The Hand

The Hand is an age-old guild of thieves, assassins, black merchants, and contract dealers in Glainia that operates on a relatively amoral code of honor and respect. Their influence is easily enforced, as most people know of the dangerous myths surrounding them, and they maintain an extremely high success rate on contracts taken.
But The Hand is more than just a plain old Thieves Guild. The Hand is an ancient and sacred society, created centuries past, and will continue to exist for centuries to come.

The Hand's outside... They've come to play
Run, hide and stay away
Poison, daggers, and staying out of sight
Someone is having their last meal tonight

— A popular children's rhyme in major cities

The Hand can be procured to complete an assassination on a target, for the right price. They ask very little questions, and act soft and swiftly. These contracts come at quite a price, but are done professionally.
To summon the attention of the Hand for a contract, one must ask around until they find someone who has already dealt with them and persuade them to reveal the contract request drop-point.

Structure

Each proven member of the Hand is marked by a Deva, an angel like creature, of Balous. The Deva places it's hand on the member, burning and marking the skin with a bone white imprint of a humanoid hand. When two Hand members touch, each of their imprints tingles and crawls. This is how they recognize each other, and rat out impostors.
The imprint of the Hand is normally hidden, as this alerts the authorities of the dabbling of the Hand. It is also said that the imprint is used to track and find members who give up more information and secrets of the Hand's inner workings.

Public Agenda

While the immediate assumption is that the Hand is merely interested in profit at any cost (which isn't especially wrong), they also wish to preserve the function and prosperity of civilization. It is well known that a thriving city is a profitable one, and an enemy of civilization is a foe of the Hand. They largely consider themselves a necessary dark underbelly, willing to do the under-the-table deeds that the wealthy and powerful cannot commit with their own hands. The Hand also understands that conflict breeds a healthy economy, and has occasionally kindled the flames of unrest to keep things tense and profitable. There is also virtue in a distracted administration being easy to manipulate.

Assets

A Finger is a dedicated underground sect of the Hand, normally within the Capital of a province. The Hand influences the regions in which they have a Finger placed.
The Hand has a main office that moves between the Fingers, every 4 years. Each Finger is ruled by a Veteran of the society, and the Hand itself is ruled by a covenant of 13 old and respected members.
The exact amount of members in the guild is unknown, as they do seem to go missing from time to time. This is as expected, dealing in such a dark and evil line of work.

The Hand afforms to the ideals of Balous, the God of Secrets and Shadows.

Type

Illicit, Syndicate