Organization

There is no clear, official hierarchy amongst the Messengers: no chain of command, and no pecking order. Any Messenger who needs help will need to convince his peers to assist, rather than simply being able to command newer, or weaker, Messengers.

{Note, however, that this doesn't mean that informal ranking systems do not spring up in communities. But these are specific to that community, and doesn't spring from any external authority.}

Messengers all have very similar goals, to be sure, but they each choose to go about them in different ways. As a result, most of the Messengers in a Necropolis act independently. Each selects some territory, and sets out each day to keep it safe.

Sometimes this territory is a small group of individuals, sometimes it may be as large as a whole neighborhood. Each Messenger takes what he feels he can protect, and he takes the territory he feels most needs to be protected.

 

Haunts

Mystically bound to help each other, and to protect the living from crossing over into the Land of the Dead needlessly, the Messengers don't typically scatter too far from each other. Most Necropoli will have a single Haunt set up as a base for all of the Messengers who are working in the area, or simply passing through. And if they commonly number more than five, multiple Haunts will be set up around the Necropolis in a sort of Safe-House arrangement.

These Haunts are equal parts message-board and hideout. When the Order catches wind of a Messenger who has spent too much time disobeying the Injunction, they will most likely lay low in the Concord's Haunt, rather than their own.

Another function of the Concord's Haunts is to house the wandering Prophets which pass through eventually. Since there is a very slight formal hierarchy, the Prophets' messages are accepted based upon their merit. Those who speak words of wisdom and can teach useful skills are kept around.

Some have tried to impersonate a wandering Prophet, and by doing so gain access to much more detailed information about the workings of the Messengers. Those who have often find themselves chasing at their own tail, racing after a deep structure underneath the "facade" of nonchalance that pervades the Concord's organizational scheme. Many of these are then found out, and steps are taken to re-secure the Concord's Haunts.

The Words of the Prophets

Messengers who have achieved the status of "Prophet" are a rare and mysterious sight in the Deadlands. They wander from Necropolis to Necropolis with ease, seemingly unhindered by the pull of their Anchors or the threat of the Damned. And, perhaps more amazing, they seek no special favors or authority for their position: they seek only to illuminate their fellow Messengers, and answer puzzling questions as best as they can.

No one in the Concord is quite sure how the Prophets become Prophets. Some say that when one has memorized and understood the entirety of The Book {no mean feat, given how long and complicated it is} one hears the words of the First Prophet, and is summoned across the Barrier to a special audience in which even more is revealed. Some say that those who impress the God or Goddess who delivered The Book are called, even if they aren't Messengers and have never even seen that holy writ. And there are other, even stranger stories...

The truth is known alone to the Prophets, and they cannot say how it occurs, stating that, as The Book says, all must find the path in their own way. The only advice they give is to follow The Code, and "be true, above all things."

There is one general certainty: all Prophets are total masters of Regis - possessing Arts, and possibly entire Paths, that no one has a name for. They are frightening indeed when they choose to use their skills in that Numen, and it is a foolish Wraith who seeks to challenge such a one.

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