Many organizations active in the North and across the face of Faerûn aren’t bound by strictures of geography. These factions pursue their agendas without regard for political boundaries, and their members operate anywhere the organization deems necessary.

As a prelude to your adventuring career (and in preparation for it), you served as a Harper in Faerûn. As a Harper, you likely operated in secret, perhaps even having a code name for use in official communications or interactions. Becoming an adventurer doesn’t necessarily require you to relinquish membership in your faction (though you can choose to do so), and it might enhance your status in the faction.

The Harpers: Founded more than a millennium ago, disbanded and reorganized several times, the Harpers remain a powerful, behind-the-scenes agency, which acts to thwart evil and promote fairness through knowledge, rather than brute force. Harper agents are often proficient in Investigation, enabling them to be adept at snooping and spying. They often seek aid from other Harpers, sympathetic bards and innkeepers, rangers, and the clergy of gods that are aligned with the Harpers’ ideals.

Skill Proficiencies: Insight and one Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma skill of your choice, as appropriate to your faction

Tool Proficiencies: You gain proficiency in one tool set of your choice from the following:

Alchemist's Supplies, Calligrapher's Supplies, Cartographer's Tools, Forgery Kit, or Tinker's Tools.

Languages: Two of your choice

Equipment: Badge or emblem of your faction, a copy of a seminal faction text (or a code-book for a covert faction), a set of common clothes, and a pouch containing 15 gp

Spell List

As a Harper, you have learned to harness your inborn latent magical power. You gain the ability to cast the following spells:

Message

Illusory Script

Animal Messenger

Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells. Using this feat, you can cast these spells once at its lowest level, and ou must finish a long rest before you can cast it in this way again.

Spell Level	Spells
Cantrip	message
1st	illusory script
2nd	animal messenger

Suggested Characteristics

Use the tables for the acolyte background below as the basis for your traits and motivations, modifying the entries when appropriate to suit your identity as a faction agent. (For instance, consider the words “faith” and “faction” to be interchangeable.)

Your bond might be associated with other members of your faction, or a location or an object that is important to your faction. The ideal you strive for is probably in keeping with the tenets and principles of your faction, but might be more personal in nature.

d8	Personality Trait
1	I idolize a particular hero of my faction, and constantly refer to that person’s deeds and example.
2	I can find common ground between the fiercest enemies, empathizing with them and always working toward peace.
3	I see omens in every event and action. The gods try to speak to us, we just need to listen.
4	Nothing can shake my optimistic attitude.
5	I quote (or misquote) heroes and proverbs in almost every situation.
6	I am tolerant (or intolerant) of other factions and respect (or condemn) the agents of other factions.
7	I’ve enjoyed fine food, drink, and high society among my faction’s elite. Rough living grates on me.
8	I've spent so much time studying faction rule books and manuals that I can't help but critique others' methods of doing things.

d6	Ideal
1	Tradition. The ancient traditions of worship and sacrifice must be preserved and upheld. (Lawful)
2	Charity. I always try to help those in need, no matter what the personal cost. (Good)
3	Change. We must help bring about the changes the gods are constantly working in the world. (Chaotic)
4	Power. I hope to one day rise to the top of my factions’s hierarchy. (Lawful)
5	Faith. I trust that my deity will guide my actions. I have faith that if I work hard, things will go well. (Lawful)
6	Aspiration. I seek to prove myself worthy of my faction leader’s favor by matching my actions against his or her teachings. (Any)

d6	Bond
1	I would die to recover an ancient relic of my faction that was lost long ago.
2	I will someday get revenge on the corrupt faction hierarchy who branded me a traitor.
3	I owe my life to the agent who took me in when my parents died.
4	Everything I do is for the common people.
5	I will do anything to protect the city where I trained as a Harper.
6	I seek to preserve a confidential text that my enemies consider valuable and seek to obtain.

d6	Flaw
1	I judge others harshly, and myself even more severely.
2	I put too much trust in those who wield power within my temple’s hierarchy.
3	My piety sometimes leads me to blindly trust those that profess faith in my god.
4	I am inflexible in my thinking.
5	I am suspicious of strangers and expect the worst of them.
6	Once I pick a goal, I become obsessed with it to the detriment of everything else in my life.