowing the identity of the Initiates reporting to other Wardens. Extensive skill in Cryptography is necessary to be a Warden, as all necessary records, budgets, schedules, and receipts relating to the organization are kept in code, and are only kept for as long as they are necessary.
Sponsor: High-ranking members of the nobility who make the whole program possible, Sponsors do not really exist within the hierarchy of the Endurnotkun, but rather parallel to it. Sponsors are vetted by existing Sponsors, and are treated as business partners in what is essentially a venture to acquire rare magical goods for their corner of Radenor. Sponsors are charged with finding buyers for the scraps and for otherwise covering the operational costs associated with the program via generous donations to the Guild Chapter in return for things like a dedicated floor within the tower, control over who guards the floor, and so forth. In some cases, a high-ranking Guild Mage can act as a Sponsor for a time, but their hampered freedom and hindered contact with the outside world limits their effectiveness. Members of the Scarlet Watch may also act as a Sponsor in some cases, but struggle due to not having connections to other members of the gentry.
Stewardess: Lady Byqvist's straightforward name for herself. All Wardens and Sponsors report to her. She oversees the books, reviews the inputs and outputs of each chapter, and makes adjustments to production as supply and demand necessitates. She personally sees to the promotion of Wardens and vets all Sponsors before they are allowed to perform their duties.
Influence
Being an Initiate or Warden within the Endornotkun does not convey any special significance or privilege so much as it conveys a philosophical understanding that undesirable people in society are subhuman who are better off being turned into Sunderscraps than remaining alive. Members of the Scarlet Watch and even Guildmages within the faction are likely to have less reformist leanings than is popular in Radenor, and to doubt that rehabilitation of some (or perhaps more than some) undesirables is possible. Extremists within the organization may hold that all mages should be sundered, or that mages should be subject to enhanced restrictions even compared to what they already undergo in Radenor.
As with all secret societies, however, members do help one another. A mage or a guard may find that they are promoted more quickly if they are a member of the order, simply because one of the goals of the order is to stack higher-ranking institutions with like-minded people.
