AndrewNotes/Avalon/06_Factions_Secrets/Factions.md

# Factions – Avalon & The Valley

> DM reference. This is about **who wants what** and **how they’ll use the PCs**.

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## 1. Institutional Factions

### 1.1 Root Oversight Committee ("The Array")

**Public Face:**  
Regional Leyline Oversight, officially charged with “monitoring and safeguarding the Root.”

**Real Core (for this region):**  
- Overseer **Kalen D’serris** and a handful of remote analysts/technicians.
- A distant central board that mostly cares about metrics, not people.

**What They Want (Macro):**
- Prevent another **Korrin Gate Crisis** at all costs.
- Keep the Root flowing, the grid stable, and the political powers funding them.
- Detect any sign that the **Coherence** (the caged mind) is trying to regroup.

**What They Want (Local – re: Avalon):**
- Use the Academy node as a **sensor** and **testbed**:
  - High caster density = early warning system.
  - Controlled environment = good for experiments and emergency drills.
- Understand why:
  - B2 destabilized the way it did.
  - The PCs survived direct exposure.
  - Fouadriel trips so many quiet alarms.

**Methods:**
- Constant telemetry logging (“we watch the graphs”).
- Remote throttling / lockdowns of taps and subnodes.
- Issuing directives to local authorities (Larkvale, Estrada) “for safety.”
- Quietly recruiting on-the-ground proxies (Elias, later possibly the PCs).

**How They See the PCs:**
- **Subjects**, not heroes:
  - “Anomalous survivors” of B2.
  - Emotionally volatile, magically interesting, and already “contaminated.”
- Potential tools:
  - Can go places Oversight can’t.
  - Can poke at anomalies and report back.

**How They Might Use the PCs:**
- Assign “investigation” tasks framed as student opportunities:
  - “Report any further anomalies in Subnode cluster B.”
  - “Assist maintenance with recalibrating ritual arrays.”
- Try to control their social circle:
  - Subtly push them away from Fouadriel or toward watching him.
- In later years, they may offer:
  - Access to classified data.
  - Legal cover, gear, or even “deputized” status in exchange for cooperation.

**Internal Tension:**
- D’serris is actually traumatized and sincere.  
  His unseen superiors are mostly worried about **optics and uptime**:
  - “Keep the Root stable, but don’t cause scandals.”
  - If Avalon becomes too noisy, they might recommend shutting the node down entirely.

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### 1.2 Avalon Adventuring Academy Administration

**Public Face:**
- A respected prep academy for future adventurers, civic mages, and magical professionals.
- “Shaping the heroes and leaders of tomorrow.”

**Key Figures (you can swap in your canon names):**
- **Headmaster / Headmistress** – distant figure, political face of the school.  
- **Assistant Headmaster Larkvale** – day-to-day disciplinarian and Oversight’s primary contact.  
- **Dean Estrada** – student-facing, handles clubs, sports, and PR.  
- **Department Heads** (History, Arcane Theory, Environmental Studies, Drama, etc.)

**What They Want (Macro):**
- Keep funding, prestige, and safety stats high.
- Graduate students who go on to be **useful and successful**, so the school looks good.
- Keep Oversight happy enough that they don’t cut the node, but not so powerful that they can dictate everything.

**What They Want (Right Now):**
- Make the B2 incident *go away* as a PR problem.
- Avoid any narrative that the academy is “unsafe.”
- Keep students under control without triggering a full-blown crackdown.

**Methods:**
- Detentions, suspensions, and disciplinary hearings.
- Quietly rewriting incident reports.
- Throwing problematic staff or kids under the bus if needed.
- Using Estrada and favored teachers as pressure valves:
  - “Let the kids blow off steam in Mageball instead of burning down the lab.”

**How They See the PCs:**
- High-risk, high-profile troublemakers with potential:
  - The kind of kids who end up in hero stories… or on the news.
- PR assets or liabilities depending on the week.

**How They Might Use the PCs:**
- Assign them “extra responsibilities”:
  - Peer mentors, club officers, field trip helpers.
  - Really just excuses to keep them where admin can see them.
- Nudge them toward or away from certain staff:
  - “Spend more time with Prof. Elias, he stabilizes you.”
  - “Stay out of Defazio’s conspiracy-chasing seminars.”

**Internal Lines:**
- **Larkvale** leans pro-Oversight, pro-control.  
- **Estrada** leans pro-students, pro-chaos (but still wants wins).  
- Some teachers quietly resent both.

---

### 1.3 Custodial & Maintenance Crew ("Groundkeepers")

**Public Face:**
- The people who keep the school clean and the lights on.

**Reality:**
- They are wired into the **physical subnodes and taps** more than anyone else on campus.
- They see every glitch, burn mark, and leyline burp before admin ever reads a report.

**What They Want:**
- Not to die in a stupid magical accident.
- Not to have their work scapegoated when something breaks.
- Hazard pay that actually matches hazard.

**Methods:**
- Quietly rerouting minor surges before anyone notices.
- Locking doors or “taking areas offline for cleaning” when something feels wrong.
- Passing rumors among themselves about weird Root behavior.

**How They See the PCs:**
- Walking OSHA violations.
- “The kids who were in that room when B2 went weird.”

**How They Might Use the PCs:**
- Slip them hints:
  - “Hey, don’t go near B wing tonight, those lights aren’t just flickering.”
- Ask for help with things above their paygrade:
  - “You three seem crazy enough to crawl into that conduit after hours.”

**Potential Schism:**
- Some groundkeepers are loyal to admin.  
- Others think Oversight is the only reason they’re still alive.  
- One or two might be secret allies or informants for D’serris *or* the PCs.

---

### 1.4 The Circle Network (Local Crime)

**Public Face:**
- “Just some older kids and townies who hang at the gas station.”

**Reality:**
- A small but organized **low-tier drug and contraband distribution ring** centered on The Circle.
- Pip is a mid-level runner, not the boss.
- They’ve started quietly using **Root-powered tricks**:
  - Taps in the Circle lot.
  - Enchanted packaging / concealment.

**What They Want:**
- Money, power, and a stable route onto campus.
- To stay small enough not to attract real law or Oversight heat.
- To recruit students like Ben as low-risk couriers.

**Methods:**
- Intimidation, blackmail, and “favors.”
- Leveraging knowledge of who lives in places like Madera Ridge.
- Very occasional magical muscle.

**How They See the PCs:**
- Ben = valuable asset / liability.  
- Joe & Soren = potential leverage / problems if they get nosy.

**How They Might Use the PCs:**
- Drag Ben deeper:
  - “Keep your mouth shut, give us intel, and no one bothers your family.”
- Offer temptations:
  - Cash, artifacts, illegal taps, forbidden lore about what flows under the Academy.

---

## 2. Student Factions & Cliques

> Note: these aren’t rigid “gangs,” just overlapping social ecosystems. PCs can float between them.

### 2.1 Mageball Team & Jocks

**Name:** The Avalon [Team Name – e.g. “Stormwings”, “Arcana”]

**Core Vibe:**
- Physical casters and athletes; the kids whose worth is measured in yards and spell-impact.
- Social gravity: parties, pep rallies, school pride.

**Faces:**
- **Chaz** – brain-damaged golden boy, all instinct, no strategy.  
- **Millie** – initially bullied “nerd,” later tactical backbone of the team.  
- Estrada as faculty anchor/coach.

**What They Want:**
- Win games, get scouted, bask in glory.
- Keep Mageball funded and prioritized over “nerd clubs.”
- Some of them genuinely want the team to be a family / escape from home.

**Methods:**
- Social dominance, locker-room politics, coach favoritism.
- Using team status to get away with shit (skipping class, picking on people).

**How They See the PCs:**
- Joe = potential star / weirdo.  
- Soren = “that scary kid, avoid.”  
- Ben = “clown who sells weed to benchwarmers.”

**How They Might Be Used:**
- As muscle in social conflicts.
- As a stake: admin threatening to cut the team if anomalies keep messing with the field.
- As a conduit: Root anomalies manifesting during games.

---

### 2.2 Ridge Kids & Overachievers

**Core Vibe:**
- Kids from Madera Ridge and similar neighborhoods:
  - Rich, often powerful parents.
  - High expectations, legacy slots, glittering futures.

**Faces:**
- Ben’s classmates from the Ridge who actually *own* being rich.  
- Student council types, valedictorian contenders, etc.

**What They Want:**
- Top grades, prestigious internships, clean transcripts.
- To get out of the valley and into big-name academies or guilds.
- To keep the school “respectable” – no scandals, no weird Root shit.

**Methods:**
- Pulling parent strings.
- Manipulating admin with “concerned emails” about school safety.
- Social exclusion and gossip.

**How They See the PCs:**
- Ben = traitor / poser trying to play poor.  
- Joe = amusingly simple sports kid.  
- Soren = walking disciplinary case.

**How They Might Be Used:**
- As pressure on admin:
  - “Our parents will pull donations if Oversight doesn’t get this under control.”
- As antagonists who push for harsher restrictions after anomalies.

---

### 2.3 Drama / Choir / Arts Kids

**Core Vibe:**
- Theater, choir, band, visual arts – anyone whose first instinct is to turn trauma into performance.
- Constantly rehearsing something too ambitious for the time/money they have.

**Face:**
- The flamboyant drama/choir teacher analogue (Lebovitz) – high standards, messy vibes.

**What They Want:**
- Big shows, screaming crowds, standing ovations.
- To be taken as seriously as Mageball and “real magic.”
- Space and budget that admin keeps giving to sports and “respectable” clubs.

**Methods:**
- Gossip, public callouts in thinly-veiled scripts.
- Weaponized performances.
- Controlling the rumor mill via backstage access.

**How They See the PCs:**
- Soren = perfect raw material for “tragic roles.”  
- Ben = comic relief / potential drama fodder.  
- Joe = hilariously miscast if they ever rope him into a show.

**How They Might Be Used:**
- As a stage for literally anything:
  - An opening night where Root anomalies hijack the show.
  - A cover for secret meetings (“we’re just rehearsing late, sir”).

---

### 2.4 Conspiracy Club / Underground Zine

**Core Vibe:**
- Kids who don’t buy the official story:
  - Korrin Gate, Oversight, leyline anomalies, weird staff behavior.
- They make a zine / whisper network, half true, half nonsense.

**Face:**
- **Sebastian** – decapitation videos at 8am, heavy 9/11 truther energy, completely unhinged but occasionally right.

**What They Want:**
- To **prove** that the school is hiding something.  
- To catalog every anomaly, rumor, and cover-up.
- Clout in the “we were right the whole time” department.

**Methods:**
- Surveillance, gossip-trawling, breaking into records.  
- Posting flyers, anonymous tip-scrolls, illicit sending-stone channels.

**How They See the PCs:**
- Perfect sources:
  - “You were down in B2, right? What did you **really** see?”
- Potential members / icons of resistance.

**How They Might Be Used:**
- To feed the party weird leads (some true, some garbage).
- As a way for the players to leak info anonymously.
- As a faction D’serris absolutely hates.

---

### 2.5 Circle Kids / Stoners & Skaters

**Core Vibe:**
- Kids who spend more time at The Circle, the Wash, or Spin Alley than on campus.
- Weed, cheap booze, minor crime, minor magic.

**Faces:**
- Ben (“Lil Stinky”) as a borderline member.  
- Pip’s younger / campus-adjacent contacts.  
- A rotating cast of burnout NPCs.

**What They Want:**
- To be left alone by admin.
- Enough money and product to keep the party going.
- Occasional big score (gear, relics, stolen ward-stones).

**Methods:**
- Low-key dealing, petty theft.
- Hiding in blind spots (both literal and bureaucratic).

**How They See the PCs:**
- Ben = one of theirs.  
- Joe = “square but maybe fun to corrupt.”  
- Soren = “do not get high with her, she will kill someone.”

**How They Might Be Used:**
- As an information network that sees everything that happens off-campus.
- As hooks for Ben’s personal arc (Pip debt, threats to family).

---

### 2.6 Rootwatch / Environmental Club

**Core Vibe:**
- Officially: environmental activism, Rewilding projects, sustainability.  
- Unofficially: students who treat the Root as a **living being** rather than infrastructure.

**Face:**
- Druid dwarf physics/eco teacher analogue (Rojahn) – beloved, exasperated, low-key hardcore.

**What They Want:**
- To protect natural spaces around the valley.
- To reduce “abuse” of the Root for convenience magic.
- To push back against things like Titan Lance, Oversight overreach, and careless tapping.

**Methods:**
- Petitions, protests, direct action (e.g., sabotaging illegal taps).  
- Rituals in the Wash / orchards / hills.

**How They See the PCs:**
- Soren = someone the Root is clearly watching, in a scary way.  
- Joe = “we can radicalize this golden retriever if we explain it right.”  
- Ben = “walking pollution, but he knows where stuff is.”

**How They Might Be Used:**
- As allies against Oversight in later arcs.  
- As a moral counterweight when D’serris wants to sacrifice branches.
- As the first ones to sense that the Root’s “mood” is changing.

---

### 2.7 Faith & Fellowship

**Core Vibe:**
- Students from various faith traditions who want community and moral structure.
- Mix of sincere believers, social climbers, and kids hiding from something.

**Faces:**
- Joe’s church group / Bible study analogue.  
- A couple of very intense paladin/cleric types.

**What They Want:**
- To provide a sense of **order and meaning** in a world where magic and Root anomalies are terrifying.
- To claim the “moral high ground” on campus issues.

**Methods:**
- Study groups, prayer circles, volunteer work.
- Pressure campaigns on admin (“this club is inappropriate,” etc.).
- Occasionally, exorcism-lite rituals when shit gets weird.

**How They See the PCs:**
- Joe = their golden boy / project.  
- Soren = “needs saving or banning.”  
- Ben = “bad influence, soul at risk.”

**How They Might Be Used:**
- As a vehicle to introduce Korrin Gate / Root theology from a different angle.
- As a faction that pushes back on anything that looks like “Root-worship,” including Rootwatch and Soren’s arc.