mechanimated
VP of the Questionable Ethics Committee
~The Factions of Aesthura~
Aesthura is a world balanced on the brink of chaos. It is only a matter of lucky chance that those seeking power are so many and fractious that they get in each other's way far too often to allow any one group to seize control. Those loyal to one group or another are everywhere, and Scholar's Keep is no exception. Even there you will find those who are more interested in forwarding the ambitions of their contingent than anything else.
A group of loosely affiliated merchants and traders from all over Aesthura, the Trader's Bloc functions more like a political party than anything else. Despite utilizing supposedly democratic elections, leaders seem to always emerge from the same particularly wealthy handful of individuals time and again. Members of the Bloc are concerned with maintaining free-flowing and robust trade at all cost. Whether this interest comes from a love of profit, or more sincerely-held beliefs about the free market, those of the Bloc will always act in the interest of the economy. Whether they deem Sylwyn's efforts a threat to stability or an opportunity for incredible profit varies from member to member.
A religious sect concerned with what they call the "Great Truth", Veritarians consider any attempt to pass into the Wyrd prior to death an affront to nature. Their Great Truth refers to the belief that all worlds but that of the Wyrd are an illusion, a lie created by the consciousness, that is cleansed and shown to be falsehood at death. Any attempts to artificially prolong life, and the lie, are heretical. And worse, Sylwyn's attempt to enter the purity of the Wyrd while still clad in the physical falsehood of a living body is a slap in the face of all they hold holy. Veritarians, despite their obsession with postmortem "truth", are happy to lie, cheat, and steal to protect the interests of their cult. After all, merely living is a lie all it's own. What's a couple of spoken falsehoods compared to that?
Despite their grandiose pledge to "Pursue knowledge and seek enlightenment wherever it may be found", the Seekers are mostly a gaggle of bitter wizards looking for revenge rather than insight. The Seekers were originally founded by the very mages Sylwyn abandoned as a child. After it became common knowledge that a child, the great Sylwyn Uwenmoor herself, had discarded their mentorship, the mages had become laughingstocks of the magical community. Rather than look inward and consider that perhaps their ceaseless grubbing for power and fame was to blame, the mages laid their woes at the feet of Sylwyn. Banding together under new, assumed identities, they began to gather students and attempt to subvert them. Their teachings focused on self-restraint, the dangers of the Wyrd, and the impropriety of "showy" magic. In short, it was a school looking to paint Sylwyn a as a selfish, irresponsible, careless, and excessive narcissist. Unfortunately, unhappy young people are easy to fool if you tell them there is a single person whose fault everything is, and the school has grown significantly in size. Now, Seekers have come to Scholar's Keep in disguise to interfere in the 12th Labor.
An offshoot of the Veritarians, the Wyrdborn differ in their views on the way the Wyrd and the physical world interact. While both groups believe reality is an illusion, Wyrdborn feel that because all things come from and return to the Wyrd, the physical world contains shadows of truth. They view Sylwyn's attempts to create a portal into the Wyrd as the most important and holy task anyone has ever undertaken - an attempt to merge with the source of all life and a divine mission. Some Wyrdborn even worship Sylwyn as a prophet, a sacred vessel imbued by the Wyrd with the ability to accomplish the impossible.
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