Guild Sites and Leadership

The Heroes Guild operates across nations, borders, and battlefronts. Its influence stretches from crowded imperial cities to distant frontier settlements, but every Guild site ultimately answers to the same authority: the Guild Citadel of Eldengar.

Guild sites generally fall into two categories: Citadels and Guild Halls.

The Guild Citadel

The Guild Citadel is the largest and most important Guild site in the known world. It stands upon the central island of Eldengar and is notable for being the only major non-elven structure permitted within the nation.

More than a fortress, the Citadel is the seat of the Guild’s global authority. Its leaders oversee international operations, identify emerging threats, train new generations of adventurers, and coordinate responses to crises that cross national boundaries.

Every person seeking to formally join the Heroes Guild must first travel to the Citadel. There, an initiate undergoes training before attempting their Confirmation Trial. Only after completing this trial are they recognised as a full Guild adventurer.

Though the Citadel is currently unique, Guild law allows for the construction of additional Citadels should the organisation grow large enough to require them.

Guild Halls

Guild Halls are the smaller and far more numerous sites found throughout the world.

Despite the name, a Guild Hall does not need to be an impressive building. A hall might be a fortified castle, a converted townhouse, a roadside inn, a ship, or little more than a wooden shack on the edge of civilisation.

While the Citadel manages the Guild on a global level, each hall focuses upon the needs of its surrounding region. Guild Halls gather local information, receive requests for assistance, maintain supply routes, and provide adventurers with a place to rest, prepare, and receive assignments.

Some halls also contain a functioning Hero Gate, allowing rapid travel between Guild sites. Where such a gate exists, its security is treated as one of the Guild’s highest priorities.

Guild Leadership

The Heroes Guild maintains a strict chain of command. At its highest level are the mysterious members of the Circle, followed by the Masters, and then the Keepers and Voyage Officers.

Although senior officers are expected to obey the Guild’s command structure, adventurers are generally given considerable freedom in how they complete their missions. The Guild cares greatly about results, but it also understands that no plan survives first contact with a dragon.

The Circle

The Circle is a secretive council of veteran heroes who direct the Guild as a whole.

Its members conceal their identities, even from most Guild officers. This secrecy protects them from enemies who might otherwise target them, their families, or the missions they undertake outside the Guild. It also prevents the Circle’s reputation from becoming more important than its purpose.

Membership is closed, and the Circle rarely gathers in full. When its members do meet, they determine the Guild’s long-term strategies, identify new areas of concern, and decide where its resources should be focused.

Only the Circle possesses the authority to formally declare a Crisis.

A Crisis declaration allows the Guild to redirect adventurers, funds, supplies, and Hero Gate access towards a single emergency. Such declarations are rare and usually indicate a threat capable of destabilising entire regions or nations.

The Masters

The Masters oversee the daily operation of a Guild Citadel and are responsible for the training and development of its adventurers.

There are currently three Masters, each representing one of the qualities upon which the Guild was founded: Strength, Will, and Skill.

Should another Citadel ever be constructed, additional Masters may be appointed to command it.

Gunther, Master of Strength

Gunther is a towering half-giant whose former titles include the Berserker of Dragons and the Butcher of Blood.

His size, booming voice, and fearsome reputation can make him intimidating to new initiates. In truth, Gunther is one of the most sociable figures in the Citadel. He frequently spends his free time in the dormitory common rooms or wandering through the Market Yard, speaking with merchants and adventurers alike.

Gunther believes strength is more than physical power. To him, true strength means accepting responsibility for those who depend upon you.

He commands Bastion House and oversees much of the Citadel’s security. He also hosts a weekly fight club, where adventurers may test themselves against one another under controlled—and supposedly safe—conditions.

Ellian, Master of Will

Ellian is an elderly elf with long white hair, light-purple robes, and a seemingly bottomless satchel of books.

She speaks with absolute authority and has little patience for having her conclusions questioned without good reason. Ellian personally knew several of the First Heroes and frequently invokes their lives, successes, and failures when teaching her students.

Her lessons are famously complex and often bewildering. She expects adventurers to understand not only magic and history, but also how knowledge is communicated. Even newly confirmed adventurers studying beneath her may be required to teach a class at least once each month.

The books currently occupying Ellian’s attention often levitate around her, opening themselves to useful pages as she speaks.

She commands Starlight House, supervises the Guild Archives, and conducts research into magic, history, divination, and threats that cannot be defeated through force alone.

Barron, Master of Skill

The Master of Skill is a halfling known only as Barron.

Barron avoids ceremonies, speeches, and most forms of public attention. He has a habit of appearing where he is least expected and seems to know what everyone in the Citadel is doing at any given moment.

He spends much of his time quietly observing the Citadel or working upon strange contraptions in a private workshop hidden somewhere within the Market Yard.

Barron commands the Twin Towers, though his approach to teaching is far less direct than that of the other Masters. He rarely gives his students clear instructions, preferring to see whether they recognise problems and take action without being asked.

Some adventurers believe this is a lesson in initiative. Others suspect Barron simply enjoys watching people become increasingly paranoid.

Keepers

Every Guild Hall is placed under the authority of an appointed officer known as a Keeper.

A Keeper is responsible for maintaining the hall and supporting Guild adventurers operating within the surrounding region. They establish relationships with local officials, traders, messengers, guides, and communities to ensure that supplies, information, and communications continue to flow.

Keepers also have a duty to the local population. They receive requests for assistance, determine which matters require Guild involvement, and ensure that suitable assignments are made available to adventurers.

Although Keepers may command adventurers during emergencies, their normal responsibilities are primarily civil and administrative. A successful Keeper is often part diplomat, part merchant, part investigator, and part politician.

When a Guild Hall possesses a Hero Gate, its Keeper is personally responsible for the gate’s security and proper use. A deliberate or negligent failure in this duty is considered one of the most serious crimes within the Guild and may be punishable by death.

Voyage Officers

Voyage Officers hold the same formal rank as Keepers, although many Voyage Officers will loudly insist otherwise.

Where a Keeper commands a permanent Guild Hall, a Voyage Officer operates without a fixed base. They are sent into frontier territories, war zones, wilderness regions, and other areas where the Guild lacks reliable infrastructure.

Voyage Officers are less concerned with administration and more concerned with completing specific objectives assigned by the Masters or the Circle. They function much like military commanders, coordinating adventurers and resources in dangerous conditions.

A Keeper may spend months negotiating with local officials to establish a trade route. A Voyage Officer is more likely to cross the mountains, remove whatever is blocking the route, and inform the Keeper that negotiations may now continue.

Both Keepers and Voyage Officers receive a budget to maintain a permanent retinue of adventurers, usually no more than eight at a time.

Voyage Officers are notorious for exceeding these budgets. Their usual defence is that Keepers operate profitable halls, while Voyage Officers are expected to work in places where earning money is rarely possible and surviving the journey is an accomplishment in itself.

The Guild Citadel

The Citadel is both a military bastion and a living community. Its walls contain dormitories, classrooms, workshops, gardens, markets, archives, and training grounds.

Thousands of adventurers have passed through its gates. Some remained for only a few weeks. Others spent their entire lives serving within its walls.

The Dormitories

Guild initiates and adventurers are housed according to their stage of training and the Master under whom they study.

The Wayhouse

The Wayhouse stands outside the Citadel walls beside its stables.

It serves as the dormitory for Guild initiates who have not yet completed their Confirmation Trial. The building is functional but modest, providing beds, meals, and basic training spaces for those still attempting to prove themselves.

Once an initiate completes their Confirmation Trial, one of the three Masters invites them to join a dormitory within the Citadel walls. The invitation is traditionally considered an indication of the qualities that the Master believes the adventurer possesses, or needs to develop.

Bastion House

Bastion House is commanded by the Master of Strength. Its lower level consists of a large barracks, while two medium-sized towers rise above it and connect directly to the Citadel’s main gate.

Adventurers housed within Bastion House share responsibility for the Citadel’s security and maintenance. Their duties may include patrolling the walls, inspecting defences, assisting with repairs, or responding to disturbances within the grounds.

Gunther also maintains a rotating security retinue within the house. Adventurers appointed to this duty serve for six months and are ordinarily forbidden from accepting outside quests during that period. Their sole responsibility is the defence of the Citadel and those within it. For some, this appointment is an honour. For others, it is six months of watching walls while their companions travel the world.

Starlight House

Starlight House stands close to the Citadel itself. It is a large, L-shaped building attached to the outer wall, with a western tower surpassed in height only by the Citadel’s three central towers.

The ground floor contains classrooms, lecture halls, and a small alchemical workshop. The first and second floors contain dormitories for adventurers studying beneath the Master of Will.

At the tower’s highest point is the Starlight Observatory, a chamber used for astronomy, astrology, divination, and the observation of unusual magical phenomena.

Access to the alchemical workshop and observatory is restricted. Adventurers are normally granted private access only when assisting with one of Ellian’s research projects. Those who do receive access are advised not to touch anything unless specifically instructed.

The Twin Towers

The Twin Towers form the fourth and final dormitory complex. They sit across the inner and outer walls along the Citadel’s southern flank, close to the gardens. Adventurers studying beneath the Master of Skill are housed here.

Unlike Bastion House and Starlight House, the Twin Towers contain no formal training grounds and impose few obvious duties upon their residents. Barron instead expects his adventurers to use their own judgement, identify problems, and find ways to make themselves useful.

Whether this apparent freedom is genuine remains the subject of considerable debate. Residents of the Twin Towers are rumoured to swear an oath of secrecy before entering. Those who live there refuse to confirm whether such an oath exists.

The Sally Ports

Bastion House, Starlight House, and the Twin Towers each contain a hidden sally port known only to their residents. These concealed passages serve as emergency entrances and exits, allowing adventurers to enter or escape the Citadel if its main gates are blocked or compromised. Revealing the location of a dormitory’s sally port to an outsider is considered a serious breach of Guild security.

Citadel Facilities

The Greenhouse

The Greenhouse is one of the Citadel’s newest additions. Concerned about increasing instability throughout the world, Barron and Ellian combined their expertise to create a facility capable of helping the Citadel become self-sustaining.

The Greenhouse produces food, medicinal plants, alchemical ingredients, and several crops capable of growing in otherwise unsuitable conditions. Although presented as a practical agricultural project, some adventurers suspect the Masters are preparing for a situation in which the Citadel may be cut off from the outside world for an extended period.

The Grand Hall

The Grand Hall is a vast gilded chamber situated at the western edge of the Citadel, overlooking the sea. Its painted ceiling depicts the Battle of Fingers and the founding of the Heroes Guild. Eight towering stained-glass windows honour the First Heroes who established the organisation after the Demon War.

The hall is used for major ceremonies, important announcements, diplomatic gatherings, and memorial services. It is also where newly confirmed adventurers are formally welcomed into the Guild. Standing beneath the painted heroes is intended to remind every Guild member that heroism is not a title inherited from the past, but a responsibility passed to those who follow.

The Market Yard

The Market Yard was once a simple courtyard. It has since grown into a crowded district of workshops, shops, stalls, and small buildings contained within the Citadel walls.

The Guild leases these spaces to craftspeople, merchants, and specialists whose services are considered beneficial to its adventurers. Armourers, scribes, alchemists, tailors, cartographers, and magical artisans can all be found within the yard.

A small number of apartments are also available to rent, providing the Guild with an additional source of income. Fully trained Guild members receive a modest discount, although vacancies are rare and often contested.

Somewhere within the Market Yard is Barron’s private workshop. Many have searched for it. Those who claim to have found it rarely agree on where it was.

The White House

The White House is the oldest structure within the Citadel grounds, having stood long before the Heroes Guild was founded. Its doors and windows are boarded shut, and entry is forbidden. The Masters insist that the building is structurally unsafe. This explanation has done little to discourage rumours.

Initiates have claimed to see lights moving behind the boards, hear footsteps from within, or notice that the building appears to have more windows on one side than the other. The official Guild position remains simple: the White House is unsafe, closed, and not to be entered.

The Archives

The Guild Archives form an enormous five-storey library attached directly to the Citadel. The collection contains historical records, maps, expedition reports, magical research, monster studies, religious texts, personal journals, and accounts of Guild operations from across the world.

A powerful antimagic effect covers the entire structure, suppressing spells and magical items within its walls. This protection prevents magical damage, theft, and tampering, although it can make research uncomfortable for creatures accustomed to relying upon magic.

Ellian enforces a strict set of library rules. Floating scrying eyes patrol the shelves, observing visitors and reporting violations directly to her. The Archives also extend deep below ground. Their lowest two floors are forbidden to all but the Masters and the Circle. No public catalogue acknowledges what is stored there.

Hope’s Rest

Hope’s Rest once served as the Citadel’s original gatehouse. It has since been converted into a hospital serving both Guild members and the surrounding population. Its healers treat injuries, diseases, curses, and magical afflictions brought back from Guild expeditions. The hospital also trains field medics and maintains emergency supplies for regional disasters.

Although adventurers receive priority during a Guild emergency, Hope’s Rest does not turn away civilians merely because they lack coin or status. Its name comes from an old Guild saying:

Where courage fails, hope must rest until it can rise again.

The Perch

The Perch is a large tower extending from the Citadel towards the sea. It is primarily used as a training ground, particularly for exercises involving climbing, flight, ranged combat, and dangerous terrain. Strong winds and crashing waves make even basic drills more difficult than they first appear.

The Perch is also used for celebrations, including those held when adventurers complete their training and are granted permission to undertake unrestricted Guild assignments. Many adventurers remember the view from the Perch as the moment their life within the Guild truly began.

The Gardens

The Citadel Gardens were once entirely ornamental, filled with decorative plants, fountains, statues, and carefully maintained pathways. A change in Guild doctrine has transformed much of the space. Decorative plants have been replaced with food crops, medicinal herbs, training areas, and other practical resources intended to support the Citadel during emergencies.

Parts of the original gardens remain, including the old muster grounds. These grounds are still used for public ceremonies, celebrations, and the gathering of initiates before and after their Confirmation Trials.

Though less beautiful than they once were, the gardens now reflect a principle increasingly common throughout the Guild: The world is changing, and everything within the Citadel must be ready to serve a purpose.