The Jade Lotus Syndicate

Locked The Crimson Empire's deniable hand. It takes war orphans, strips their names, and raises them as numbered killers. The individual members have their own page.

Origin

Locked About 100 years before Campaign One, a Kaelen Emperor was nearly assassinated by Aldorian spies. He secretly founded the Lotus: assassins taking direct orders from the Throne, recruited from orphans. The original order was twelve numbered operatives plus Zero, thirteen in all. It's an imperial instrument of revenge, not an ancient sacred order gone bad. (R-012)

Structure

Rank	Role
Grandmaster	Head of the Syndicate in the field. Vane held it in Campaign One. Under Malakor, the Regent himself headed the Lotus
Ghost-Zero	Supreme field commander, a seat above the Numbers, marked by a ring. A Number can be raised to it, as Kira was raised from Twelve, and then the Number passes to someone new
The Numbers (Ghost-1 to Ghost-12)	Apex operatives. Each Number is a specialized archetype, not a rank. Ghost-9 was stealth and poison. Eleven is infiltration
Blades and bows	Unnumbered, hired, expendable muscle
Ledger-men ("counters")	Bookkeepers of blood, money, routes, debts and informers. They don't kill; they map

Numbers aren't ranks

Think of a heist crew rather than an army. The safecracker isn't "higher" than the driver. Each one is the best at one job. Ghost-4 isn't weaker than Ghost-8. He listens where Eight hunts.

Culture

• Loyalty to the Lotus is absolute. Children are taught that affection is a "soft place" an enemy will find and write down.
• "The Syndicate does not forgive a dead Grandmaster. It files him and sends another."
• The Lotus's oldest choice, offered to Kira: him or you.
• The lotus is a sacred flower in Kaelen, purity rising from mud, turned into the sigil of assassins.
• The Ledger-men see their work as keeping the ledger of Kar'esh.

Tradecraft available in play

Locked These setting elements are established and free to reuse:

• Lotus cant: a coded street-dialect, recognition phrases and hand-signs.
• Pale Lotus root: a slow poison. It was used on King Aldor IV.
• The pulse-stopping herb: fakes death.
• Sunstone reagents: explosive and light-based.

History of the Numbers

Draft Who has held each Number, as far as the records go. Dates use the calendar. Numbers One, Two, Three, Five, Six and Seven have no recorded history before their current holders, so they're left out here.

Ghost-Zero, the ring

When	Holder
Before spring 900 AP	Open Earlier holders aren't recorded. In the Lotus's own reckoning the seat was Tristen's by right, the reward that should have followed the Trade Prince's death
Spring 900 AP	Kira leads the hunt for her disowned partner and takes the ring as her reward. Tristen's people call her "the usurper"
Summer 902 AP	Tristen kills Kira at Blackwater. The seat falls empty, and the ring is his to give
Summer 902 AP, at Blackwater	Tristen takes the ring and gives it to Vesper, making her his right hand in the underground: his own Syndicate. A symbol, and an insult to the Empire
Since then	Vesper wears the old Ring of Ghost-Zero as acting Zero, running Tristen's network in the shadows

Ghost-4, "the Listener"

One known holder, Four. He knew Nine as a boy in the cadre, so he has held the Number since at least the 880s AP. He governed the western regions of former Aldoria, a rival Malakor set against Eight. From 907 to 909 AP he searched for Lyra and the King-Consort "exactly as hard as I wished to". In spring 909 AP his men captured the Far Lantern at Westhaven and he offered to make Alyssa his voice. In late summer 909 AP his sealed confession was read to the Imperial Council, and he has been confined since; the Gull took his governorship.

Ghost-8, "the Hound"

One known holder, Eight. He hunted Alyssa through the ruins of Solis in 909 AP and was shot through the arm by Eleven the morning after Malakor's death. In autumn 909 AP he rides west with 300 riders.

Ghost-9, "the Hush"

When	Holder
About 880 AP	A boy of about five is pulled from the ashes of Ashmar and given the Number. In the cadre he and Twelve secretly name each other: he becomes Tristen
Spring 900 AP	Nine kills the Trade Prince, is disowned as a rogue, declared dead and burned
Since 900 AP	Open No successor to the Number is recorded

Ghost-10, "the Edge"

One known holder, the Edge. In 906 AP she dueled Alyssa in Solis, then trained her, and trained her again after Farrow in spring 909 AP. In late summer 909 AP she escorted Alyssa to the eighth gate, then vanished with Alyssa's father's sword. Since the Campaign Three handoff she has been a wary ally of Tristen and the Queen.

Ghost-11, "the Moth"

One known holder, Eleven, the youngest Number. She was taken at four, about 893 AP. In late summer 909 AP she shot Eight to save Alyssa and escaped with the revolver.

Ghost-12

The Number has passed through three hands, the most of any.

When	Holder
The cadre years, to spring 900 AP	Kira, raised to Ghost-Zero for leading the hunt
From 900 AP, Campaign One	Gorath, a frontline brute. Ran the plot against Oakhaven under Kira. Spared by Trevor, carved with "NINE" and sent back alive to Blackwater as the first message. Killed there by Tristen
Now	The Ram, riding with Eight

Now: the Lotus is breaking

• Malakor is dead and Four is confined. The Edge is gone, and Eleven is loose with the only firearm in Meridia.
• Eight rises with the Regent, but he is riding west.
• The other Numbers rule regions of former Aldoria as warlords, and some are going independent.
• Open Who commands the Lotus now? A new Grandmaster was appointed after Campaign One but never named. A leaderless Lotus would explain why the Numbers are going warlord.
• Draft Has the Lotus always served the Emperor, or was it a state within the state that used emperors? The commonwealth endgame may require breaking the Lotus, not just freeing Aldoria.

Through the years

The founding, about 800 AP

Sources

• Kaelen Codex, §0 and §4
• Campaign handoff (Campaign Two), §4 and §6
• Campaign Three handoff, §7
• The Rise of Ghost-9, Chapter One