Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-25396609-20151120024732/@comment-27082610-20151208161048

Faction name: The Crimson Edict

Type: Mercenary Guild

Motivation: Money.

Origin: The Crimson Edict was the name of a global treaty in the wake of The War that called for a  descalation in military power on all sides in order to reduce the chances of another war breaking out. As a result, many of the knights and men-at-arms of the various kingdoms were removed from their positions. This large group of newly fired warriors took multiple routes after the Edict was enacted. Some became a part of the newly established Hunter organization, while others beat their swords into plowshares and took on more peaceful work.

However, there were certain factions within the ranks of the knights not satisfied with either of these avenues, chief among them being Sabien Luminos, a Valish knight reknowned both for his skill as a fighter and his wit as a tactician. Rather than fight an endless war against the Grimm or become roving raiders preying upon the common people, Sabien and his fellows wished to use their skills for their own ends. In this case, their end was to become rich and to fight worthy foes. Soon after, a guild of former knights and warriors of all stripes was formed under Sabien's leadership on the northern coast of Vale. In the decades that followed, the guild gained a reputation for skilled, discrete warriors who were for the most part unoppossed to taking jobs that weren't strictly legal in nature.

In the present day, the guild is lead by Cobalt Luminos, son of Sabien. Cobalt lead the guild into a new era by forming alliances all across the kingdom with the various other Valish factions, including the Black Arrow assassin's guild and the Xiong crime family. The groups were able to reach peace in the form of a non-interference agreement, meaning that the groups wouldn't take out or give out jobs against one another in order to prevent potentially deadly conflicts. In return, the groups also agreed that should anyone break the agreement, the full brunt of their collective wrath would be brought against the perpetrator.

Initiations: The guild conducts its initiations tests once every six months, taking in combat school graduates and unaffiliated warriors, as well as former soldiers and Hunters, though the latter tends to be shunned due to  a perception of the modern Hunters horning in on the guild's territory with their job system. Only 50 people per initation are allowed entrance to the guild.

Membership: First year initiates are referred to as Probates, and the slightest misconduct can have one removed from the guild almost immediately. This stage can be skipped by way of a display of extreme skill or aptitude for the guild's line of work, though it's not a common occurrence, happening only a couple of times a year. They are assigned to a groups, with the more promissing members being grouped with Pages and are only allowed to conduct group missions up to class D, the lowest rank of mission.

After the probationary period is over, the initiates advance to the rank of Page, and are allowed to take on D rank missions solo as well as C rank missions in a group. The more promissing groups are used to train and/or weed out the Probates, getting them used to the group dynamic of missions or showing them that they're not cut out for life in the guild. This rank is held for two years before the initiate is fully accepted into the guild.

Once Page life is completed, the now full-fledged guild members are considered Squire rank. They are allowed to conduct missions up to A rank if they take more than one group, and C rank missions solo. Squires are sometimes grouped with Pages that managed to skip their Probate stage, in order to see how high their potential truly is. The time spent on this stage is indefinite, due to the next rank being purely merit-based. It's common for guild members to retire as Squires due to the stringent requirements for the next rank.

Knight status is awarded only to the most skilled of the guild members, ones that can easily go toe-to-toe with multiple Grimm of Goliath class singlehandedly or show exceptional skill in other areas. Due to their high success rate in the field, the Crimson Knights are in very high demand for their reputation as much as their skill, and are allowed to take any rank of mission below S solo. As such, only 2% of the guild's currently active members have attained Knight status, including their leader, given the title of Knight-Commander.

This is another crack at fleshing out my idea for a mercenary guild. Sorry if it's a little hard to read, I don't know how to create bullet points on these things. Secondary apologies for being a little long-winded.