The Lands of Man was, for most of its history, a conglomeration of city states, territories, and tribal domains without any central seat of power. The imposing Scythian Desert was ruled by nomadic tribes protected by its merciless climate, the interior of the Lands was split between various warlords and chieftains who constantly waged small wars for territory, and the coast was dominated by walled city-states like Seth-E-Raman (meaning Son of the Sea) which provided centers of commerce and trade that attracted seamen, boat builders, and merchants as well as thieves, con men, and more than its share of unscrupulous individuals with insatiable ambition. At the time of the Guild of Assassins' founding, the Lands of Man were divided into eleven territories with eleven rulers.

Three hundred and fifty-eight years ago, an unkempt and wild-looking hermit named Gadral Neure emerged from the Scythian Desert. No one knew from whence he came and he never spoke about himself. What he did speak of, loudly and often and to any who would listen, were the visions he had had in the parching, destitute wilderness of the sands. He said that a mighty desert god, appearing to him as a towering sandstorm, spoke to him for ten days, prophesying and instructing Neure on what needed to be done.

Word spread of the wild-eyed holy man and soon followers began to aggregate to him. He spoke of being told to serve the 'Golden King' by the desert god, to help this king bring peace to the Lands of Man at any cost. His words were part philosophy and part religion, not soothing, but convincing and infectious.

At one gathering, since named 'The Sermon of the Sands', the chief minister of the Doge of Seth-E-Raman, listened intently. He had been curious about the tales he'd heard about Neure. The minister was named Almarac Aurias and the Doge, Camarac Quintus, was an ancient childless merchant/autocrat with no ambition beyond wealth and no desire beyond wine.

Minister Aurias had enough ambition for the entire court of Seth-E-Raman. He had spent years gaining the Doge's trust, acting like a son, agreeing with the aging ruler's every opinion, even those that were the result of a deteriorating mind. He had managed to become Quintus' de facto son, biding his time till the old man passed and he would assume rule of the mighty city-state.

What Aurias heard and saw at the sermon that day changed history forever. Gadral spoke of the 'Golden King', the 'Imperius Aurias' in the old tongue in which he preached. Almarac did not see this as a coincidence, he saw it as providence. He knew in his heart that Gadral spoke to him and when he approached the prophet, Neure ran up and embraced him as though they were lifelong friends. Gadral Neure wept and spoke softly to Almarac, pledging his devotion to fulfilling the prophecy the desert god had channeled through him. Almarac was moved and convinced.

He brought the hermit to Seth-E-Raman and presented him with a compound in the center of town, an abandoned sugar mill which would serve as a monastery of sorts for Neure and his followers. The old Doge did not object, in his eyes, Almarac was the last of his loyal allies and he obliged him any request.

As the old Doge got older and Almarac maneuvered more and more power into his own hands, Gadral Neure was busy as well. He selected the most devoted and talented of his followers to join him in the sugar mill, now renamed The Wellspring of Aurias.

Scribes put his visions and prophesies on scrolls, some for study, and others, considered too dangerous or powerful if seen by the wrong eyes, hidden where none but the highest ranking acolytes could find them.

Neure changed the focus of his order, from the spiritual to the temporal, from a monastic structure to a more military one. Alchemists and scholars were recruited, as well as repentant mercenaries and soldiers. The order became more and more secretive in the three years spanning its creation until the death of the old Doge, when Almarac Aurias became the unopposed ruler of Seth-E-Raman. When Aurias assumed the position of Doge, Gadral Neure renamed his order the Aurian Brotherhood and emerged from the shadows to fully serve his benefactor and make his desert prophesies a reality.

It was a turbulent period in the Lands of Man's history. Border wars among the eleven territories were perpetual, each warlord and chieftain was determined to flex his military muscle. The Aurian Brotherhood under Gadral Neure had evolved into a two-headed beast.

The mystic side of the order, the Auriats, continued its focus on the prophesies with the passion of true believers. Marcus, a devoted disciple of Neure was the driving force of these devote and solemn Aurians. The temporal wing of the Brotherhood, the Neurites, was led by a brooding, cold former mercenary named Venz, who trained his followers in stealth, alchemy, and the martial arts for hours upon hours, seven days a week. So respected did these soldier-monks become, that Doge Aurias chose them as his personal bodyguard.

Gadral Neure presided over both factions in his Brotherhood with a focused determination to bring Aurias' rule to all eleven territories. He sent Aurian Brothers to all of the lands, to establish monasteries and more importantly, to be close to the enemies of Seth-E-Raman. He studied the histories of the world and often went into trace states in which he would remain motionless for a day and then awaken to a frenzy of prophetic writing. He was particularly interested in the early history of the Minge, the mink warrior clan which established Thoth.

He became fascinated with Meris The Cruel, the first of the Minge conquerors, who had destroyed his enemies by using a wizard to change his palace guard into the Deev and to send them out on missions of assassination, till there were none left to oppose Meris. Gadral decided that removing the leaders was a more efficient strategy than war, cheaper and more effective, less horrific than major battle, far less cruel than prolonged engagement. It was in Gadral's mind, a holier course of action, a divine strategy. Not desirous, or for that matter, able to use magic to change his acolytes into creatures like the Deev, he charged Venz to train the Neurites to become master assassins.

When Gadral approached Doge Aurias with his idea, Almarac was delighted and extremely supportive. Since the city charter prohibited funding of religious orders, he suggested to Neure that he split the Neurites from the order and establish them as a guild. In this way, the Doge would be free to fund them as fully as he chose. Gadral readily agreed, and so, with Venz as its first master, The Guild of Assassins was born.

Six months after the establishment of the Guild, Gadral approached Aurias and told him that the crusade was ready to begin. Neure had established spiritual orders in all the territories and the monks manning them were from both factions of the Aurians, the mystic Auriats and the newly trained and dangerous Neurites, who blended in while awaiting the orders of Gadral and Master Venz.

When the orders came, it was earth-shattering. Rulers, warlords, generals and prime ministers began to die in rapid succession. Apparent accidents, poisonings, drownings and mysterious acts of violence reduced the leadership of the territories surrounding Seth-E-Raman to paranoid panic. By the time it was established that these assassinations were the work of Neurites, now proudly calling themselves the Guild of Assassins, there was no one willing to assume power and suffer the fate of their predecessors.

It was a simple matter for Doge Aurias to install cronies into those positions of power and then to simply annex them. Of the eleven independent territories, only the Scythian desert remained uncontrolled. The Lands of Man were now a single entity, a united country under the rule of Almarac Aurias, formerly Doge of Seth-E-Raman, now the Golden King, triumphant and unopposed.

With the prophesy of the Golden King fulfilled, Gadral Neure retired to the original Aurian monastery at the sugar mill. He officially split the Auriats and Neurites, announcing that the Neurites were now secular and under the direct control of the king, while he and the Auriats would remain to guide the spiritual needs of the people. Master Venz removed the remaining Neurites to the Guild's new headquarters and distanced himself from the mystical teachings of his former master.

Tensions between the guild and the Aurians increased with the passage of time. They came to a head when Gadral Neure once more went into a prophetic trance. The mystic state lasted for seven days. When Neure finally came out of it, he was again a wild-eyed prophet. Though aged by this point, his passion was unmatched.

He spoke of the destruction of the world, the coming of a great god, and the end of man and beast. He prophesied the coming of a secret king, the only force which could defeat the god. He blamed these portents of doom on the ambitions of kings and man and transcribed these revelations onto two scrolls that were bound into two books which he personally hid in a spot known only to him.

Word of these prophesies reached Aurias. He felt betrayed, interpreting the prophets words as an attack on him personally. Aurias spoke to Gadral, trying to convince him to silence his criticisms, but Neure was driven and blinded by faith. He redoubled his sermons and sent out his flock to preach in all corners of the kingdom. It was more than Aurias could tolerate and he called for Master Venz of the Guild to quell the storm.

Venz, by now disillusioned with Neure and content in his position of power, was none the less disturbed by his charge to eliminate Neure and the Aurian Brotherhood, but his instructions were explicit. He was to recover the Gadral Scrolls, the two written by the prophet which had caused this tempest, eliminate Neure, and dissolve or destroy the remaining Auriats. Venz agreed reluctantly and returned to the Guild of Assassins to plot his strategy.

Venz, despite his ambition, could not order the assassination of the man he followed. All he was, he owed to Gadral. He met secretly with the prophet, to warn him and to beseech him to desist from his seditious sermons. Venz had expected Neure to argue or flat out refuse, but the prophets reply stunned him.
"I will return to the desert tomorrow, all the seeds of providence have been sown. I will leave the gardening to others."

Venz was delighted. He requested the Scrolls as Aurias commanded. Gadral left for a short while and returned with one of the two books and handed it to the Guild-master, explaining that the other scroll would be given to the Auriats. Venz brought the tome and news to Aurias, who was relieved that he would not have to smite the man who had given him an empire. The second text would be dealt with after Neure was gone.

The next day, at the edge of the Scythian desert, surrounded by hundreds of his followers, both Neurite and Auriat, Gadral Neure bid farewell to civilization and re-entered the wilderness as he had left it, alone and dressed in rags. He was never seen in The Lands of Man again.

After Gadral's departure, the Neurites and Auriats drifted further and further apart until Venz and his followers no longer identified with the Aurian Brotherhood at all and began to refer to themselves only in the context of the Guild of Assassins.

Marcus and the Auriats became more and more inwardly directed, no longer sermonizing or proselytizing, but rather focused on the hidden meanings of the Gadral Scroll which they still possessed.  Marcus had become convinced that Gadral Neure was more than a man and was leading the Aurians to the  most glorious of futures. He completely isolated the remaining brothers within the compound to further study and interpret the scroll, dedicating themselves to the fulfillment of Neure's prophecies.

While it annoyed King Aurias that the first book was being held by the Brotherhood, he felt a deep enough sense of obligation to the order, that he decided that so long as they did not speak against the kingdom, he would not interfere with their spiritual journey and would not seek possession of their scroll. This tolerance ended when Marcus finally emerged from the compound, preaching for an end of obedience to the king and calling for all to serve the true Lord of Arishamal, the yet undiscovered god-king that Neure had prophesied.

When Marcus declared The Brotherhood to be heretics and apostates, Grandmaster Venz demanded that the guild be allowed to cleanse Seth-E-Raman of these lunatics who were distorting Neure's teachings once and for all. King Aurias readily agreed.

Marcus knew what was coming, he counted on it. The seditious sermons had been given precisely to elicit the response they did. The abbot had interpreted the text. Neure had written that the Brotherhood would be driven out of The Lands of Man upon a wave of blood. Marcus had simply ensured that that prophesy was made true. He told only a dozen of his followers, the most dedicated and faithful.

In the still of the deep night they left the compound, taking the book with them and headed north. The next day, the assassins came to the sugar mill. By noon, no Auriat remained alive and the compound was set afire. The bodies burned and all assumed that none survived.

King Aurias was furious when the first scroll could not be found, and like everyone else, assumed it had burned. When word reached the fleeing survivors of the Auriats about the massacre in Seth-E-Raman, Marcus addressed his acolytes.
"They have slaughtered our brothers. Aurias, the false king, has taken their blood and baptized us. We reject the name of Aurian, from this day forward we will remember the blood shed for us, we shall be the Scarlet Brotherhood. We shall seek converts, man or beast, we will serve the truth, we will fulfill the prophesies and bring an end to chaos, we will awaken the god-king."

Aurias proved himself an effective ruler. He instituted a charter of laws which effectively unified the Lands and appointed governors to the various provinces with the exception of the desert which remained lawless, a haven for outcasts and pirates.

The Guild of Assassins became the strong arm of his government, rarely used, but an effective threat in negotiations. He ruled for another twenty-seven years after Gadral Neure returned to the desert. Grandmaster Venz outlived Aurias by five years. He ordained that, as an homage to their founder, every guild-master from his time forward would take the name of Gadral Neure.

The guild remained the power behind the throne for the next two hundred years, but peace and prosperity did not serve the Guild of Assassins well. The rulers of the Lands had become wary of their service and with the ascension of King Talus, their power disappeared.

Guildmaster Gadral the eleventh, was an overweight gout plagued bureaucrat who had never seen battle. Completely without ambition and satisfied to spend his days overeating, he put up no resistance when Talus ordered recruiting for the guild to cease and for the services of the black clad assassins to be primarily ceremonial.

Soon, even their ceremonial duties declined, and by the time of Talus' death, it was almost impossible to find a member of the Guild of Assassins. Where they had once numbered in the hundreds, now barely a dozen remained. Their sole charge was protection of Neure's second scroll and even that was looked upon by the court as a pointless task, since interest in Neure's prophesies had long since waned. Talus had allowed them to take possession of the original compound where the Auriats had been annihilated, and the guild returned there quietly and without complaint.

When Gadral the eleventh died as a result of eating bad oysters, he was quietly replaced by Gadral the twelfth, the first non-human guild-master the assassins ever had. He was a desert lynx, a skilled but unused assassin who refocused the guild to spiritual contemplation. Less and less was heard of the guild, until finally, it was assumed they had simply faded out of existence.