The Citadel

The Citadel are a shadowy organisation that operates primarily in Osuvanne. They are purported to be the foreign espionage organisation of The Kingdom of Sudvanne.

The Citadel
Information
Leader	Unknown
First Appeared	Session 1
Locations
Unknown
Meta
Campaign	Campaign 2

Rumours

Many rumours swirl around the name of the Citadel, the sordid mystique allowing the group to utilise the fear of the general public who fear the bogeyman of legend almost as much as their abilities in the fields of combat and trickery. It is believed by the peasantry of The Kingdom of Sudvanne that the Citadel is forever vigilant, always watching the populace for signs of sedition and treason, whilst also keeping the borders to the north and east secure and safe from invasion. Whilst regular forces are also well trained and capable, the standard soldier is potentially afraid of the Citadel.

Membership rites of the group are murky at best, with rumours of torture, imprisonment and escape required before truly graduating from a training group. Upon completion of a series of tasks, members of the Citadel are expected to continue to fulfil contracts that are communicated to them in various ways, such as:

Fduvdncww rk lri ys qagbw kqrn zj viwbg ps yzv Unvalvs eayve ca pkzit yzv qeagz, lm xpnh ibvigwz ekc hdegyv xpunj lr koew zqu qcgfvqi vsz rasfh vw a sspmn. Rfjnwtcvqe jo hsakjk.

—Unknown, A discarded note, signed by a rune of a falling feather and a solitary tower.

The more fanciful rumours and myths of the citadel focus on an entity known in the folklore as "The Wings of The Citadel". These tales detail the exploits of a handpicked few who have served the Citadel in extreme situations and done so with no fear of failure and with a fervour unmatched. Membership of this subsect of the organisation is sparse, with it believed that there is only one or two such agents given this honour by the leadership. It is perhaps fitting that the stories act as much as a international deterrent as the actual events.

History

To consider the Citadel as merely an organisation of thieves and brigands is to woefully misunderstand the function of the foreign reach of the Kingdom of Sudvanne. Since the founding of the kingdom, there has been a need for a particular set of skills that only the Citadel can provide: a truly remarkable group that is as capable as it is deniable - a nightmare of truly magnificent intent.

Organisational Structure

A lot of the purported structure of the Citadel is misunderstood by external scholars. The amount of misinformation regarding the stability and function of the Citadel is often believed to be the work of the organisation itself. However, most of the northernmost state of Osuvanne believe the that the Citadel, if they indeed exist, exist to fulfil a secretive assortment of espionage, sabotage, assassination and similar missions for the Kingdom of Sudvanne. To this end they believe that it has a feudal structure like an army, with clear lines of command from a central point, branching out towards agents in the field. Whilst this theory is tested by current political affairs within Blademarket and Dwardle, it is unsure whether the hypothesis is correct!

Functional cells

It is supposed that Citadel agencies run as individual cells with small support networks that will aid and abet the actions of members of the organisation. Communicating in codes, it is suggested that the organisation has several methods to confirm the membership of people, be it from the language of the land - a form of communication similar to Thieves' Cant - to more invasive methods possibly involving the arcane. Insofar as it can be categorically proved, no such arcane rites have ever been attributed to Citadel agents outside the official decrees of the Free Republic of Volfor. If the most believeable supposition is correct, the Citadel would have several agents embedded in various towns throughout the continent, and these local actors would provide support for any vagrant agents that travelled through. These mobile groups may be small groups - suggested that there are usually groups of three in some Citadel Iconography - but the static personnel may be sleeper agents for some time, and may lead normal law abiding lives until the time comes.

Members

Suspected members of the Citadel are:

• Paddy Vren
• Ember