(EDIT: The below post is dated! For more current information please skip forward to this post: viewtopic.php?f=43&t=67&p=3371#p3371 )
That's a good question. So far I'm
considering the following:
Combat-heavy Societies
-
Dwaedn Wyr: A group of druidic warriors with a powerful reverence for the Animal Spirits, they seek constant challenge and improvement through combat.
-
A sneaky Society of assassins: This will be much easier to pull off conceptually now that disguises are actually functional, so one can better mask one's identity when on the job. (No disguise is 100% foolproof in every situation however - care should always be taken)
-
To-be-named anti-resen Society: They're always on guard to find signs of the resen, and are ever ready to fight infested creatures. They'll get some anti-resen tools. (Not Tse Gaiyan.)
-
To-be-named anti-nethrim Society: They're trying to keep the spread of nether-taint under control and spend most of their time fighting nethrim. They'll likely have some powers granted by, or at least themed after (depending on your beliefs), various Immortals that also oppose the spread of nether.
-
Harbingers: A group of sorcerous warriors who embrace and spread the influence of various less-"nice" Immortals, including Aranas, Malfant, and some others yet to be introduced. Joining this Society would essentially make a player character into a "bad guy", and they're required to be overt about their allegiance (look up the word "Harbinger"), so this society is not for the faint of heart or easily-offended. Much of the playerbase will likely be opposing Harbinger characters.
*Note: One could choose to join one of these combat-focused Societies without specializing in combat oneself, and instead supporting in other ways. A blacksmith forging weapons for them, or a physicker providing healing, etc.
Occult/Arcane-focused Societies
-
Rook Parlour: A private Society studying life and death, they are peerless masters of many sorcerous arts. Your necromancer and summoner types would fall into this group, but they do try to avoid the "evil" reputation in general. They strive to be a respectable Society despite the inevitable mistrust that accompanies many of their practices.
-
To-be-named druidic Society: They're focused on preserving the natural world. They're not fans of the resen or nethrim, but members aren't necessarily required to join the armed fight against them. They have other ways of helping fight the spread of both nether and resen by enhancing the natural world and life rather than by directly opposing resen/nethrim. (They can choose to more directly fight nether/resen as well, of course)
Other
-
A sneaky rogueish Society: For rogue types engaging in treasure-hunting and other shadier activities like stealing, smuggling, that sort of thing. May have potential jobs/tasks for things like infiltration and information-gathering in hostile territory and the like. Highly stealth-based, but NOT assassins. Opportunity to opt out of the more "morally-conflicted" tasks for the most part, but the boss may occasionally have a direct request that one cannot refuse ...
Eeehhhh ...
-
On the fence about Snowpine Lodge as a Society based on exploration, wilderness survival skills, and bushcraft. I love the concept, but not sure it merits a Society of its own. Could easily be a Company.
-
On the fence about Wyrvardn as a general "protectors of the people" warrior Society. I like them, but they suffer some frustrating baggage from my other works.
-
On the fence about Mummers as a Society based around manipulation of emotions, with emphasis on (but not requirement for) storytelling, acting, music, etc. I'm not sure this merits a Society when it could just be an aspect of the Adventurer Guild or a Company.
-
On the fence about a to-be-named engineering Society. They would produce some unique crafts, but I'm not sure how practical they would be as far as producing an appreciable number of useful goods. (We're talking more practical engineering -
not magitech steampunk stuff.)
-
Still on the fence about the old Templar or another Templar-like Society specifically, at least being joinable by PCs. Leaning toward no PC recruitment.
- While it will still exist in the lore,
almost certainly not going to let PCs join the Monastic Order (thaumaturgic monks specialized in healing).
==========
Now I put it to the players: What kind of Societies are you interested in? Keep in mind that any player character can start a Company dedicated toward any purpose they want and recruit others, and player characters can be in as many Companies as they want. Societies need to be focused and dedicated enough to warrant a special group that will take a significant amount of development work and may even require their own special facilities (and possibly some supplementary abilities to cover occult powers/trade secrets/secret techniques) to exist. Societies take a lot of work to create as well as to maintain, so I prefer to keep the number of them fairly low and let Guilds and Companies keep things covered.
Overall, I think Societies should provide RP direction and motivation more than special powers and items (which is what Guilds generally provide). This makes me lean toward the combat-heavy ones I think, because there's always the situation of "I'm a fighter, but why am I out here fighting?" It always helps to have supported reasons for constantly running out into the fray.
Edit: Check out
this article to brush up on what Companies, Guilds, and Societies are.