1. Organizations

Templar-Wives

Templar
Templar

All of Nibenay’s templars are female. Nibenese tradition dictates that every templar is a wife of the Shadow King, although the marriage is purely ceremonial for all but a handful of favored or highranking templars. At any given time, Nibenay’s wives number several hundred; almost all are humans or half-elves. They form the middle and upper layers of an immense bureaucracy that runs the city’s affairs. This bureaucracy is divided into five temples, each overseeing one aspect of governance. A high consort who reports directly to the Shadow King oversees each temple.

The Shadow King’s templar-wives include representatives of nearly every race. Many templars broaden their magical study by dabbling in other arcane, shadow, and psionic traditions to grow their power and versatility

Shadow Brides

Nobles and powerful templars snub Nibenay’s lowest-ranking templar-wives, calling them “shadow brides” and mocking their barren beds and trivial stations in the kingdom’s governance. Shadow brides frequently become pawns in the city-state’s vast and intricate political dance. Newly initiated brides can be susceptible to bribery, and the craftier templar-wives work multiple sides of a conflict to scheme their way into the city-state’s higher echelons.

High Consorts

High consorts are the highest-ranking members of Nibenay's templars. Each rules one of the five temples. Together, the temples control every aspect of the city-state's management. Like Nibenay's noble houses, the consorts jockey for position. Nibenay doesn't interfere in their feuds, which frequently lead to backstabbing, temporary alliances, assassinations, and small wars of intrigue.  

The Shadow of King Nibenay

“It is the greatest honor for a young woman to catch the Shadow King’s eye and to be wed to his immortal glory and reap the rewards such station affords.”

Nibenay’s sorcerer-king is a mystery, because he rarely emerges from the guarded inner city. The only contact the Nibenese might have with their Shadow King is through his brides, the templar-wives who govern in his stead. Only these powerful women are permitted in the Naggaramakam to witness the splendor and excess defining his microcosm, but even these lucky servants rarely glimpse their powerful master.

Recruitment: The women filling out the templar ranks are awarded the special invitation for a variety of reasons. Magical talent is a factor, but candidates are more often chosen based on their standing in the city, the bloodline from which they descend, and what the templars stand to gain by welcoming the aspirant into their ranks. Since the templars attend nearly every aspect of Nibenese society, there is a place for even those templars who have no skill in magic and serve better as soldiers, administrators, or spies.

Training: None can refuse an offer to wed the Shadow King, but before the ceremonial wedding can take place, the bride-to-be spends a year or more in the inner city attending to the sacred rites and rituals while being also tested to discover her particular talents. During this time, the bride is sorted into the temple in which she will serve for the rest of her days. For most templars, the marriage is symbolic only— an event not even the Shadow King attends. A rare few are singled out, due to great beauty, cunning, or magical aptitude, and are attended by the sorcerer-king, whereby they receive special training and the Nibenay’s investment of his own arcane power.

Duties: All templars work within one of five temples and receive their assignments during their initiations. The Temple of the House and Temple of Trade deal with mundane matters; those wives who lack the necessary skills to wield magic to any great effect are in these departments, where they attend to the necessary functions of keeping the city running. Examples include collecting revenues, overseeing grain and lumber production, and maintaining good relations with the trade houses. Those with a knack for battle can serve in the Temple of War, overseeing the troops and leading military expeditions. The Temple of Law also has a martial bent, but instead of dealing with armies and foreign relations, the department keeps the peace and enforces the law. The most powerful institution is the Temple of Thought, where templars with psionic potential hone their talents and master them. The Temple also schools templars in higher magical forms, revealing the secrets of defiling, necromancy, and other traditions. Those working in this temple can become teachers for the nobility, special operatives for the Shadow King, or act as his spies.

Advancement: The five temples are equal in standing and import, though certain temples obviously have greater influence depending on the political climate and developments in the city-state. Aspirants, or brides, occupy the lowest rungs, where they are subject to every whim and command from their superiors. Upon undertaking the ceremony, the new templar-wife holds a lowly position until she has experience and has earned a place among the higher echelons. Older and more experienced templar-wives and those whom the sorcerer-king has chosen to fill out his personal entourage command the upper tiers and decide the fates of all who serve them.

Adventuring Templars: Templar-wives have great freedom. While they are bound to the sorcerer-king as members of a large family, the templars number in the hundreds, and many undertake missions for the city-state that can carry them far from Nibenay to nearly anywhere in the region. Missions relate to the temple in which the templar-wife is installed. Thus a templar who claims membership to the Temple of Trade might travel to distant cities to negotiate trade agreements with governing merchant princes, while those in the Temple of War can scout enemy territories, raid and plunder client villages, track down slave tribes, and so on.

March 23rd, 2022 April 20th, 2022

Members

10