character factions
Overview
Factions are a totally optional part of Anathema's gameplay; your character does not have to belong to any groups, but there are several prominent structures in Ivras that may help you create a backstory for your character!
Some of these also feature in events, monthly prompts, and other happenings in the game, as well as in player-driven stories and art.
Look through the tabs for information on making your own faction, joining the Order, a Wild Clan, and some of the other factions in Ivras!
Player-Made Factions
Anathema lore has a minimal amount of premade factions in order to include players in the building of the world! You are invited to populate Ivras with groups, organizations, and cultures of your own design. Player-made factions can be lore-intensive and secluded (such as a remote Clan, whose culture developed in isolation) or casual (say, a posse of bandits, or a magic book club), and exist in the past or present.
If you have an idea for a faction, head over to the Player Made Factions board of the forum, and create a thread sharing your concept! Text and images should all be of your own creation, and will earn Gold like all Anathema content. When your content is complete, don't forget to add up your total and claim your gold!
Other players will be allowed to interact with your faction and discuss it in the forum thread, growing its connection to Anathema's story.
Creation Guidelines
Player-made factions can be large or small, isolated or integrated into society, and exist in the past or present.
Player-made factions can exist within existing groups, such as a particular college within the order, or a squadron of Ivras's military.
Factions can be from anywhere on Ivras's map, or overlap with existing features/regions, but should not contradict what already exists. There should not, for instance, be a desert clan inside the wet marshlands.
Your faction may have a player-character leader, if you choose!
You are welcome to create character factions that originated from Nymene and Siregal, but all factions should now be located and operating in Ivras, where our story takes place.
the mage order
Nearly four centuries ago, the Order was created as an initiative by the crown to detain and study Mages during the battle for conquest of the South. Throughout history, the purpose and form of the Order has changed many times. What began as a muddy military encampment at Namarast grew into a segregated settlement for mages, and eventually a school that became a towering, defensible city. The Order of researchers once tasked with understanding Mages were replaced by Mages themselves, dedicated to serving the crown and to teaching young students to control their magic. Despite its origins as a covert and sometimes cruel research experiment, the Mage Order is now the largest and most powerful organization of Mages in Ivras, and the kingdom's leading authority on arcane knowledge.
Today, the Order is still the destiny for almost every Ivratian or Nymenian child discovered to be a mage. In Ivras, children who show signs of magical ability are sent to Namarast or collected by the Order's recruiter Mages. Magical education outside of the Order is illegal and widely unavailable; often, families will see the Order as the safest option and best future for their Mage children.
Besides teaching magic, the Order also creates politicians, soldiers, architects, engineers, biologists, conservationists, herbalists, and more, all trained in magic to aid their work. When Order students are in their late teens, they select a particular college to specialize in, and narrow their studies to a specific role to further the interests of the crown. Those who seek to hunt monsters as Mage Protectors or serve in Ivras's navy become battlemages trained for destruction, and just as many devote their lives to continuing arcane academic research. A rare mage will ascend to become the political adviser to a noble or world leader, or a magical ambassador to the neighboring countries of Nymene and Siregal. All Order mages are indoctrinated to serve the interests of Ivras and her king.
With Namarast being entirely self-sustaining, life within the order is often isolating for mages trained and raised there. It is not uncommon for mages who never experienced the outside world to simply choose to never leave the comfort and security of the Order once they complete their studies.
hierarchy of the order
students are the youngest and newest residents of Namarast, often children beginning their magical studies.
apprentices are those students who have chosen a specialization, and moved on to aid a professor or enchanter in their chosen field.
enchanters are mages who have "graduated" and completed their core studies at Namarast. Many enchanters leave Namarast to work in their chosen fields, but some remain to continue research and become academics.
professors are working academics who simultaneously conduct their own research and instruct students, all with the help of apprentices.
councillors are exalted enchanters on various committees that make decisions for the students and residents of Namarast. They make recommendations to the Archmage regarding the placement of enchanters, topics of Order research, and the Order's official stances on public issues.
archmage for mages, or archon for non-mages is the title given to the head of Namarast, a single figure with the final say on enchanter assignments and magical research. After the corruption of Hagia, the previous long-serving Archmage, the non-mage Archon Miriam assumed leadership of the Order.
the wild clans
Since long before the land was called Ivras, the marshes of the South have been inhabited by many diverse factions and distinct cultures. For hundreds of years, the clans populating the Sunless Jungle and surrounding wetlands have stymied the expansion of the monarchy's influence, and successfully avoided bowing to the authority of the crown. Though Ivras claims the entire peninsula as its territory, the kingdom has never succeeded in enforcing its laws or spreading its culture to the defiant inlands of the South.
Throughout its 500 year history, Ivras has attempted to invade and assimilate the clans countless times, only to find their efforts repeatedly mired and the independence of the clans intact. Conflict with battlemages from inland clans inspired the founding of the Order and the sanctioned study of magic during one such invasion of the marshes, making it possible that magic has been used by some clans long before the founding of Ivras.
Though they are often clumped together by Ivratian outsiders, the southern clans are numerous and widely varied, each with their own history of conflicts and alliances, their own traditions and customs. Some clans are warlike, driving wandering Ivratians away, but just as many keep peacefully to their settlements or form partnerships and friendships with Ivratian neighbors.
If you decide to create a clan for your character, you are welcome to structure their culture, their leadership, their history with Ivras, and their relationship to magic however you like!
other factions
There are many groups in Ivras and its political landscape. The factions below have limited specific lore, and are yours to build/expand upon!
Throughout its 500 year history, Ivras has attempted to invade and assimilate the clans countless times, only to find their efforts repeatedly mired and the independence of the clans intact. Conflict with battlemages from inland clans inspired the founding of the Order and the sanctioned study of magic during one such invasion of the marshes, making it possible that magic has been used by some clans long before the founding of Ivras.
Though they are often clumped together by Ivratian outsiders, the southern clans are numerous and widely varied, each with their own history of conflicts and alliances, their own traditions and customs. Some clans are warlike, driving wandering Ivratians away, but just as many keep peacefully to their settlements or form partnerships and friendships with Ivratian neighbors.
If you decide to create a clan for your character, you are welcome to structure their culture, their leadership, their history with Ivras, and their relationship to magic however you like!
ivratian navy
Inarguably the most formidable naval force in the continent, Ivras's navy is a well-oiled machine and an institution as old as the kingdom itself. With fleets of diverse ships making port in Faline, the allied Nymene, and bases all over the peninsula, the Navy patrols the Mirror Bay, surrounding ocean, and even the larger rivers and inland waterways around Ivras. Navy sailors, mage and non-mage alike, are often deployed to protect citizens during monster attacks, and could be stationed nearly anywhere in Ivras. There are not many mages in the Navy, and the few enlisted are often battle-mages trained by the Order, with only one or two assigned to a single ship.
the royal council
The Royal Council make up King Gladius's inner circle of advisers and administrators, who keep the king informed and enact his decrees in the running of the kingdom. Council members are merchants, military officers, industry leaders and powerful mages (politically-astute adepts assigned by the Order), typically from powerful noble families. The Royal Council meets in Faline four times a year for week-long sessions of political debate. Though all decisions are ultimately the king's, significant power rests in the hands of these leaders.
Witchfinders
Witchfinders are less of an official "organization" than a group of people bound loosely by a shared philosophy: that Mages are dangerous to the Ivratian way of life, and have undue influence in the kingdom. Witchfinders are spread all across Ivras, with chapters in different settlements organized like a neighborhood watch. While some Witchfinders simply seek to alert the authorities to Mages on the path of corruption, others make it their business to root out hidden Mages and surrender them to the Order, or worse yet, have Mages face the Witchfinders' own justice.
With Archon Miriam’s appointment, most witchfinders have flocked to the Order and its new leader.
the mage court
As Archon Miriam closes her fist around the Order and replaces its former leadership with loyal Witchfinders, there are mages in Ivras who will not stand idly by. Though once political enemies, the mages Prince-Consort Sabora and Enchanter Guro have created a fragile alliance, rallying support from respected mages across the continent to fight back against mage oppression.
The Mage Court is made up of a wide array of politicians, renowned scholars, industry leaders and respected artisans; a group of influential mages who often have very little in common besides a desire to see Miriam removed from power, and the Witchfinders' efforts sabotaged. Using every cultural, political, and economic tool within reach, the Mage Court is a brand new organization fighting for mage liberation.
Their de facto leader Sabora remains quiet and vague about achieving these goals, seemingly afraid of contradicting his husband the King's appointment of Miriam too vehemently. Meanwhile, Guro and other battlemages in the Court are advocating a more… aggressive approach. Mages of all stripes squabble for influence as their new faction takes shape.The Mage Court is gathering considerable power to take on the Witchfinders' Order, but can they keep peace among their own ranks long enough to make a difference?