the harbingers are one of 16 of the guilds when it comes to wraith the oblivion harbingers use
the power of argos to travel safely throughout the shadow lands i'm going to tell you about this
guild and what argos is let's get into it hello everyone welcome to the table my name is nathaniel
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now of all the guilds that are in raithy oblivion the harbingers appear to be the least organized
they have their guild halls their meeting points their various groups that they go to but members
of this guild tend to focus on their jobs more so than anything else they aren't as interested
in other political motives or other political gains and because of this lack of desire to be
in the political sphere and play these political games stygia has definitely benefited from the
harbingers you see the only way to travel in the shadowlands is either with the use of a ferryman
and if you don't have one of those you need a harbinger they are the second safest way
to travel through the tempest outside of using a ferryman the harbingers do this through the use of
an arcanoi called argos there are 13 arcanoi when it comes to wraith the oblivion these are
essentially spiritual abilities or abilities for the dead argos specifically allows the
harbingers to travel through the tempest unharmed don't worry i'll get to the tempest in a bit
harbingers can use their argos ability to travel through the tempest and they can bring others
with them they would call them passengers i don't know why i did that in finger quotes but that's
that's that's how it's written so that's what i did now the more passengers that a harbinger
takes the harder the ability is to actually use everyone must be in physical contact with the
harbinger and they must all be willing to travel if someone is unwilling to travel and is still
participating with the group this makes the use of the argos ability very dangerous for everyone
because when it doesn't work you will be randomly spit out into the tempest and no you you won't
know where you are it doesn't sound terrifying but like i said when i tell you what the tempest
actually is this will make a little bit more sense and make it much more terrifying now if a wraith
uses a single arcanoi too much they will take on the characteristics related to that arcanoi
in the case of the harbingers someone who has used their argos ability quite a lot will develop jet
black eyes and their clothes will appear to blow in the breeze when there is no breeze now these
type of effects they cannot be hidden they cannot be changed cosmetically so however your ability
changes you or affects you that's that's your life now that's well that's your afterlife now
originally the harbingers started out as explorers and messengers which they still do these things
now but that's just how they ended up getting their start nowadays in stygia they also take
on the role of traders as well as paid guides because if you know your way around the tempest
that's worth some significant money now this guild is particularly helpful to basically everybody
in the shadow lands this is something that they actually take some pride in so their usefulness
their helpfulness and somewhat of a carefree nature it's prevented them like i said from
getting involved in the game of the politics in stygia this has also prevented the hierarchy from
getting a good grasp of influence over this particular guild unlike the artificers who
i will talk about in a different video the harbingers were too busy mapping and exploring
and discovering ways that they could travel throughout the tempest and throughout the
shadow lands that they didn't get involved with the politics that's kind of how that happened
that isn't to say that some members got involved with the politics in the in the political games
but it was more so out of their own beliefs than it was out of a guild mandated belief in
the shadow lands the harbingers are a very well respected guild and there's actually a little
bit of some superstition that surrounds them as a whole many believe that it is considered bad luck
to interfere with a harbinger when they are on duty not just specifically on duty but
especially when they're in the middle of a transport or in the middle of a job
not many people like to upset one of the most reliable transport services that you can get
and the harbingers in return try to keep this goodwill up they're almost compelled
to rescue people when they hear about it so they are constantly on the lookout for
souls that are lost within the tempest and while not everyone likes the use of arcanoi argos is
one of the most well accepted and well respected magics that you can use for the land of the dead
it's also much easier to find a harbinger than it is to find a ferryman and ferrymen are the
most reliable but they are also in short supply now i've talked about it a little bit already but
what is the tempest and why is it so scary if you saw my video on stygia you would know that
i explained the tempest as a very chaotic a harsh sea in a constant state of storm like
massive storm and while it is a boiling raging storm of an ocean to call it just an
ocean is not exactly accurate the tempest is not quite like the sea that you would see in the skin
lands where you have your clouds your sky and your water the tempest moves like an ocean but it is
made up of sections that are just broken glass magma acid burning plasma anything that you can
think of that would be horrific and kill you the instant you step into it is part of the tempest
and unlike a storm in the skin lands which is two dimensional it moves left and right it moves
forwards and backwards the tempest storms move three-dimensional and the tempest never used to
be like this its change has actually only been as recent as the third great maelstrom before that
it was fairly calm it was easy to travel after the third great maelstrom which whipped up this
the tempest into a frenzy like some of the other great maelstroms did before they always settled
down or at least the the tempest always settled down after the third great maelstrom it just
never did and each subsequent great maelstrom that happened afterwards has made it even worse
and after it turned from its calm state into its boiling roiling mess they renamed it the tempest
and on top of being a crazy powerful storm on a pretty deadly body of moving deadliness on top of
that you can also be attacked by specters by enemy rates there's also other storms that can come up
not maybe as powerful as the great maelstroms but you will have other storms that come out
of this and make certain areas of the tempest even worse this is why it's so terrifying to be
randomly spit out of your argos into the tempest if you have somebody who's unwilling to travel or
maybe they just are not a good harbinger now the harbingers as a guild and as an organization they
like i said are a loose collection of groups that sort of operate under the same the same
banner the same guild and they operate with the similar purpose they do tend to focus a little
bit around their harbor masters harbormasters are veteran harbingers who have retired from the game
of travel they are more in a management capacity now they will tend to be lighthouse keepers or
they'll work in any sort of necropoli successful harbingers who have retired have also been known
to go on to be successful weather forecasters and while this doesn't sound like a important
job when you're dealing with the great storms that come out of the tempest for the lands of the dead
you kind of need to know when those are coming and within this guild of harbingers there are three
roles that someone will play they will usually just pick one and keep going with it but just know
that there are different types of harbingers the anemographer is someone who goes out and explores
the tempest they are the cartographers or the map makers they want to know every nook and cranny
of the tempest where it's safe where it's not finding the best routes to cross circuit riders
do something similar but they do it in a smaller capacity they will go typically between different
necropolis and this necropolis means cities of the dead they will typically offer their services for
travel and maybe some illegal substances if you were trying to find something that the hierarchy
is clamping down on and that you they just won't provide or can't provide you will want to talk to
a circuit rider lastly you have the emissaries these are the rates that go to the different towns
they are the messengers they are the news bringers you still get your news best communicated by word
of mouth an emissary is also very likely to be a smuggler or a privateer so it's very possible for
a rogue group of emissaries to attack some other ships or some other transports on the tempest and
take what they've got tell me what you think about the harbingers in the comments below
did i miss anything significant i'm really hoping not i really liked this guild i think this would
really fit well if you were wanting to do some kind of a uh some kind of a pirate story or have a
uh a pirate type wraith this would be a great guild to aspire to be in i really like the thought
of the the argos and the the wind blowing in the clothes it gets kind of a cool thought although if
you're trying to be stealthy and and be somebody else that's a dead giveaway of what you actually
are if you were using them in your story they would be a great plot device they would be a
great npc connection to either get some sort of information or find some sort of relic hiring
them to get you between places with a slight bit of danger involved always adds a little bit
of tension to the story and speaking of stories that continue on i would like to thank my patrons
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