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Wanderers League

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Updated
BySuraia Silverbell
“For those who cannot leave a question alone.”

Overview

The Wanderers League—most often simply called “the League”—is the largest organisation in the Xaverion Islands devoted to research and discovery. Its members push the boundaries of knowledge in magic, history, craft, and countless specialised fields. The League is known far and wide, and its reputation depends greatly on whom you ask: to some, they are brilliant scholars and problem-solvers; to others, meddling troublemakers who pry into things best left buried.

“Gather around seekers of knowledge. For the sky is the limit and there is always more to discover beyond the horizon. We of the Wanderers League are always on the move to expand our horizons with our research projects…”

The League welcomes not only scholars, but also the guards, scouts, healers, and sailors who keep those scholars alive long enough to finish their work.

Purpose

The Wanderers League exists to:

  • Explore unanswered questions in magic, history, science, and craft.

  • Organise expeditions and field trips into ruins, wild lands, and hazardous sites across the islands.

  • Recover and study relics lost during the Age of Darkness and earlier eras.

  • Share discoveries—when it is safe to do so—with the wider world.

They are as likely to be found cataloguing relics from a forgotten temple as they are assisting investigators at the site of a modern catastrophe, such as their involvement alongside Xaverion investigators in uncovering the truth behind the fall of Serinhal and the rise of the sirens.

Organisation & Structure

The Council

The League is governed by a Council.

  • The Council decides the broad course of the organisation and which fields of study to prioritise.

  • Any member of the League, regardless of rank, may petition the Council with a proposal for a research project or expedition.

  • The Council then determines if and how the League will support the proposal—funding, staff, ships, supplies, or official backing.

The Council is composed of:

  • The heads of each major division of the League.

  • Other prominent figures within the organisation, including the founder, Morgan Shadowsongs.

Major Divisions

The League is broadly divided into three main divisions, though countless sub-disciplines exist within each.

  1. Magic Division

    • Studies how magic works, magical phenomena, manipulation and shaping of magic, and even the creation of new magic.

    • Their goal is to deepen understanding of magic as a whole, whether it touches the Old Faiths, the New Faiths, or purely elemental practice.

  2. Archaeology Division

    • Focuses on history, ruins, and the tangible remains of earlier eras.

    • Seeks to reconstruct as much of Eonil’s past as possible, especially what was lost or obscured during the Age of Darkness.

  3. Crafting Division

    • Concerned with crafting, tinkering, alchemy, and experimental sciences.

    • Its members are inventors and “lab rats”: rune-crafters designing new runes, artificers trying to create new kinds of staves, blacksmiths attempting to forge magical armour, and more.

Each division has:

  • A Head of Division who leads the field.

  • Multiple research leaders, who oversee specific research groups, expeditions, or long-running projects.

Support Roles & Expeditions

Because the League is self-supporting and frequently out in the world, it employs far more than pure scholars:

  • Guards and escorts – protect researchers in dangerous locations.

  • Scouts – map routes, watch for threats, and help parties navigate wild terrain, ruins, or unstable magical sites.

  • Healers and medics – treat injuries, magical backlash, and sickness encountered on expeditions.

  • Other support such as scribes, quartermasters, sailors, translators, and local guides.

When a researcher wishes to travel—say, to investigate an old tomb discovered in a scroll—they rarely go alone. Protection, scouting, and healing are arranged through the League so that the scholar has at least a chance of returning with both notes and their own limbs intact.

The Rising Tide

One of the League’s most notable assets is The Rising Tide, its primary research ship.

  • The Rising Tide undertakes most of the League’s research conducted at sea or along dangerous coasts.

  • Its crew is half traditional sailors, half research team.

  • Among its known research crew is the mage Elliana Oathkeeper.

  • The ship’s captain is Jackie.

The Rising Tide has been involved in major undertakings, including voyages connected to the aftermath of Serinhal’s destruction, and lengthy research journeys accompanied by nobles such as Lord Elijah Marius Galahan, a noted supporter of the League.

Relations & Rivalries

Shadow Council

The League’s most notorious enemy—or obsession, depending on who is telling the story—is the Shadow Council.

  • Most organisations with authority, including the churches of the New Faiths, deny that the Shadow Council even exists.

  • Many ordinary people consider it a children’s tale or paranoid rumour.

  • Only the Wanderers League openly insists that the Shadow Council is real, based largely on the claims and experiences of their founder, Morgan Shadowsongs.

The Shadow Council is believed to:

  • Deal in black market artefacts and forbidden magic.

  • Hunt the same archaeological and magical leads the League pursues, but for power and profit, not knowledge.

  • Ignore Xaverion law entirely, drawing many of their members from outcasts, heretics, and those who reject the rules of the islands.

Because both groups often chase the same relics and sites, their paths cross frequently—sometimes as academic rivals, sometimes as mortal enemies.

Xaverion Order & Seafarers

The League does not answer to the Xaverion Order, but often cooperates with it:

  • League scholars and mages assist Xaverion investigators when cases touch on ancient magic, ruins, or unexplained phenomena.

  • After Serinhal’s fall, the Wanderers League worked side by side with investigators to discover that the disaster was no natural event, but deliberate, which in turn led to the realisation that sirens and other sea creatures were behind the attacks.

On the seas, the League relies heavily on routes protected by the Seafarers Accords. Their ship, the Rising Tide, sails under the same threats as any other vessel: sirens, pirates, and the hostility of Ghor’s waters.

Other Orders

  • With Ahn’Ghor, relations are generally respectful: the League values their expertise on Ghor corruption, while Ahn’Ghor sometimes consults League records and researchers regarding ancient sites or magical anomalies.

  • Noble houses such as House Galahan are known patrons of the League, funding expeditions or travelling with League ships in pursuit of both knowledge and more personal goals.

Reputation in the Present Day (Year 22, Fifth Era)

By Year 22 of the Fifth Era, the Wanderers League is firmly established as:

  • The largest organised body of scholars and researchers in the Xaverion Islands.

  • A familiar name in courts, harbours, and taverns whenever strange ruins or unexplained phenomena are mentioned.

  • The one organisation that still publicly insists the Shadow Council is real—and behaves accordingly.

To different people, “the League” means different things:

  • To students and would-be researchers: a dream of adventure and discovery, with the chance to study anything from dragon lore to new alchemical compounds.

  • To soldiers and guards: a steady source of dangerous escort work, where the pay is good but the tombs and ruins are rarely as empty as promised.

  • To smugglers, illegal diggers, and the Shadow Council: a persistent, irritating spotlight that arrives just when they would prefer to work in the dark.

Whatever the opinion, few doubt that the Wanderers League will continue to poke its nose into every sealed door and half-whispered legend it can find—for as long as there are mysteries left in Eonil to chase.

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