While the killing of a person is sometimes described as assassination regardless of who is doing the killing or the method that they use, the term assassin is in common use in the Shrouded Lands to describe a person with a particular skill set and approach to killing.
Organisations
- The Smiling Men are a band of assassins and deathly enemies of the Temple Invisible. They recruit those who have killed out of depression, trauma or self-loathing and train them with physical punishment and rudimentary electroshock therapy to rid initiates of all emotions other than happiness. They are doppelgangers that can take the forms of others, but in all forms they cannot help but smile broadly.
- The Brothers of the Spear were militant monks, fierce fighters and masterful assassins. The order was founded by the high priest of Alberon who instructed 12 of his most powerful sorcerer-assassins to assassinate She Who Waits. They became the Temple Invisible, the dark hand of Alberon, that carries out subterfuge and violence. Most members of the Temple Invisible are simple priests, scholars and teachers, but the core are trained assassins. The order runs theocratic city-states on other continents and in the Shuttered City teaches orphans and poor children “the basics”, including theology, but with an unusual focus on athletics, stealth, poisons and warfare.
- Nine Brothers, among the most deadly assassins, refused the bargain that founded the Temple Invisible. Their descendents call themselves the Temple of Alberon.
- Drogo is rumoured by some to be an Assassin struck from the Order’s rolls because his rates were too low.
Assassins
- Quicklings serve as the assassins, spies and sentries of the Kingswood. Their poisons and powders are more sophisticated than anything else in the Shrouded Lands. They are beholden to none and work for whomever can shower them with grotesque luxuries.
- Butchers and plague doctors are used as assassins, as well as demogogues and agitators, by Sosaria’s cattle barons.
- A cyclops assassin serves the Winterjarl, and has killed old bears including the previous jarl using his knowledge of secrets forgotten by the younger races.
- The martial art the Pilgrim’s Way is popular among thieves and assassins as it allows them to move unseen, anticipate danger and disappear into shadows.
- Cerelaine trains his half-elf children, including Ledo, in “the hunt”, making them assassins doing his vengeance.
- Because those suffering the Courting Death will do anything to be cured, they make good assassins and soldiers. They sometimes cooperate with the Temple Invisible, but the holy assassins of the temple kill the Dead Men after the mission is completed.
- The dark leather of moon elephants is favoured by thieves and assassins as it makes them more alert and more difficult to see.
- The Dust Men take assassination commissions, but rarely kill people, prefering to goad them to amend their ways. However, they will teach their art (that of the Pilgrim’s Way) to burglars and blackguards.
- Seline sends spies, tax collectors or assassins to deal with any problems reported to her.
- Some Dust Walkers at the Hesperite Harpsichord are highly trained illusionists and assassins.
Assassination
- Cattle barons of Sosaria incorporate cages containing birds of paradise into their clothing to deter assassins.
- A wax golem was used in the attempted assassination of Viceroy Orhan.
- Simone the Fowl was assassinated by Simone the Foul.