Since Varisia is a land without a king or any government on a larger than local scale, the land is controlled by seven guilds instead.
Each of these guilds has a role to play in running the land, although they might not always see eye to eye.
Grey Senate
Also known as the High Judges, the Grey Senate is Varisia’s ostensible government. The guild considers itself to be the mediator and controller of all other guilds’ activities, even though most of its countless decrees are largely ignored. The Grey Senate does wield real power, and other guilds are aware that if the Senate had their way, they would be in charge over the entire land. The Senate’s reach has waxed and waned depending on economics, cultural trends, and other guilds’ activities.
Members of the Grey Senate reside within the Partherion, the Palace of Law. The entire palace is more like a huge maze with countless hallways and rooms.
Members of the Grey Senate claim that only those with their hearts and minds set on the goal of pursuing justice and upholding the law are able to find their
way in the Partherion.
Isperia, Law Incarnate
Sphinxes are aloof beings that value solitude above all. Isperia decided that the need for her service trumped her own preferences.
Isperia is advised by three arbiters, each representing one of the “Columns” of the Grey Senate: the Jelenn Column,
which makes the laws; the Lyev Column, which enforces the laws; and the Sova Column, which judges the law-breakers.
Soldiers of the Grey Senate are a few, but are some of the greatest warriors in the land. The best of the best are simply called Judges. Judges are Isperia's right hand
men and women, those most faithful and obedient. They do special tasks such as exterminating organizations whose powers and influence grow too strong and they do so
to prevent another guild from rising, thus maintaining the balance of power in Varisia.
Obzediath, the Guild of Deals
The Obzediath guild is founded on the beliefs that wealth is power, that structure breeds wealth, and that guilt creates structure. The guild is run like a combination religion, credit-lending agency, and crime syndicate. An ostentatious hierarchy of priests, enforcers, and ghostly councilors rules over a congregation of guilt-bound loyalists, indebted undead, and thrull servants. Many Obzediath guild members truly believe that their rule is necessary for making Varisia the best it can be, and they are unscrupulous in their methods of seizing power. Most Varisians see the Obzediath for the corrupt organization they are, but many are lured in by their promises of wealth, prestige, and longevity.
The guildhall of the Obzediath is Orzhova, sometimes called the Church of Deals. It’s a lavish cathedral with soaring ceilings, designed to make anyone who enters it feel insignificant and out-of-scale by comparison. Overblown stained glass windows and oversized marble statues depict an array of wealthy bishops, enforcer angels, and guild-affiliated ghosts. Orzhova is the site of the most impressive Obzediath ceremonies and rituals, including the Obzediath’s weekly address to its ranks.
The Ghost Council of Obzedat
The Obzediath guild is ruled by the Obzedat, a council of ghostly autocrats who have maintained their wealth and power even as they’ve shed their mortal forms. Members of the Obzedat have managed to cheat mortality, maintaining their consciousness (and their greed) beyond the threshold of death. They are paranoid and spiteful dictators, often going out of their way to thwart ambitious underlings, crush rumormongers, and spy on potential enemies.
Sylvania Conclave
The Sylvania guild sees itself as the voice of Primarium, a mysterious consciousness they believe to be the manifestation of nature itself. All within the guild are considered mouthpieces of that singular voice, and they seek to expand their guild by evangelizing their message and adding members. The Sylvania message is personal as well as public: individuals must silence their own consciousness in order to hear the will of their guildmaster, a three-headed dryad who is the spiritual transmitter of Primarium.
The guild’s goal is to subsume the identities of individual members, transforming them into instruments of the Conclave. Sylvania has an immense reach. The guild is spread across Varisia. Each settlement, called a vernadi, is a small commune built around a central tree and led by a dryad leader. The vernadi expand outward from Vitu-Ghazi, and all are connected through an underground network of roots.
Trostani
The three-headed dryad Trostani rules the guild from the massive tree known as Vitu-Ghazi. However, the Sylvania would say that she is ultimately led by the will of Primarium. The three heads of Trostani each embody a particular Selesnya value: order, life, and harmony.
Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree.
Although Sylavians believe power is not centered in any one location, the massive tree of Vitu-Ghazi serves as the focus and guildhall of the Sylvania guild. Other communes reflect the perfect form and structure of Vitu-Ghazi, and its trunk acts as a cathedral for worshippers from all around Varisia. Vitu-Ghazi is located in Magnimar.
Supreme Legion
The Supreme Legion is the guild of righteous law and fierce justice. The most formidable military force in Varisia, the Supreme Legion are efficient, self-assured, and zealous in the pursuit of their ideals. The Supreme Legion believe passionately in law; to them it is the structure by which society functions and the road map for the community’s health and safety.
Anything that violates the letter of the law, threatens the spirit of the law, or obstructs the enforcement of the law is considered an enemy of the Supreme Legion. In effect, anyone who disagrees with the Legion is an enemy of the Legion.
Aurelia: the Belligerence behind the Legion.
The current guild leader is Aurelia, a ferocious archangel who ascended through the Legion ranks. Aurelia is an active, forceful leader who is
directly involved with her underlings. She has urged the Legion to adopt her impassioned ideals and to take action to enforce them.
Sunhome is the central guildhall of the Legion, acting as fortress, barracks, and place to worship their gods.
Widely believed to be a nearly impregnable monolith, Sunhome is a symbol of the Supreme Legion’s strength and unity.
Shadowpact
In the dark, slick corridors of the undercity lurks the unfathomable network of the Shadowpact guild.
Shadowpact is Varisia’s dark but open secret: the populace knows Shadowpact exists but they pretend it doesn’t. The Shadowpact’s role in Varisia is to provide
covert services that other guilds can’t or won’t, using their secrecy as both weapon and defense.
Shadowpact is hidden even from itself, using pockets of covert agents who are aware of only a few other contacts.
Shadowpact agents leave no trace, destroying memories of witnesses to their crimes, and even going so far as to eliminate their own memories of their assignments.
Lazav, the Shadowpact Mastermind
Lazav is a shapeshifting mage who serves as the nexus of telepathic impressions of the entire Shadowpact network.
He (or she, or it) shapeshifts into a variety of guises as his needs and plans require.
Duskmantle has been recreated in a new location deep within the Magnimar undercity, shielded by memory wards.
Few know of the existence of this Shadowpact nerve center, and even fewer know how to locate it. Many who learn the way lose that memory soon after.
Xelor, Ministry of Prospect
The Xelor are obsessive experimenters, the epitome of keen creative intellect combined with an unfortunately short attention span.
The original mandate of the Xelor was to provide solutions for public works projects (sewers, boilers, roadways), but their experiments often
produce mana geysers, spatial rifts, or arcane portals instead.
As of late, their guildmaster, the dracogenius Niv, has driven the Xelor to delve deeper and
deeper into more dangerous and experimental magic. The purpose of these experiments is unknown.
Niv, Dracogenius, the Firemind
Niv, the leader and original parun of the Xelor, is an ancient, vain, temperamental, and super-intelligent dragon.
Niv rarely stops to concern himself with the day-to-day running of the guild, preferring to craft long-range plans and
let his underlings implement the details. Niv uses his personal court, the Izmundi, to guide his machinations and to keep
him abreast of the happenings in the wider world. The Izmagnus are the most powerful members of the Izmundi, which typically
has five to seven members, including some whose identities are kept secret. Even members of the Izmagnus are not
privy to Niv’s highest-level plans and goals.
Nivix, Aerie of the Firemind, is the home of Niv and the central guildhall of the Xelor. Nivix is a massive tower, comparable in size to Partherion.
Every level of the tower houses Xelor alchemists, mages, and sages who are constantly theorizing, experimenting, and tossing miscalculated experiments across rooms.
The very top of the tower is of course the aerie of Niv himself. Though none of the experimentations of the tower’s residences seem connected,
the great dragon treats them all as if they were part of one grand experiment.
Savag
The Savag are a loose affiliation of savage clans who squat in Varisia’s alleyways, abandoned zones, and overgrown ruins.
The main purpose of Savag is to provide food. They are a guild of hunters who believe in the survival of the fittest.
Warfare among the Savag is constant and almost ritualistic; the Savag believe that only the strong should survive and rule.
The Savag are the most anti-civilization and disenfranchised of all of Varisia’s guilds, and as such are the most ill at ease in the cities.
Borborygmos, Alpha of the Clans.
Though no Savag clan leader has ever managed to dominate or unify all the clans, one is spoken of in reverential tones: Borborygmos.
An unusually massive cyclops and the savage leader of the Burning-Tree Clan, Borborygmos “smashes his enemies into paste, then uses that paste to polish his boots,”
as the saying goes. Borborygmos has defended his position as the Savag’s mightiest clan leader for several decades now and has killed many upstarts.
But though he’s still an extraordinary warrior, Borborygmos is beginning to show his age. The challenges to his leadership have become more frequent and his victories more narrow.
Skarrg, the Reunion Turf.
In the gutted, cratered remains of a massive palace, a great bonfire burns, marking a place of tradition for the Savag. S
karrg is not exactly neutral ground for the Savag clans, as no truce is called, and old grudges tend to lead quickly to bloody combat.
But Savag clans periodically converge on Skarrg from every corner of Varisia. Giant boars are roasted and great battles are fought,
and here the Savag find something akin to nirvana.
