An international organization that sponsors, recruits, and employs adventurers and mercenary squads. The Vanguard Guild considers itself neutral in the affairs of the five nations of Grythmar, not aligning itself with any nation's self-interest, but instead taking on missions that involve hunting monsters, guarding settlements and caravans, and securing trade routes. In addition, some of the artifacts obtained from ancient Algos sites are highly dangerous in the wrong hands, and the Vanguard Guild takes it upon itself to secure the most dangerous of these artifacts, destroying them if possible and storing them in secret locations where they can never be used if not. This latter charter sometimes puts agents of the Guild at odds with the Obscura Collective.
Originally founded by Nentharan merchants partnered with Thyrian wizards, the Obscura Collective is an organization of wizards, allied with merchants and mercenaries, that combines the study of sorcery and forgotten lore with mercantile pursuits and the acquisition of ancient artifacts. Shadowy and secretive but not overtly evil, members of the Collective trade in knowledge, magical items, mysterium, and relics of the lost Algos civilization. They have chapter houses scattered across the Grythmar Peninsula, particularly in settlements near Algos ruins and on major trade routes so they have ready access either to explorers and adventurers they can employ to find artifacts for them, or merchants looking to unload such valuables.