The Networkers' Web

If there is a single organisation that has control over all of the Haan Archipelago's extension, it would be, much to the formal governments' frustration, the illicit, semi-secret Weaver's Network: A group of individuals that work in the shadows to ensure that anyone, regardless of their own resources or connections, can get work done where they would otherwise fail to get the people that they need in place.
However, they would accomplish very little if they weren't true to their name; all of their power to take action come from a tight-knit web of contacts strung along by the ties of safekeeping secrets, the prospect of work, and gratitude.
A big (Perhaps gigantic, as the depths of the Weaver's Network sources is difficult to scrutinise) amount of groups and people are allied, one way or another, to the Weaver's Network.
However, as a key part of their functionality lies in their manpower not being really sure about who are they working for, these organisations have only passing ideas as to the ends and beneficiaries of their work.
While the Weavers hold an strict silence about their connections and contacts, less meticulous parties have shared information that, little by little, added up to form a fairly big (albeit highly speculative) picture of the Weaver's alliances with the big and small factions around the archipelago. Attentive chroniclers may even elaborate on the delicate relations that the small factions of rebels and outlaws formed with each other by their workings with the Weavers, even between groups of people that don't really have a clue about each other's identities.

The Web

The Weaver's Network

Weavers' Wool by Naelín

I hold the contact book. I will get you who you need.

Every task, every name, and every juicy detail about thousands of people's machinations runs through them but, like an illicit confessor, nothing comes out of their mouths and pens -- save for the very short, very direct requests they send to their "processors". The people and groups allied to them know that they are working all the time for who-knows-whoms.
The common leatherworker can only wonder and speculate whether the package she wrapped in non-flammable wraps will help The Bakers overthrown the deer's tyranny, or cause their demise. She will have to find solace in the Weaver's general history of favouring the ones that are fighting up instead of down.

Raised Bakers' Resistance of Karte

Logo of the Raised Bakers Resistance by Naelin

I fight for my land and my people. My land and my people are on my side.

The Raised Bakers Resistance, the organisation of anarchist labourers working to overthrown Karte's monarchy, does not only have funny pastry names under their account. They are well organised and hold a good amount of information on their own. There is basically no doubt that half of the work done for The Resistance went through the hands of the Weavers, but also that the bakers provided food, safe passages and gear to the Weavers and their other clients. In exchange, the Resistance turns more of their usual share of blind-eye when they suspect a work is being done for the deer nobility.

Temple of Rheshnaghty

Rheshnaghty by Naelin

I use the gift of intention to consciously improve the world.

Few people have a history so publicly linked to The Weavers as the followers of Autonomism's god of Intention, Rheshnaghty.
Lush Enis, a priestess of Rheshnaghty, was loved in her community for the gigantic amount of work she did and got done to help everyone around her and make her town flourish thanks to her work as a Weaver. However, by doing this as an example of her (unpopular at the time) version of Rheshnaghty's gift of intention, and by obviously getting the common folk to get around levy and unfair regulations, she got on the bad side of both the other priests, and Dhalmain's government. She was assassinated on 2965 E.Alz making her the first and only person to be executed for the charges of "weaving contacts", but the backslash was so great that Rheshnaghty's temple was forever changed to follow her teachings. Today, it is an open secret that a lot of the most devote followers and preachers of The Intention are either weavers, or active helpers for them.

The Circlecrats

The gods gave us hands but not shame.

The Principality of Red Crest used to be quite an uptight and distrusting society, at least in public, before the High Rust dissolved their mother country, the kingdom of Merthiorn into oblivion, leaving the prince sitting on a throne crumbling under the weight of his unpopularity. Getting help to do less-than-perfectly-legal-and-regulated work done there was difficult, so the Weavers had to fight taxation, bureaucracy and fear on top of their usual difficulties.
Far from being just a group of loud philosophers, the Circlecrats of Red Crest pushed their own political agenda against the government's idea of morality and decency, and against the tight regulations and restrictions that made individual progress complex for the poorer folk. They had their questions about the ethics of the Weavers, but they agreed that, in their context, helping them would be the ethically correct decision. But being "not just a group of loud philosophers" didn't stop them from still being loud. They made their alliance with the Weavers public, which diminished the Weavers' ability to make use of that alliance and still act in secrecy, and made them distrust the philosophers. The relationship still proved useful as the Circlecrat were the most willing subjects most of the time, and their members usually knew a variety of trades.

The Knowledgeholders

I have information, the most valuable resource.

Sometimes, the tasks entrusted to the weavers requires not so much of manual labour and direct action, and more of getting the right people to retrieve the right knowledge. And sometimes, those who hoard knowledge require manual labour and direct action to... well, to retrieve the knowledge, and to make it apt to be stored.

The Knowledgeholders are a small group of people appointed by the Kingdom of Merthiorn to gather and manage research, history, biographies, and tomes of any kind of useful information in the Majestic Library of Goldwaste.
Over their years of work, they managed to gather an incredible amount of books and manuscripts, which access was supposedly public, but required going through an excruciating amount of bureaucracy.
It was suspected that the Knowledgeholders made use of less-than-official channels and procedures to meet their quotas of new books, and it was rumoured that getting a Weaver in place could make the access to the records a lot easier, but nothing was confirmed.
With the coming of the High Rust and the subsequent dissolution of Merthiorn and destruction of most of Goldwaste, the newly raised Kingdom of Tháur reinstated the Knowledgeholders, making their priority the management of the efforts to retrieve what was left of the contents of the Majestic Library from its remote location. After this point, their connection to the weavers became more obvious, as the tasks diversified and the work was harder, and academic content in general became more difficult to find across the archipelago, making the kind of jobs that required finding information more common. In the desire to impose Thaur as the academic capital of the archipelago, the authorities turn a blind eye to this sometimes evident connections.

Dhalmain's Underfolk

Symbol of the Underfolk by Naelín

Florian Ley by Naelin

I know the secret places, I know the secret routes.

The fact that the Weavers Network count common scoundrels and criminals between their resources surprises none but the most naive people, and is usually the excuse used by people in power to criminalise their activities and dissuade the population from engaging with them.
"Yeah but do they have to?" is the most usual question in discussions about this.
The Weavers themselves would not let out any sort of public announcement on the topic, of course, but those that are most aware of the order's philosophy have been able to conjure a simple answer: If the order's purpose is to make common people be able to use the resources normally available only to the powerful, then the criminals have to be part of that array of resources.
The odds between the powerful and the common folk are still uneven in this regard, as it is known that the Weavers' order usually refuses requests that they deem too violent or dangerous, though their record is far from spotless.
On the Underfolk's side, this alliance, perhaps the most reliable that they have, provides work that is safer than most of what they can get. After all, "Get a thing from point A to point B" is much easier when the thing is just a love letter for some fugitive that is expecting it.
However, individual issues between a weaver and one of the underfolk are not unheard of, and threats and violence ensued in several opportunities. Still, the weights on the balance still work in favour of the alliance being kept strong.

The Nation of Ruh

Our laws and traditions aren't a popularity contest. A ruler that tries to bend on their favour will soon find themselves bent.

While a lot of individual towns consider the weavers as troublemakers, bad influence and potentially dangerous, Ruh is the only one of the big islands of the archipelago where the Weavers' Network is not outlawed.
RuhRics, specially those of Cyan Stone City, have long stated that the outlawing of the Weavers is a tool of the more centralised governments of kingdoms and proper countries to prevent losing control over their subjects. Several notorious "charismatic helpers" are counted among the towns that form the Nation of Ruh, and sometimes their help is required in a somewhat public fashion for important issues in the communities, making their job a little different to the more individualised work they usually perform in the rest of the archipelago.
The cultural perception of the weavers is, however, a different issue altogether. The legality of their profession does not make them immune to the perception that their work sometimes will require them to engage with dangerous people or make them enemies of the powerful and of those who want to eliminate "those who know too much", so, while the people of Ruh usually don't have much of a problem with Weavers, and are probably grateful when they suspect they have one on their community, they heavily discourage others from joining the network.

Spread, connect, cover, link

Type

Information Network

Alternative Names

The Archipelago Wide Web, The Weaver's cheap folkpower

Parent Organization

Red de tejedores

Official Languages

• Thread Game

Weavers' Wool by Naelín