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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9887858" data-attributes="member: 6750502">Chapter 3: Meet the Resistance, Part 3 <img src="https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/c427cc3ac04e.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 669px" /><a href="https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/renus-art-thingies.8753/page-47#post-12794416" target="_blank">Artwork by Renu of Sufficient Velocity Forums</a>Old Kings: The Dragonarmies' ruthlessness in conquering Ansalon saw the destruction and displacement of many governments and ways of life. The nobility who didn't bend the knee were killed off or forced into exile, and news of their displacement spread westward with them. This got to the point that many realms came together to form the Whitestone Council on the Isle of Sancrist in order to discuss ways of countering the Dragonarmies. They were a diverse assortment, made up of Solamnic Knights, Ergothian gentry, elven dynasties, and dwarven thanes to name just a few cultures represented. They did manage to come together in forming a proposed Whitestone Army that would sweep across the mainland, with Solamnia the first of many realms to be liberated. Unfortunately, the devastating defeat at the Battle of the High Clerist's Tower meant that such a plan never came to fruition.With the loss of the best military minds among the free peoples of Ansalon, many nobles withdrew their funding for the proposed army, with some even surrendering to the Dragonarmies. A shadow of itself, the remaining dynasties opposed to the Dragon Empire repurposed their funds to other projects besides traditional battlefield warfare. Known as the Old Kings, this faction represents the former aristocracies of Ansalon who lost their holdings at the hands of Takhisis' faithful and wish to restore their thrones. After Sancrist's invasion and subsequent razing by the Red and Blue Dragonarmies, the Old Kings went metaphorically underground, retreating to remote fortresses and estates. The Knights of Solamnia, who were also headquartered at Sancrist, suffered such heavy losses at the High Clerist's Tower that they were more or less absorbed into this faction.Despite losing much of their ancestral lands, the Old Kings still have a good amount of wealth and influence, which they dedicate towards weakening the Dragon Empire in order to reclaim what was taken from them. Some of the more innovative havens make use of gnomish technology and magical wards from the Wizards of High Sorcery. Already designed to weather conventional invaders, their remoteness can make one forget that the rest of Ansalon is firmly under Evil's boot.The above factors, combined with a growing nostalgia among more oppressed citizens of pre-Imperial times, is the faction's major strength. Its weakness is that in being made up of disparate cultures and dynasties, the Old Kings have a tendency to be small-picture. Some members focus on the liberation of their own regions and provinces as the end-game, rather than the Dragon Empire's destruction or the liberation of Ansalon as a whole. There's also the fact that much of Ansalon during the Age of Despair was filled with misery and hardship, and while the Dragon Empire is worse, those skeptical of the faction feel that returning to the status quo won't solve the problem of how their realms got taken over by Evil in the first place.VIPs: Solostaran Kanan, the former leader of Qualinesti, was one of the founding members of what would become the Old Kings. Although he has since passed away, his corpse is kept magically preserved, with wizards part of the royal bloodline using Speak with Dead to communicate with him on various matters. While not a political leader himself, the gnomish weaponsmith known as Gatling invented an automatic crossbow siege weapon that turned the tide in several key insurgencies. He continues to work on various other inventions for the faction. Sir Daviter the Wise is technically the highest-ranking Knight of Solamnia. But having only been officially knighted around a decade ago during the beginning of the Dark Queen's War, he lacks the experience of older, more established figureheads who are now mostly either dead or disgraced. He acts less like a traditional knight and more of a guerilla scout, traveling across western Ansalon to make contact with various cells.Major Bases: Most of the Old Kings operate out of western Ansalon, as that geographic region was the last to fall to the Dragonarmies during the Dark Queen's War. Support for them is heaviest in Northern Ergoth, whose vassal prince is not very popular among traditionalist nobility and whose people are particularly prideful in preserving their traditions, as well as the dwarven kingdom of Thorbardin which is still free of Dragonarmy control. Their hold in Solamnia is mixed. For one, the Knights of Solamnia weren't very popular in their home realm, and Sturm Brightblade's retreat during the Battle of the High Clerist's Tower cemented perception of them as a dying and outdated order in the eyes of many. Despite sharing a common language and culture, Solamnia's many provinces and noble families work at cross-purposes. The Old Kings' actions in the realm just as often target rival nobility as they do the Blue Dragonarmy proper, even if said nobles aren't entirely allied with the Empire.Practical Goals: While the form and politics can differ depending upon region, the Old Kings overall seek the reclamation of their ancestral holdings and their reinstatement as heads of state. Unlike some of the other factions who want to outright destroy or take over the Dragon Empire (such as the Hidden Light or Draconic Ascendancy, respectively), the Old Kings prioritize preserving and reviving their lands first and foremost. If this means fighting the Dragon Empire to a stalemate and claiming choice territory vs a longer, protracted war, the faction's leaders more or less be in favor of this. Some lands might have to be given up and its people left to live under tyranny, but is rationalized as a grim fact of the world. There will always be tyrants and warmongerers, one noble might say, so containing them is more realistic and less costly in wealth and blood than their total destruction.Allying with the Dragon Empire has been considered but largely dismissed. This is partly because the Empire's growing institution of clerics means having to share power with a spell-wielding religious bloc; partly because the actual power wielded by noble families differs wildly based on the particular region and Dragonarmy; and partly because most of the Old Kings' leadership are made up of realms that fought the hardest against the Dragonarmies, and thus their families have large bounties on their heads in Imperial territory.Ideological Goals: The Old Kings don't have much of a unifying ideology besides the vague feudal conservatism that appeals to tradition where society is governed by a class of people determined by bloodline and/or similar dynastic connections. Many faction members speak of the nobility as protectors of the realm, where those they protect serve them in exchange for this vigilance. The Dragonarmies are thus cast as despoilers of civilization, the proverbial raiders at the gate who seek to deprive law-abiding folk of what they built with their own blood, sweat, and tears.The Old Kings tend to be skeptical of the true gods and divine spellcasters due to generations' worth of antipathy wrought from the Cataclysm and the Empire of Istar. During the Age of Despair, duels between church and state remained mostly economic and political without throwing magic into the mix, as most religions worshiped gods that didn't exist or didn't use gods at all. Wizards were similarly distrusted due to their powers being another tool that can be wielded against them. Now that they've fallen from grace, more than a few nobles have come around to relaxing their attitudes against spellcasters, and the Old Kings have helped shelter and fund many mages from the Dragonarmies and other threats. Some even promised revising laws and granting mages lands of their own once they reclaim their thrones. Many spellcasters are quite aware that this is opportunistic, but the Old Kings pay well. And if they win, they can pay them even more!<img src="https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/19dc73cf78dd.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 564px" /><a href="https://www.ign.com/articles/rebel-wolves-new-studio-witcher-cyberpunk-unreal-engine-5" target="_blank">Concept Art from Rebel Wolves video game</a>Sylvan Guard: The wild lands of Ansalon are regarded as particularly magical places. Even the elves, who lived for countless mortal lifetimes among the great and deep forests, unearthed only a fraction of their secrets. When the Dragonarmies burned Qualinost and conducted unholy rituals beneath the mountains of central Ansalon, when Lorac resorted to using a Dragon Orb to defend the Silvanesti people, it wasn't only the animals and mortal civilizations who wept at what was lost. There are many entities who hail from places beyond and before Krynn, who watch mortals from afar and whose very essence brims with magic. Some are servants of the gods, such as the Forestmaster of the Darken Wood, while others rage against them and seek the end of all things, such as the ur-god Chaos who futilely lashes to this day against his prison in the Graygem of Gargath.When elves and elf-blooded people were forcibly deported to Silvanesti en masse, they learned that they were not the only ones imprisoned within Lorac's Nightmare. The fey, who often lived close yet apart to them, were fighting all the same against dream-spawned horrors. The goddess Chislev knew that what happened here could happen elsewhere on Krynn, and empowered people with the gift of divine magic to reclaim nature from the Dragon Orb's foul magic. And while not directly affected by the Nightmare, the deserts of neighboring Khur were home to elementals and genies who could similarly empower mortals in much the same way that the fey did with the elves. And as Khur suffered greatly under the Dragonarmies, it was full of people who looked to the south and sought to find help beyond the reach of mere mortals.The Sylvan Guard was born from druids of Chislev and warlocks who entered into pacts with various immortal entities to better fight the Dragonarmies. They do have many non-magical members aiding the mages in various ways. The faction spread quickly beyond just southeastern Ansalon, as their command of the natural world and unnatural forces provides for travel and communication that even clerics and wizards envy. Druidic serves as both a lingua franca and code tongue for communication between members, while the use of animal and elemental minions provides much in the way of subterfuge and insurgency that even the Dragonarmies aren't typically prepared for. Spells such as Air Bubble, Animal Messenger, Goodberry, and Pass Without Trace can let someone survive comfortably in desolate conditions and communicate with other cells with minimal risk. Meanwhile, a warlock's penchant for at-will spells and particular Invocations can make them more effective for subterfuge than even most enchanter and illusionist wizards.While many are grateful for the Sylvan Guard's help, there's fear of what prices and favors their patrons exact or will exact from them. Some communities in Silvanesti fear that their patrons might actually be entities spawned from the dreamscape and seek to escape the forest's boundaries. Due to this, some cells are predominantly made up of one type of spellcaster, with druids distrusting warlocks and warlocks disagreeing with the druid's focus on nature.VIPs: Alhana Starbreeze is the leader of the Silvanesti elves, who not only sponsors the Sylvan Guard, she became a warlock herself as part of an alliance with the fey of the forest. Winter Willow is a Kagonesti druid who travels the shores of the New Sea in central Ansalon, living in a hidden grove where he teaches others in the ways of the druid. The Silver Fox is a prominent rebel and half-elf ranger who operates out of the city of Flotsam and is something of a folk hero among the elven and Khurish people. Kronn-alin Thistleknot serves a similar role as resistance fighter for the kender of Goodlund. While he currently lacks magical abilities, Kronn is proving to be a fast learner under the Silver Fox's guidance.Major Bases: The Sylvan Guard only has a few major centers of operation in southeast Ansalon, with the majority of them within Silvanesti. In this land, they serve more as community militias and caravan guards protecting people from dreamspawned dangers. Reclaiming regions from the Nightmare is a more extensive endeavor, usually done alongside elite soldiers such as the Windriders (griffon-mounted warriors that exist among the three major elven races) and the Kirath (Silvanesti's special forces). Outside of Silvanesti, the Sylvan are spread out and consistently on the move, sometimes traveling with friendly nomadic groups and sheltering in the barns and houses of anti-Imperial citizens. In the city of Flotsam, they dispense Goodberries to orphans and widows who lost their families to the Dragonarmies, and more than a few members spend much of their time wild-shaped into common domestic animals such as cats and hawks in order to better keep an eye on patrolling soldiers.Practical Goals: The Sylvan Guard view the machinations of Takhisis' Dragonarmies as a grave threat to nature, and take action to oppose their exploitation of the land. Due to their founding in Silvanesti, many act to heal that land. Although Lorac Caladon's spirit has been freed from the Dragon Orb, it will take many years to undo the Nightmare. Given the varied nature of warlock patrons, individual Guard members often undertake duties in line with their magical provider. One allied with a dryad might sow the seeds of her tree in the most pristine and safe areas of the forest, while a djinni patron might task a warlock with protecting their janni offspring.Ideological Goals: With so many members worshiping Chislev and other nature deities, the Sylvan Guard emphasizes maintaining a respectful, non-exploitative approach to nature's many bounties. Teaching people how to live off the land without damaging it long-term, approaching elementals and fey with caution and respect, and acting against industrialization and magic that can warp the environment are all common virtues. When it comes to government and more secular matters, the Sylvan Guard doesn't have a unified perspective. As long as civilizations don't violate the earlier ethos, the Guard and its patrons aren't overly concerned with how mortals set up their leaders and laws.</blockquote>

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