The Reliquary

The Reliquary is a guild of controversial expeditionaries funded by the House of Davenmour to sift the sands of the Great Arena in search of lost dragon-gold and trinkets of Bharazad's lost draconian empire.
The Reliquary began in 417 S.A as a single expedition to the arid deserts of Bharazad in search of The Sword of Shamash, an ancient and priceless relic of a bygone era. Though the Sword has yet to be recovered, the Reliquary has unearthed chalices, ancient texts and entire statues of gold left by the ancient draconians which are sent to their patron House in Bedegar for safekeeping. The guild has since established a semi-permanent guild hall in Bharazad.
Publicly, the knights of the Reliquary claim to be preservers of the past first, knights second and treasure hunters not at all. Their efforts are lauded by their homeland, who send the knights healthy tithes in exchange for the treasures the knights 'recover'. Most locals consider the knights no better than well-mannered looters and often refer to the guild members by a somewhat less valiant nickname: the 'knights of plunder'.

Guild Ideals

Greater Good. The Arena's treasures hold lost magical lore and untold beauty, it would be a cruelty to leave them wasting in the sands.
Glory. Every coin gleams of glory, and there is no sweeter fruit.

Benefits of Membership

To ask most Reliquary Knights, the single most important benefit of membership is glory in service to one's house. In truth, there is also considerable coin to be made. Every knight is paid a tithe proportional to the value of treasure they recover. Leads and rumours pertaining to new treasure are circulated throughout the guild before being posted publicly.

Structure of the Guild

To join the Reliquary, a character must either take the Guild Member background at character creation or, alternatively, request an induction from the High Reliquem. The requirements for this induction are varied, but most commonly involves locating and retrieving a particular relic of interest to a Commodore or the High Reliquem themselves.

Gaining Rank

A character already in the Reliquary belongs to one of four ranks:
Relic Knight. The introductory rank, occasionally assigned tasks by a Commodore.
Commodore. A commander, responsible for collecting tithes from a handful of relic knights under their care and delivering these tithes to the Reliquem.
Reliquem. Those select few accomplished, glorified heroes assigned the most valuable and critical of treasure hunts. On longer campaigns into the Great Arena, a Reliquem is traditionally placed in charge of digsite with a number of commodores under their supervision.
High Reliquary. The guild's leader, whose administrative tasks have removed them from the field almost entirely. The High Reliquary regularly travels to and from the guild's headquarters in Bharazad and the 'civilized' human provinces to bargain for continued support.

Guild Type

Explorer's Guild

Guild Crest

A golden chalice

Headquarters

Davenmour Hall (a.k.a "The Coffer" (East Bharazad)

Alignment

Lawful Neutral

Alternative Names

Knights of Plunder