How would /tg/ construct an order of assassins that are not edgy in a campaign? Whether it is a medieval, modern, or futuristic setting.
>>47449920
In one (modern martial arts) setting I run, there's a clan of ninjas that are dedicated to keeping the world in balance between light and dark. They rarely spill blood nowadays, but in the case of individuals or groups who run the risk of seriously destabilizing the world in a bad way, they'll go in for the kill.
>>47449920
>edgy
So how long before this meme dies?
>>47449920
Make them bizarrely upbeat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG6DifUtPvs
If you do what you love, you never work a day in your life
They dress like clowns and specialize in making targets slip on banana peels, choke on poisonous pies and have joy buzzer-induced heart attacks.
>>47449920
Instead of having them be like a cult, with extensive training and initiation rituals, have it be an organization that recruits already-dangerous people to work with them. Instead of clinging to the dark and occult, have them be decentralized, pragmatic, and secular.
When one member receives a job, they gather with the others to plan how much they will charge, who (could be one or a team) will do the job, and how they will do it. Any member may abstain from the decision making for any reason (moral, political, personal), but they will not receive pay for that mission. Otherwise, 95% of the pay is split between those who take part in the mission (based on level the level of risk to each) and the remaining 5% is split evenly between the other members as a "living wage".
The specific way the members remain in contact with each other will depend on the setting, but in pretty much any setting it's easy for a number of capable people to hold secret communications.
An order like this might not even have a name - each assassin operates their business from a personal front, the details of the order hidden from the client. Or it could be something only known in the criminal underground, among the high courts, or as a folk legend.
Similarly, an decentralized order would have few political goals, allowing members to come from many different races, backgrounds, and countries. However, the order will protect its own, providing a fallback net to individual members who've come on hard times or crossed the wrong people.
Make them a specialized intelligence agency, like the CIA, but 90% of the time they kill high profile targets.
>>47449920
Have them require you to be disabled and own a wheelchair as a requirement. Wheelchair assassins.
Make them a union. working with one another so nobody low balls and there's no Mix ups.
Like grosse pointe blank.
>>47450471
I don't think a lot of the 3rd world is all that wheelchair accessible, and killing high profile targets anywhere else is prone to being a diplomatic nightmare
But I guess that's why you don't get caught
Make a Morag Tong ripoff. I mean, it's not exactly hard.
Personally, my favourite sort of assassin is the church executioner: priests literally conscripted by their respective gods to kill people.
>>47450454
By shooting people before banishing their body from the plane of existence, thereby ensuring that the corpse is never found?
>>47450527
I don't mind the church assassin angle, but the gods literally coming down and saying "knife this fucker" kind of detracts from a setting to me
>>47450267
>I'm very discreet. I have no code of ethics. I will kill anyone, anywhere. Children, animals, old people, doesn't matter. I just love killing."
I knew exactly what this was going to be before I clicked on it.
I actually did have a mercenary company based on this idea. Soldiers and other military folk were discharged, retired, or went AWOL but just couldn't get away from the fact that killing was what they were best at/enjoyed most. So they make the best of it and enjoy their work to the fullest. The idea could work pretty well for assassins too.
>>47449920
Make them universally pretty poor or average combatants.
If your an assassin and you train exclusively with weapons as a way to kill your target you will invariably be killed. (live by the sword/die by the sword).
Successful assassins are one of two things. They are either talented social engineers, combat pragmatists, practical, ruthless, and incredibly threat adverse. These assassins do what they do for a paycheck, or perhaps to engender some change in their lives. Either way they want to survive their work so as to enjoy the rewards. The glory hounds don't last long enough for that.
The second type of successful assassin is the desperate individual willing to die for his cause. This man/woman insures the death of his target by using suicidal but direct methods such as the one below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htw1w8lYQdQ
Its very hard in any time to protect an individual from a completely selfless individual willing to die to accomplish his goal. Such potential assassins can be drawn from the homeless or other desperate individuals, who wish to guarantee their families a better life through a promise of payment to those who survive them if they succeed. Alternative assassins could be radicalized using religious or political motivations such as the infamous suicide bombers of today.
You can make them super edgy and not come off as obnoxious if they're not unrealistically competent, or are realistically incompetent
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hand_(Serbia)
>>47450243
Never, because babby-core ass wipes will forever be insecure about not being able to feel any depth of emotion.
Assassins Creed
Just a bunch of folk with a rival organization (that has members in high places) protecting and fighting over significant religious artifacts.
>>47449920
They get a lot of money for killing people.
>>47449920
>that are not edgy in a campaign?
Just have them be every day blokes that are part of a trade union like any other trade union. Just that their trade union involves killing people for cash instead of fixing the plumbing.
>>47450281
They're also extremely racist. They're called the Killer Klown Koalition.
A group based in a crime-ridden third/second world country. Take out hits on criminals from the innocent and use their money to buy and broker information between the rival factions, funded externally by some shady intelligence organization that likes the balance they maintain
Lots of good reputation for 'helping the innocent' and general vigilante worship, but the choice to go after established criminals is a business decision and not an ethical one
>>47449920
Simple, just make sure they're professionals
>>47449920
Just make sure they have a cool boss
Take the dark brotherhood from TES 4 and 5, then do the opposite of that
Though I actually liked the oblivion dark brotherhood because it was incompetent to the point of being very humorous and got completely fucked up by the only actual not-shit crazy murderer in the country.
>>47449920
My Shadowrun group has already encountered such. Luckily they /weren't/ the SEALS targets.
>>47449920
By making them less of an order of assassins and more like a fringe political faction that isn't above marked killing to achieve their goals.
>>47450996
who the shit sits down at their drawing station and thinks
"hecka yes, motherfuckers, today i'm gonna draw a spirit furry bear guiding gavrilo princip to shoot franz fucking ferdinand, the archduke and heir to the throne of austria-hungary"
>>47451083
Commissions are a hell of a drug.
>>47451083
When furries are involved, do you ever need to ask?
>>47450567
The priest is telling them that their God wills it. But he's actually just taking contracts.
>>47451261
who the shit sits down at their computer and thinks
"hecka yes, motherfuckers, today i'm gonna pay a guy to draw a spirit furry bear guiding gavrilo princip to shoot franz fucking ferdinand, the archduke and heir to the throne of austria-hungary"
>>47451523
Judging by the quality of the artwork, probably a low-cost commission for someone to put in a cringe thread in /b/.
>>47449920
They're just not very secure. The bulk of the assassins come from other walks of life and just see fit to align themselves with the organization. Since it depends on the incentive of profit among a bunch of mostly immoral, single-minded people there's very little trust among its members and there's an ever present tension for that reason.
They do train assassins as well (a few specific breeds), but they're fairly simple, straightforward, and disposable. It's hard to train someone for that kind of thing, it's not the same as training a soldier for battle. Assassins and spies must have a balance of a variety of strengths - grace, athleticism, skill at arms, intuition, perceptiveness, placidity, and the willingness to do fucked up shit without getting all consciencey. So there isn't much in the way of an army of assassins, but they're useful nonetheless.
>>47450690
Oddly enough, the Black Hand seem *unrealistically* incompetent.
>>47451568
Worth.
Every.
Penny.
>>47450235
oh god you guys make me cringe so hard
They pose as a casino franchise which has its fingers in many pies. They have a huge amount of associated services; catering, pro- I mean sex workers, etc. One of their gambling elements is that they handle taking bets on every topic imaginable, and one thing they take bets on is when certain public figures will die. Of course this is a coincidence and there's no such thing as an organized group of assassins.
>>47451523
Stranger fanart exists.
If you ask NPCs they say there is probably an assassin guild. Ask the toughs, do some violent side quests.
If a PC wants to be an assassin he joins through criminal syndicate/dock worker connections.
If PC ends up having a streak of virtue then the TRUE assassin guild which is a quasi religious order reaches out to him and makes him break his ties with the thugs.
If the PC is totally evil then the syndicate assassins get increasingly David Lynch'esque
>>47449920
Play Oblivion and copy The Dark Brotherhood. They were not edgy but they did take their craft seriously. They are also all insane but in a good way.
>>47451083
When I was a young boy exploring the internet there was this girl at this forum I used to frequent that drew badly pics of Princip in homosexual situations often with tentacles and equally bad homoerotic fanfiction
You oculd say that took me out of my comfort zone
I say don't you know
They could be literally anyone.
Have one where it was like the brotherhood level of scary in that they can somehow scout you, know the second you commit the deed even if there's no way they could be present, and somehow have an eye on literally everyone.
You just get a note one day asking if you'd like to join and you write yes or no then burn the letter.
If you say no thats cool no more letter no harm done. If you say yes from then on you occasionally get a note with a name and possible details such as accident, broad daylight, gorey, clean, etc. and the rest is up to you. Once done you'll receive a package of one sort or another with your payment within a few days.
Odd bit? The letters and packages make their way to you despite impossible odds of any sort. Several governments have tracked down hiree's and kept them in various states of watch. One was even mortared into a solid granite room and magically watched through scrying for seven days. He somehow received payment for a previous job via coughing up a voucher for 20k gold from a local bank branch, a new target via a letter from his breeches that wasn't there before, questions as to his status which he answered back using a sharp stone and his blood which appeared from his back when it was to a wall, stuck under his foot, and from a quite unenjoyable area due to lack of lube, again all area's checked and in an empty sealed room.
The experiment ended when one of the watchers received a target letter for the prisoner and shut off his magical air supply.
As far as anyone can tell there's no internal infrastructure to the organization as all questioned simply say they just received the letter one day. It goes across settings as well though it mostly goes unnoticed, as designed, simply because it can just look like a random guy in the street being stabbed by a child for no reason.
>>47452084
Severance happens just as abruptly and with no real rhyme or reason.
Some people get one target and their done and some grave robbers dig up coffins full of the letters in various states ranging from decaying to new. Occasional supplies are given in letters such as undetectable poisons to be baked in a mans loaf of bread he buys daily to a novelty sign saying Vote Alexander Bursmith for Regional Manager 2878 with a particularly sharp stake.
Theres also been assassins guilds built up around a receiver from time to time though they are sporadic in their nature and endurance as most fall apart after the receiver dies or gets his severance, which can happen anytime, and most don't brag about it as the local government usually tried to crack down attempting to find the overarching mastermind.
>>47449920
The order is made exclusively of sexy females in revealing black leather cloth and using katanas.
>>47449920
>How would /tg/ construct an order of assassins that are not edgy in a campaign?
By having them be just dudes who do it for money?
>>47451083
You must be new here
>>47450315
Underrated. Beurocracy is the bane of edginess.
>>47449920
The order doesn't exist. The myth, however, does and that's more powerful than the actual blades.
The "assassins" are actually bards who go around singing TALES of the deadly assassins who topple monarchies, walk through solid walls, are unparalleled blademasters. Every so often they might trumpet up a death as "TOTALLY AN ASSASSINATION YOU GUYS"- like, Mad King Olaf shat himself to death on the toilet because he was sick, but the bards go "or maybe it was poison? Eh? EH?" until people believe that Mad King Olaf was killed by a heroic assassin for being such a cruel tyrant. They might now and then commit a murder to drum up material for the myth-making, but this is fairly rare.
Basically, Alex Jones but less terrible.
>>47449920
>How would /tg/ construct an order of assassins that are not edgy in a campaign?
So check it out: there's this order of assassins right? But listen, listen... they're not the good guys. They aren't grey morality fags who fight for good through contrived means. They're just assholes. They're assholes who offer their services to the highest bidder. Because that's what they do, that's what brings food on their plates.
>>47452164
>Have to fill 1 week worth of paperwork to kill someone
>"Fuck this, I'll do it myself"
And the plot twist is that the Bureaucratic Assassins are actually clerics of the god of anti-laziness
>>47450763
Shadow the Hedgehog and Dante are deep.
Would The Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion be considered too edgy?
You end up killing them all ofcourse but the whole gang in the Cheydinhal sanctuary just seem like such bros that I cant really think of them as edgy. Lucius is GOAT murder senpai as well.
They wear rubber animal masks.
>>47449920
Getting to you but first
>>47452399 PIGSY!!
Now then. You want to make non edgy characters? Stop thinking like a teenager who reads too much twilight! Too much being any amount and by this I mean don't make "deep" characters who think of themselves as monsters or necessary villians. If you really have to make them think their the good guys, examine the mentality of terrorist and "knight templars". Have fun with your gang of
Serial killers, just don't call them that; it pisses them off.
>>47451748
They're Slavs
>>47449920
Fantasy Eversor's.
>>47450505
Read Snow Crash. That kind of "wheelchair".
>>47450994
They use mutant koalas as attack dogs too.
No women, no kids. That's the rules.
>>47450243
It will live as long as shitty writers chase shock value and do it badly.
It's potentially immortal
>>47452204
Fuck you.
>>47452968
>No women
But why?
>>47453037
because he is sexist.
The patriarchy wins again
>>47452968
Impractical rules, enjoy getting shanked by some crazy woman
>>47449920
They're all light hearted.
No seriously. They know what they do is kinda fucked up but it doesn't really bother them. They don't get all "wah muh morality twisting". They just do their job and do it well. They co-operate. This is generally easier to do if they're not following a dark God like in elder scrolls. Maybe they just do it because some people need to die.
>>47451523
Not only that, but Franz Ferdinand is driving his own car and Gavrilo is shooting a modern black polymer pistol.
>>47453037
>>47453054
>>47453065
That's the rules.
In all seriousness, Leon isn't completely rational. He's a badass when it comes to his job, but outside of that he's somewhat childish (probably why he gets along so well with Mathilda). He might beautistic, little as that word means here.
Fuck it, embrace the edge, motherfucking assassins kick ass and it's much more cringy watching people try and fail to avert clenches, only to create worse ones. Who are you trying to impress anyways?
>>47453168
He is a foreigner with development problems who cannot even read. We can assume that all his life he has been slighty more than an attack dog. Also the reason why it is Mathilda who "corrupts" him and not the other way. She is several orders of magnite more savvy.
>>47453248
>That ass
>>47449920
theres no way to make an organized association of murderers without having them be "edgy"
>>47453248
>fail to avert clenches
Well, she should better clench her butt
>>47451083
I don't know why or how, but that picture upsets me far more than it reasonably should.
>>47453323
It works more like a cold door salesmen section:
>This month Johny has managed to execute 12 contracts! Here you have your hitman of the month trophy... On the other hand Jake has botched the mexican affair...Jake, your neck in on the loose.
>>47451975
The. Fuck.
>>47450315
top tier. Do this OP
>>47449920
1. They're in it strictly for the money
2. Most of the money goes to charity
3. There's like a 1 in 10 chance they will turn against their employer so if you hire them you know you are playing with fire
>>47451024
underrated post
>>47453027
Sorry, sir. I take it back, please don't hurt me.
>>47450996
>>47451083
This is possibly the most confusing image I've ever seen if we take it at face value and the questions that raises, it has reduced me to tears of laughter.
>>47453439
>>47452182
Pragmatic organization of assassins without a religious or pseudo-intellectual ideology is a good way to avoid most of the edginess that comes with assassins.
They can be patriotic to a degree. Never take jobs against their kingdom's nobles or politicians and concentrate on weeding out the merchants, criminals and other "acceptable targets" that people hire them to kill. Foreigners too. In a fantasy setting that would explain why they have grown long enough to become an "order" that might even have a legal position within the country. They are not a threat to the current rulers and instead can be an useful tool. They might even be known on the level that Freemasons are known IRL. Like people know that the organization exists and there are plenty of rumours in circulation but most of the members are unknown and if you want to really know the truth about the organization you might have to dig a while.
If you skip the patriotism thingy they must be a more secretive organization because why the fuck would allow something like that to exist in your country unless you have some way to protect yourself from them?
>>47449920
The order is made up of commoners who seek to take advantage of all the infighting and backstabbing among the nobility. They take only noble targets and give the money that they earn to the common folk. In truth, they absolutely despise the nobility for focusing on their petty rivalries and intrigues while much of the nation lives in poverty, and many of them are just in it to kill highborn.
It is their dream to one day assist a single noble family kill off all their rivals, whom they will then turn on and murder before seizing power and declaring a realm without things like class distinction or high versus low birth.
>>47449920
The bards in my world have their roots as a Olidammara "cult" (I mean you don't ritually sacrifice to Olidammara unless it's a goat you're about to eat.) however in current times the organisation is more or less a spy network/information broker. They rarely do assassinations unless the target is deemed a threat to their well being.
>>47453867
>Invent communism in a feudal society
That's dumb.
>>47453909
Right, because communism versus aristocracy was totally never a thing.
>>47453909
Why? We're talking about fantasy after all, communism should fit right in
>>47453961
And even in real life, feudal societies were exactly the place where communists really got their start. Turns out Marx was wrong in thinking that nations like England would be the first to go red. In western Europe and the US they floundered and failed, but in places like Russia and China they crushed their opponents
>>47453952
Nicholas II. was such a cutie
>>47453952
Is there industrialisation?
>>47452084
>>47452105
This. This deserves replies. I'm using all this now.
What do they get for severence?
>>47450763
holy shit is this post real
>>47454634
No anon this is a simulation. Wake up.
>>47454877
Can't wake up.
>>47454877
Why did you leave the keys upon the table
>>47451568
No, this is too specific and too detailed to be a troll. Look at that bear... It's clearly the image of someone's actual fantasy.
>>47454612
A large amount of dosh or something equivalent. I view it more like a grab bag, maybe you get cash, maybe you get a literal get out of jail free card, maybe you get a well calligraphed letter, a golden watch, etc.
Sorta depends on the setting to. Why would a random janitor on a frigate in space get what was worth an equivalent 100k USD in representational coin from the 8th century but is worth like .008 cents in tin now, unless he's a coin collector or something.
>>47453105
That's just ignorance of history
>>47450243
What is dead may never die.
>>47454612
The problem with this is that the group doesn't really need the assassins, now do they? If they can get you to spit out money, they could just put cyanide and kill the target themselves. If they can see assassins committing crimes in impossible situations and can reach them guaranteed, such a powerful society has no need to actually employ assassins.
>>47449920
Metal Gear Solid villains.
Make them colorful ninjas. But like, TMNT/LEGO ninjas who use outdated slang and eat junk food. They just happen to kill people for money.
Since it is in a campaign there are really three kinds of assassins.
Practical Assassins, Cool Assassins, and Edgy Assassins.
Practical assassins are your standard group of people with a really good plan, preparation, and sneakiness. How edgy their personalities are doesn't matter because at no point are they really going to be talking to you in a way that dumps personal exposition.
Cool Assassins are a barbarian with a huge flaming axe riding a giant four armed gorilla that bursts through the wall of the tavern and says I AM JOHNNY SKULLFUCKER MEET ME AT THE REALLY COOL BATTLE ARENA IN THREE DAYS FAGGOTS.
Edgy Assassins are edgy assassins.
>>47456587
That just made me laugh really hard. Capped.
>>47449920
Do it like it was done IRL. First, forget that they're assassins. They're plain simple murderers. No super training, no brilliant equipment and complex plans. There simply aren't enough Breitbart-tier murders in a year to support a whole order of guys like this. And the one guy who maybe lives doing shit like this will be a loner who's competent but not part of some mystical "order". Basic competence is more than enough-- far more than you get from many hit men IRL.
Second, do it like the mafia or a drug gang. Most of the time, killers are doing other, far more lucrative stuff. Running numbers rackets, shaking down local businesses, robbery, prostitution, embezzlement, fraud, loan sharking, slaving. Every once in a while, you need someone dead, so you get one of your guys to do it. It doesn't need to be an elegantly executed Perfect Crime. So you get the guy who collects protection money to do it.
So there you go. You make them not an Order and not assassins. Just murderers who operate as part of a larger criminal organization and spend most of their time doing something else.
In a futuristic setting, things change due to scientific criminology and evidence-collecting. You need pros who can bypass, spoof, or destroy surveillance. Guys who won't leave physical evidence like hair and DNA. But you also have tools for death by remote control: poison, drones, snipers, etc. Things change a little but remember that most of this infrastructure exists for "normal" criminal operations, and gets seconded to cover murders on an as-needed basis.
>>47449920
I had an idea for a bunch of Philosopher/assassins. Mostly so that I could have villains debate among themselves the morality of the actions they're taking while trying to kill the PCs, or major NPCs. Or possibly rambling about good and evil when they're captured.
The basic idea is that at some point a group of philosophers called The Brotherhood of Dogs, decided to leave society and form their own secret enlightened nation based of philosophical principles.
It's been a couple hundred years and they still haven't formed a functioning government, the majority of their time is spent in open forums debating and arguing different philosophies, and how to properly apply them to the governing of a city state. They still haven't decided how or if they should have a system of taxes to pay for the governance and upkeep of the city state.
Some enterprising individual of a more morally relative philosophical branch, decided to try and keep the coffers filled by preforming lucrative work as an assassin.
While The Brotherhood of Dogs likes to think of themselves as a grand social experiment and a collection of the worlds greatest minds, to the rest of the world they're a highly secretive and effective order of assassins.
>>47456432
Guy who posted.
I thought the same thing and i'm almost entirely sure it may not even be someone doing that shit.
i always imagined it as some sort of sentient destiny loom that also has magical UPS services or a long forgotten god trying to drum up service or some such.
Maybe it just "is". Just some random inexplicable phenomenon, a sentient meme more or less. maybe its a wizard who achieved immortality but no anti-aging so he's just sitting petrified in some basement below the dirt getting his rocks off scrying people killing each other.
It wouldn't even exist if people didn't write "yes" on the letter either. If everyone just replied "no" it might end.
I just sort of made it and the rules it follows and let it loose. Players don't seem to question it either beyond moral implications of killing people.
>>47457133
I imagine an order of priests for a Murder God listen to the secret wishes and desires of the world (some sort of scrying magic) and respond sometimes if one person wishes death on another, sometimes even in jest. It's all a bit random and horrible, but that's life. Well, death.
It's like Cosmic Murder Lotto. God of Death just sort of randomly picks people's worst prayers, thoughts, and whims, and then picks potential sociopaths to get it done. Hence why giving someone the Evil Eye or talking shit will get you in trouble in a Medieval Fantasy world.
>>47449920
It's an assassin union led by Dan Aykroyd
>>47452902
Do you have the full image? I love it.
>>47449920
Use historic inspiration
>>47457827
That is the full image?
>>47457869
There's one where he talks about how they eventually learned to love it in a later thread. I'll try and find it.
>>47450471
Someone has been reading Infinite Jest
>>47457869
>>47457889
Here you go friend.
>>47457872
Actual historic inspiration...
>>47449920
Eh, making your assasin's guild *not-edgy* is simple. They're hired killers, out for profit and looking to secure their reputation and grip on power. They make other, supposedly powerful individuals (kings, politicians, businessmen, priests whatever it is in your setting) completely dependent on their services. Likely they play both sides of the game, as a means of making sure their services are always in demand.
>>47450763
I guess tripfags have a lot to tell us about insecurity
>>47449920
>>47452182
This.
The 'Assassin's Guild' in the setting I wrote was basically the mob, or used to be the mob, and the city I wrote them in was partially inspired by Italy.
They were just fucking assholes who liked staying rich and powerful by killing people to take their money or taking money to kill people. They had that whole 'we is honroable and shet' schtick going on and talked about overthrowing the corrupt government, but when it came down to it that was a lie they told to convince themselves and other people they weren't the greedy bastards they were.
>>47451083
I think it might actual be a political cartoon showing that Russia was ultimately responsible for the plot
>>47457752
But then he just gets killed because there's meetings
>>47449920
The whole order is actually just one person, a genius who controls dozens of bodies through [whatever your setting has for mind control magic/technology].
You can go full Stand-Alone Complex on it, too.
>>47456831
>Jimmy was one of the most feared guys in the city. He was first locked up at eleven and he was doing hits for mob bosses when he was sixteen.
>See, hits never bothered Jimmy. It was business.
>But Jimmy, what he really liked to do was steal. I mean, he actually enjoyed it. Jimmy was the kinda guy who rooted for the bad guys in the movies.
This >>47450315 gave me an idea.
An order whose members don't really know each other (they can meet and exchange messages, but anonymity is encouraged to assure that the actual hierarchy remains unknown). They charge extremely high prices but will kill absolutely anyone, and they'll do it however you prefer - no traces, a bloodbath, whatever you wish as long as you pay for each life that is to be taken, and they only take 12 assignments a year. Once a month, they'll throw a masquerade ball that also serves as the meeting for the order, where that night's wearer of the Mask of Tragedy will announce that month's assassination contract and then randomly (literally picking a name out of a hat) select which member of the Order is to be the assassin. They are known to each other by "Mask Names" (Mask of the Owl, Mask of Lament, Mask of the Maiden, etc). Then, the current wearer of the Mask of Comedy will sort out the two assassins who will be given the masks of Comedy and Tragedy until they themselves conduct that same ritual in the following month. Money for the assignment will go half for the assassin, half for the maintenance of the Order (represented by the Mask of the Servant, a member who seems to know which Masks are the leaders and founders, and who manages the logistics involved. They also seem to be a mute).
Whoever is the hidden leader(s) is also the holder of the Mask of Stone, which very proficient killers from all over the world seem to receive under mysterious, vague circumstances - an official invitation to be a part of the Order. Thus it grows and grows, recruiting great assassins from all over. The actual number of members is unknown, but every masquerade seems to have at least 200 people in attendance.
>>47459046
That is, the Mask of the Servant seems to be a mute.
And "the money for the assignment" = the payment. I was writing in a rush I guess
>>47450996
Why is the archduke driving his own car?
Where is Sophie, Ferdinand's wife?
Where is Princip's sandwich?
So many questions!
>>47458662
>But what made Jimmy so happy this morning was that this was the day that Tommy was being made.
>Jimmy was so excited you'd think that he was being made.
Being "made" is a shortened form of the original term: "making your bones". Which is to say, to be a real, trusted member of the family, you have to have provably killed for the organization at least once.
You'll note that in the movie, you had to be 100% Sicilian on both sides of the family so they could trace your lineage (this was bullshit IRL as a requirement but still frequently the case). And you had to kill at least once to be a made man (eventually, much later, it became more like a title or rank, and didn't necessarily mean you'd killed anyone). Finally, there was the rule of Omerta: silence.
So you see how they ensured the security of their operations. Someone who'd committed murder for the family isn't going to be a cop. If I know your relatives, then I can verify your history and character (to be sure you aren't an undercover cop), but also have people to threaten if you betray me. Finally, if caught you wouldn't say anything, protecting the organization (and eventually cops get used to the fact that you won't say anything and don't bother doing much to try to crack you, knowing it's futile).
And with all this security in place, if I'm arrested, I'll keep my mouth shut. They'll take care of me, and probably manipulate the court system to minimize my sentence and the prison system to make it easy time to serve. The organization won't be imperiled by losing one guy because that one guy won't betray anyone else.
And, incidentally, the mafia moved away from all three of these requirements. Newer guys sometimes had dubious origins, often didn't kill (at least not that the dons could be certain), and started talking to hollywood, the media, and eventually the cops.
And that's how the Mafia lost much of its influence.
>>47459259
Which gets to the point. If you have a couple hundred guys in your organization, and the major players have all killed for you, then what do you need with super-assassins? Or super-assassin cults?
These are guys who kill because it's career advancement. They kill because it's easy to do, easy to sabotage an investigation, and easy to sabotage the judicial process. And if after all that you're still convicted, it's easy time in a (compared to 19th century italy) soft American prison.
Very few people are so well protected that they require superheroes. And if you are that protected, then it's because you're holed up somewhere, unable to cause much trouble anyway. So if you really need someone dead, you send one of your guys. Maybe someone experienced, maybe an up-and-comer looking to prove himself and ascend to the next level in the organization. Or maybe some punk kid looking to make a name for himself.
Murders like this are much darker and more realistic... and more disturbing, too. Acrobats in pajamas actually diminishes the brutality of it.
https://youtu.be/Dk-a1RAX2mU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYcOl33-mI0
>>47459354
Well it wouldn't be a family member because that can draw attention to the family. You could do one or two every so often and you wouldn't cause a hassle but do it routinely and "non-proffesionally" you'll end up doing something to implicate you with the others. Its just needless endangerment.
It's cliche but "assassination is an artform" is a true statement and its not some special technique you employ during "the kill". Its the entire process. From killing in a way that sends a message to killing inconspicuously and on the aftercare, getting rid of evidence from fingerprints to casings, blood to hair. Its literally the safest way to kill someone and needless murdering under the family name actually kills your career track.
>>47459170the lion ate it
![onceuponatimeinmex[2].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/orxBOvR.jpg "onceuponatimeinmex[2].jpg")
Pretty sure someone else already said what I had on mind. Bards.
Like in this film.
They can play as a distraction so an archer/sniper kills them, or just secretly poisoning the host or something. I dunno you think of something just make Bard happy go luck guys that are secretly assassins.
>>47449920
Its really not that hard just make them merc types, working for a greater organization(like a government for instance), or stick with how the real assassin groups are like.
Its more impressive if you do end up with an edgy assassins given how easy its not to.
>>47449920
I'd structure it as a company instead of an order. Make it routine enough that the assassins are actually kinda bored because they haven't had an interesting job in a while.
>>47449920
Only by discovering the actual meaning of edgy and ceasing to be wrong.
>>47449920
Luchadores. Targets get free ringside seats in most cases, and get stuck with a slow acting poison when the action slips out of the ropes like it so often does. Those who are brave and/or stupid enough to challenge the pretend fighters to combat instead get to be on the undercard, and take a couple bumps the wrong way. I'm not talking chair shots or Canadian Destroyers here, even a simple DDT is enough to leave your target paralyzed if you aren't willing to help them land it properly.
And to remove the typical edgelord morality of "I only kill people worse than I am," or "I only kill for the money," jobs are selected purely based off of geographical convenience. Who can they kill that lives closest to the arena where their next show is scheduled?
...no one would keep showing up to the same derelict warehouse that Lucha Underground's running if people kept dying in the shows. A travelling masked assassins guild is the only way to go.
>>47449920
It's just their job 5 days a week. It doesn't matter whether they're around or not, someone was gonna pay someone else to kill some guy who ticked off the person in this sequence. But, hey, at least they're professional about it, and they keep collateral damage down to virtually nothing.
Make it a pyramid scheme
>>47453909
>What are the European wars of religion
Faith based gommunism isn't new at all
>>47449920
The Guild of Assassins is unusually obsessed with honour and fairly incompetent compared to the average fantasy assassin order. This is because it is secretly used by nobles to dispose of their sons who are both too ugly to marry off and too stupid to let rule.
Because of this, they are obsessed with looking nice over actual concealment, are too stupid to use magic, and are too honourable to do anything other than knifing the target. This invariably results in most of their assassins dying after less than 3 years with the guild.
There are also a number of small covens of assassin mages and alchemists, but they're so well hidden that they get maybe 1 or 2 jobs a year.
(Yes, this was inspired partially by Discworld)
