House Tarkanan
Criminal organization of aberrant dragonmark bearers · Headquarters: Dragon Towers, Middle Central · Leader: Thora Tarkanan · Founded: 992 YK
"We are the mark the houses tried to burn out of Khorvaire. We are the power they could not destroy. We are the aberrants, and we will endure." — Thora Tarkanan, to newly recruited members
Six years ago, the organization did not exist. Today it is one of the four major criminal powers in Sharn, and its members are among the most feared operatives in the city's underworld — not because they are the most numerous or the wealthiest, but because every single one of them carries a weapon that cannot be confiscated, cannot be predicted, and often cannot be understood even by its bearer. Every member of House Tarkanan possesses an aberrant dragonmark.
House Tarkanan is not, despite its name, a dragonmarked house in any traditional sense. It has no dynasty, no centuries of accumulated wealth, no monopoly on any service, no recognition from the Twelve. It is a criminal organization of mercenary assassins and thieves, founded by the survivors of a disavowed Brelish military experiment, whose membership is united by a shared condition and the shared experience of being hunted because of it. The name itself is an insult directed at the dragonmarked houses: Lord Halas Tarkanan, the legendary aberrant warrior whose mark gave him power over elemental forces, nearly defeated the houses themselves fifteen centuries ago. When they could not hold Sharn against the siege, he and the Lady of the Plague unleashed the full power of their marks — Tarkanan shattered the towers with earthquakes, and the Lady called up vermin and spread deadly plague through the ruins. Sharn lay abandoned for centuries afterward. By adopting his name, the modern organization mocks the very institutions that tried to exterminate their ancestors.
The Tarkanan organization operates strictly within Sharn. Unlike the Boromar Clan, it traffics exclusively in two things: theft and assassination. Unlike Daask, it maintains a reputation for professionalism and reliability. Unlike the Tyrants, it operates simply and directly: if you have the gold and can describe the target or the object, the house will deliver. No questions asked, and no mercy expected.
History and Origins
Toward the end of the Last War, the Brelish King's Dark Lanterns assembled an experimental unit of covert operatives, all of whom possessed aberrant dragonmarks. The thinking was sound: aberrant marks grant unpredictable magical powers, and if harnessed and controlled, they would create an unparalleled espionage asset. The theory proved disastrously wrong.
Half the unit was killed in the field on suicide missions. The Dark Lanterns, having deemed the survivors expendable, moved to silence them. But the survivors — led by a woman named Thora Tavin — turned on their handlers and disappeared into Breland's criminal underworld. They fled to Sharn in 992 YK, where the complexity of the city's criminal landscape and the presence of tens of thousands of lower-city inhabitants displaced by the war provided cover. Thora, drawing from her extensive education, took up the name of Lord Halas Tarkanan and formed House Tarkanan as a mockery of the dragonmarked houses. The survivors recruited others bearing aberrant marks — people who had been hunted, imprisoned, or cut off from their families because of the fear and prejudice that surrounds their condition.
Their early years were precarious. The Boromar Clan, sensing potential competition, initially attempted to either absorb the nascent organization or eliminate it. The Tarkanan operatives, trained in military operations and assassination, proved far more dangerous than any street gang. After several failed attempts at conquest, the Boromars pragmatically negotiated a peace: as long as House Tarkanan agreed never to accept contracts against the Clan itself, they would be permitted to operate in Sharn without paying tribute. Since the Boromar Clan doesn't traffic in assassination as a primary business, the arrangement has proven mutually beneficial.
Structure and Leadership
House Tarkanan is fundamentally a criminal organization, not a dynasty. You are not born into it, and you do not need to marry into it — you are recruited. Members often use the last name Tarkanan, but that is an affectation. The children of Tarkanan operatives are not considered members unless they are independently recruited. The organization thrives by finding new aberrants, not by breeding them.
The organization is deliberately flat in structure. There are no formal ranks and no hierarchy beyond the distinction between those who take contracts and those who manage administration. Operatives are organized into small cells, typically four to eight individuals who work together regularly. Cells are autonomous; they may coordinate with other cells on large jobs but do not report to a central chain of command. This structure prevents the capture of any single operative from compromising the entire organization, makes coordination with law enforcement nearly impossible, and ensures that every member has personal stakes in the house's survival.
Membership is restricted by a single criterion: the prospective member must bear an aberrant dragonmark. This is not negotiable. Thora personally verifies every new recruit, relying on her own ability to sense dragonmark presence in others. She is a shrewd judge of character, and if she senses that a new member is working against the house, she makes a ruthless example of them. Those accepted are trained in assassination and theft — if they do not already possess those skills — and are taught absolute operational security: dead drops, coded messages, and the principle that a Tarkanan operative who allows their identity to be revealed is a dead operative.
"Aberrant marks are the power to destroy." — Rotting Bal, Tarkanan enforcer
Operations and Services
House Tarkanan's business model is almost austere in its simplicity. The organization offers two primary services: assassination and theft. Beyond these, it accepts virtually no other work.
Assassination is the house's primary service. A client approaches through carefully managed channels, describes the target, provides relevant details regarding location, security, and importance, and negotiates a fee. Complexity affects pricing dramatically — a simple contract to kill a target in an unsecured location costs considerably less than making a death look natural, or assassinating a heavily guarded noble in Skyway. Targets who are members of a dragonmarked house, confirmed wizards, or Citadel operatives command higher fees. The house does not guarantee success; if an operative is killed during the mission, the house may send a replacement at no additional cost or refund half the original fee and withdraw from the contract.
House Tarkanan will not accept contracts against high-ranking members of any of the major criminal organizations in Sharn — the Boromar Clan, Daask, or the Tyrants. These restrictions are not based on honor but on cold calculation: a war with any of these organizations would destroy House Tarkanan.
The house maintains a single extraordinary option: assassination of the soul. The house possesses a single +1 Keeper's Fang dagger; for twice the standard assassination fee, a Tarkanan killer will execute the victim using this artifact, trapping the victim's soul in the domain of the Keeper and preventing resurrection or true resurrection magic from bringing them back. This service is rarely requested and never discussed publicly.
Theft encompasses both burglary and pickpocketing. A client provides information on the target object, its location, and its security. The house negotiates a fee based on the difficulty and risk, then executes the contract. Stolen goods are fenced through intermediaries throughout Sharn and beyond; the Tarkanans themselves do not typically handle resale.
What distinguishes House Tarkanan from other operations is accessibility and consistency. The dragonmarked houses of Phiarlan and Thuranni sell their assassination services only to select, wealthy, and politically connected clients, and they can pursue contracts anywhere in Khorvaire. House Tarkanan sells to anyone with sufficient gold, but operates only in Sharn. A merchant who cannot afford a house assassin but can scrape together a few hundred gold pieces can hire House Tarkanan. This accessibility has made them indispensable to Sharn's underworld and certain segments of the merchant class.
FROM THE SHARN INQUISITIVE
ASSASSINS ON THE LOOSE!
It is common knowledge that those with aberrant marks can't be trusted. It's not their fault; they're touched by Khyber, and the Dragon Below twists their minds. All aberrants will eventually become killers. And though I can see the appeal in using these creatures as weapons against our enemies, how could we bring such vipers into our midst? According to a high-ranking source in the King's Citadel, this secret operation predictably ended in disaster. After a few missions, the strike force slew their handlers and deserted, disappearing into the criminal underworld. They could be anywhere. There can be no clearer sign that it's time to bring down the monarchy and institute a government that is chosen by and answerable to the common people!
The Burden of Aberrant Marks
To understand House Tarkanan is to understand aberrant dragonmarks — the source of both the organization's power and the foundational tragedy that unites its members. Aberrant marks appear unpredictably, sometimes when two dragonmarked individuals of different houses produce a child, sometimes spontaneously in individuals with no connection to any house. No two aberrant marks are alike; even two bearers whose marks grant the same magical power may experience it completely differently.
The crucial distinction is this: the true dragonmarks are reliable and predictable, their powers generally constructive. Aberrant marks channel destructive or aggressive forces, and they are almost universally experienced as a burden by their bearers. A Mark of Passage grants reliable transportation magic; an aberrant mark granting similar power might do so only at random intervals, with terrible physical side effects, or with the risk of harming bystanders. A halfling with an aberrant mark granting disease control must spend her life hearing the whispers of vermin in her mind. A dwarf whose mark grants superhuman strength might find it uncontrollable, requiring constant discipline to prevent accidental harm. These are not gifts; they are afflictions that happen to grant power.
This reality informs everything about House Tarkanan. The organization exists not primarily as a criminal enterprise but as a refuge for people who have been hunted, feared, and cast out because of powers they did not choose and cannot easily control. That the organization funds itself through assassination and theft is a practical consequence of operating outside legitimate society, not the fundamental purpose. Thora's stated mission — repeated to every new recruit — is clear: find aberrants, train them, protect them, and build sufficient power that the dragonmarked houses will never again dare attempt a purge.
Since the Mourning, aberrant marks have been appearing in greater numbers. No one has yet manifested a mark matching the power of Halas Tarkanan or the Lady of the Plague. But the trend is noted, and it is watched — by House Tarkanan, by the Twelve, and by forces whose interest in the Draconic Prophecy means they cannot ignore what aberrant marks might signify.
Allies and Relationships
House Tarkanan's connections are limited by necessity and caution. The organization maintains no formal alliances, only transactional relationships.
The Boromar Clan represents the closest thing Tarkanan has to an ally, though the relationship is purely contractual. Both organizations benefit from the established truce. The Boromars do not trust House Tarkanan, and Tarkanan leadership views the Clan with calculating wariness.
The Aurum presents a complex relationship. Several wealthy Concordians have hired House Tarkanan operatives for sensitive work, and there is speculation that a member of the Shadow Cabinet maintains an ongoing patron relationship with the house. If true, it would represent a substantial source of income and a dangerous entanglement — the Aurum could use Tarkanan, known for its grudge against the dragonmarked houses, as a catspaw to undertake missions they don't want traced back to them.
The Citadel and the Watch are unambiguous enemies. The King's Dark Lanterns have a vested interest in eliminating House Tarkanan, having trained the organization's founders and having failed to silence them. The Sharn Watch pursues the house's operatives whenever they surface. However, the Citadel's resources are spread across many threats, and the house's operational security has so far prevented any decisive action against its leadership.
Individual Patrons form the house's primary relationship network. Merchants, nobles, and wealthy commoners hire Tarkanan for sensitive work that they cannot entrust to more visible operatives. These relationships are built on reputation: Tarkanan delivers, maintains absolute secrecy regarding client identity, and never betrays a contract.