Category:The Kargat
This section contains canon info from officially published sources |
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
This section contains canon info from officially published sources |
- 581 BC Early Summer A lycanthrope agent of the Kargat infiltrates the Krezk militia before meeting his own demise.[7]
- 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]
- 605 BC Urik von Kharkov enters Darkon through the Mists. He hears about the immortal power of the Kargat vampires and seeks them out. However, he is enslaveed as one of their vampiric thralls for two decades.[10]
- 625 BC Urik von Kharkov's vampire master is slain. Kharkov flees, casually murdering any souls unfortunate to cross his path.[10] As a result, Valachan forms, and he becomes a darklord.[11][12]
- 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]
- 645 BC Lady Kazandra, future Kargat leader, is born in Maykle.[13]
- 650 BC The Kargat establish the Faith of the Overseer in Darkon.[11][12] Tavelia is the one most responsible for its creation, having woven the dogma of the church from bits of various outlander religions and stuck them into the Doctrinae.[14]
- 651 BC Baron Mikhail Ulyanov, Kargant agent and wolfwere, is appointed ruler of the newly formed Carcharodon Isle. His arrival on the island also hearkens the first appearance of wolves on the island.[15]
- 703 BC Mongrelmen flee G’Henna into the Darkonian wilderness. Karuk Abjen and a Kargat legion is sent to destroy them, but Karuk and his army are destroyed instead.[16]
- 719 BC Bartholomew Nylreave is born to a ghoul father and a Kargat agent mother. His parents raise him in a cellar for the next decade.[17]
- 728 BC Dr. Van Richten and his companions defeats Karuk Abjen, former Kargat agent turned ghost, and his Phantom Army.[18]
- 729 BC Lady Kazandra takes Bartholomew Nylreave from his parents and begins training him to be an agent of the Kargat.[17]
- 743 BC Carnival returns to Darkon. Tenira Courant, an agent of the Kargat, enlists.[19]
- 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]
- 747 BC Alanik Ray becomes Chief Constable of Martira Bay.[20] His actions within the City Constabulary prove a thorn in Tavelia's (and the Kargat's) side.[21]
- 749 BC[22] or 750 BC[23] The Doomsday Device's last prototype is tested by the Kargat, transforming former Kargat agent Lowellyn Dachine into Death.
- 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]
- 750 BC December: The Requiem occurs.[25][26] As Azalin disappears and Il Aluk is engulfed by the Shroud, all living Kargat agents within are killed and reanimated as the Slain. Jacques Dauphant[27] and Venrith Chole[1] are among the agents so transformed. Jacques joins the Unholy Order of the Grave[27], but Venrith Chole eventually escapes and rejoins the Kargat.[1]
- 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]
- Sometime between 755 BC and 760 BC Tavelia resurfaces on Liffe under the guise of Baroness Liae Tva Kolsson, wife of Baron Rognavold Kolsson. Becoming a Demilord of Liffe hinders her schemes both there and in Darkon.[31]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Gazetteer II p. 36
- ↑ Gazetteer II p. 34-35
- ↑ Ravenloft Campaign Setting: Domains and Denizens (Red Boxed Set) p. 11
- ↑ Gazetteer II p. 35
- ↑ Gazetteer II p.44
- ↑ Domains of Dread p.138
- ↑ I, Strahd, The War Against Azalin p.265-266
- ↑ I, Strahd, The War Against Azalin p.265-302
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Death Undaunted p. 4
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Darklords p.54
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Ravenloft Third Edition p.17
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Ravenloft Player's Handbook p.19
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Gazetteer II p.147
- ↑ Gazetteer II p.32
- ↑ Book of Souls p.73
- ↑ The Revised, Annotated,and Totally Unofficial Ravenloft Timeline Speculation, "VRGtG pg. 84 says “nearly half a century ago, i.e. @686. However, G’Henna doesn’t exist until 702, so I’ve settled on this date."
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Book of Sorrows p. 77
- ↑ Van Richten's Guide to Ghosts p. 91
- ↑ Carnival p. 49
- ↑ Champions of the Mists p. 57
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 Gazetteer II p.148
- ↑ Gazetteer II p. 23
- ↑ Gazetteer II p.138
- ↑ Bleak House: Heroes, Monsters, and Settings p. 31
- ↑ Requiem
- ↑ Domains of Dread p.17
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 Gazetteer II p.128
- ↑ [[Domains of Dread P.137
- ↑ Death Undaunted p. 3-5
- ↑ Gazetteer II p.24
- ↑ Nocturnal Sea Gazetteer p.41
Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue
Secrets of the Dread Realms - p21,55 | ||
Secrets of the Dread Realms - p21 | ||
Kargat, The Kargat |
Subcategories
This category has the following 4 subcategories, out of 4 total.
Pages in category "The Kargat"
The following 33 pages are in this category, out of 33 total.