This text article deals with a fictionary organization in a fictionary role-playing game setting Cresia.

Overview

Originating from the country of Ferria, Sombra is a guild of thieves, rogues, spies, scouts and burglars. While most of it’s members have joined just to make a living out of stealing, the most important people in the guild share a political motivation. The political agenda of the guild is in it’s core essence noble, simple and attractive: take from whoever has too much and spread it around to those who never have caught a break in their entire life. The guild is thus a revolutionary organization since it deliberately undermines the power, influence, respect and wealth of those who have it all and as such the rich and the powerful people fear and loathe it in equal proportion.

History

Formed by the notorious (of Ferrian fame) cat burglar Josephine Croixer 15 years ago, the guild first operated in Ferria, but has since gone international with chapters in cities around Gruenroth, Groam and Akron. The group has expanded rapidly and while it’s number of members may not be as high as in traditional and perfectly legal guilds representing honorable professions, it’s members are highly active and devoted to it.

Guild houses and operation bases

The group has no bases of operations. They own no guild houses. They don’t even have regular meeting places. As many of the members recruited by invitation only, most meetings involving more than two members are held in reclusive private locales. It is impossible for outsiders to reach the group excepting via actual members.

Logos, emblems, trademarks

The guild has no official logo or emblem. Individual members may not even be able to identify each other and most certainly those operating in a non-familiar region can not know who are the guild members there unless they are personal friends or have otherwise gained knowledge of their identities. The guild treasures and values this secrecy since when a member is caught and interrogated, he is unable to divulge much even if exposed to torture. In fact, perhaps the group’s founder Josephine Croixer is the only one with any kind of comprehensive knowledge regarding who actually belongs to the group and where they are stationed.

Membership

You don’t just walk into one of their club houses and sign in. You just don’t. The membership is through invitations only and all those invited have been watched very closely for long periods of time to assess their worth to the organization. While the ideological foundations of the invitees are estimated during this period, the guild has no rule that excludes those who are stealing merely for fun, excitement, adventure or for strictly personal gain. Those types can still be used by the more influential members to aid in complex operations but never ever rise higher than mere pawns in the hierarchy of the organization. Membership in the guild does not cost anything – excepting that once in a while each member is required to pull off something and donate the gains to the guild master of his chapter who in turn use these funds in the benefit of the chapter by either expanding operations, bribing officials, hiring one-off personnel, etc. The members in return get a valuable network of competent and active players and access to information that would most certainly be impossible to gain without serious effort. Members who run a chapter (usually a small group of thieves located in a single city) are called Chapter Masters. There are no other titles within the guild. Members do, however, quite commonly rank each other but any such rankings are strictly used within particular chapters and no commonly accepted ranking exists.

Notable members

• Patricia Mael, founder of five chapters in Akron, Chapter Master of Mayhill
• Josephine Croixer, founder of the guild
• Kate Fendale, a regular member, operates in Akron and Groam
• Kembo Ree, Chapter Master of Port Magalie in Witchlight Strand

Wealth and income

The guild has no central treasury. Each Chapter Master runs his or her chapter in any which way they like. The chapters do not pay any tithes. If a chapter can not balance it’s expenses and income, the guild does not offer any help – it is rather expected that the chapter just closes shop in such circumstances. This practice is to minimize any links that chapters have with each other in order to make shutting the entire operation that much harder. After all, if questioned, they can deny any and all involvement with each other and since no money has exchanged hands, there’s nothing anybody can use to prove otherwise. Or that is the assumption within the group.