Category:The Kargat

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The Kargat is usually the dutiful agent of Azalin Rex. It is a largely clandistine organisation that is charged with being his eyes, ears, and fist.

Activities and Operations

The Kargat is at once a spy agency and an assassins' guild with limited public duties as a law enforcement agency. It acts inside and outside of Darkon. It targets Darkonians and foreigners. Its lower ranks are filled by humans and demihumans. Its middle ranks are filled by lycanthropes and their like. Its upper ranks are filled by vampires and the undead, many of whom are assassins. All told, there might presently (as of 756 BC) be 200 members, considering the losses the Kargat suffered during the Requiem and the Shrouded Years.[1] up to half of these agents may be stationed abroad.
Up to 20 mid- and high-level members, mostly lycanthropes and undead, are assassins. It is certainly conceivable that the training necessary to enter the assassin prestige class could be secured through employment with the Kargat. But it could subsequently prove to be quite difficult to resign one's post without forfeiting one's life.

Abroad a member of the Kargat may have some measure of fear of that land's law enforcement agencies, but he or she has no respect for that land's law itself. At home members of the Kargat are exempt from baronical law and are responsible for the enforcement of royal law. Baronical law is set locally by the 22 barons of Darkon. Royal law is set nationally by Azalin Rex and is enforced as he sees fit.[2] In consequence a member of the Kargat answers only to his or her superiors and ultimately Azalin Rex.[3] A member of the Kargat does not worry about having to justify the legality of his or her actions publicly in a court of law. Rather he or she should worry about having to justify the wisdom of his or her actions in private to individuals concerned with both results and appearances. The Kargat is able to employ very unsavory types precisely because it is capable of putting each on a very short leash ending in choker chain. The difficulty is that superiors right up the chain of command to Azalin Rex himself must be competent and must remain vigilant. When Azalin is busy with one of his grand schemes, the Kargat fails to receive the attention required for individual agendas to be kept properly in check. When Azalin nearly destroyed himself in the Requiem, it was Tavelia, the head of the Martira Bay cell of the Kargat, who attempted to engineer his return as her slave.[1]

Structure

Despite the power and fear the Kargat command, the Kargat are far from monolithic. The organization's power structure is decentralized and cellular, with few agents knowing those outside of their immediate cells.[1] It is possible that a complete list of its membership does not exist. The recent years of Azalin's negligence and then absence caused the Kargat's structure to become more scattered and in conflict with itself. Despite his ongoing efforts to reorganize and rebuild the worn ties of the Kargat, three main cliques continue to be at odds with each other. Their power bases are divided geographically, with Lady Kazandra being the leader based in Martira Bay, Venrith Chole being the leader based in Karg, and Beryl Silvertress being the leader based in Corvia.[1]

The public face of the Kargat's enforcement of royal law are prisons, in a handful of towns, administered by the Kargat, to which offenders are dragged by the Kargat and from which the condemned are never released by the Kargat or anyone else.[4] For example, The Black Hole in Karg[5] or (formerly) the Grim Fastness in Il Aluk[6]. The unseen face of the Kargat's enforcement of royal law are disappearances in the dead of night.[1]

Leader of the Kargat

Former Leader of the Kargat

Officer of the Kargat

Former Officer of the Kargat

Member of the Kargat

Former Member of the Kargat

Chronology

  • 581 BC Summer Strahd's minions assassinate the leaders of the Kargat. This leaves the Kargat in shambles for years, and Azalin ceases the skirmish attacks on the borders of Barovia.[8]
  • 595 BC Malamere turns Tavelia into a vampire. Tavelia is enslaved by Malamere, but her contributions speed her up the ranks. Eventually at some later date, she received her freedom for her efforts, and Azalin eliminates Malamere.[9]
  • 595 BC Malamere turns Tavelia into a vampire. Tavelia is enslaved by Malamere, but her contributions speed her up the ranks. Eventually at some later date, she received her freedom for her efforts, and Azalin eliminates Malamere.[9]
  • 640 BC Azalin appoints Tavelia as Kargat leader in Matira Bay.[9]
  • 729 BC Lady Kazandra takes Bartholomew Nylreave from his parents and begins training him to be an agent of the Kargat.[17]
  • 744 BC Lady Kazandra is sent to Matira Bay. Through her, the Kargat achieve more of a hold on criminal activity within the Bay. Tavelia keeps the Faith of the Overseer from getting mixed up in Kazandra's affairs.[13]
  • 750 BC (Or shortly before) Prior to the Requiem, Tavelia tries to dispatch Lady Kazandra and Alanik Ray by sending Kazandra to dispatch Ray. The effort fails, and Ray flees Darkon. However, Kazandra fails to take notice of Tavelia's traitorous plan against Azalin.[21]
  • 750 BC Tavelia has built (and continues to build) a large Kargat network of agents loyal to her first.[24]
  • 751 BC Thought destroyed with the fall of Azalin, the Kargatane goes underground. Lady Kazandra restructures the Kargatane to meet the demands of a world without Azalin and turns newcoming members into her own puppets. However, the Kargatane as a whole serves no single master.[28]
  • 755 BC Tavelia's plans to take control of Azalin fail with his restoration to power.[30] Following Tavelia's fall from grace, Kazandra becomes leader of the Kargat in Matira Bay.[21]


References

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

Secrets of the Dread Realms
Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume II

Secrets of the Dread Realms - p21,55
Death Ascendant - pp31-33
Realm of Terror - p67
Bleak House:Heroes, Monsters, and Settings - p31
Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume II - p35

Secrets of the Dread Realms - p21
Ravenloft Third Edition - p117
Death Ascendant - pp31-33
Realm of Terror - p67
Bleak House:Heroes, Monsters, and Settings - p31
The Ravenloft Campaign Setting:Domains and Denizens - pp11-12,96
Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume II - pp35-36
I, Strahd, The War Against Azalin - p256, 259, pp263-266

Kargat, The Kargat