Welcome to the Talongarde forum post, dear reader. Let me just begin by stating the express purpose of this here forum thread. Primarily, it is to serve as another avenue for us to recruit, as we’re hoping people will find this thread, read up on our concept, and perhaps then seek to join us. Secondly, we also hope to spread information about our guild/community which could lead to RP and joint events for other communities down the line.
With that out of the way, some concept info.
Concept:
So the Talongarde is a very secretive Agency which has its roots in the Mage-Hunters from the Nexus War. The Talongarde was created by survivors of the War, with the intent of resisting the alleged authority of the Kirin Tor on all matters magical. They do not see why some human kingdom should get to make the rules on what goes and what doesn’t. In fact, they have often found the Kirin Tor to both be too lenient, as well as too irresponsible.
As such, under the veil of secrecy, the Talongarde has done their best to safeguard Azeroth from what they deem to be magical threats, themselves. That includes things which people might find generally acceptable, like killing bad guys who outright threaten Azeroth, such as runaway demons or void-crazed cultists, but also things that the general public might frown upon, an example being; breaking into an Alliance facility to steal a dangerous artifact that the Alliance cannot be trusted to have, or the killing of a Horde Magus who was dabbling with dangerous magics that could spell doom sometime in the future.
The Talongarde as an organization has no regard whatsoever for the laws of the land, but rather believe themselves to answer to a higher authority. They serve Azeroth, after all, and so what they deem “The right thing to do” obviously has priority. They also feel like the various factions, including the Kirin Tor, while well meaning, might be ill-equipped or ill-prepared for their respective tasks.
Because of their background, and their history of breaking the law, they operate under very strict rules of secrecy. The Agents of the Talongarde, upon being recruited, get to pick a code-name. Whenever they are on-duty, they must also wear a mask, and once they have become initiated into the Talongarde, they are marked with a special magical rune which interferes with scrying. As such, the Agents themselves do not know the real identity of their fellow Agents. They are also not told where their HQ, the Tower, is located, and reaching it is done via teleportation from certain fixed locations in the world.
This is to ensure, should an agent be captured, the rest of the Talongarde are not under risk of being exposed. The fact that the Talongarde even existed as an organization was also to be kept as closely guarded of a secret as possible. This was because, unlike public organizations, the Talongarde could now operate indiscriminately, without the fear of being hunted down or facing repercussions for their actions which were bound to step on quite a few toes.
However, times change.
With the re-launch of this guild, the plan is for the Talongard to go public. The Kirin Tor have just suffered a massive blow, Dalaran is gone and the purple mages are weakened. This is the perfect opportunity for the Talongarde to try and establish themselves as an alternative authority on magic, which is something they try to do. As such, moving forward, the Talongarde will be split between two access levels. You have the initiates and the surface level Agents who act out in the open, doing respectable things.
Then you have the Senior-Agents, who are approved to work undercover and go on the secret missions where they may or may not be breaking a few laws here and there. The biggest difference is that the Senior-Agents swear to serve the Talongarde for life, and are thus also marked with a special, magical rune which will grant them access to the HQ of the Talongarde Agency.
Background:
The Talongarde was actually created some 2 years ago, before Dragonflight launched. However, following the release of Dragonflight, the guild went into a hiatus for 2 reasons. First and foremost, I myself found some issues with a core aspect of our concept. The issue was that, due to the strict rules of secrecy, there was more or less no way to create RP outside of events. After all, the characters did not know each other. They were each just a mask and a code-name, who got together for the mission. This made all RP for the guild to be entirely focused on events, with nothing happening outside of events.
This is an issue which will be amended now that the Talongarde will also go public. Sure, going public also comes with some more risks of being exposed IC, but that is a risk which is worth taking if it means more day-to-day and casual RP. It will also mean further opportunity for RP with other guilds and communities out there, something we always wanted to do but were not able to back then, due to how hush hush everything was.
The second reason for the hiatus was my own family life, as I had just become a father to 2 small children, and thus found it very hard to be able to reliably host events. The kids are a bit older now, there is more structure in my life, and so I find myself better suited now to once against host events and have the activity to back up leading a guild.
Philosophy:
The main drive for me, when making the guild in the first place, was to create and support an atmosphere which suited my own casual style of playing. I have a family and IRL obligations (Like a job, sucks I know), and so I do not want to feel forced or guilted into doing things I do not want to. Some days when I come home, I am so spent and exhausted, I lack the brainpower to just RP. But I might want to do some mindless content, like 1 or 2 delves, maybe a dungeon, who knows.
I want to create a place where that is okay. You can log on, there is an event or RP going, and you should feel safe to say “Nah sorry guys, I am just not feeling it tonight.” and everyone understands that. There should be no pressure to attend events and RP if you just don’t want to. WoW is a game, and games are meant to be fun. When RP starts to feel like a chore, that’s when things have gone bad, in my opinion.
Beyond that, I was also keen on having as much character freedom as possible, where people get the chance to properly play their characters in the way which suits them best, with a big focus on engaging story-telling with chance for character development. This is all something which is reflected in our unique yet simple DM system, which I will go over in more detail later down below.
Anyhow, so those are the key ideas behind the Talongarde. No pressure, friendly, free and understanding. As such, we promise about 1 event a week, though sometimes there will be more events per week. It is also my hope that there will be a chance for casual RP on most nights, moving forward, now that we’ve decided to take the Talongarde public. Currently we are entirely Alliance-based OOC, but if there is interest Horde-side, I am open to making a Talongarde guild on that side too, since the guild itself is neutral.
Ranks:
The guild is separated into two access levels. You have the lower echelon, who are the public face of the guild. Then you have the upper-echelon, who are aware of the inner-work and who may attend the confidential events. But, as a new member, there is no need to fear. You will be able to attend “Secret” events as well from the get-go, but you will need to use a “Throw-away” profile, essentially your character played during that event being an NPC. Once your character has become trusted enough to become a Senior-Agent, then you can attend those events with your actual IC character. While perhaps not ideal, it is the best solution I can think of that does not compromise the core idea of this guild IC’ly. Anyhow, here are the ranks, and as you can probably tell, there’s not that many of them.
Aspiring-Agent:
The starter rank of the guild, the newcomers remain Aspiring-Agents until they’ve attended at least two events, after which, if both parties agree, they will get the chance to become a full member.
Talon-Agent:
The bread and butter of the guild, your standard, affiliated member. These are trusted members of the Talongarde, and the backbone of the guild.
Senior-Agent:
Once you have served as an Agent for a while, should the upper-echelon of the Order agree, you will have earned the chance to become a Senior-Agent. To become a Senior-Agent is a massive undertaking. Not only will you swear to serve the Talongarde for life, but you will also be marked by a special-rune, and get access to all that which has previously been hidden. It is essentially a whole new world of secrets and espionage which opens up for you. Once a Senior-Agent, you will have access to the HQ, The Tower, and all of the written materials, hand-signs, call-signs, CoC and everything else.
Overseer:
The officers of the Talongarde, who, as the name suggests, oversees the day-to-day and operations of the guild. The Overseers are often the ones in charge of missions, and most things concerning the Agents.
The Director:
A mysterious figure who leads the Talongarde Agency from their HQ. Once you become a Senior-Agent, you earn an audience with the Director. It is the Director who decides everything from the who to the what to the where.
Events:
Another aspect of the Talongarde is how we handle events. Essentially, we want as much character freedom as possible. Your character should feel like your character, and be able to do what you decide your character can do. At the same time, the DM needs to be able to properly DM for sometimes 10+ at once.
To that end, we employ our own custom DM system, where we use a standard d20 dice for rolls, where every character has a base +20 HP, and deal 1 DMG on a successful roll. A successful roll is, normally, 11 or above, while 10 or below is a fail, but that number may vary depending on the difficulty of the enemy you face.
Where things become interesting however, is that upon joining the guild, you are then asked to make your own character kit. Five abilities that your character has, which encapsulates who and what your character is. Numbers and balancing is done by the officer team, so you only need concern yourself with the ideas behind the abilities themselves. YOU are the one making these abilities because YOU understand your character best.
Abilities can include passives abilities that are always active, like
-Agent “Winter” has +2 attack. (Gives +2 to all attacking rolls)
-Agent “Winter” has -2 dmg mitigation against physical attacks. (Takes 2 less dmg from physical attacks)
-Agent “Winter” has a base dmg of 2 rather than 1. (Deals +1 extra dmg on all attacks)
Actives:
-On a successful action roll, Agent “Winter” deals +2 additional dmg to his target. 2 turn Cooldown.
-On a successful defensive roll, Agent “Winter” may roll again to save an ally who failed their defensive roll. If Agent “Winter” fails this roll, he will take the dmg instead.
-On a successful action roll, stun the target for 1d2 turns, making them unable to act. 3 turn Cooldown.
Resources:
-Mana
-Rage
-Items with set charges, like Healing Potions, explosives, special arrows.
Essentially, the creativity is unlimited.
Whatever you want to make your character feel like you, we’ll try to make it happen. I find that this system offers not just more in terms of creativity, but also can serve to enhance RP in many ways. One example being Overseer “Storm” who is a ranged weapons specialist. He has a total of 5 different ranged weapons, from a Sniper Rifle, to a Bow, to a Shotgun, etc.
For each event, he is only allowed to bring 2 of these weapons with him. So he has to listen in to the mission debrief, then decide which weapons to bring. Is stealth the name of the game? Probably his Bow and Blowdart. Does he need to provide long range support? Sniper-Rifle. Is he expecting a lot of close-range combat? Shotgun and Flintlocke.
Each weapon, having different strengths and drawbacks, and thus different situational uses. It creates another aspect of RP where he has to judge and decide what sort of equipment to bring with him.
Now, there is of course a far more detailed explanation of our roll system, as well as an archive of all player kits, on our discord server, which is available to our members.
Recruitment:
If you like what you hear, and think this guild could be for you, first of all thank you! Secondly, there are 3 ways you could join the guild.
1: Firstly, your character could come find us IC’ly when we are set up somewhere, probably in Stormwind.
2: The second way, you could comment here below or add me on discord at Vigilant5420, and we could discuss a situation where your character is essentially head-hunted by us for recruitment. As in, their profile is so good and special that we go out of our way to find and contact you IC with an offer.
3: Your character is a Mage-Hunter who we recently sprung out of the Violet Hold. With the destruction of Dalaran, we’ve recently done some RP in and around the wreckage of the city, with the mission of finding survivors from the Nexus War, who were held in the Violet Hold, whom we could rescue and recruit. While niché, it is also a neat opportunity if you wish to make an entirely new character.
Now beyond that, some classes suit this guild better than others. We do a lot of secretive and stealth stuff, so both Rogue and Hunter serve those purposes the most, and that is what we recommend mostly. However, Mage and Warrior also work just fine.
Any other classes beyond that do not work as well on an IC perspective, but if the classes are purely OOC then there is really little issue. We absolutely do NOT accept characters that use shadow magic (Void), fel magic and death magic. We do not accept undead and demons and other monster-races. “Holy” characters -can- work, but that is iffy and would need to be handled on a case-by-case basis.
If you have any questions, reach out to me on Discord. Vigilant5420 is my tag!
Q & A:
I’ll just go over some questions I think might spring up.
Q: You mentioned breaking the law. How will you handle consequences?
A: With the utmost respect, is the answer. Should it ever come to light that members of the Talongarde are breaking the law, then we’re prepared to be outlawed, more or less. Now, we take a lot of precautions IC’ly to ensure that does not happen, but no system is ever perfect, and I could see that happening eventually.
Q: Is there a specific uniform?
A: Not so much a uniform, as there is a color theme. We use faded, grey and black colors primarily. Our recommendation are the heroic sets from Uldir paired with the grey hood+mask from the Hallows End Event, but if you can find another set with the same colors, there is no issue at all.
Q: I like this idea and concept, have a perfect character for it, but I don’t want to leave the guild I am in right now either. Can I still RP with you guys?
A: Yes! So long as you speak with your Guild-master first, it is actually possible to join the Talongarde (in secret), without having to join the guild in-game. We do a lot of secretive stuff and spy on a lot of people, so while joining the guild is nice, so long as you join our Discord that is what matters the most. You can remain in your guild no problems, but also do some Talongarde stuff on the side, in secret. It can add another dimension to your character-depth and RP. But again, I want to stress this, talk with your current GM first OOC.
Q: Could I maybe use you guys as villains for some of my events?
A: Absolutely. Just poke me first, and we could work something out. We are also happy to join and help out as allies too, seeing how our concept is quite grey.
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Closing words:
As a final, parting note, I am looking for one more player who is keen on hosting events and DMing, to assist me with DMing for the guild. I will not stress or rush finding this player, but if hosting events is something you enjoy, I would really appreciate an extra set of hands for the future! We are also looking forward to establish a contact network with some “store” guilds, from whom we could buy certain bits of equipment and weapons, off the books. We’d of course pay above market price to ensure our transactions fly under the radar. We chew through quite a bit of stuff during our missions, so we’d be a very well-paying returning customer, so long as you do not mind tampering a bit with your books and tax-returns.
Again, if there are any questions, add me to discord and I’ll get back to you right away. Vigilant5420 is the name.
Thanks for reading!