FACTION
CARTOGRAPHERS GUILD

"Knowledge is the only weapon that grows sharper with use.”

• Old Marek, Master Cartographer

The morning mist clings to Handelstaat's weathered walls like the ghosts of forgotten kingdoms, its tendrils probing between cobblestones still slick with yesterday's acidic rain. Here, on the northern edge of the mud lands where the marsh meets the endless toxic plains, stands the most vital repository of knowledge in the post-Collapse world - the Cartographers Guild.

The Guild Hall in Handelstaat

Unlike the gleaming industrial sprawl of Praga or the desperate scavenging camps scattered across the wasteland, Handelstaat pulses with a different energy entirely. The town's lifeblood flows through information rather than Omnimorph, its markets buzzing with whispered intelligence about safe routes, hidden caches, and the ever-shifting dangers of the Desolation. Trade caravans lumber through the settlement's gates daily, their weathered drivers clutching hand-drawn maps like sacred texts, while merchants hawk everything from water purification tablets to salvaged pre-Collapse electronics.

At the heart of this modest but thriving community rises the Guild Hall—a patchwork structure that tells the story of humanity's stubborn refusal to surrender knowledge to the apocalypse. The original building, a squat concrete bunker from the chaotic years of the Great Collapse, has been crowned with salvaged pre-Collapse materials and wrapped in scaffolding that supports additional floors cobbled together from whatever materials each generation of cartographers could scavenge. Solar panels scavenged from dead cities catch what little unfiltered sunlight penetrates the perpetual haze, while wind turbines constructed from aircraft parts spin lazily in the toxic breeze.

The Guild's archives occupy the building's armoured heart - climate-controlled chambers where thousands of maps, charts, and geographical records rest in carefully maintained storage. Here, the collective wisdom of a hundred years of post-Collapse exploration creates a treasure trove more valuable than any cache of pre-Collapse technology. Trade routes marked in the blood of those who discovered them. Danger zones mapped by the few who survived to report back. Safe harbours identified by desperate refugees fleeing the endless wars. Each document represents lives lost and knowledge gained, the accumulated suffering and triumph of humanity's struggle to understand its transformed world.

Old Marek - Master of Memory

In the Guild's highest tower, where ancient maps cover every wall like the prayers of a desperate faith, Old Marek bends over his cartography table as the pre-dawn light filters through reinforced windows. His weathered hands, stained with decades of ink and marked by the scars of a dozen expeditions into hostile territory, trace familiar routes across hand-drawn charts with the reverence of a priest conducting morning services.

At sixty-eight years - an impossible age in the post-Collapse world - Marek represents something rarer than functioning pre-Collapse technology: institutional memory. His gruff exterior and perpetual scowl mask a mind that contains more geographical knowledge than any surviving database, while his habit of dismissing sentiment with characteristic grunts conceals a heart that genuinely cares for the young cartographers who risk their lives carrying out his increasingly dangerous missions.

The deep lines etched across Marek's face map their own geography of survival. Each scar tells a story of close encounters with mutant predators, narrow escapes from collapsing Dead City structures, or desperate negotiations with scavenger bands who view cartographers as either valuable assets or dangerous witnesses. His left eye, clouded by exposure to toxic spores during an expedition into the Hatari depths, still tracks movement with predatory precision. His right hand, missing two fingers to a Mud Kraken's crushing grip, still draws maps with steady accuracy that would shame pre-Collapse computer systems.

What truly sets Marek apart is his ability to synthesize fragmentary information into coherent intelligence. A survivor's traumatized babbling about "the trees that walk" becomes a warning about mobile carnivorous plants. Inconsistent reports of "metal demons in the ruins" resolve into guidance for avoiding automated defense systems. Trade caravan losses that seem random reveal patterns pointing to new mutant migration routes. Under his guidance, the Guild has become more than just mapmakers - they've evolved into the primary intelligence network connecting the scattered remnants of human civilisation.

INX-394 "Inks" - The Questioning Apprentice

Twenty-three and sharp as the cartographer's compass she wears around her neck, Inks represents the Guild's future - if she survives long enough to claim it. Her designation marks her as a clone, one of countless millions produced in the Prime AI's Mongolian facility, but her mind burns with curiosity that no amount of neural programming could instil. Where other clones accept their lot with resigned obedience, Inks questions everything: Why do the mutation patterns seem to be accelerating? What connection exists between the various hybrid phenomena appearing across different biomes? Why do certain regions show technological anomalies that predate the known timeline of the Great Collapse?

Her relationship with Marek transcends the typical master-apprentice dynamic. Though he'd never admit it openly - his gruff exterior maintains the pretence of professional detachment - Marek sees in Inks the daughter he never had, while she finds in him the father her artificial origins denied her. Their exchanges, marked by his characteristic grunts and her relentless questions, form the emotional core of the Guild's daily operations.

Inks pilots one of the Guild's primary reconnaissance airships with intuitive skill that amazes even veteran crew members. Even at her young age her reflexes and spatial awareness make her capable of navigating through toxic storm systems and hostile airspace that would defeat other pilots. But it's her analytical mind that makes her truly valuable. She sees patterns in the data that older cartographers miss, connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena that point to larger truths about their transformed world.

Her personal logs, excerpted throughout various Guild documents, reveal a young woman grappling with profound questions about identity, purpose, and the nature of consciousness itself. As she maps the physical geography of the Desolation, she simultaneously charts the emotional terrain of what it means to be human in a world where the distinction between natural and artificial has become increasingly meaningless.

Guild Operations

The Guild Hall's sprawling complex houses far more than just the legendary Old Marek and his apprentice Inks. Throughout the reinforced corridors and workshops, dozens of other Cartographers pursue their own mapping projects with equal dedication—some specialising in the treacherous trade routes through the Sand, others documenting the ever-shifting territorial boundaries of the mud lands' scavenger clans. Master Cartographer Helena "The Iron Compass" charts the dangerous passages between Praga and the Jade Domain cities, her maps literally worth their weight in Sukh to merchant captains brave enough to attempt those routes. Meanwhile, younger cartographers like Jin-Wei focus on cataloguing the mysterious isles of Shima, her careful notations of radiation levels and mutant activity patterns earning a steady income for the guild from the power hungry Daimyo’s of Shima.

The Guild's financial lifeline flows not from their maps alone, but from their exclusive passenger service - the only civilian transport network in the Desolation capable of crossing continents in relative safety. Wealthy merchants, diplomatic envoys, Mercenaries and desperate refugees with sufficient Sukh can book passage on the Guild's reinforced airships, travelling under the protection of crews who know every storm current and safe harbour from the neon-lit Jade cities to the walking settlements of the Sand. Master Engineer Kozlov maintains the aging fleet with an almost religious devotion, his team of grease-stained apprentices working around the clock to keep the pre-Collapse engines running on salvaged parts and stubborn determination. Each successful journey, whether ferrying Praga's Blue Council members to secret negotiations in Aasha or transporting Medha's water merchants to the dry expanse of the Jangwa, earns the Guild enough revenue to fund months of dangerous mapping expeditions. The airship hangars echo constantly with the sound of hammering metal and shouted instructions as mechanics patch hull breaches and apprentice navigators pore over weather charts, all knowing that it is their tireless efforts and technical expertise that keep the Guild's sacred mission of mapping the entire Desolation aloft.

The Sacred Mission of Mapping

What drives these individuals to risk their lives mapping a world that seems determined to kill them? The answer lies in the Guild's fundamental philosophy: that knowledge represents humanity's greatest weapon against extinction. In a world where wrong turns prove fatal, where territories shift between safe and deadly based on factors no one fully understands, accurate geographical information becomes literally a matter of life and death.

Every map the Guild produces saves lives. Trade routes marked as "verified safe" allow caravans to navigate between settlements without falling prey to Mud Kraken or stumbling into radiation zones. Warnings about "hostile mutant territory" prevent expeditions from venturing into areas where their screams would join the endless chorus of the dead. Notations about "seasonal hazards" help communities prepare for the cyclical dangers that mark the Desolation's twisted calendar.

But the Guild's mission extends beyond mere survival. They preserve the memory of what was lost, documenting the locations of Dead Cities not just for scavenging purposes but to maintain humanity's connection to its past. They map the present with scientific precision while building archives that will guide future generations - assuming humanity has a future to claim!