The Vindicators

''You're worried about the guard? The guard?! I'll take a thousand lazy, under paid, over worked guardsmen rather than call down one of those self-righteous juggernaughts.''

- Zedek Morn, Mage of the Obsidian Cabal

Servants of the Truth Unyielding, these warrior-philosophers are sent into the world in order to adjudicate major disputes between the nations and to police the magic users of Canthia. Any who break the Pax are sought by the Vindicators and their allies. They possess a strange ability, the Penance, a magic so ancient and deep it defies explanation.

The Triumvirate
The governing body of the Academ Vindicarii, the Triumvirate is made up of the senior ranking members of each of the Academ's Orders, called Bastions. Normally, this body concerns itself with interacting with governments and the Magister's Board, arbitrating disputes between one or more of these. Additionally, they also serve on the Magister's Board to ensure transparacy in that group's proceedings. The Triumvirate will also, when especially dangerous or difficult Gifted are found in violation of the Pax Arcanum, dispatch special writs to Vindicators in the field. Since it's inception in 419, the Triumvirate has always been headed by the three eldest Mor'kar in the Academ. However, in recent years there have been pushes to be more inclusive to the other members of the Academ, especially given the rather large population of humans.

Selection and Induction
Most Vindicators are taken from orphanages as familial ties and loyalties are frowned upon as an unnecessary complication in the pursuit of Truth. However, there are some adult candidates who come to the Vindicators in hopes of turnign their life around or as a way to achieve forgiveness from the gods. Their are no racial restrictions to becoming a Vindicator, as all mortal beings are capable of seeing and defending Truth if they find the necessary strength and discipline within them

Training
Those taken at a young age are named Acolytes and separated into single gender dormitories and classes. In the beginning of the Academ Vindicarii, this was not the case and genders mixed freely. However, during the human adolescent period, the Mor'kar instructors noticed a significant drop in attentiveness and dedicated participation in meditation. After deducing that the combination of human males and females together during their adolescent to early adulthood growth periods was the cause, the Mor'kar deigned to separate the genders into their current instructional format. This is not to say that gender fraternization is frowned upon by the Mor'kar, adolescent Vindicators of all races are allowed certain periods and events in order to socialise with the opposite sex. This was also not the normative form of instruction but after an entire grade column was practically paralysed by sexual frustration the Mor'kar instructors were forced to allow some socialising.

Those who are inducted into the Academ at a later age are named Catachems and kept in a separate wing of the Spire and given different forms of instruction than their younger counter parts.

At late adolescence, Acolytes join the Catachems in the three Orders of Truth: the Truth of the Sword, the Truth of the Shadow, and the Truth of the Shield. The selection for the Order is done through the Aei'Qua Var or First Rite of Truth. In it, Acolytes and Catachems are individually tested in a series of physical, mental and magical challenges.

Finally, after another ten to fifteen years of training, which is dependent on skill and the Order one has been inducted into, the Novice (as trainees are now known) take their Aei'Het Var, the Final Rite of Truth and if successful, are given a post around Canthia to monitor magic users and adjudicate disputes.

Sanctioned Vindicators
Those who pass their Final Rite are then sent out into Canthia, though a few are tasked with remaining at the Spire to watch over the Gifted at the tower. Normally, Vindicators work alone or, in the rare case of an exceptionally difficult quarry, in pairs. Vindicators also can call upon the cooperation of any government in the area to aid them in their investigation. Because of their tendency to be lone wolves and their disruption of local politics, such calls are rarely greeted well.

In most countries, there are several Vindicators operating but in a few areas, there is a severe shortage. The Crownless Lands is one such area, as well as the Nua'dar city of Fremora.

Vindicators, as they belong to the three Orders during their education, are likewise divided up into different duty columns upon graduation. Justiciars from the Truth of the Shield are tasked with mediation and diplomacy, normally working within governments to provide field agents with information and targets. Stalkers from the Truth of the Shadow typically use their arts of subtelty and silence to acquire more information on targets and sometimes to eliminate them if they are deemed high risk. Vanguard from the Truth of the Sword are then tasked with final arrests or eliminations depending on the target.

Disavowed Vindicators
They go by many names, these renegades, but what is certain is that no one ever truly leaves the Academ. For all its posturing on the Truth and their loyalty to it, the Triumvirate recognises that some Truthes are more important and critical than others. Because of this, they allowed those Vindicators who would have been stifled by the normal procedure of the Academ to operate on their own. Under their own auspices, these Vindicators travel the world with no set jurisdiction and seek out the most dangerous of the Gifted. Because of their need to operate in total secrecy, any failure or capture of these men and women are completely repudiated by the Spire, the Triumvirate and the Academ as a whole. There are rumours that a Disavowed Vindicator even sits a shadow seat of the Triumvirate.

The Silver Ravens
This group is another shadowy organisation in the background of the Academ, though there's is a less violent mandate. The Silver Ravens are tasked, instead, with the gathering and storage of critical information on any and all dangerous Gifted in the major jurisdictions.

Archivists
These Vindicators, normally taken from the Shadow and the Shield, are tasked with recovering and securing any and all dangerous Tier Artefacts that have come to the knowledge of the Academ. This is a relatively new faction of the Vindicators and as such are not immediately recognisable by the general populace. Archivists are required to wear a special badge that shows their status and allows them special access to governments outside the Spire.

Culture of the Academ
Because of their unbending loyalty to the Truth, many Vindicators of the Academ are without humour and defined only by discipline and resolve. However, there are others, those who work on the fringes of Vindicator jurisdiction who have learned a more malleable form of the Truth and are far more personable. Because they are not always welcome where they travel, the Vindicators have developed an incredibly suspiscious and paranoid attitude. This does not lead them to wildly accuse people but it does nothing to help with their already misunderstood purpose.

Those successful in capturing rogue mages normally tattoo a raven's feather on their bodies as a memorial to Truth's victory. Traditionally, white feathers signify a live arrest, while black denotes an execution.