Gnostic Thieves

The ideas below were gestated after going back and forth on the usage of thieves in the Sigg campaigns. If I decide to use thieves, it will be because Rise Up Comus made me finally see how they can fill a role not previously filled by the original three classes in their post on Thief Knacks.

Encountering a thief, you will see exactly what they want you to - a disheveled sewer bum who steals pennies to scrounge a pathetic living. Little does the average man know, these thieves are members of a secret society peddling in gnosis. Most have heard of the Thief's Guild. Many fear its name as a mafia-like corporate group who bullies people for monetary gain. Some know the Guild steals precious artifacts and items, assumedly for the end of profit. Not all thief guilds are of the same association, but they all operate in a loosely similar way. Not all thieves (lower-case 't') are part of one of these organizations, but all Thieves (upper case 'T') are.

They come in many names, but these groups are typically made of ambitious and strictly ritualistic individuals who are willing to do nearly anything to acquire gnosis. These groups communicate in lost and obscured symbols (usually dripping with double and triple meanings) sometimes called thieves' cant. These sects are violently protective of their initiation rites and punish those who share their held secrets swiftly and harshly.

These groups get their common name as a guild for thieves due to their willingness (and predisposition) to sink to criminal methods in order to acquire what they seek. These groups believe that only the mind may truly transcend to divinity, leaving the bodies behind as wicked husks, therefore any action performed in the body only harms the body, not the mind. As many individuals are motivated by monetary gain, these sects will rob and steal to acquire wealth to apply leverage to individuals from who they desire something they value far more.

There is often overlap in the ambitions between Thieves and Magic-users resulting in cooperation in some cases. Both parties have a shared interest in acquiring knowledge, but they differ wildly in their reasoning for such interest. Arcane practitioners nearly always desire knowledge for personal power and don't seek out transcendant truths for their own good. The Thieves search out this knowledge (they call gnosis), believing it to be a good within itself, allowing their minds to further transcend getting ever closer to merging with the eternal.

Through untold ages of ritualistic initiation, these groups have unlocked capabilities beyond that of normal men. As a Thief progresses in gnosis, they become more and more adept at these otherworldly skills. Most of these abilities are done by average men, but when a thief undergoes intense concentration, they may be able to exceed that of normal capabilities. Climbing the sheer surface of a wall like a spider, strongly sensing the location of a trap, heightened sense of hearing like that of a dog, vanishing completely when wholly within full shadow, etc. When a thief makes a skill check, success indicates one of these exceptional means by which the task is done, otherwise the task may still be accomplished as any other adventurer would accomplish the task.

"He bore the symbol of the Inverted Eye on his index finger's ring. I had finally found someone I could question on the origin of such jewelry I had seen all over the high desserts. I trailed him into a dead-end alley and began my questioning. It wasn't until he melted into the shadow of the alley that I knew this was no ordinary beggar." -- Excerpts from 'Obscurity of the Inverted Eye', in the Scripta Rota.

⇦ back to all posts