Factions

Naturally there are various tribes, clans and factions that have formed within the ongoing story of SaDC. Too many to name individually and with an ever rotating cast of characters and exploits. However here may be found some of the more prestigious and influential groups:

The White Priestesses of Thia

Thia is a nurturing goddess of motherhood and sacrifice in the world of SaDC. Thus many of her devotees choose to wear white and offer themselves up in willing embrace to any who would desire them. They keep a temple in Eiderdown and are renowned for ‘taking care’ of newer players, ensuring they get a soft welcome into the event. Many of the priestesses are pregnant or mothers in real life, possibly as a result of a previous year’s adventures. Basing themselves in Eiderdown allows for regular access to the event's nursery and more comfortable beds.

Their current leader is Sofia, formerly known as ‘the Black Queen’. She was put under a spell during an event 3 years ago and made to atone for her sins, apparently converting completely into a paragon of love and submission. However there have always been rumours that Thia being a goddess of ‘sacrifice’ holds secret, darker connotations too, and that Sofia's new position is not truly so different at all.

The Guild of Harlots and Whores

A staple and prevalent guild, with ‘offices’ in every major camp, the ‘GHW’ supports a steady industry of those who'd like to earn some in-game currency as quickly and easily as possible. Their various brothel rooms, gloryholes and fuck tents can be leased out to any player for an hour or so, as a freelance worker ready to earn their keep. Such venues are cleaned and maintained regularly and protected by hired hands ready to step in should a customer refuse to pay.

Newcomers to the event often question whether such an organisation is necessary, since they could very well set up shop anywhere on the site as an independent entrepreneur… However, this does fail to take into account the quite prolific number of bandits that stalk our fair kingdom, always ready to relieve a naive young whore of his or her day's earnings.

Madame Freja, a lady of shifting gender, is the Eiderdown Guildmistress: generally considered the highest position within the guild. Though the ‘working girls’ at each location tend to have their own hierarchy and organisation.

Shagnar’s Horde

Shagnar was, by his very own admission, originally supposed to be a throwaway joke of a character. However, over the course of several year’s events, his natural charm, physique and ability to come up with unpredictable and insane plans on the fly have won him the biggest following of bandits and barbarians ever seen in SaDC. This year they are even joined by newly christened ‘Red Marjorie’, the real-life 19 year old daughter of two of our founding members who was kidnapped/proposed to by Shagnar at the climax of last year’s event.

The Horde itself is a ramshackle collection of alliances between older, smaller groups who used to spend most of their time ambushing newer players in the forest or swamps. A childish scrawl of a throbbing, red erection is the chosen symbol of their united front, often painted directly on to bare skin. Loud, barely dressed and rowdy… they spend as much time fighting and fucking each other as anyone else. But if Shagnar or his new queen so much as point in a direction, they will all scramble over each other to get there first.

The Gold Court

The politics of Fort Arise are an ever complicated game of gossip, backstabbing and secret affairs. Players who enjoy that sort of thing bribe and their way into the inner circles in constant hope of supplanting the current powers through whatever means necessary. The innermost circle of all is known as the ‘Gold Court’ and at its centre sits two of our founding members: King Leon and Queen Celine. The middle-aged couple who originally came up with the idea of combining their two favourite pastimes- swinging and DnD, have formed the beating heart of this event every single year it has taken place. They have survived attempts, poisonings and spells to break apart their marriage or replace one or the other. They have been deposed and had to win back their throne, enslaved and put to work by a usurping regent and each been kidnapped by witches at least twice. Every time managing to manoeuvre their way back into power by one way or another.

Last year their 18 year old daughter ‘Marjorie’ joined the game for the first time, and found herself at the heart of a grand series of events as various factions sought to use her for one scheme or another. In the end it was the barbarian ‘Shagnar’ who stormed his way to the very heart of Fort Arise, only to drop to one knee and offer to marry the girl. She agreed, and ran away with him into the night… Returning this year as ‘Red Marjorie’, a young barbarian empress sharing power over several hundred half-mad berserkers and bandits. Just what her parents’ response to that will be, remains to be seen.

Mother Weccums’ Circle

Another founding member of SaDC, Mother Weccum is considered almost a minor deity herself. Always setting up camp in the very darkest, overgrown patch of forest, her circle of druids, witches and changelings keep eyes on everything that goes on beneath the trees. Though not directly involved with Ilfvennia, the woodland camp, her influence is certainly felt there and everywhere else. There is a reason both the knights and -catchers of Fort Arise and bandits and barbarians of Dampsheets don’t linger too long within the forest, and The Circle is most certainly it.

Members of the Circle eschew any sort of clothing, but are often coated in swirling green markings, animal skulls and black feathers. Their characters are almost always powerful spellcasters and cunning spies, with a tendency to kidnap trespassers to use for their dark rituals. They might seem cut off from the more obvious battles, quests and storylines of each event… but rest assured, Mother Weccum is always playing her hand somewhere, sowing chaos into the other leader’s carefully laid plans, just for the fun of it.