The Harpers

The Harpers, or Those Who Harp, are a semi-secret organization dedicated to promoting good, preserving history (including art and music of old), and maintaining a balance between civilization and nature by keeping kingdoms small and the destruction of animal and plant life to a minimum. They consider the elven empire of Myth Drannor shortly before its fall to be the pinnacle of civilized history and strive to recreate the world in that image.
The Harpers operate mainly in north Faerûn, along the Sword Coast, the Western Heartlands, and the Dalelands. The group itself is extremely decentralized and the nearest thing they have to a base of operations is Twilight Hall in Berdusk. An often-employed means of achieving their goals is assisting adventurers who are on quests that will further Harper interests.

Structure

Harpers can be of any age or profession, any sex or gender, and of any race. Humans, elves, and half-elves are most common among them, but a few gnomes, halflings, and dwarves, and even woodland folk like dryads and centaurs have also joined. Most members are either rangers or bards, though wizards, rogues, fighters and clerics are also present. Priests could follow any faith; Azuth, Deneir, Eldath, Lliira, Mielikki, Milil, Mystra, Oghma, Selûne, Silvanus, Tymora, and the Seldarine being the most common. This causes no issues of faith, though there is some friction with upper ranks of clergy. Druids, particularly of the North, tend to their willing allies rather than members.

History

Those Who Harp have disbanded several times, but after each time they eventually reformed one way or another. The idea behind the Harpers was first conceived by several Myth Drannan elven military leaders in collusion with a few trusted human rangers and druids. The mage Dathlue Mistwinter agreed to lead such a group in the Year of Freedom's Friends, 324 DR at the head of a council that also included a (relatively) young Elminster Aumar. They took for their symbol Mistwinter's family crest—a silver harp between the horns of a crescent moon—and met at twilight at secret locations in the Elven Court, earning them their moniker: the Harpers at Twilight.
However, the Harpers at Twilight dwindled in number over the next four centuries, victims of attrition at the hands of their enemies: bandits, slavers, drow, illithids, orcs, and evil spellcasters attracted to Myth Drannor's success. The Weeping War decimated the remaining members of the group. By the end of the conflict, Dathlue was dead as were all but about a dozen of the Harpers at Twilight.
First Reformation On the 27th of Flamerule of 720 DR, at a druid grove in High Dale called the Dancing Place, a large congregation of dryads arrived when dusk fell earlier than it should have and a bright moon shone when no moon should have been visible. The dryads bid the druids make welcome the priests of many different gods who started to arrive before finally Elminster appeared to explain why they had all been called.
The elves had called for the support of the priests assembled to help fight back against the faithful of Bane, Bhaal, Loviatar, Malar, and Myrkul, who were coming from the south and attacking the elves and performing abhorrent deeds. The priests argued but their deities—Corellon, Mielikki, Mystra, Oghma, Selûne, Silvanus, and Tymora—directly possessed them and spoke through them, voicing their support in person and extending their blessings to this effort. This night thusly became known as the Gathering of the Gods. The remaining Harpers at Twilight set about recruiting new members and expanding their influence, though they did so very slowly and lost around twenty new recruits to conflict with their enemies. Over that time though, these new Harpers established an incredibly effective information network, and earned the respect of religious leaders by using that network to help their causes. In return, they were granted the use of fortified temples and monasteries wherein members could train and recuperate between missions.
It was during this period, known as the "Long Years" within the organization, that the Harpers erected the wards around Hellgate Keep and helped to kill Sammaster. The Harpers' increasingly public actions also made them come into more frequent conflict with the Church of Bane and the nation of Thay. When the Harpers eradicated the Wearers of the Skull and thereby attracted the ire of the Church of Myrkul, who sent liches after the Harpers, only to see each destroyed, Thay then raised armies to hunt them down and the remaining Harpers went underground in 1021 DR.
In the Year of the Watching Helm, 992 DR the Harpers founded the Heralds of Faerûn to prevent the unscrupulous from blaming others for their misdeeds. The Heralds also used their power to provide Harpers with cover identities.
Second Reformation After the loss of many members during the previous year, Elminster and Khelben Arunsun decided in 1022 DR that new recruits were needed and that the revitalized Harpers would be an "underground army of adventurers". Recruits who met the pair's standards took time to be found, but eventually Elminster happened upon the Wanderers of Espar, a band of a dozen bards, druids, and rangers led by Finder Wyvernspur and Ulzund Hawkshield in Cormyr. Through a series of manipulations, these adventurers were introduced to surviving Harper veterans and ended up successfully battling many of the Harper's enemies.
The group continued to be quietly manipulated by Elminster and Khelben, who appointed certain members as "Master Harpers" and supplied them with harper pins while the sisters Dove and Storm Silverhand posed as traveling minstrels to attract new members with their music.
Over the next two centuries, the Harpers re-established their information network but were drawn into ever more public fights with evil churches, the Cult of the Dragon, Thay, and others. Casualties began to mount again and to avoid a repeat of history, Khelben and Elminster had all senior Harpers go into hiding. By this time, however, Finder Wyvernspur became corrupted and the Harpers sealed him in the Citadel of White Exile. In the Year of the Empty Scabbard, 1116 DR, seeing the Harpers no better than cultists of Bane, the Heralds decided that they could not be openly associated with the Harpers and split from them.
When junior members grew tired of the new, low-key direction the group was headed in and started getting themselves killed in foolish fights, Elminster gave them a direction—by starting the Harpstar Wars. Only around forty of the Harpers involved in the war survived it and when they returned, they found their organization had strayed in a completely different direction.
Corruption of the Harper King A Harper bard named Rundorl Moonsklan had convinced himself that Elminster, Khelben, and the Harpers they'd taken with them during the Harpstar Wars had gotten themselves killed fighting on other planes and that senior Harpers in hiding had actually permanently retired. His ambition, therefore, was to replace the organization's leadership and reshape it to his own ends. He desired to be the power behind every throne in the North and happened to meet Szass Tam while planning on how to achieve this.
The two came to an agreement: Szass Tam would funnel Rundorl information on his rivals in Thay and Rundorl would gain prestige by concocting a story of a new spell capable of turning thousands into undead slaves with a single casting. The plan went perfectly, Rundorl led his fellows into battle against those whom he claimed had knowledge of "the spell of Undeath" and both he and Tam advanced in power.
Eventually, though, more Harpers were dying than Thayans and Rundorl led a reluctant retreat out of Thay. His exhausted men were being assassinated and reanimated as undead, however, and Rundorl rightly suspected that Tam had betrayed him. Rundorl appealed to another lich named Thavverdasz. He promised the Harpers' services in return for his help defeating his reanimated comrades. Thavverdasz agreed, mockingly taking for himself the name "Harper King" after learning of Rundorl's ambition. The undead were easily wrested from Tam's control but Thavverdasz betrayed his other allies, the Cult of the Dragon.
It was this situation that the surviving Harpstar veterans returned to in 1222 DR. The Cult of the Dragon had raised an army and sent it against Thavverdasz's Harpers while Szass Tam challenged the Harper King directly. Thavverdasz used a powerful magic item to defeat Tam, but Elminster surprised and assassinated the Harper King shortly thereafter.
Grimly, Storm and Dove set about replacing their massive losses while Khelben and the remaining veterans licked their wounds. Elminster was left to counter the rising star of the Zhentarim alone, beginning a long-standing feud with Manshoon. He pulled strings among the Wychlaran to keep the Thayans busy and turned the lair of the Harper King into a deathtrap to destroy the inevitable Cult of the Dragon reinforcements. Luckily, the Harper information network remained intact and largely ignorant of the organization's recent corruption.
Third Reformation Storm Silverhand came to lead the so-called "eastern branch" of the Harpers. These senior members operated mostly in the lands east and north of the Dalelands and were based, unofficially, in Shadowdale. When Alustriel Silverhand rose to power in Silverymoon in 1235 DR, after three years of chaos since Sepur of Silverymoon abandoned the city, Alustriel and her followers were aided by her sister Storm's Harpers against the orcs of the Black Horde and the mage Shallos Ethenfrost. In return for their help, Storm was allowed to build Moongleam Tower in Everlund.
Khelben led the Harpers on the Sword Coast over the next century but sponsored the Harpstar veteran Cylyria Dragonbreast in her bid to become High Lady of Berdusk in 1321 DR, giving over leadership of his Harpers to her. Cylyria's Order of the Silver Moon and Harp was much more regimented than the eastern branch, who functioned much like they always had since the Harper King was destroyed. The Harpers of Twilight Hall, as they were colloquially known, acted openly against the Zhentarim and Amnian interests and even came close to crippling the Rundeen, which brought open hostilities against Berdusk itself. The move also brought many volunteers who wanted to join the Harpers however, swelling their ranks with new members.

Code of the Harpers

• Harpers work against villainy and wickedness wherever they find it, but they work ever mindful of the consequences of what they do.
• All beings should walk free of fear, with the right to live their lives as they wish.
• The rule of law aids peace and fosters freedom, so long as the laws are just and those who enforce them lenient and understanding.
• No extreme is good. For freedom to flourish, all must be in balance: the powers of realms, the reaches of the cities and the wilderlands into each other, and the influence of one being over another.
• Whatever it takes, a Harper will do. Pride never rules the deeds of a true Harper.
• Freedom is a multiversal right, though Harpers can spare themselves less freedom than those they work to protect when the need presents itself.
• Harpers police their own. A Harper who hears the call of personal power can no longer hear the sweet song of the harp. A Harper who seizes power, and holds it above all else, is a traitor to the harp. Traitors must die for freedom to live.
• Without a past, no being can appreciate what they have, and where they may be going.

Founding Date

324 DR

Type

Social, Activist

Alternative Names

Those Who Harp

Demonym

Harpers

Judicial Body

The Harpers were led by a council of High Harpers, who were responsible for most of the group's long-term plans and goals. High Harpers were elected through the means of secret ballots among the other High Harpers, with the criteria being long-term service and extreme discretion in the implementation of their plans.

Notable Members

• Kian Vos