Imperial Disposal Guild

The Guild's structure is one, similarly to the other large organizations in The Empire, one of a hierarchical design.    The lowest rank is that of Inductee. These are individuals who are noted for their unique talent and skills but have yet to prove themselves. Technically, they are not in The Guild, but are considered possible candidates. To rise to the first official rank and be officially inducted into the prestigious organization, an Inductee must undertake a difficult, grueling and more often than not potentially deadly mission or task that highlights that they have or do not have the talents to succeed in The Guild. Failed inductees, if capable and not permanently injured or disfigured are often used as outward facing contact points of information spread far and wide. While not official members of The Guild, their talents are still useful for gathering information. These are called Nodes.   The first real rank of The Guild is that of Lesser Blade. While the lowest rank, it bears quite a bit of political and legal clout to be a member of The Guild, a sort of lesser effect of the reputation and power that agents of The Assembly, especially more powerful inquisitors have. This can be useful in persuasion, intimidation and other tactics relating to other inhabitants of The Empire. Still, they are subject to orders and commands from higher ranking members of The Guild.    The second rank is that of Blade. Blades are low-intermediate rank that typically have the command of five Lesser Blades. Seen as sort of mentors to their newly inducted comrades, they are tasked with honing their edge until they are worthy of being promoted.    The third rank is Greater Blade. Greater Blades typically oversee five Blades, and teach them furthermore about their crafts. Greater Blades are the final field rank that are typically deployed on field missions. They are some of the most trusted, skilled, and capable spys and assassins, given the most crucial missions of the utmost importance.   The fourth rank is Clade Lord. Seen as officers of The Guild, Clade Lords dictate missions that will be undertaken and by whom as well as interface with the wider Empire including its beauracrats, politicians, military personnel, Inquisitors, and anyone else who may have inquiries of interest and potential missions for The Guild. They oversee typically five to twenty Greater Blades who report directly to them.   The penultimate rank of The Guild is that of Clade Master. The rulers of their Clade, or Order in Assembly parlance, Clade Masters are the utmost, utter experts and the most skilled individuals in their form of death dealing or spycraft. Only one exists at any time and all of them report to the final rank.   The Guild Master. Master and ruler of the entire Imperial Disposal Guild, the Guild Master is elected from the council of Clade Masters upon the former Guild Master's demise. The current Guild Master is one Orsham Taretta and has been for nearly a decade.

The culture in The Guild is intensely secretive even amongst its own elite ranks. Trust is a rare currency that is even more rarely brokered amongst one another. While active and open hostilities are rather rare, the nature of the world that The Guild does and the types of people that it inducts result in a rather socially awkward, suspicious, paranoid, and quiet type inducted more often than not.    There are some natural alliances amongst the Clades of The Guild that have existed for centuries and natural enmities, but again, open bloodshed against the relatively small number of members is rather rare. More often than not it is simple prid quo pro, blackmail, and other sinister beneath the table negotiation methods when something is desired. The Guild is known by a simple phrase they use though that does state to their rather impressive organizational cohesion: 'A blade does not let a fellow blade rust.' This is interpreted in a few ways. Firstly it is known that The Guild always takes care of its members when they are in trouble and in need. Secondly, it is said to mean that it is on the members of The Guild to ensure each others maintained sharpness in spycraft, assassination, and battle.   As such, The Guild often hosts war games, with perceived objectives thought up and put into place. Members must attempt to complete the objectives while pitted against their own peers. This can and does often highly impact promotion, and so the participation is of immense fervor. While not overtly blood games resulting in death, injury, sometimes even severe can and does occur. There is often no warning when a so called Guild Game is set to begin, and sometimes they are even disguised as actual missions.    To outsiders, members of The Guild can seem... strange. Often quiet, meek seeming, almost demure in their nature, unknowingly masters of an art of death or spycraft. Some can blend in perfectly, completely normal seeming in their demeanor and manner of living. They are a diverse cast of individuals with diverse and unique talents that fit their missions as is needed.

The Guild does not have a traditional agenda as they exist to pursue whatever mission they are paid to do or assigned to do by the government of The Empire.

The assets of The Imperial Disposal Guild are unknown but given their immense capabilities and range of talents and skills found in their members, it is believed to be immensely impressive in both liquid wealth and physical assets. They have dozens of hidden bases, many physical massive fortresses led by Clade Masters dedicated to their artform of death dealing or spying.

The history of The Imperial Disposal Guild is one long and storied. An offshoot from the Eyes of Harbinger, when it was declared that the Eyes would be transitioning into a more police force role, members of the Eyes who felt strongly that a spy and assassination organization would still be greatly important in the developing Empire took issue with this to Norisah Reklo.    Taking this issue to his lord Harbinger, Harbinger agreed. Both could and should exist. As such, those members of the Eyes, headed by one Vela Dytas, would establish The Imperial Disposal Guild, accepting any somewhat pushed aside member of the Eyes who didn't necessarily desire the path that the now Assembly was walking with its job role in Imperial society.   As such, The Imperial Disposal Guild serves as a somewhat awkward sibling organization to the The Assembly itself. Given their somewhat similar job roles with slight distinction, it is extremely common for members of The Guild to serve alongside agents of The Assembly in many missions of many types.

The Clades, or Sects, or Orders of The Guild are rather diverse and unique but not quite as ambiguous and amorphous as the orders of The Assembly or the sects of The Church. More limited in number due to the simple fact there are only a limited number of ways you can kill someone or spy on them, the generally, widely accepted Clades are as follows:  

The Clade of Blades: A simple clade, these Guild members train with blades until their sharpness with their usage is as tangible as the edge of the blades they wield. Master artists of the dagger, shortsword, scimitar, rapier, and other forms of small, portable, concealable blades, these Guild members prefer their assassination missions up close and personal. Their Clade fortress is in Cetral, with their current residence being Setrak due to Orsham Taretta being the Clade Master of this Clade prior to his vote to become Guild Master

The Clade of Destined Death: A unique, rare clade that is rarely seen and greatly feared for great reason, for this clade is comprised of entirely Immortals. Led by one Immortal who inhabits an inherited position known as The Visage of Death, the Clade of Destined Death is both greatly respected and feared. Utilized in the most high pressure, important assassination missions, the clade deploys their supernaturally enhanced members in times of great need, or great, great pay. Their headquarters are in The Hallowed City in Jarentasar.

The Clade of Agonizing Death: A simple, intelligent, and removed Clade, this Clade specializes in all things poison and venom. Derived from the most deadly and dangerous of beasts, unworldly and heretical demons and devils, and derived from long formulated recipes crafted by Imperial chemists, the Clade of Agonizing Death delivers perhaps the most terrifying form of it, death you cannot see, feel, hear or taste until it is far too late. Poisoners, envenomers of a terrifyingly skilled degree, members of this Clade serve day in and day out crafting and perfecting brutal poisons, savage venoms that ravage a targets body until death inevitably, but assuradly takes them. Their headquarters are in the desert city of Yaretas.

The Clade of the Unseen: A clade dedicated to stealth reconnaisance as an artform, members of this clade seek to be utterly unrecognizeable and quite frankly impossible to identify amongst a crowd. Members of a group of highly regular, normal seeming spies, the members of the Clade of the Unseen seek to be the most normal, unseeming, and even boring members of the Imperial Disposal Guild. They often are considered the most 'normal' members of the Guild. They have families, friends, and can even been seen as overtly friendly. Yet their capabilities of blending in and gathering information from this perceived normality are second to none. They hold their headquarters in Mentaris, Jarentasar.

The Clade of Distant Dismissal: This clade is dedicated to the artform of assassination pertaining to firearms and firearm usage. Masters of specifically highly long range firearms but guns nonetheless, this clade trains every day with their weapons to better perfect themsleves. Called the Distant Killers by some, they can deliver death with a slug from a half mile away as well as a short distance with a revolver. Regardless, these are considered some of the most prolific killers amongst the ranks of The Guild, and respected as such. They hold their headquarters in Yesharis, Ortis.

The Clade of Chameleons: A Clade of beings dedicated to deep cover, utterly unknoweable operations that require long term, entrenched undercover operations, the Clade of Chameleons has been credited with thousands if not tens of thousands of potential terrorists being caust over a thousand years. A highly valued, coveted and revered Clade, they are utilized for any and all potential long term operatiosn that might be required of a member of the Guild to suffciently perform. Chameleons are known for their capabilities to rapidly consume and assume the perspective and ideals of their target group, able within days of exposure to the material of that group of being cpaable of perfectly espousing the same beliefs in a manner utterly identical to a genuine believer of the group. They hold their headquarters in the city of City of Secrets.