Internal threats
Introduction
These are enemies that exist within the borders of the Empire. Some of these groups are closely tied to one or more nations (for example, the Feni are mostly active in the Marches) but they are intended to be used as threats to any nation - the Feni have effected the Brass Coast already, and it is easy to see how they might cause trouble in Wintermark, for the Navarr, or in Dawn.
Bandits
Large parts of the empire are barely civilized - away from Anvil and the cities of the League there are bandits and bands of orcs that survive by robbery and raiding. Human bandits will usually be small bands of local malcontents and criminals, but almost any permutation is conceivable. A band might be led by a powerful sorceror, a religious fanatic who has been declared a heretic or the mad servant of an Eternal. Bandits in Empire fill the normal LRP trope for bandits they are a simple resource for plot writers who need to give a plot some muscle for any reason.
Orc bandits may be more complex, they could be renegades who refused the offer of the Imperial Orc egregore to join the Empire, they could be warriors who fought their way out of slavery decades ago and still harbour a hatred for their former masters. They could be raiding parties from Jotun, Druj or the Thule. They could be an independent tribe of barbarian orcs who have no other way to survive. They could be receiving aid from enemies of the Empire, foreign powers, Eternals, secret societies. Like human bandits there are many different wants for writers to use them - and like human bandits you can justify their presence virtually anywhere in the Empire that you need them to be.
Vyig
The vyig are an organised crime network that can pop up anywhere in the Empire. They combine the ambition of the League and the ruthlessness of their Varushkam forebears with an absolute hatred of Imperial law. Tattooed criminals who draw on tropes common to organised crime syndicates, they also possess a brutal code of honour and a respect for the tenets of the Way. They have largely appeared in the game to date as antagonists for the League, but they would work just as well with nearly any criminal story - they might be behind bandit activity in the Marches, or seeking to influence the election of a Brass Coast Senator to improve their ability to smuggle.
The organisation is split into multiple cells who are capable of co-operation due to their emphasis on loyalty and respect. There is not a single "head of the vyig" nor an organised "council of master thieves." A group of vyig should be comparable in power and reach to a group of competent, ruthless player characters.
It may be tempting to portray the vyig as misunderstood, or as "robin hood" style characters. Resist! The vyig are intended to be antagonists - they are greedy, vicious thugs who use fear and intimidation and torture to keep their pawns in line. They hold a dark mirror up to the player characters, especially those pursuing wealth or prosperity, and while they are not intended to be completely two-dimensional (their twisted respect for the Way, for example, gives them additional depth) they are still murderers, thieves, and extortionists of the worst kind.
Sovereigns
Sovereigns are a peculiarly Varushkan threat - they are extremely powerful - but their influence and focus is highly localized - usually to a single Varushkan vale - or a few vales or region at most. Although we don't have Vampires in Empire, the classic concept of Dracula in his castle, ruling over the valley is the iconic image of a Varushkan sovereign.
A sovereign is a great antagonist for any plot that is set in Varushka. They don't work well in other contexts because they are largely indifferent to anything that takes place outside their domain, but they are perfect for any plot that needs a powerful local threat anywhere in Varushka.
Volodny
The Volodny are another Varushkan based enemy, but unlike the Sovereigns they view the entire Empire as their enemy and respond accordingly. The Volodny are powerful ritual magicians and should be portrayed as intelligent, cunning and utterly ruthless. They are driven by a desire to destroy Varushka and the Empire, but most of them are not fanatics.
There are only a handful of true Volodny, so they are likely to use other groups to fight for them, bandits, barbarians, and any Varushkan or Imperial citizen with an axe to grind. The Volodny are a great resource to use for any Empire spanning conspiracy, where a powerful individual is working behind the scenes to do the Empire harm.
Feni
The Feni are human barbarians most commonly encountered in wild places of the Marches and occasionally other parts of the north-western Empire. They lived in much of the area that is now the Marches since before the first Marchers arrived in those lands and drove the orcs out. History suggests that some of the Feni tribes were once the subject people of the orcs who occupied this area. They seem to have a clannish structure, with individual groups of Feni being geographically and socially separated from others.
The Feni are largely inspired by picts, they have clan structures and occupy the wild spaces in the Marches but will raid Wintermark, the League and the Brass Coast given half a chance. They have an abundance of herbs but a chronic shortage of metal weapons and armour. The Feni can fill some of the same roles as bandits and barbarian orc groups but albeit with a narrower geographical focus. At present the players have little information about the Feni, so it is possible for plot writers to develop them further.
Trolls
Trolls are an ancient race of creatures that inhabited the lands before the humans appeared. They are undying creatures, they do not die of age or disease, but they can be slain with violence. Trolls feature in numerous legends throughout Wintermark, but trolls might theoretically be found in Dawn, the Marches, Varushka, Wintermark, Temeschwar or the north of Highguard. They fit less well, conceptually with the more urban, civilized nature of the Brass Coast, Urizen and the southern League.
Trolls fill many of the conceptual roles of the classic fantasy trope of a fore-runner race. They were once powerful, the runes and much of the basis for making magical items was created by them, some of their magic is difficult to impossible to reproduce today, they have been reduced to a shadow of their former glory and they are a dying race afflicted by a powerful sense of inevitable doom. For inspiration for the trolls, look at Tolkien's Noldor, the dwarves in the original Norse legends and in the Ring Cycle.
Our trolls are not combat threats, if writers want to include a big powerful monster to threaten players then they should use an ogre instead (more information on ogres can be found on the plot wiki here. Trolls are extremely intelligent, shrewd, and cautious - they should be an awesome roleplaying encounter, not something that takes thirty hits and does strikedown.
Trolls are afflicted by a powerful curse - when they attempt something it will usually rebound on them to their ultimate ruin. Legends and tales that feature trolls should play up this motif - if a troll gives a hero a great weapon to slay a dragon - the hero will end up using the weapon to kill the troll, or his offspring, or his whole family. If the troll refuses to give the hero the weapon, the hero will be killed by the dragon, and his family will take revenge killing the troll, or his offspring, or his whole family. Trolls believe they are doomed not because they are miserablists, but because fate actually is out to get them. An Imperial mage can use Day or Night magic to physically detect this curse - it is a racial curse and present on all of them.
Trolls have little or no experience with spell casting or ritual magic - but they are pre-eminent crafters of magical items. They make artoks and other animated statues to fight and work for them. They can craft powerful items for players, but convincing them to help is always hard because the troll doom makes them instinctively wary of action. They enjoy riddles, value metals and resources and prize illium above all other materials.
Vallorn
The Vallorn is an ancient danger that infests the great wild forests of the Empire. The Vallorn is the result of a Spring magic disaster that destroyed Terunael, the human empire that preceded the current Empire. The Urizen and Navarr are the only people that survived from that time and the Navarr in particular define themselves by their determination to destroy the Vallorn.
In effect the Vallorn is a infestation of magical fertility run amok. The area teams with life, but the growth is completely out-of-control and unnatural. Giant insects and mutated animals are common and the air near the heart is poisonous to humans. Worse, fresh corpses left in Vallorn infested areas are quickly colonized by aggressive plant-life that cause them to become animated, savage unliving husks that attack intruders. The Vallorn is definitively not sentient, it is a primeval horror, aware but not articulate, it responds with overwhelming violence to any intrusion perceived as a threat.
The Vallorn is of particular interest to the Navarr and they can be expected to jump on any plot that involves it pretty quickly. For this reason it is positively beneficial to target other nations with Vallorn plot - to make clear this menace threatens the entire Empire. The Vallorn hearts are located in the Navarr territories, but these are spread around the Empire so any nation can be impacted by the Vallorn.
Vallorn plot may involve wizards who wish to meddle with the ancient power of the vallorn, they could concern lost Terunael treasures found in the ancient cities ruined by the Vallorn outbreak. Quests may involve the mutated creatures that the Vallorn produces; although the Vallorn is not a guiding intelligence that lays plans, these creatures are used by the Vallorn as part of its defences the way a body use white blood cells to fight infection.
Secret Societies and Cults
Secret societies are groups or organizations that exist within the Empire with ambitions to influence the political system, change the society in some way, or achieve some independent goal such as wealth or power. Cults can be similar, but technically are illegal - membership having been banned by the Senate.
It is perfectly possible to have a secret society of criminals seeking to grow rich, or a band of sorcerers seeking power, but the most interesting secret societies or cults are those that seek to change the political shape or direction of the Empire. A secret group of Highborn that wishes to see the Imperial Orcs returned to their former status as slaves, a Freeborn cult that seeks the abolition of the Synod are overly-simplistic as ideas, but have far more potential to draw some players into their orbit than a group that wants to rob the Empire. The best plots involving secret societies and cults should present opportunities for players to be part of that society, joining in play because they are convinced that the societies goals are worth supporting.
Secret societies that include players may include access and control of campaign resources that produce wealth for the player between events. For instance, a criminal group that controlled the supply of an illegal drug being shipped into the docks at Sirroc might provide a PC member with a dozen doses of that drug every event if the player was actively supporting the group's goals.
Heretics
The Imperial Synod can declare a belief to be heresy and those who publicly support or encourage that belief are classed as heretics. Heretics are more common in the south of the Empire, the plot has much resonance with the orthodox religious nature of the Highborn, the deliberately unorthodox Freeborn and the religiously powerful League.
When creating plot with heretics it is important to be careful not to make the heretics too appealing. It will be difficult for players to rally round and launch an Albigensian Crusade to wipe out a group of people who want everyone to get on and be friends. It is great if heresy plot produces argument and debate in the Synod - it is less ideal if every heresy plot is resolved by the addition of new Imperial virtues - peace, love, socks, being allowed to have a lie-in on Tuesdays.
The false virtues in particular have been created specifically to be at odds with the civilized nature of the Empire - while they may appear appealing at first glance, they have the potential to damage the Empire if they were embraced and followed through to their logical conclusions. An example of the repercussions of embracing a false virtue might be the historical Freedom Heresy, while the false virtue of peace would ultimately lead to stagnation and passivity on behalf of those who embrace it.
Heretics may be linked with other internal threats, they may be a secret society or cult, or be linked with bandits or be receiving aid from foreign powers. Ideally heretics should be aiming to spread their heresy to try to bring about change - plot that involves heretics who are quietly getting on with their own business should be avoided.
Heretics may have access to their own ceremonial powers to create auras, annointings or dedications. Any writer interested in creating heresy plot would be well advised to chat to Daniel Williams who has the best understanding of the Imperial religion and the rules mechanics that underpin it.
Further Reading
- Organization
- Writing
- Skirmish