Organizations of Arcanthea

Adventurers’ Guild (My Professional Life)

The Guild is my bread and butter, my professional identity, and the reason I have a steady income despite being a walking disaster. Neutral organization with branches worldwide, each one staffed by saints with infinite patience for our collective stupidity.

• Quest management and member registration (F-rank through S-rank)
• Each hall consists of reception area, quest board, tavern for drowning sorrows
• Guild cards track identity, rank, and survival statistics
• Cannot attempt quests above qualification (safety measure I’ve tested extensively)

Guild Branches I Know Personally

Haven Branch (HQ): Where the action is. Handled by Willow, eternally flustered receptionist who manages HQ chaos with impressive dedication. Diverse quests from merchant escorts to espionage disguised as “cultural consultation.”

Genevieve Branch: My home branch, run by Yuri, aquamarine-eyed fox Ajin with patience that borders on supernatural. Specializes in traditional adventuring, knightly quests, and cleaning up after local nobles’ romantic entanglements.

Albia Branch: Celia’s domain, chestnut-haired sophisticate who handles maritime contracts with finesse. Monster hunting, cargo recovery, trade escorts, and tasks labeled “discreet” for plausible deniability.

Altenburg Branch: Run by Klaus, retired military with piercing blue eyes and zero tolerance for anything resembling fun. Imperial efficiency applied to adventurer management. Orders given, objectives completed, paperwork filed in triplicate.

Schwanenfurt Branch (Neuschwanstein): Alpine headquarters serving mountain contracts. Receptionist Greta—retired B-rank adventurer with fiery red hair, green eyes, and—

Fyrie plays ascending romantic melodies whenever we visit Schwanenfurt. She’s a menace.

Albia Merchants Association

One of Valoria’s true power brokers, and I do mean true power. Everyone thinks the VTC runs Albia, but the Merchants Association is the one that actually controls who gets to do business in the city.

• Registration mandatory for any Albia business—no exceptions, no bribes work
• Operates comprehensive banking services throughout Valoria
• Locked in perpetual struggle with VTC for economic dominance
• Controls commerce while pretending to merely facilitate it

I learned this the hard way during my “cultural exchange incident.” The silk trader who grabbed my ass? Turns out he was a registered Association member, which meant his assault charge went through their internal arbitration rather than city courts. Celia had to navigate both VTC diplomatic protocols and Association bureaucracy to keep me from starting an actual trade war.

Royal Academy of Genevieve

Most prestigious educational institution in Orin, where noble brats learn to be slightly more competent noble brats. I never attended—I got my education at the College of Magic in Starspire—but I’ve met enough Academy graduates to form opinions.

Balthazir maintains a stern reputation while secretly spending entire nights helping struggling students, rumors he firmly denies to preserve his fearsome image. The Academy produces competent nobles, which honestly isn’t as common as you’d think.

Altenburg Imperial Academy

Where Kaiserreich trains its officer corps. I’ve visited twice: once for diplomatic observation, once after the Aegis Frame incident when they wanted to understand exactly what kind of “foreign influence” could convince someone to challenge their military equipment to single combat.

Aegis Frame Technical Institute (AFTI)

Elite specialized department training Kaiserreich’s mechanical cavalry crews. Highly selective admission based on exceptional skill rather than birth. One of the few Imperial institutions practicing actual meritocracy.

• Pilot Track: Combat tactics, magical theory, controlled death
• Engineer Track: Mechanical systems, magical maintenance, keeping pilots alive
• Rigorous training regimen that breaks the weak before graduating the dangerous
• Distinguished alumni operate most of Kaiserreich’s Aegis Frame units

Order of the Sacred Dawn

Secret vampire hunters within the Church of Solaris that I discovered entirely by accident while investigating a “routine” missing persons case. Led by Grand Master Jacques de l’Aube, they operate in independent cells with hierarchical structure.

Effective at their job, though I question whether secret religious militias are the best solution to the vampire problem. Then again, I don’t have a better alternative, so I keep my mouth shut.

The Blighted Chorus

Assassin order devoted to the most twisted interpretation of Xytheris possible. I encountered them during a very bad night in a very dark alley that I prefer not to discuss in detail. Their “Black Verses” doctrine treats systematic murder as sacred transformation.

Fyrie goes completely discordant when we discuss the Chorus: even she finds them disturbing

Their Paradoxical Philosophy:

• Truth lies in dissolution: Only by destroying something can you understand its nature
• Memory is chains, forgetting is freedom: The less you remember, the closer to enlightenment
• In discord we find harmony: Chaos and suffering create understanding
• Every death unwinds the world: Each assassination dismantles “false narratives”

Organizational Structure:

• Members who lose most of their identity are considered closest to Xytheris
• Leaders are the most psychologically broken—insanity as enlightenment
• Accept political contracts, making deaths appear divinely ordained
• Brutal training erases identity through systematic brainwashing
• Mark targets with verse-specific symbols before killing them

The Rokhesh Rangers

Elite Orc gunslingers. Professional freedom fighters who put most “civilized” military units to shame. Led by Ranger General Gordakh Steeljaw, a legendary figure whose tactical brilliance is matched only by his terrifyingly precise marksmanship.

Rangers combine traditional Orc warrior traditions with modern guerrilla tactics and gunslinging expertise that would make Valorian privateers weep with envy. Each team specializes in different operations: reconnaissance, direct rescue, supply raids, intelligence gathering.