AndrewNotes/Avalon/06_Factions_Secrets/Avalon 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 (Christopher Larkvale, Hector 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:

• Kalen 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 Christopher Larkvale – day-to-day disciplinarian and Oversight’s primary contact.
• Dean Hector 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 Hector 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:

• Christopher Larkvale leans pro-Oversight, pro-control.
• Hector Estrada leans pro-students, pro-chaos (but still wants wins).
• Some teachers quietly resent both.

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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 Kalen D'Serris or the PCs.

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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.

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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.
• Hector 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.

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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.

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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”).

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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 Kalen D'Serris absolutely hates.

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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).

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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 Kalen D'Serris wants to sacrifice branches.
• As the first ones to sense that the Root’s “mood” is changing.

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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.