Covenant of the Deep

A relatively new faction within the Underdark, the Covenant of the Deep are a group drawn from all subsections of society, all communities and all races within the Underdark’s levels, who have been brought together by the hope of creating an egalitarian society across all of the subterranean regions of Kelbonnar.
The Covenant claim that their founding members were divinely inspired by an entity calling themselves Drusiss, who showed them how powerful the squabbling factions of the Underdark could be if only they transcended their differences and worked together, under Drusiss’ divine direction.
The appeal of what the Covenant offers: freedom from slavery, a meritocratic society, more equal access of resources and a more targeted, pro-Underdark policy towards the factions on the surface world, means that they have drawn a lot of support from across the myriad, disparate pieces of the Underdark's political makeup. Naturally, however, the existing powers within the Underdark have rather taken against the Covenant, labelling them as destabilising frauds intent on causing chaos.

Structure

The Covenant of the Deep is a complex network of individuals spread out across the whole of the Underdark, with individual cells in specific cities and towns that direct the operations of local members and it is thought that there are very few within the organisation who know exactly how wide the tendrils of the Covenant reach. This is not, however a failing on the part of the Covenant, but is rather deliberate, to ensure that if a traitor wheedles their way into their ranks that they are not able to compromise the entire organisation.
It is thought that there are only four people who know the exact make-up of the entire organisation and they are the four people who together form the ruling council that directs the Covenant’s activities. They are:

• Malvolio Peregrine: A Hobgoblin, known as the voice of Drusiss, who has been anointed as Drusiss’ high priest and earthly representative to guide the Covenant’s actions. He has de facto control of the ruling council.

• Scias Sangrey: A Duergar, originally hailing from the city of Yanyarman, he acts as the organisation’s diplomat, travelling the Underdark attempting to get cities, towns, factions, villages and the region’s various factions to see the light of the Covenant’s cause and join them.

• Malkari Gramatz: A Drow originally hailing from Kar-Marrontal, who has been given responsibility over coordinating the actions of the Covenant’s military arm and who has been given the personal charge of protecting Malvolio Peregrine at all costs.

• Lensa Krismenor: A Drow from the polis of Kar-Dun, who acts as the Covenant’s spy mistress. She is thought to have built up a larger network of spies and informants that even the web spun by the Matriarch of Kar-Marrontal, something which has put her high up on the list of people that Matriarch Jezebel would like to see dead, or better still brought before her for torture.

Public Agenda

The public agenda of the Covenant is to create a pan-Underdark society, that tears down and transcends the current factionalism and isolationism and creates a single entity not only for the benefit of all of the Underdark’s people, but also to make them a player on the global stage, and if all goes to plan, more powerful and influential than the disparate nations and of the surface.
This public agenda was reinforced by the Declaration of the Covenant of the Deep, which was issued by the Covenant’s leadership to the heads of all major cities, towns and factions within the Underdark in the year 574DW.

Assets

Like the structure of the Covenant, the true extent of its assets are known only to a few. What is known is that the Covenant has significant financial resources behind it, thanks to the patronage of wealthy individuals who have been brought into the cause, and that they have numerous safehouses scattered across all of the Underdark’s levels.

Demography and Population

As the Covenant of the Deep draws on people from across the Underdark, regardless of race, faction or station, it is actually one of, if not the most egalitarian and representative groups in the entirety of the Underdark, which is one of the things the established powers believe is the most dangerous thing about it.

Territories

Whilst the Covenant are believed to have safe-houses scattered across the majority of the Underdark's main towns and cities, it is not known whether they have actually claimed any chunks of territory for their own. As there are so many isolated, abandoned and unknown passages, caverns and tunnels within the Underdark’s levels, it is relatively easy for any organisation or group of people to claim territory without anyone knowing about it.
However, given the outward aggression the Covenant faces from the established factions of the Underdark, it is no wonder that they have chosen to keep any territorial possessions secret.

Military

Again, the true extent of the Covenant’s military resources is unknown, but they definitely have an armed wing, which has been used to perform precision strikes on a number of targets across the Underdark, belonging to factions such as Kar-Marrontal and the Conclave of Hvanmara who openly oppose them. All of these strikes have been expertly planned by Malkari Gramatz, their military director who was once a key strategic mind in the court of Matriarch Jezebel in Kar-Marrontal.

Religion

Part of the Covenant of the Deep’s beliefs is that patronage to the original Divines has done nothing for the people of the Underdark, and they have been engaged for too long in their Divine War which has been devastating for much of the material plane’s surface, something that they would wish to spare the Underdark from as much as possible.
To that end, they encourage, but do not require, that its members instead turn their devotions to Drusiss, the divine being that first implanted the idea into the heads of the founding members and who has been guiding them ever since.

Foreign Relations

Whilst at grassroots level, the Covenant of the Deep have garnered a lot of support, diplomatically they have found themselves at best treated coolly, but courteously and at worst with open hostility by the other factions of the Underdark. No other faction has openly come out in support of them, whilst several, Kar-Marrontal and the Conclave of Hvanmara amongst them have openly decried them and are actively working towards destroying them.

Founding Date

Unknown

Type

Religious, Sect

Capital

Hellspire Citadel

Alternative Names

The Cult of Drusiss

Demonym

Depites / Slaves of Drusiss (derogatory)

Location

The Underdark

Controlled Territories

• Hellspire Citadel