Forces of Evil

23.07.2026 @ 2000

The Veiled Tribunal

Lawful Evil, Secret Inquisitorial Conspiracy
Truth Requires No Witness.

Representative: The Masked Judge, identity unknown
Symbol: A silver eye covered by a black veil.

Purpose

The Veiled Tribunal is a secret order of judges, interrogators, spies, and renegade Inquisitors who believe justice cannot survive public scrutiny, legal restraint, or mortal weakness.

The Tribunal was founded in 734 by exiled members of the Grand Inquisition who believed crowns, courts, and temples had become too corrupt to judge themselves. They abandoned open trials and began investigating, condemning, and punishing suspects entirely in secret.

Its members believe everyone possesses hidden guilt. Innocence merely means that the correct evidence has not yet been found. The Tribunal therefore treats privacy, mercy, and legal protection as obstacles used by the corrupt to escape judgement.

The organisation frequently creates or encourages threats so that it can later expose them. By allowing cults, conspiracies, and political unrest to grow, the Tribunal makes rulers and communities dependent upon its hidden knowledge.

The Articles Behind the Veil

Every recognised member of the Tribunal accepts the Articles Behind the Veil:

• All Guilt Leaves a Mark. Every crime can be uncovered through sufficient investigation.
• Truth Outranks Law. Legal restrictions must not protect the guilty.
• Judgement Requires Secrecy. Public courts invite corruption, intimidation, and deception.
• Mercy Must Be Earned. Forgiveness without confession strengthens evil.
• Fear Reveals the Faithless. Those who fear investigation usually possess something to hide.
• The Judge Must Remain Unknown. A hidden judge cannot be bribed, threatened, or influenced.
• Corruption Must Be Controlled. A contained threat may be preserved if it exposes a greater enemy.

The Articles allow the Tribunal to justify torture, magical coercion, false evidence, secret imprisonment, and execution without appeal.

Work and Crisis Response

The Tribunal infiltrates courts, temples, guilds, noble households, military commands, and legitimate Inquisition chapters. Its agents gather secrets, steal evidence, alter records, and identify people whose removal would strengthen the organisation.

Suspects may be abducted and brought before secret hearings called Silent Judgements. The accused are rarely permitted to know the identity of their judges, witnesses, or accusers.

During crises, the Tribunal attempts to control information rather than directly end the danger. Its agents may conceal a cult, sabotage an investigation, or permit attacks to continue until frightened authorities accept Tribunal assistance.

The sudden murders of nobles in Frankonia and the growth of cults throughout Westalis have renewed fears that the Tribunal is manipulating several current crises at once.

Organisation

The Veiled Tribunal operates through isolated cells called Courts. Most Courts know little about one another and communicate through sealed messages, coded confessions, and masked intermediaries.

Each Court is overseen by three officers:

• A Listener, responsible for spies, informants, and surveillance.
• An Examiner, responsible for interrogation and the collection of evidence.
• A Judge, responsible for verdicts and punishment.

Several Courts may answer to a hidden official called a High Arbiter. High Arbiters are believed to form the Covenant Beneath the Mask, although no reliable list of its members exists.

The Masked Judge communicates with outsiders and issues declarations in the Tribunal’s name. It is not known whether the title belongs to one individual or is shared by several people.

Ranks

1. Whisper: An informant, spy, or minor assistant who gathers secrets for a Court.
2. Listener: A trusted agent authorised to conduct surveillance and recruit informants.
3. Examiner: An investigator permitted to abduct suspects and conduct interrogations.
4. Judge: A senior member authorised to issue verdicts and command a Court.
5. High Arbiter: A hidden leader responsible for several Courts and long-term conspiracies.

Advancement depends upon the secrets a member uncovers and their willingness to act without hesitation or public recognition.

Accountability

The Tribunal does not recognise outside law. Members accused of failure or betrayal are examined by another Court through a process called the Unmasking.

An agent who reveals Tribunal secrets, questions a verdict, or refuses an assigned punishment may be declared Compromised. Compromised agents are treated as evidence that must be erased.

The Tribunal claims its judges are held to higher standards than ordinary rulers. In practice, there is no independent authority capable of challenging their decisions.

Evil Mission Characters

For an evil mission, players may create spies, interrogators, corrupt investigators, masked judges, or infiltrators serving the Veiled Tribunal.

These missions may involve manufacturing evidence, silencing witnesses, infiltrating another faction, protecting a hidden Court, or manipulating a crisis so that the Tribunal gains authority.

Tribunal characters should understand that they serve an organisation built upon secrecy and suspicion. Their superiors may conceal the true purpose of a mission, and any member may become the subject of a future investigation.

The Black Oath

Lawful Evil, Authoritarian Military Order
Peace Through Obedience.

Representative: The Black Marshal, identity concealed beneath the office
Symbol: A black shield crossed by an iron chain.

Purpose

The Black Oath is a militant order of knights, soldiers, governors, and enforcers who believe peace can only exist beneath absolute authority.

It was founded in 818 by Commander Malrec Vayne during the collapse of the Oath Keepers. Vayne taught that divided loyalty, compassion, and respect for local law had weakened the original order. His followers replaced the Compact of White Shields with a single principle: those strong enough to protect a community possess the right to rule it.

The Black Oath suppresses banditry, unrest, political opposition, and local conflict with ruthless efficiency. Roads under its control are often safe, but the people living beside them possess little freedom.

Communities that accept Black Oath protection are expected to provide food, taxes, labour, recruits, and unquestioned obedience. Once established, a Black Oath garrison rarely leaves voluntarily.

The Iron Articles

Every knight of the Black Oath accepts the Iron Articles:

• Order Is Mercy. Harsh rule prevents greater suffering.
• Obedience Preserves Life. Those who follow lawful command will be protected.
• Authority Must Be Visible. Weak rulers invite rebellion and bloodshed.
• One Command, One Purpose. Divided leadership creates disorder.
• The Protected Must Contribute. Every community must support its defenders.
• Rebellion Endangers All. Resistance must be punished before it spreads.
• Peace Has a Price. Freedom may be sacrificed when survival demands it.

The Iron Articles allow Black Oath commanders to present conquest, forced labour, conscription, and execution as necessary acts of protection.

Work and Crisis Response

The Black Oath seeks regions suffering from war, crime, famine, weak government, or civil unrest. Its commanders offer disciplined soldiers and immediate stability in exchange for permanent authority.

Once invited into a territory, the order seizes forts, roads, granaries, armouries, and government buildings. Local soldiers are disarmed or absorbed into Black Oath companies.

During crises, Black Oath forces are effective defenders. They establish curfews, secure supplies, execute looters, suppress panic, and rapidly organise military responses.

The order is currently believed to be recruiting among northern claimants, isolated Frankonian nobles, and settlements abandoned by their rulers. Every new crisis provides it with another opportunity to expand the Ordered Lands.

Organisation

The Black Oath is divided into military territories called Commands. Each Command centres upon a fortress and controls the surrounding settlements, roads, and resources.

A Command is ruled by a Marshal supported by officers responsible for discipline, recruitment, taxation, and military justice.

Local rulers may retain ceremonial titles, but all meaningful authority belongs to the Black Oath commander. Community councils are permitted only when they obey military directives.

The wider order answers to the Black Marshal, who rules from Duskfort. The identity of the Black Marshal is less important than the office, and each successor adopts the same armour and title.

Ranks

1. Ironbound: A recruit who has surrendered former loyalties to the order.
2. Black Shield: A recognised soldier trusted to enforce the Iron Articles.
3. Peacekeeper: An officer responsible for patrols, discipline, and occupied settlements.
4. Commander: A veteran authorised to lead companies and establish garrisons.
5. Marshal: A ruler responsible for a fortress and its surrounding territory.

Rank is granted through obedience, military success, and the ability to impose order upon others.

Accountability

Black Oath members are judged by military tribunals called Courts of Iron. These examine disobedience, cowardice, corruption, and failure to maintain control.

Mercy towards rebels may be treated as weakness. Unnecessary cruelty is punished only when it damages discipline, wastes resources, or provokes resistance without strategic value.

A member who breaks formation, abandons a post, or places personal loyalty above the order may be declared Oathless and hunted by former comrades.

Evil Mission Characters

For an evil mission, players may create Black Oath knights, military governors, enforcers, scouts, or soldiers serving an occupied territory.

These missions may involve suppressing rebellion, seizing a fortress, forcing a settlement to accept protection, hunting deserters, or defeating a threat while ensuring the Black Oath receives control of the rescued territory.

Black Oath characters may genuinely believe they are protecting people. Their evil lies in the belief that safety justifies permanent domination and that those being protected have no right to refuse.

The Black Ledger

Neutral Evil, Clandestine Mercantile Cartel
All Debts Come Due.

Representative: The Auditor, identity unknown
Symbol: A black-bound ledger secured by a golden chain.

Purpose

The Black Ledger is a secret network of lenders, merchants, smugglers, industrialists, and political agents who use debt to control individuals, governments, and entire regions.

It was founded in 885 by traders who had grown wealthy supplying both sides of the Frankonian-Westalian proxy conflicts. Unlike the Foundation, the Black Ledger does not believe trade should create shared prosperity. It believes prosperity should create dependence.

The organisation finances wars, purchases desperate debts, manipulates shortages, and ensures that every crisis benefits its members. It prefers controlling rulers through loans and contracts rather than replacing them openly.

Most Black Ledger agents maintain respectable public identities within banks, companies, guilds, noble courts, or government offices. Many communities depend upon its money without knowing the organisation exists.

The Rules of Account

Every recognised member follows the Rules of Account:

• Everything Has a Price. Loyalty, law, food, and peace can all be purchased.
• Every Gift Creates a Debt. Charity without obligation is wasted profit.
• Never Fund One Side Alone. Security comes from controlling every outcome.
• Need Creates Value. A shortage is an opportunity, not a tragedy.
• Property Outlives Titles. Crowns may fall, but contracts remain.
• Records Are Power. A hidden debt is more valuable than visible wealth.
• Collection Must Be Certain. Unpaid debts weaken every agreement.

The Black Ledger does not distinguish between lawful commerce and organised extortion. A contract is considered legitimate if the organisation possesses the power to enforce it.

Work and Crisis Response

The Black Ledger offers loans to rulers, rebel leaders, merchants, military officers, and communities facing disaster. Its terms initially appear generous, but repayment grants the organisation control over taxes, mines, ports, roads, factories, or public offices.

Agents buy grain before famines, weapons before wars, and land before borders change. They frequently sell supplies to every side of a conflict through separate companies.

During crises, the Ledger may provide essential food, medicine, transport, or soldiers. It then ensures the rescued population remains dependent upon continued assistance.

Although much of its leadership was destroyed during the Battle of Last Hope, surviving foreign branches and hidden accounts are believed to be financing the Northern Crisis, Victorian industrial interests, and expansion into the Central Badlands.

Organisation

The Black Ledger is divided into commercial groups called Accounts. Each Account controls a particular region, industry, government, or chain of debt.

Members rarely use their true names when discussing Ledger business. They identify themselves through titles linked to their function, such as Broker, Collector, Factor, Assessor, or Auditor.

Each Account is maintained by a Keeper who records obligations, favours, bribes, threats, and hidden ownership. Copies of important agreements are stored in several locations so that destroying one ledger cannot erase a debt.

The Auditor represents the organisation in dealings between Accounts. Some believe the Auditor is a council rather than an individual.

Ranks

1. Clerk: A minor agent who records information, moves coin, or observes a target.
2. Broker: A negotiator authorised to arrange loans, purchases, and concealed agreements.
3. Collector: An enforcer responsible for recovering payment or punishing default.
4. Keeper: A senior member who controls an Account and its hidden records.
5. Auditor: A leader trusted to examine Accounts and settle disputes within the organisation.

Members advance by increasing the value and number of obligations controlled by the Ledger.

Accountability

Disputes are examined through Audits. Every decision is judged according to profit, secrecy, and the preservation of the organisation’s influence.

A member who steals from the Ledger may survive by repaying more than was taken. A member who destroys valuable relationships, reveals hidden ownership, or makes a debt impossible to collect is treated far more harshly.

Agents who become liabilities are declared Bad Accounts. Their property, identities, contacts, and families may all be used to recover the organisation’s losses.

Evil Mission Characters

For an evil mission, players may create smugglers, collectors, corrupt merchants, spies, mercenaries, or negotiators serving the Black Ledger.

These missions may involve manufacturing a shortage, collecting an impossible debt, funding rival factions, sabotaging the Foundation, purchasing a government office, or rescuing a community so that it becomes indebted to the Ledger.

Black Ledger characters are encouraged to solve problems through contracts, bribery, leverage, and manipulation. Violence is useful, but a living debtor is usually worth more than a corpse.

The Whispering Envoys

Lawful Evil, Diplomatic Manipulation Network
Every Peace Has Terms.

Representative: The Quiet Ambassador, identity unconfirmed
Symbol: Two clasped hands casting the shadow of a dagger.

Purpose

The Whispering Envoys are diplomats, courtiers, interpreters, spies, propagandists, and political advisers who use negotiation to weaken nations and control the terms of peace.

They present themselves as neutral mediators capable of ending wars, settling successions, and resolving disputes. In truth, they ensure that agreements create dependency, resentment, and future conflict.

The Envoys believe open warfare is wasteful. A carefully written treaty can seize land, destroy an alliance, or place a ruler beneath foreign control without losing a single soldier.

They are considered the dark reflection of the Alliance. Where the Alliance seeks compromises that all sides can survive, the Whispering Envoys seek agreements that appear fair while quietly favouring their chosen master.

The Quiet Principles

Every Whispering Envoy studies the Quiet Principles:

• Never Demand What Can Be Offered. Lead others to surrender willingly.
• Every Side Must Fear the Alternative. Negotiation succeeds when refusal appears worse.
• Peace Must Create Dependence. A settlement should require continued guidance.
• Words Outlive Witnesses. Control the written agreement and history will follow.
• Neutrality Is a Costume. Conceal allegiance until the outcome is secure.
• Secrets Are Stronger Than Armies. A private weakness can move an entire nation.
• Leave One Dispute Unresolved. A perfect peace removes the need for future influence.

The Principles teach that trust is a resource to be cultivated, spent, and eventually betrayed.

Work and Crisis Response

The Whispering Envoys infiltrate embassies, royal courts, treaty councils, merchant delegations, and the offices of the Alliance. They steal correspondence, spread selective rumours, and ensure important negotiations begin from false assumptions.

They may secretly advise several sides at once, offering each a different interpretation of the same agreement. Their preferred victories end with all parties believing they secured the best possible terms.

During crises, Envoys volunteer as mediators, translators, messengers, and advisers. They delay reinforcements, redirect aid, manipulate borders, and create settlements that produce future resentment.

The collapse of the Treaty of Northwatch has led some within the Alliance to suspect that Whispering Envoys influenced the border negotiations or encouraged northern rulers to reject the final settlement.

Organisation

The faction operates through diplomatic cells called Delegations. Each Delegation is assigned to a particular court, conflict, treaty, or international organisation.

Members use legitimate positions and may serve openly as ambassadors, secretaries, interpreters, legal advisers, or peacekeepers. Many do not know the true identities of other Envoys.

Each Delegation is led by a First Secretary who reports through hidden correspondence to a senior figure called a Quiet Ambassador.

The organisation possesses no recognised homeland. Its influence exists within the courts and councils of other nations.

Ranks

1. Listener: An informant who gathers rumours, private statements, and political weaknesses.
2. Secretary: An agent trusted to alter records, manage correspondence, and influence minor negotiations.
3. Envoy: A recognised manipulator capable of conducting diplomatic operations.
4. First Secretary: The leader of a Delegation and architect of major agreements.
5. Quiet Ambassador: A hidden strategist who coordinates international manipulation.

Advancement is earned by controlling negotiations without revealing that control existed.

Accountability

Failure is examined through private reviews called Corrections. The organisation cares less about morality than exposure, damaged influence, and poorly managed consequences.

An Envoy who is publicly identified may be abandoned and denounced as an unauthorised spy. Those who preserve useful secrets may instead be reassigned under a new name.

A member who develops genuine loyalty towards a nation, ruler, or peace process may be declared Compromised and removed before that loyalty interferes with the mission.

Evil Mission Characters

For an evil mission, players may create diplomats, interpreters, spies, court advisers, propagandists, or false mediators serving the Whispering Envoys.

These missions may involve sabotaging a peace conference, manipulating an election, rewriting a treaty, provoking a border dispute, blackmailing a ruler, or ensuring two enemies remain dependent upon Envoy mediation.

Whispering Envoy characters should rarely appear openly villainous. Their success depends upon being considered reasonable, helpful, and trustworthy until the consequences of their agreements can no longer be reversed.

The Demonata

Chaotic Evil, Remnants of the Demonic Host
The Gate Will Open.

Representative: The Voice Beyond the Gate
Symbol: A broken black Gate surrounding a burning red eye.

Purpose

The Demonata are the surviving remnants, descendants, servants, and worshippers of the demonic armies defeated during the Demon War.

Their sole purpose is to restore the Demon King, reopen the great Gate beneath the Fingers Range, and return the mortal world to the dominion of the demonic host.

Some Demonata are true demons stranded when the Gates were sealed. Others are mortal cultists, corrupted creatures, descendants of collaborators, or people transformed through infernal relics and forbidden rituals.

The Demonata do not seek ordinary conquest. They seek the destruction of the ward created by Tomas Berengar, the corruption of the Gate network, and the restoration of the power that almost ended civilisation.

The Promises of Return

Demonata cults preserve different versions of the Promises of Return:

• The King Is Not Dead. The Demon King waits beyond the sealed Gate.
• The Ward Will Fail. No mortal sacrifice can bind eternity.
• The Gates Remember. Every passage still carries the shape of its creator.
• The Faithful Will Be Remade. Those who serve will be transformed rather than destroyed.
• The Heroes Will Be Forgotten. Their names, relics, and descendants must be erased.
• The World Was Already Claimed. Mortal kingdoms are temporary occupations of demonic land.
• The King Will Return. Every sacrifice brings the opening closer.

These promises are used to unite otherwise divided cults, demons, and corrupted warbands.

Work and Crisis Response

The Demonata seek infernal relics, lost Gates, original warding records, descendants of the First Heroes, and any knowledge connected to the Battle of Fingers.

Their cults infiltrate settlements, corrupt magical sites, perform sacrifices, and provoke disasters that weaken the wards protecting the Gate network.

Some Demonata attempt to restore demonic engines or reproduce the weapons used at the Battle of Last Hope. Others seek to corrupt rulers, factions, or Guild officials who possess access to restricted archives.

The rise of cults in Westalis, the attack upon the village at the Foot, and the disappearance of records concerning the First Heroes may all be connected to Demonata activity.

Organisation

The Demonata possess no single mortal hierarchy. They operate through cults, warbands, corrupted bloodlines, and surviving demonic commanders.

Each group interprets the Demon King’s will differently. Some seek immediate destruction, while others hide for generations and work patiently to weaken the ward.

Powerful Demonata leaders are called Harbingers. Each claims to hear the Voice Beyond the Gate and may command lesser cults through dreams, possession, or infernal signs.

The Voice Beyond the Gate is believed to be the Demon King himself, although the Guild cannot confirm whether any message truly passes through Tomas Berengar’s ward.

Ranks

1. Marked: A mortal who has accepted a demonic sign, relic, or pact.
2. Devotee: A cultist trusted to recruit followers and conduct minor rituals.
3. Gateborn: A transformed servant capable of wielding infernal power.
4. Harbinger: A leader who commands cults, demons, or corrupted territories.
5. Voice: A being believed to speak directly for the imprisoned Demon King.

Demonata status is determined by corruption, power, and usefulness to the restoration of the Demon King.

Accountability

The Demonata recognise no justice, law, or protection. Failure is punished through sacrifice, possession, transformation, or consumption by more powerful servants.

Rival cults frequently destroy one another while claiming to follow the same master. The Demon King’s imprisonment prevents any reliable authority from resolving these disputes.

A servant who abandons the Demonata is hunted relentlessly. Xalal’s redemption remains the greatest insult in their history and proof that demonic control can be broken.

Player Characters

Players cannot create characters belonging to the Demonata, even during evil missions.

The Demonata are servants of the campaign’s primary enemy and remain entirely under the Dungeon Master’s control. They are intended to be confronted, investigated, resisted, or escaped rather than played.

Characters may have histories involving demonic corruption, former cult membership, infernal ancestry, or attempted redemption, but they must no longer serve the Demonata when they enter play.