Legion of Fate

Legion of Fate
Nicknames	Hand of Fate, The Doomed
Deathlord	The Ladies of Fate
Headquarters	Isle of Eurydice
Death	Fate

The Legion of Fate is one of the divisions of the Hierarchy of Stygia. This Legion differs greatly from the others by means of who is essentially in charge, the Lady of Fate. The Legion is comprised of those who they have deemed marked by Fate.

Methods of the Legion of Fate

Regular Jobs

The members of the Legion of Fate are primarily trained and used as mediators and peacemakers in disputes between major organizations throughout Stygia. They also have some of the most skilled warriors and military units to be found anywhere in the Shadowlands; these bands are in constant demand by the Hierarchy. However, there are always a small number of them located at the Isle of Eurydice to protect the headquarters of the Legion.

Provinces

The basic unit of their Shadowlands operations is the Province, an administrative region of between three to 10 medium to large Necropoli and the rural areas between them, depending on population and geography. Each Province has a staff that varies from less than 100 to almost 1000. The New York Autonomous Region alone has almost 700 Legionnaires, but it is one of the largest concentrations of Doomed wraiths in the Shadowlands.

The Legion generally does not involve itself in Shadowlands politics. Normal procedure is for the Legion to auction off local authority for the right of autonomy and the payment of a certain number of Spectres and Drones over the next year to be sent to the Legion's soulforges. The Legion keeps a single administrative Haunt, usually in or near the Citadel, staffed by a member of the Legion's bureaucracy, who is occasionally supported by a patrol or cohort of troops. Legion members on assignments in the city can stop in to rest or file reports, and the Haunt serves as a contact point with the rest of the Hierarchy. The Provincial Anacreon moves between the Necropoli under his command on a regular circuit. Using Argos or the Midnight Express, circuit riders can arrive at any given Necropolis within 24 hours, and often quite a bit sooner than that.

Legion Culture

The smallest of the eight Legions and the only one not united by a common cause of death (with the slight exception of the Legion of Paupers), the Legion of Fate is composed of individuals who are seen by the Ladies of Fate and the Oracles who work with them as being important in the grand scheme of things. If anything, most members of the Legion of Fate seem to have a heroic aspect to their death, although there are a few whose deaths are neither remarkable nor desirable.

Deathmarks among these Legion members are unusually defined and bright, and many were visible to the dead before they crossed the Shroud. Many are marked by symbols akin to those of wisdom, infinity, and/or balance.

The Ladies and the uppermost ranks of the Legion's Restless have some sort of other goal in mind toward which they're directing the operations of the Legion. It clearly involves some sort of avenue to Transcendence - that much can be pieced together from the orders that come down from the Ladies of Fate. What or who precisely this involves is still a matter of mystery, but it often seems as if the Legion is preparing for something. Most assume this to be the Sixth Maelstrom, though others claim that it will be the coming of the Fishers' messiah to the Deadlands.

Allies and Enemies

Legions

For all their fighting and squabbling over spirits, no Reaper with any other Legion will interfere with a Reaper from the Legion of Fate once they have chosen an Enfant. Although there is some resentment from the Deathlords as the Legion of Fate seems to be claiming the pick of the litter, they know better than to interfere in the affairs of the Lady of Fate.

The Legion of Fate rarely involves itself in the politics of Stygia; it has a more important task ahead of it. Though representatives will attend meetings, they rarely vote or hold any influence. The Legion is largely indifferent to the other Legions, with the sole exception being the Emerald Legion. Most of the Fate-touched feel a certain kinship with the victims of Happenstance, seeing them as being fellow sufferers under a burden they had absolutely no choice in. While this doesn't color political relations between the Seat of Thorns and the Seat of Fate much, it can mean a great deal during a bar fight or a Maelstrom.

Heretics

The Ladies of Fate are studiously indifferent to the Heretics. While they have never come out directly against the idea that Transcendence is a myth, the rank and file tend to practice a "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Heretics who are peaceful and relatively quiet in their beliefs are ignored or even surreptitiously aided. Those whose faith is dangerous to the Empire, or whose poison religion is particularly virulent, are either sent to a re-education camp or to the forges of some other Legion.

Renegades

While the Hand of Fate is temperate in its treatment of Heretics, its handling of Renegades is less generous. Protesters are apt to disappear and return much changed after spending time in a Hierarchy re-education camp. Others have found themselves dropped into Harrowings, or had their Fetters destroyed, leading to extremely short careers in Stygian politics. There have been persistent reports that the Legion underwrites certain reformist factions in Stygian politics who might be called Renegades by their political opponents. This has never been proven, and doesn't really rest on any evidence other than the long-standing Kassandra controversy, but the rumors have shown remarkable persistence that may indicate some basis in fact.

Guilds

It is a generally accepted fact that a fair percentage of the membership of the Oracles Guild, as well as a few members of the Monitors and Masquer "Arrangers," found shelter in the Legion of Fate after their ill-advised involvement in the Revolt of the Guilds. The average Legion member, if they know of the event at all, generally assumes that it's all ancient history; whatever memory survives in the older members of the Legion is the last trace of the Guilds. Those high up enough or old enough to know the degree to which the Guilds survived the Ban are probably high enough up not to care.

Spectres

The Legion of Fate stands an extremely hard line against Spectres, and makes it the prime job of their extravagantly over-armed troops to hunt down and either capture (for the forges) or simply destroy Spectres. Mostly this is Doomslaying undertaken as a military operation: large, heavily armed brigades sweeping areas are known to harbor nests of Spectres. Tactics used in these endeavors are something like a cross between Vietnam-style counter-insurgency warfare and a World War II-era patrol in force, and the combat is generally closerange skirmishing and ambush fighting. There are reports that the Legion has sponsored one or more large-scale Helldiving operations. The operatives in question reportedly jumped off from the lowest basements of the Seat of Fate, though some reports indicate that these raids were Open Tempest operations. The purpose and degree of success of these incursions, if they actually happened at all, is unknown.

Ferrymen

The relationship between the Legion of Fate and the Ferrymen is a mysterious one. The Lady of Fate is known by all and sundry to have given Charon his mandate to guide wraiths to the Far Shores. Since the sacking of the Temples and the flight of the Ferrymen, however, there has been no official contact between the Legion and the Ferrymen. Despite that, Legionnaires are ordered not to interfere with the doings or goings of the Ferrymen, under pain of the forges. Also, after they "proved a security liability" during the storms of the Third Great Maelstrom, all the windows that faced onto Ripple Bay were walled up. Reed boats have been witnessed drawn up on the banks of the bay, sometimes as many as several at a time, and it is generally assumed within the Legion that the Ladies of Fate are giving sub rosa support to the Ferrymen.

Divisions

The Cataphractoi

The Legion of Fate’s five battalions of heavy cavalry are the premier force of the Underworld. Though significantly inferior-to the Stygian Equitaes in number, the Legion of Fate’s Cataphractoi are superior to them in armament (and some say, training). Normally used for Byway patrol, the Cataphractoi are redeployed to the Shadowlands once Spectres and the Maelstrom make the Byways too dangerous for regular traffic.

Order of the Scarlet Sword

Because of the small size of the Legion, personal contact and a lack of anonymity can make the personal ties of loyalty between two wraiths more important than their official relationship. This means that the investigation of wraith who is thought to be corrupt or Shadow-eaten can require extraordinary measures. The Order of the Scarlet Sword are the people who take those measures, the Legion's internal affairs and auditing section. The members are mostly Gaunts highly skilled in Moliate. There are persistent rumors that the Order was founded by former members of the Masquers Guild just subsequent to the Guild Revolt. These rumors are probably just embroidery on the more well-known rumor that the Scarlet Blade is also home to the Legion's espionage and assassination section. Membership in the Order is prestigious, and is only offered to Gaunts with extensive service experience in both Stygia and the Shadowlands. Those already skilled in Moliate are preferred, but the training program is said to include training in both basic and advanced Moliation, as well as instruction in other specialized Arcanoi.

Order of the Silver Hammer

The Legion of Fate participates in the soulforging trade, but in only the most limited fashion. The Doomed rely primarily on captured Spectres and harvested Drones for their soulsteel, rather than indulging in the mass processing of souls of which the Smiling Lord seems so fond. There are only few dozen soulforgers and decorative Masquers in the Legion, and all of these are members of the Silver Hammer. Stygian steel makes up a large percentage of the forges' product, and the Doomed's work has an appearance which sets it apart from more typical soulforged items. Doomed Stygian steel has an almost liquid look to it, as if it were black quicksilver, such steel is sometimes called Glisten, and it is one of the Legion's biggest sources of income.

Trivia

• One bit of lore that persists in the Shadowlands is that the Lady of Fate holds Charon's mask; it went missing after he disappeared, and while the Deathlords would like the other Legions to think they possess it, in truth, they are as clueless as to its whereabouts as the average Freewraith. There have been Hierarchy investigations, even going so far as to ask the Legion of Fate to open the Isle of Eurydice to inspection. The Ladies of Fate have turned down their requests several times and show no sign of allowing those not with their Legion to set foot on their Seat.

Gallery

References

• WTO: Wraith: The Oblivion Second Edition, p. 51
• WTO: The Hierarchy, p. 61
• WTO: Book of Legions, p. 81-95
• Wr20: Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition, p. 76-78
• WTO/cMET: Oblivion, p. 50