The world

Factions

The powers of Valestia, as the Codex records them. Ranked by how much of the board each one actually occupies.

Every enemy, ally and artifact you meet is filed under a faction in your Codex. The counts below are live — they are how many cards each power currently holds, which is a fair measure of how much of Valestia belongs to it.

Korn Army54 cards
Disciplined, expansionist, military pressure.
The largest organised force in the Codex and the one you meet most. Siege engineers, ballista crews, sappers, shock troopers — an army that builds before it attacks. Lt. Nyra and War Engineer Mork run it in the field. The Frogst Brothers are affiliated, though the night they came for you at Pier 7 they came personally, not on orders.
Bandits15 cards
Ambushes, desperation, opportunistic violence.
Not an organisation so much as a condition of the roads. They opened the story — the first thing between Gorim's scroll and Stormbay — and they have never stopped being there.
Brute Army13 cards
Raw force, shock attacks, intimidation.
No engineering, no patience. They fought through Black Lotus Wood and left it marked.
Ancient Ruins11 cards
Old sentinels, buried orders, forgotten halls.
Not an army — a category of thing that was left behind and told to keep standing. The Varn seal sentinels, the Compact constructs, the Archive's defensive layers. Some of them have held their post for centuries because nobody ever came to relieve them.
Wild Threats10 cards
Creatures and hostile things from caves, roads, and ruins.
What lives in the map between the places with names.
Dark Knight Army8 cards
Fallen chivalry, forbidden magic, corrupted vows.
Knights who kept the forms and dropped the oath. Their sanctum is the deepest hostile region on the map, and the White Knight has spent his life fighting them.
Machines7 cards
Constructs, droids, experimental weapons.
Sentries, drones, servo-knights. Mostly found in places that were sealed for a reason — Aster Keep, the lab, the forge-sites.
Horde Raiders6 cards
Wave attackers, nameless pressure, battlefield attrition.
They do not have a plan. They have a number, and the number is larger than yours.
Aldenmoor Refugees6 cards
Survivors rebuilding inside the ruins, holding on through sheer will.
Garrick's people. They tried three times to reach the underground stores and lost somebody every time, including Garrick's brother. Dren, the oldest of them, signed the original compact forty years ago and never told anyone what was in it.
Void Entities4 cards
Chaos, shadow, fear, supernatural judgment.
Azroth, leaking through. The Hollow, the Gate Wraiths, the Choir Echoes, the Null Cantors. They are the only faction on this list that is not fighting for territory or money — and the seal that holds them is failing.
Stormbay Allies3 cards
Port-city contacts, secrets, mercenary favors.
Elric the Scribe, Cara, and the thin network of people in Stormbay who will help you if the reason is good enough or the debt is old enough.
Guardians' Allies3 cards
Chainers, escorts, recruits, and battlefield companions.
Everyone who has stood next to you and lived. Captain Aldren, Field Medic Elara, and whoever else answers the call.
Merchant Guild2 cards
Trade routes, guarded cargo, reputation politics.
They own the crossroads and the contracts that run through it.
Wealth Huntersno cards yet
Organized banditry driven by greed and rumor.
The ones who had Jessie surrounded in Black Lotus Wood the day you met her. They have no Codex cards yet.
Independent62 cards
Unaffiliated duelists, mercenaries, and local threats.
The catch-all: everyone in the Codex who answers to nobody. The single largest group on the board, which says something about Valestia.

Reputation and contracts

Separate from the Codex, a handful of guilds track your reputation and issue contracts. Completing one grants Oil, XP and standing, and may cost you standing with a rival. Contracts have minimum reputation requirements, and some need a Guild Contract item to start.

Three are in real use right now: the Guardians of the Order, the Merchants Guild and the Bandits Guild. Check where you stand with !guilds.

The Guardians of the Order are the order your own title comes from. Gorim called you one of the Guardians before you had done a single thing to earn it.

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