Motto

To uncover what was darkened in hopes of a brighter future. To find a home no matter the place. To elevate a life into a legacy.

OR

Exploration. Community. Glory

Brief

The Explorer's League is an esteemed and celebrated organization within the world of Alar. Comprised of intrepid adventurers, erudite scholars, and knowledge seekers, the League is devoted to exploring uncharted frontiers, unraveling ancient enigmas, and uncovering hidden truths throughout the world.

Passionately driven to venture into unexplored territories, the League's members fearlessly delve into treacherous landscapes, forgotten ruins, and mysterious realms. Their quest is to expand the boundaries of knowledge, meticulously recording their discoveries to share with the wider world. Undertaking daring expeditions to remote and dangerous locations, they confront perilous challenges and encounter extraordinary creatures and phenomena.

The core focus of the Explorer's League lies in the glory of discovery, attracting glory-hounds and thrill-seekers of many kinds from all walks of life: explorers, scholars, cartographers, researchers, mages, naturalists, archaeologists, and others who share an insatiable thirst for exploration.

Through their intrepid exploits, the members of the Explorer's League play a pivotal role in piecing together Alar's history. Their momentous adventures often yield significant discoveries that influence the course of history and shape the understanding of the world's present and future. As professional goers-of-where-others-dare-not, explorers of The League tend to be foremost experts in both the dangers and grandeur of Alar.

Mission

The primary function of the Explorer's League is exploration – to broaden the horizons that were darkened by the demonic forces. The preservation of knowledge, while the primary goal on paper – so to speak – is secondary to the thrill, excitement, and glory won by achieving leaps and bounds in discovery.

The Explorer's League has become an organization known for definitely going out into the unknown, but not necessarily known for their wisdom in doing so. They've been characterized as the group that leaps first, thinks later, and the League has generally owned and leaned into that philosophy. But it's far from the truth in most situations. Going into the unknown is risky business, and it is difficult to predict what might happen at given point during an excursion.

Traditions

The Ceremony of Four

The League likes to send off new exploration ventures by reminding the crew of where they came from. Each Explorer's team has four pivotal roles: The captain, the man-at-arms, the navigator, and the scholar. The captain provides the vision and scope of the venture, and is given a spyglass to symbolize the role. The man-at-arms protects the crew and ensures their safety and is given a sword (traditionally a saber) to symbolize the role. The navigator keeps the venture on track and marks the way back and is given a compass to symbolize their role. The scholar records and studies the things uncovered and is given a quill to symbolize their role.

Toast of Those Before

Another embarkment tradition where the crew raise their drinks in honor of the bold and brave explorers before them.

Initiation:

To gain membership to the esteemed Explorer's League, one must first either find, or be found by a sponsor, willing to take them under their wing. As an Initiate, you are for all intents and purposes an unpaid intern at the beck-and-call of the sponsor. However, the sponsor has the responsibility to train their initiate up to be a skilled and bold adventurer for the League. To this end, they will generally spend countless hours teaching or training their Initiates, and the Initiate accompanies the sponsor on all expeditions, serving in more of a porter capacity, but that's more or less to keep the initiate safe -- if possible.

An Initiate's training culminates in an unchaperoned mission -- typically with other initiates -- on an expedition of the sponsor's choosing -- many sponsors collaborate to provide their initiates with the best possible chance for success. If the initiates survive their own expedition, returning to Anbaerin having completed the task set before them, they graduate -- Initiates are evaluated by League Master Fraevlas herself.

If the initiate fails in accomplishing their task and acquiting themselves in their role to the team, the sponsorship is evaluated, by a group of the sponsor's peers. If the instruction has been found lacking the Initiate is given a second chance, and usually a different sponsor -- though sponsorship is always voluntary, so there exists the potential that an Initiate will not have a sponsor ready to take them. In this event, they are put on what is basically a wait list. If the Initiate is found lacking, then they are summarily expelled from the League.

A Feast to Remember

Upon returning home to Anbaerin, the crew of an expedition gather together for both debriefing and to tell the tales of the exploits and lives of their fallen comrades.

Stories by Fire

A bit tropey, and anyone whose been camping or shared a fire with someone would be familiar with this tradition, but because stories are so much of what being a part of the League is about, it makes sense that they would share their stories around a fire, as both a bonding exercise and a tradition.

Code of Conduct

The Explorer's Code

1. Be Curious: Keep an open mind and look for the truth. Ignorance is the weapon of the enemy.

2. Be Bold: Don't just step, leap! Boldly go where no one has gone before!

3. Persevere: Exploration is a noble pursuit, filled with adversity! Whether is a cliff or a mountain of red tape, keep going there is always an end – and maybe keep some scissors for that pesky red tape.

4. Document your Findings: If there's nothing brought back, no record, not even a scribbled note of what occurred, it's just another tall tale! Document, document, document! Or find someone to do it for you, and don't lose them!

5. Foster Relationships: We are stronger together. The League would have never risen to the heights it has if not for a dedicated community of scholars, tradesmen, and the passionate adventurer! This community thrives so long as there is a community to find!

6. Don't be Careless: The artifacts you uncover, the beasts you find, the places you go are all living history! So much of the world has yet to be documented, mapped, explored. It's up to you on site to make sure that the relics retrieved are retrieved carefully, that the new people and societies discovered meet friends not foes, and that the places you go are not trampled so that no other can enjoy them!

Most Explorers view this Code as more a set of guidelines, especially the sixth code. If the goal is glory on Alar, and Explorers are supposed to be bold, then there's very little room for caution!

Resources

The Explorer's League has substantial resources from its various patrons. It is well respected among the high circles of society in Anbaerin, and in many other pinnacles of civilization around the globe -- the world is round, prove me wrong. As such, it does not necessarily want for money. Expeditions are not cheap, however, so careful planning is required, but access is the scarcer resource in most situations. Access to information, access to expedition sites, access to modes of transportation. The problem to some extent is that the Explorer's League is too big for its fleets, and requires the use of charter vessels, or caravans. Air ships are seldom willing to go where the League needs them to, either. And they've become something of a competitor in the game of finders keepers, as even though the Lorekeepers do use the services of the League -- and some would say abuse -- they like to keep things in house. As they see League members as little more than glory hounds, and their aims are more "noble" -- says they.

But to the League's credit, their fleet of ships boasts close to one hundred, and they have a robust number of carts and wagons for carrying loads and equipment across land. Some of the more intrepid Explorers have tamed exotic flying beasts that they use for travel. The most common among these would by Wyverns, but they are ill-tempered and not well suited for new riders. However, many of the other options such as gryphons, giant eagles, etc… are harder to tame, harder to breed, more difficult to ride, and more dangerous. So many new Skyriders learn on hippogriffs, though there are far fewer of them. So Skyriders are chosen carefully.