Tavern Talks

Adam: Well met travelers of all ages.

Welcome back to Tavern Talks podcast.

I am your lore telling,
storytelling dungeon master named

Adam with me today.

Zac: that up.

Adam: Well, I didn't want to give myself
too many accolades with me today is the

ever Sophisticated, well groomed, Zach.

Zac: Well met once more, you
harrowing harpers and exciting

Emerald Enclave agents.

Welcome back to the Tavern Talks Podcast.

Adam: podcast.

Today's episode embarks on a
quest to decide whose major

factions are you gonna join.

Thanks On our adventure today.

Zac: so basically we're
going to talk about the

Adam: to talk the five major factions
of the world in Forgotten Realms.

The Lord's Alliance, the Harpers,
the Order of the Gauntlet, the

Emerald Enclave, or the Zhentarim.

Sit back, relax, and get ready as
we dive deep into these factions

and their philosophies, their
ranks, and their mental fortitude.

Zac: we're gonna

Adam: Alright, we're gonna kick this off.

Zac: we'll go right into it.

Adam: We'll go right

Zac: into it.

Where are you going to hit us with?

Adam: as, as we go into the
podcast, there are five major

factions in Dungeons Dragons.

If you're going through the
worlds of the Forgotten Realms.

The major ones that you may recognize
are the Harpers or the Emerald Enclave.

Some other ones you may not know is
the Lord's Alliance and the Order

of the Gauntlet and the Zhentarim.

And then there's a couple of smaller,
minor factions, Flaming Fists,

Hellriders, Council of Spiders,
Elves of the High Forest, Order

of Samulars, Anthar Thieves Guild.

Brigham D'Aerthe, and then
Star Elf Rebellion Consortum,

and then the Nevermind Cartel.

So there's this minor faction, but
the major ones are the ones that we're

going to primarily focus on today.

Out of these, their philosophies vary
differently between it and your players

themselves may want to travel and go
into detail of who they want to join.

If they're already a part of a faction,
when they join you on the campaign,

trying to weave that into the storyline
is very fun to do because having an

underground network or a absolute faction
where they can call on members of the

faction to help them out in need is a nice
tie in and makes the world feel alive.

Zac: Yeah, I mean, not only does it
make the world feel alive, it allows

the players from a DM's perspective to,
to be more interactive within the world

itself, for them to be more engaged
with the story you're about to tell.

And it also gives them a sense that
they're not just on their own with

party members they may or may not
agree with on every single thing.

I

guess that would bring us into kind of the
first faction I want to talk about which

is or which are the harpers the harpers
are Basically spies for the greater good.

That's the best way to put it.

I think dungeons and dragons honor
among thieves did a really Soft and

good introduction to what harpers are

Adam: Fiends, did

Zac: Right

Adam: really soft and good
introduction to what Harpers are.

I always like to include a quest, an
underlying quest for the personal person

to achieve while they're in the campaign,
if they're a part of the Harpers, or

any of these factions, because they're
working for them as well as working

for the overall campaign as itself.

The Harpers go back, what, to

Zac: Almost.

Adam: 2nd edition, almost 1st

Zac: Yeah, we're talking about
the almost origins of D& D itself.

So, Harpers have been around for a while.

They are the quintessential
good guys of D& D.

And

yes,

it might be cliche to be playing the
good guy, but it's also really fun

because with Harpers, you can also
play a double agent if you wanted to.

They do have the ability for espionage
and Spying on the enemy of who they're

trying to overthrow or put in place
whether they're trying to insurrect

a rebellion it really doesn't matter
what they're trying to do But what

their overall goal towards is for the
greater good of faerun in general or

even if you're not in necessarily faerun
harper's influence still kind of Spreads

throughout any plane of existence A
little call back to the last episode,

but you can count that Harper's are
always going to be your good guys there.

There's never been a
dark Harper Association.

That would be more of the Zen interim
if I really wanted to go into it.

I,

but Harper's are also exceptionally loyal.

Adam: Yeah, they're loyal.

They are impenetrable to corruption.

They pride themselves on not being
able to be corrupted by evil.

They're chaotic good in nature, I would
say most of them are, just because they

like to meddle more so in their spies.

They end up kind of looking
towards I would just say Cold War

spy tactics more often than not.

If you try to imagine what they
are, they feel like they're doing

the greater good, and that's fine.

Think of them as Cold War tactics,
spying, Robin Hood type of

things, Firefly in that instance.

Or, they're good as good can
get in the world of d and d.

The organ, the organization
as a whole, they're, I just

think they meddle a lot in us.

You, as a DM you can use a mess,
has come to help because the

DA plot device type of thing.

I mean, that's just how I view

Zac: a filler at times.

They can be a filler.

Adam: they pop in and out as the DM fits.

And I think you, as the dm, if you
want to introduce the Harpers into

the campaign, just know that they're
there as a DEOs X mocking a type

of device to move the plot along.

Zac: along.

Correct.

Yeah.

They're your traditional cliché.

What good guys

steer

Adam: With okay intentions, I would say

Zac: Moth to flame.

That's arguable.

No,

Adam: they feel like they do the good but

Zac: It's not always the case, but

Adam: good old southern saying
is bless their heart because

they had good intentions

Zac: now.

Hey, now.

That's how

Adam: how I imagine the harpers

Zac: Well, I mean, it's at
least, it's not the Zhentarim, or

Adam: No, they're independent,
they're very skilled, and they're

trying to fight those who rise
in power and threaten people.

That,

Whether they're good guys or not, it
depends on you, most of the time they are

benevolent, good
citizens, and good people.

Zac: DM you have to decide,
you do not always have to go

Step by step what the harpers should
be you can make the complexities of the

harpers there could be a double agent.

There could be someone who is
actually working for another faction

It doesn't always have to be.

Oh you meet some harpers.

They're all good Maybe
they have been corrupted.

Maybe that adds a sense of
depth to the story Why are they

being corrupted if they're the
uncorruptible what's causing this?

You can really do this with any
faction, but Just understand, by

including and having the Harpers in
your campaign, you don't necessarily

always have to go the route of

ultimate good

Adam: Harper's in your campaign,
you don't necessarily always have

to go to the Harper's, ultimately.

That they themselves Proclaim
as their creed of a sense.

I'm not gonna sit there and read each one
You can look it up by Storm Silverhand

Bard of Shadowdale Look up the chance
and the creed of the Harpers themselves

but essentially they believe in that
they are righteous in what they do and

that they are righteous and Good in their
choices is their opinion in their opinion,

the best choice that they can make.

And I think that's where a
lot of people that yeah, they

are good for their own cause.

Zac: Right.

Adam: And I think that's where you as
a dm, these, a society is like, are

they totally good or is their cause
going to become a detriment to society

Zac: Is it gonna be
problematic in the Yeah.

Adam: of the world that you've built?

Zac: Kind of flowing off the harpers.

I guess we can go into what they're
the, same side of our different side of

a same coin here, we can go into these
Zenterim talk about them a little bit.

That's another major faction in the

planes of favor.

And they're basically
a black market network.

They're mercenaries, the
rogues, they're agents of

Adam: have a good mercantile network.

They're cartels of the world.

Zac: perfect way to explain that
they're the cartels of Faerun.

They walk a very neutral.

Awesome.

I would argue sometimes
almost evil line of

Adam: known to serve dark gods
of Bane and Sirik at times.

Zac: the most.

Yeah that's what this comes down to.

They're.

They're an elite assembly line of
mercenaries and thieves and sometimes.

Now you could also have an agent
of this interim that they don't

necessarily play by the rules.

They can have a moral compass.

Like I said it's more
fun to add these aspects

Adam: aspects.

Yeah, they're mercantile.

They're protection agencies.

The economy itself relies on
Zant Zeratrons out there as

well as they are protection.

They can, they're arms for hire.

Essentially they recruit bands
of monstrous humanoids that take

down rival and competing routes.

Think cartel, mafia type of
beings that, subjugate humanoids.

As well as they like to maintain
the overall competitive advantage

that they have under their merc
mercenaries that you can hire.

As well as the mercantile context
to move their product throughout the

neighboring factions that are around.

There's inner circles that take years
and years, almost lifetimes to get into.

Because they originally came from, you
know, Manshoon and they eventually,

was a dark wizard at a time.

And they formed the mercenary
company to rule over Munsea so you

look at that in terms of, yes, they
are evil, they are arms for hire,

so you just got to go into that.

As a, if you mess with them, all
hell, holy hell breaks loose on them.

There's different ones that you can
include, Manshoon being the Dark Wizard,

Simenon being Lieutenant along with
Mansoon, and then Trimbrill he came as the

Exarch of Bane following the Spellplague.

And there's a lot of lore from each of
these factions that we could get into,

but we're just doing a surface level
of what you want to introduce to your

campaign into your characters, and if
they are a mercenary working for the the

Zac: the Zintherim.

Adam: Zenterum, then just know
that normal, normally that

they are associated with evil.

And then that they are
mercenaries or cartels

Zac: cartels.

You can, yeah and that's the
thing, you can have fun with it.

Yeah they trend towards a
more evil alignment, but the

neutrality of what coin can do.

It gives you opportunities you
wouldn't normally have because say

you do need help with a specific
objective in your quest and does

interim are available to be hired.

There is an ability that your party
can, depending on the moral compass

of what they're deciding to do, they
can use that to their advantage.

So basically just
understand that Harper's.

Are the wannabe good guys the zentrum
are the cartels and mafias of the world

What's that going to bring us to next

Adam: Should be the Lords Alliance, which
was just like a Florentine partnership

between city states when it was formed.

So it's basically merchant
cities founded the Lords

Alliance or the Council of Lords.

Zac: lords And

Adam: And those happened in off
the Sword Coast in the Waterdeep

along Baldur's Gate and Everwinter.

Along with a couple other free cities.

Their whole goal was a pact of
political power, trying to stay

as an influence amongst the lands.

They're more of an aggressive
and self serving figureheads,

to be honest with you.

So if you introduce them, the
Lords Alliance is just a pact

of free city states, basically.

Where the city states themselves held
more influence amongst the people.

People so that they prosper in
the area versus a individual ask

Zac: So this is like a more
of a capitalistic society

Adam: yeah, they, they just
wanted more preservation of

civilization for the better of their

Zac: We could definitely say that they are
more of the, I guess the Lord's Alliance

is more of a bureaucratic faction.

Yeah.

You're gonna see more
bureaucracy and p politics,

Adam: Usually, they come about when
you want to hire hire adventurers

for quests to work for them.

They can pay well also they use
raids against Zhentarims as well.

Strongholds, outposts that oppose the
free cities and basically they lord over

their territory, basically trying to keep
them together and all on the same path.

Zac: Okay, so they're organized
faction when it comes to the

Adam: Just the easiest thing
to remember about the Lord's

Alliance is it's just Florentine.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Empire during the Renaissance, think of it
that way, where Florence tried to maintain

control of Milan, Rome, Venice, all of
these other factions and city states.

And they came to an agreement that
each individual city state has a ruler.

And that ruler is a part of the
Lord's Alliance, essentially.

So you had families themselves that tried
to control business in certain cities.

But then overall, there was one
family member controlling each of

the three cities, basically, in
Italy at the time of the Renaissance.

So just think of it that way.

It's Florentine politics at play, where
they try to be the center of attention.

So the Medici family would be one
of them to imagine in that way.

Dnd as a ruler of one of the city
states, but has a lot of influence

amongst the other city states, so
they formed the Lord's alliance

Zac: Okay.

All right.

Adam: That should take
us to the next one which

Zac: going to want to do?

Adam: your choice, I mean we got
the gauntlet left or the enclave

Zac: So I'm going to do the
gauntlet personally, just because

I am a huge fan of this faction.

It's a relatively.

New addition to D& D.

I'm not sure exactly if what
edition it was added in,

Adam: says

right here they're,

Zac: They're not

Adam: Okay,

Zac: okay.

They're vigilant.

Okay.

Imagine if anyone's a Warhammer

Adam: seek justice.

Zac: yeah, look, we'll say it like this.

They're basically the Warhammer
space Marines without the

complete heresy of anything being.

Blasphemic.

Adam: So the order is
basically just monks and

Zac: Monks, paladins, and clerics.

You're holy warriors that
are out for vengeance.

And they are willing to kill whatever
evil they might to save the greater good.

And not just the greater good,
just good in general and light.

But they also believe, fun
fact, I read on D& D Beyond.

They also believe in, and
I'm going to say this.

Verbatim, the order of the gauntlet
believes that all sentient beings

must come to the light of reason
and goodness of their own volition.

That is why it's not interested
in controlling minds.

Instead, it focuses only on deeds,
setting an example to the world and hopes

of inspiring and enlightening others.

So, they're

basically like, we're going to walk
the walk and not talk the talk so that

I'm going to smash your head and demon.

Adam: Faith is their greatest weapon
against evil, and faith in one's

God, whoever they chose to use, one's
friends and one's self is their pri

is their highest belief, and then
evil is an extraordinary task that

requires extraordinary strength and
bravery, and punishing an evil act is

just punishing evil, thought is not.

So they they're just these

Crusaders, basically.

These holy

Zac: They're crusaders
with actual validation.

Adam: So they're fighting evil.

They enforce the justice amongst
them and amongst, they tried to

seek

retribution against evil actions, but
they don't willy nilly just do that.

Zac: They don't just do it out of the
sake of To do it, they do it because

that's what they truly believe.

Like you said, it's basing on their God,
their belief, their faith in general.

Adam: They're heavy on friendship.

Zac: Friendship, loyalty, compassion.

They want to fight against
all forms of malice.

Adam: so if you want to end up having one
of your players or the, having the Order

of the Gauntlet, just know that they are
righteous in their decisions on that.

And I think it's
important to realize that.

They will seek out evil to bring
justice as a vigilante as they should

because their friendship and camaraderie
amongst the Order supersedes anything

else that's going on in the world to
bring order and justice amongst the

Zac: we mean the order of the
gauntlet, not the order that's

currently going on in our campaign.

Whole different order.

Whole different

Adam: so that takes care of the Gauntlet.

And then the last one that
we have is the Enclave.

Zac: Emerald Enclave, possibly
one of the most popular factions.

Usually

Adam: it is.

It's made up of druids
and elves and high elves

Zac: the Fae's,

Adam: yeah, kind of, the creatures
that are more closely associated

with the Fay itself, I would say, or

Zac: yeah.

Anything nature based, this is where

Adam: It's just one of the longer
ones, just like the Harper's

they've been around for a while.

It's more Benevolent.

Zac: Benevolent.

Adam: need to go to speech

Zac: You got it.

Adam: They're more known for those deeds
as much as swift actions against those

responsible for crimes against nature.

So if you ever read Percy

Zac: oh yeah, baby.

Now we're getting

Adam: And when they are trying to
find Pan, who is the god of nature,

of course, that's their duty.

They lie on that kind of realm.

Zac: Yeah it's just protection
of the natural world.

They're basically D and
D protesters and hippies.

The

best way to put it, except that they're a
little bit more badass because they will

fight whoever needs to catch those hands.

Adam: Yeah, and there's seven circles
amongst the enclave which each had

different duties and a different
place in the hierarchy, basically.

So just, there's different circles
from the nature, basically.

There's earth, there's
initiates, there's air there's

planar circles, there's
circle of alluviums.

And there's, and then
there's Eldath circle.

Each one of those circles has a
different faction within itself,

because it's just, y'all are all a
part of the Enclave itself, but all

act independently depending on what
your hierarchy in the circles are.

And they believed that anything and
everything in nature had its place

and it's recognized that they just
encompassed more than just forests.

The balance between plains, mountains,
rivers, and forests were important.

And they want, they

saw

anyone who wanted to reshape
nature for their monetary gain

that they were opposed to it.

Zac: So you can see that the Emerald
Enclave and the Lord's Alliance

probably have some beef here and there.

Adam: If they're just harvesting just
to harvest the enclave is going to

come in and say no, that's not how it

Zac: how we run things here, buddy boy.

If

Adam: you include the enclave in there

just

know that it's very nature oriented,
that the protection of nature is their

primary attitude, and that they are seven
circles within the enclave that represent

different parts of nature themselves.

And those are the five factions
that are incorporated into the

Forgotten Realms themselves.

That we are familiar with in D& D.

Now, if you're trying to homebrew
something as a dungeon master, I

would highly suggest that you have
a very well thought out plan because

their belief systems are important.

They're Their hierarchy is important.

Their ranks are important.

So setting them up for those
individual ones, make sure you

have everything figured out.

I would say if you're trying
to incorporate something

new into your own homebrew

Zac: Yeah, and you want to make it unique.

You don't want to just give the faction a
different name and claim it as your own.

If you decide to, to brace that homebrew
initiative, so to speak, make sure

you're doing it on your own accord
doing your fair share of research.

So it does make sense and that the
political and social aspects of how

that's going to play out in your
campaign actually flow together.

Yeah.

It's not just there for.

Adam: I've created a council of 12
which is a council of mages that

Basically political force over a city
itself and they determine that And they're

basically from all schools of magic So
each one of them represents a school of

magic and they decide what goes on in
the city and the city is very Prosperous.

It's very mercantile in base and that
council of 12 are Basically, the rulers

of the city on it, and I have this whole
hierarchy of how you get to be a part

of the Council of Twelve, how it works.

If you come from a family member of
the Council of Twelve, how you get

treated, how they get treated, because
they are essentially, Celebrities in

those worlds because they control the
aspects of the city that they live

in and it has been that way since the
city of, the city has been created, the

Council of Twelve had created the city.

And that was maybe, 300, 400 years
ago and now it's a center point

of prosperity and mercantilism.

Zac: I guess that'll bring us to
the end of our lovely little episode

Adam: was a little short.

We just wanted to make sure that we
touched on the five major factions, if

you wanted to include it into the DM.

As the DM, just know, going into that,
that they all have their belief systems,

and please stick to them, because they
are very well documented throughout

Zac: pivotal.

Adam: And that, yeah.

Zac: Yeah, these aren't something
that can just be flipped and

Adam: No.

So if you're going to use the
Harpers in your next campaign, in

your next campaign, don't complain.

Zac: Don't complain.

Adam: Don't,

Zac: in your next campaign.

Yeah.

Adam: Don't complain about them being
so righteous in their own right because

they can be a righteous to the fault.

And that is good for good
storytelling and good writing.

Don't make them all good.

Make them good.

Make them believe that they
are good no matter what.

Even though it may cost them evil
acts later, moral decisions had to be

Zac: Hey, that's the fun
and getting to add all this

Adam: and with that, I hope
you guys enjoyed the Dungeons

Dragons Factions episode.

With that being said,
always please subscribe.

Reach out to us on Twitter at pod tavern
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Again, we appreciate the
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you guys stick with us continuing forward.

Zac: And whether you're a barbaric badass
or a druidic dungeon delver, we're always

thankful for you tuning in and we really
do appreciate the continued support if

you're still here with us and we would
love to hear back from you like Adam

said at one of those media outlets.

Tankards meet again, my fellow dungeoneers
and dungeon masters, Thank you again

for tuning in to the Tavern Talks.

Adam: Yeah, and may your dice be fair,
your dungeons legendary, and may your

campaigns be filled with many factions

that

echo through the halls of D& D history.

Until next time, safe travels, and
may your tales be ever legendary.