Arcane Brotherhood

The Arcane Brotherhood is a cabal of powerful wizards sworn into the service of the Hosttower of the Arcane in Luskan, a maritime city-state south of Icewind Dale. In the past few months, members of the brotherhood have started to appear with their own, obscure agendas and rivalries, and the people of Ten-Towns treat them with caution. Members are free to pursue their own interests, so long that they remain loyal to the Hosttower and the five archmages that oversee the affairs of the cabal at a higher level.
More than a hundred years prior to this adventure, Akar Kessell, an apprentice wizard in the Arcane Brotherhood, murders his mentor Morkai the Red in Easthaven. He found an artifact suffused with demonic magic called Crenshinibon (better known as the Crystal Shard) and used it to erect a great black tower in lcewind Dale. When this tower was destroyed, the magic used to create 1t fused with the surrounding ice to form what is now known as chardalyn: a nonmagical, crystalline substance as strong as metal, though considerably easier to work with than steel.
Vaelish Gant, a member of the Arcane Brotherhood, first engaged in criminal activity by insinuating himself into the trade network of Ten-Towns. A few years ago, shortly after his arrival in Ten-Towns, Gant established a protection racket in Bryn Shander and tried to turn the town against its speaker, Duvessa Shane, with the goal of supplanting her, and breifly did so. He also tried to destabilize the economy of Ten-Towns. A party of adventurers thwarted his criminal ventures by capturing him.
Rather than put Gant to death for his crimes in Icewind Dale, the Council of Speakers in Ten-Towns made a deal with representatives of the Lords’ Alliance to have Gant serve a life sentence in Revel’s End, so as not to incur the Arcane Brotherhood’s wrath.
Now there are rumors that the Arcane Brotherhood has sent operatives to Ten-Towns again. The wizard who was burned at the stake in Easthaven admitted to being one of them, and he said there are other Arcane Brotherhood wizards lurking among us.

Overview

Some who have mastered the use of magic wield it for noble ends: to destroy monsters, dethrone tyrants, and maintain a stable balance in the world. Some become tyrants themselves. Others pursue the Art as its own end, losing themselves in arcane exploration. And some, such as the wizards of the Arcane Brotherhood, use magic to get rich.
Wealth means power, of course, and ultimately the Brotherhood aims to control the North by putting a stranglehold on trade along the Sword Coast, from Waterdeep to Icewind Dale. Sometimes associated with the name of its former headquarters, the Hosttower of the Arcane in Luskan, the Brotherhood once ruled the so-called City of Sails. Now that Luskan has devolved into chaos, the pirate captains who rule the city no longer answer to the wizards of the Brotherhood. The Hosttower of the Arcane lies half ruined, and the city around it is haunted by undead. Whether any wizards still lurk in the Hosttower’s alien spires, perhaps controlling the undead, is a matter of speculation and idle gossip. But it is clear that the Arcane Brotherhood still exists. Its agents are everywhere, from Silverymoon in the north to Baldur’s Gate far to the south. It might no longer be the force it once was, perhaps, but the group is on the way back to its former status.

ORGANIZATION

The Arcane Brotherhood currently lacks any central leadership. Its former Archmage Arcane, the lich Arklem Greeth, was forced into his phylactery over a hundred years ago. The four Overwizards who reported to him are also long gone. Currently, five wizards vie for leadership, but none of them is secure enough to lay claim to the title of Archmage Arcane and fix the hierarchy in place once again.
Each of these five wizards has a faction of supporters within the Brotherhood, and it seems only a matter of time before one of them gains enough support to claim the top position. After that, unless the situation devolves into violence, the other four will become the Overwizards, the Archmage Arcane’s key assistants—though enough animosity currently sours their relationship that it is unlikely they would ever work well in concert.
What’s more, some within the Brotherhood believe that Arklem Greeth will eventually return to reclaim his position as head of the organization. That possibility is one of the factors keeping the five wizards from moving too aggressively to take the reins.

GOALS

The Arcane Brotherhood has always been ambitious, and its current debilitated state has not altered the group’s aims. Four main goals drive the activities of the would-be Archmages Arcane.

Power through Profit

The Brotherhood’s aims dreams of being the ultimate power in Faerûn. Its founder, Arklem Greeth, understood that coin—not titles or birthrights, nor magical or military might—is king in the North, so he made the Arcane Brotherhood as much a mercantile association as a magical one, graft and greed its most powerful spells.
In the wake of the lich’s defeat and the ruin of the Hosttower, the Brotherhood’s members are installing themselves in cities along the Sword Coast, trying to rebuild their trade networks and bring the area back under their control. The five aspiring leaders have bases of operation across the North:

• Jendrick the Blue in Port Llast
• Teyva “Magehand” Lillowind in Baldur’s Gate
• Zelenn Essrenthir in Neverwinter
• Druette “the Raven” in Waterdeep
• Cashaan el Farid in Luskan, where he commands the undead that haunt the Hosttower

Notable Members

• Vaelish Gant