Icons of Karameikos for 13th Age

I had a brainstorm in December about a 13th Age campaign set in the Grand Duchy of Karameikos. By way of background, if you are not familiar with Karameikos, this was the default setting for the D&D Basic boxed set - the legendary Red Box - which was what first got me started down the Dungeons & Dragons highway in the 1980s. Karameikos also ended up as the backdrop for many of the later Expert series scenarios. I grew up on Karameikos and the wider world of Mystara.

13th Age as a game has an awesome mechanic for regulating the player characters' relationships with the Powers That Be in a world. In the default setting, they are called Icons. Here in Karameikos, I'm going to call them Factions. Some of these are drawn from the existing Mystara canon, others I've taken from The Book of Ages from Pelgrane Press. The below introduces the first six factions, with the others to follow in another post.

13th Age divides its icons into Heroic, Ambiguous and Villainous, and I shall do the same here with the Karameikos factions. The information given here is what I'd call common knowledge for the informed adventurer in Karameikos.

Duke Stefan Karameikos ( Ambiguous)

The ruler of Karameikos, Duke Stefan III, traded his estates in neighbouring Thyatis to assume the title and lands of Karameikos from the emperor of Thyatis. While he has brought many lords and settlers into Karameikos, which does not sit well with the local Traladaran population, he has also sought to bring a measure of security and justice to the land, especially the wilder northern regions. Some still complain he favours the interests of the new feudal lords over the natives, and is being manipulated by factions at court. He has transformed southern Karameikos in a very short time, and the economy has boomed under his aegis.

The Veiled Society (Villainous)

The Veiled Society is a secret society of rogues and thieves that is based in the capital of Karameikos, Specularum. Outside the city its power is weaker, but it is growing. The society is known for the blue hoods its members wear when going about their covert business. There is no organised Thieves' Guild in Karameikos at the moment, but the Veiled Society seems to be aspiring to fill that role. Apart from the Duke, they also have to deal with the agents of the Thief King (see next post), who would also like to monopolise organised crime in Karameikos. Of the two 'guilds', locals say the Veiled Society seems to be the one more intent on winning political influence, and is readier to resort to violence and extortion.

Baron Ludwig von Henriks, The Black Eagle (Villainous)

Baron Ludwig occupies a barony to the west of Karameikos, near the swampy delta region. He is a cousin of Duke Stefan (above) and was awarded the western frontier as his fief. His rule has been characterised as harsh, to say the least, and he has been rumoured to consort with smugglers, foreign powers and has even been hiring mercenaries, including orcs and hobgoblins, to beef up his power base. Some of the other nobles in the realm suspect the baron has designs on the throne itself .He rarely travels in person to Specularum, but is thought to have a wide network of agents and informers across the duchy.

The Church of Karameikos (Heroic)

One of the two main human religions in the duchy, the Church blends the doctrines of Thyatian religion with some of the new and more tolerant ideas of its founder. It has started to make some inroads with the Traladaran population, but progress has been slow. The head of the Church is currently the highly regarded patriarch, Lord Oliver Jowett, who was also the Church's founder and who accompanied Duke Stefan to Karameikos over a decade ago. The Church has a militant order of knights, the Order of the Griffon, which recruits from the scions of local nobility. Jowett is known to be resistant to the more fanatical wing of the Church, and pushes an ideology of peace, tolerance and resistance to evil.

The Merchants' Guild (Ambiguous)

The Merchants' Guild is a fairly typical commercial organisation which largely represents the interests of the big trading houses in Specularum, but also has members the length and breadth of the realm. Specularum relies on both international and riverine trade and many of the wealthy merchant families, like the Torenescu and Radu clans, own considerable fleets of barges and sea-going vessels. The Guild has its fingers in many pies, including the logging and mining interests in the north of the duchy, and the spice trade from the far off Thangioth archipelago. The Guild is most interested in keeping the wheels of commerce turning.

Emilio the Great Thespian (Heroic)

Emilio the Great, a half-elven bard, is thought to have started life as an actor and jongleur in Specularum and is regarded as the greatest entertainer of his generation. Nowadays he and his company of players travel the duchy, entertaining the great and the good, as well as crowds in market squares. Nobody can quite agree what Emilio looks like, however, and his ability to be in more than one place at the same time is causing speculation that there could be several 'Emilio's or that he is some sort of demi-god. Emilio is held in high regard by the bardic community in the duchy and does his best to represent their interests.