Story
In the nation of Eiren there are several classes. You have the noble class, people who have a title attached to their names because they were lucky enough to be born into certain families. Next down is the high class; merchants, traders, and bankers who have managed to gain enough wealth that the nobles have no choice but to let them into their circle. Next is the knight and scholar class, people who have some small amount of noble blood and who don't have much money. They are generally in the employ of the noble and high class. Then the largest class is the middle class, encompassing nearly everybody else. These are the everyday people who keep the nation running and pay the bulk of the taxes. The lowest class is the peasant class, those who are still stuck in the feudal system or were forced to inter into it because of extreme poverty. This also includes the homeless and the beggars who haven't descended into the last class.
That is the class that nobody acknowledges, the rogue class. These are the pirates, the wanderers, the aristocratic thieves, the gypsies, the assassins, the entertainers, the mercenaries, and the mystics. All at once it is impossible to either be above this class or below it, giving it an equality of sorts. The only thing that binds these people together is a wildness and an unwillingness to be under the rule of anyone. These people go where they will and burst into laughter if anyone mentions taxes. They may agree to contracts, but will be gone the second the contract runs out. They are impossible to tie down and value their freedom above all things. A few rulers have tried to stamp out this class in the past. In short, every attempt has been a catastrophic failure. For the past couple of hundred years the royal family has simply considered these people a fact of life.
After all, the royal family has pretty much degenerated into figure heads at this point. The nation is really ruled by the advisors. As an example, the king only has three daughters now and there is no chance of the queen having another child. At least, not a legitimate one. There was a crown prince but he died of a 'delicate' disease a year back. So, the advisors set it up so that a young foreign advisor, who had none the less been in Eiren for most of his life, married the crown princess. That insured that the advisors would have near complete control of everything.
The stories you can hear are interesting though. According to one of the late crown prince's mistresses, not the one he got the 'delicate' disease from and a long standing member of the rogues, the new consort isn't as easily controlled as the nobles and other advisors think. In private, though not with her, he has some very strong views about how the king should control his kingdom. He finds the way the advisors use the king a travesty and something that should not be accepted in his eyes. Never mind that he's benefited from it. What he seems to find truly disgusting is how weak the monarchy truly is. Apparently in private he has cited the existence of the rogue class as proof of this. The advisors probably should have thought it through more before they put him in direct line for the throne.
Not that any of it should make any difference. The rogues have survived wars, invasions, and several extermination attempts. While they are continually fighting amongst each other, once someone targets the group as a whole it is amazing how quickly they can join forces. Information travels fast and it is hard for anything to happen anywhere without someone from the rogues finding out and passing word along.
There have been some disconcerting rumors and happenings though. Old Lord Ruslan's body was recently found it his mansion ... more accurately all through his mansion ... and the surrounding land ... and in a few sewer systems. He wasn't really a lord but the retired leader of several large thief guilds and held much more power and money than any lord. Despite his age, there were few who could kill him and none who would. Though most don't know the details, everyone knows that he held some sort of very important and necessary position within the rogues.
While it made some people nervous, no one would have really worried if Madame Desiree hadn't disappeared soon after. As a former, and always favored, mistress of the king she was a very important source of information about the court. One day she simply disappeared, without a word to even one of her proteges. She has always been very cunning and wily with the use of poisons and concealed blades, and held a position similar to Lord Ruslan's.
According to rumor, which is often right, the assassin covenant master Master Saif has gone into hiding or on some sort of journey. In any case, whenever someone wants to set up an assassination with his covenant it has been done through an underling and he is officially "not available". The crew of the pirate king, Gentleman Arsenio, say that their captain has been especially paranoid of late. The man hasn't been quite right since the episode when his fifth wife had an affair with the naval admiral and he was almost captured, but now he's letting it interfere with his profits. Even Her Ladyship Hetty Thane, the most vicious and audacious smuggler since her mother, has been jumpy of late. This is the woman who responded to a threat against her smuggling ring by abducting the magistrate and ransoming him. After stripping him and his house of everything of value.
All of these people are the highest ranking, if you could consider the rogues having ranks, and hold the most necessary positions within the rogue class. It is also well known that they are all the chosen successors to the greatest of the rogues in the past and hold what those prior masters handed down. It is not universally known what is being handed down, but the knowledge that it is vitally important is a religious conviction among the rogues. That all of this has happened within such as short time is very disturbing.
To make matters worse, it is getting very difficult to conduct business. Bribes are being betrayed, long lasting understandings are being ignored, and people who should know better are loosing their blindness and deafness. The gypsies have even been clearing out, which is never a good sign. The authorities have gotten a lot more intelligent all of a sudden and the number of hiding holes are rapidly decreasing.
Things are not as they should be. And it's about time to figure out why and fix it!
