Hollows Factions: The Crown

The Crown

We were great, once. 

Before smokestacks and presses, before looms and workhouses, before cutting-edge science and an empire that spanned the globe, the Isles were a place of quiet majesty. Of noble knights, gleaming armour, slain dragons and momentous destinies. The Crown clings to this ingrained mythology tighter each decade, and as the country falls into disrepair and chaos, it redoubles its efforts to be perceived as an ancient and worthy tradition worth keeping.

Even this imitation of power can’t last. The Crown knows that the next war The Isles fights will be a civil one, and they hope that there’ll be a country left to rule over when the dust settles.

Not everyone in the crown is an aristocrat, but they all shelter under the banners of noble houses. Peers of the realm military officers hold the power in the Crown, but the labour of servants and soldiers props them up.

Crown Origins

Hollows includes four Origins for Crown members. 

Bluebloods are the remnants of the ruling class, their ancient and crumbling bloodlines’ last hope. Their position is precarious: blighted land and generations-old debts threaten to strip them of their remaining power – or maybe they’ll be their own downfall; the selfish, wanton ruiners of their own family. 

Chamberlains are bluebloods’ staff and servants. So were their parents and grandparents, for as long as there’s been a Crown to serve. The Crown has little power left to share, so their servants now make life worth living by blending in, causing little fuss, and quietly undermining or rebelling against their self-proclaimed betters.

Knight-Sergeants are military officers. They’ve benefited from what passes in The Isles for social mobility, dragging themselves up through the ranks of the army until they command respect. Knights fit in nowhere, uncomfortable amongst nobles and distrusted by the rank and file. 

Regimental Peons are the thousands upon thousands of common folk who fight and die to defend The Isles. That’s their duty and they’re expected to perform it without complaint. Regimental peons have endured a lifetime of hardship. They’re tough, and inured to suffering.

Crown Seeds

Crown characters’ Seeds typically open up when they turn their back on, or fail at, the role marked out for them – whether that’s ruling or dying.

Abolitionists see the way things are and take steps to raze the rotten old institutions to the ground. They’ve betrayed their noble family, joined a rebel cell, or incited a mob to riot. It’s not their actions that form the Seed, but the consequences: shedding family blood, losing their cell to a noble’s revenge, or feeling the weight of the lives taken by the rabble they roused. 

Deserters abandoned their duty. Some are soldiers who left their post or got drunk on their watch, and whose comrades died as a result. Others are nobles who married for love and damned their family to poverty, or servants who blackmailed or leeched from their masters. Whether they feel guilty or proud, whether it took a lifetime or a moment, their dereliction lacerated their soul and let a Malignancy in.

Murderers didn’t just kill, they killed someone who mattered – to them or the rest of The Isles. Their victim was a beloved noble, a ranking officer, or one of their own family. The victim was probably deserving, but blood stays on the hands.

Sole Survivors are the last person standing. Some lived through the massacre of their squad, family, or employers by luck or cunning. A noble refused to pay for their household’s medical treatment, and the sickness took every servant but one. Infidelity and a dinner party massacre killed off all but the most useless and overlooked family member. A soldier survived multiple massacres before being discharged for being bad luck. How you survived matters less than how you feel about it: lousy.

The Crown and Hollows

The Crown regards protecting the Isles as its duty. It’s the weighty mantle of leadership; noblesse oblige. Many of the cosseted blue-bloods at the top of the heap do not, however, feel obliged to intervene personally. They have people for that, and those people are Hunters. 

There’s no unifying doctrine for any faction (except perhaps the Temple) but there are often tendencies. The Crown tends to resolve the problem of a Hollow by sending as many Hunters as possible into it to nobly slay the Entities within. And the slaughter is always noble, because it belongs to the Crown.

Hunters with the Crown in their origin stories often adopt some of this dogma. Whether they’re a humble servant, a bloodstained veteran, or the bastard offspring of a titled jackass, many perceive themselves as heroes, the last line of defence, restoring the Isles to its former glory. Others mutter sullenly about the burden of responsibility or having no choice at all unless they fancy a brief and deadly flirtation with a firing squad.