Black Veil | Eldranis | LegendKeeper

Black Veil

Type

Assassins' guild

Focus

Assassination, poison, and covert elimination

Operating Area

Altoria, with contracts elsewhere in Imperion

Leadership

The Veiled Steward; identity concealed from most members

Headquarters

Separate safehouses and meeting rooms; no publicly known central hall

The Black Veil kills for hire. Its clients pay for a death that cannot easily be traced back to them, and its assassins favor quiet approaches, poison, and access to a target's ordinary routine. Many unsolved murders are attributed to the Veil; some of those claims are simply attempts to explain a death no one understands.

Its secrecy begins with the contract. The client deals with a broker, the assassin receives an assignment, and the people arranging access may know neither. A successful member can work for years without meeting the guild's leadership.

Make assassination available to clients who need distance from the killing.
Preserve the network of brokers, access providers, and killers that makes those contracts possible.

The Veiled Steward assigns work through a small number of brokers. Each broker maintains a local circle and answers for its contracts. Assassins may cooperate on difficult jobs, but membership alone does not grant access to another circle's clients or safehouses.

Poisoners and informants often work on retainer rather than joining the killing teams. They can refuse a particular assignment, but selling another member's identity ends their protection.

Veiled Steward — Settles disputes between brokers and decides which contracts put the wider guild at risk.
Brokers — Negotiate payment, select a team, and arrange the client's distance from it.
Assassins — Carry out accepted contracts and report complications through their broker.
Retained specialists — Supply poisons, information, disguises, and access. Their standing depends on their work rather than seniority.

Contract killings — Deaths commissioned by private clients, including powerful families and rival organizations.
Preparation — Observe habits, establish access, and identify a plausible opportunity.
Specialist services — Obtain poison, difficult ritual components, and covert protection for paying partners.

Secure repeat work with Nightblades without giving its agents control over Veil brokers.
Replace safehouses exposed during clashes with the Shadow Hand.

The Veil values restraint because an unnecessary spectacle costs everyone money. Members are judged on completed work and on how much investigation follows it. Boasting about an assignment is treated as a breach even when the account is false.

The guild refuses contracts that threaten its network. A target's guilt or innocence has little bearing on that decision.

A broker sponsors someone whose discretion and relevant skills have already been tested.
Early work establishes reliability through observation or access before a recruit is entrusted with an entire contract.

Introductions to clients who would not approach an independent killer.
Safehouses, specialist supplies, and help withdrawing after an exposed assignment.
A broker to collect payment and resolve disputes with clients.

Keep clients, members, and access routes confidential.
Honor the agreed terms of an accepted contract or report an obstacle to the broker.
Never use another circle's resources without arranging it first.

The Quiet Table — Brokers settle internal claims in a room without weapons. Each states what was promised and what was delivered; the Steward rules on responsibility.
Closing the Account — After payment is divided, the assignment record is destroyed. A broker keeps the financial total but no ordinary ledger linking client and victim.

Nightblades — Cooperates on difficult contracts requiring infiltration and assassination. The groups remain separate.
Grim Court — Obtains rare ritual components in exchange for curses and other dark magic.
Raven's Talon — Provides protection for relic routes and removes threats to the trade.
Shadows of Ash — Eliminates targets or creates diversions during heists.
Shadow Hand — Competes over underworld access and trade. The rivalry has produced violent clashes.
Guild Accord and lawful guilds — Regard the Veil's killings and covert interference as threats to the city.

The Veil's most useful holdings are access and reliable people: a servant who knows a household's movements, a room with an exit no investigator knows, and a poisoner who remembers which vial went to which broker. It rents or borrows many sites rather than visibly owning a guildhall.

History

Independent contract brokers began sharing specialists after several disputes over clients exposed their operations. The Steward's office developed to arbitrate those disputes. Circles kept their own contacts, giving the Veil a common name and a means of settling claims without merging into a single household of killers.