The Court of Daggers

Freedom Through Vigilance

The Court of Daggers protect the Pact from threats within and without. The tenets of the Pact as agreed by the nations and the institutions of the Guilds are powerful but not infallible and the Court keep watch for perceived plots that may seek to change the nature of the relationship between the Nations, Guilds and their people. Agents of the Court work directly against those who work against or break tenets of the Pact.
The Courts secondary purview, particularly within Haven, is to enact justice and settle feuds via contracts. These are created by the Court to ensure legitimacy and can be related to the threats the discovered by their own agents or have been asked to investigate by others. This system has been used since the Guilds creation to allow any member of the nations to settle disputes by paying to lay contracts upon another citizen but has become more prominent since the establishment of the Pact. The manner of contracts being laid upon individuals aims to separate offenders, the offence itself and the offended by as a way to avoid feuds and vendettas.
The last area that the Court of Daggers specialises in is intelligence gathering. Usually military intelligence but with the Fading so many forms of knowledge are lost and turn up in unknown places.

Membership Cost

The Court of Daggers does not charge until a member becomes a full Courtier at which point the responsibilities of the post are discussed, and a fee of 1 Myth is charged

Court of Daggers Missions

The Court of Daggers offers missions such as:

• Town services
• Public and private information gathering
• Surveillance
• Law Interpretation
• Protection
• Envoy Mediation
• Enforcement
• Assassination
• Hex-weaving
• Decryption
• Infiltration

The Guild may offer other things and this list may expand in future.

Origins

While the Court of Daggers is believed to have existed for many centuries knowledge about it before recent years has proved difficult to find. The Fading has only made this effect more pronounced and as such the only publicly available knowledge is from 977 and onward when the Court came into major public view and offered it services to all nations and peoples. They famously claimed “We are not corrupted, we are not beholden to any one nation, we can do what you need us to” and so far that has proven the case.
When the Pact came into existence the Court of Daggers was not included as part of the initial signing. They were present and aware but did not become a part of the Pact signing itself until the second signing at the suggestion of the Bank.
A major loss to the Court of Daggers occurred shortly before Haven first appeared when the Kairosi island they were based on from was taken by the Corrupted. While they were able to relocate effectively further inland in Portavas the loss of their headquarters sent shocks through many. The loss of this headquarters has not deterred the Court or quietened it claims and in fact when Haven appeared they were among the earliest arrivals and even set up their new central location following it from place to place, eager to protect the Pact from the Corrupted and if needed from itself.

Structure and leadership

The Court does not have individual leaders
The Council, made up of Councillors and Advisors, make all decisions that affect the court. Substantive issues that divide opinion are resolved swiftly by council vote

The Court of Daggers follows a code of conduct that it expects all members to abide by

• Members are expected to understand and embrace and embody all aspects of the Pact
• Members are expected to put the good of the Pact before any National or Personal belief or tradition
• Members are expected to understand the nature of both Covert and Overt methods, the difference between the need for quiet and secrecy, and the need for visible public action
• Members are required to respect the dichotomy of secret information and information sharing

The Current Advisors attending Haven:

• Passage-Lintel-above-the-Dark-Waters (Lintel)
  Spiritual corruption
• Percival
  Pact and law interpretation
• Razz
  Military liaison
• Veridat di Kortava
  Alchemistry
• Ravend
  Retrieval

Advisors currently away at other missions

• Thanatos Angelioforos of house Amici
  Intelligence
• Theodoras di Amici
  Intelligence
• Valdrick Amici
  Markets and Magical affairs
• Klaus Von Soob of House Sanctaphrax
  Interpersonal Relations

• Membership and Hierarchy:
  • Initiates
    Not yet full guild members, but hired to perform Guild jobs and tasks appropriate to each persons abilities and skills.
    Initiates are appraised as potential members by their performance in these tasks. Initiates can perform member tasks when supervised by a suitable rank member
  • Courtiers
    Paid up guild members, authorised to claim and perform contracts
    When an initiate becomes a Courtier, a meeting with a Councillor is had, where the responsibilities of the post are discussed, and a fee of 1 Myth is charged
  • Adepts
    Advanced members of the guild, specialists, mission leads, operational and tactical decisions.
    The Third season of 1025 saw the first four field promotions of Adepts
  • Councillors
    Research and initiate projects, recruit Courtiers, strategic decisions
  • Advisors – equivalent to Councillor (NPC only role)
    Budgeting approvals, intelligence collation 

Operations and influence

The Court of Daggers offer the capacity to lay contracts on other people. Some of these are originate through intelligence obtained by the Court themselves or are created by the Court on behalf of others. The Court of Daggers operate in all the nations of the Pact and have other branches in many of them.

These contracts can take the form of the following:

• A public denouncement that an offense has occurred and how it has affected other people
• Assault. A public attack is made by agents of the Court, announcing their actions and the offense, but with a duty of attention to ensure the target is not killed
• Hex-borne. A magical hex, or weaving is laid upon the target, to suffer a compulsion, punishment or long term visualisation of the offence they have committed
• Assassination

Working with the Court of Daggers within one of the nations is a reasonable backstory element. You must still pay the yearly membership fee to participate in Adventurer’s Guild quests and storylines while in Haven. While it is possible for a character to have interacted with the Guild, it is not reasonable for them to be famous members of the Guild so the story and legends of the Guild can be told in uptime in haven.