The Manhunters

The Manhunters grew out of the beliefs of some of the more zealous elves of the Dark Forest. They believed that the only way for their people to survive, let alone flourish, was to eliminate the other sentient races of Etheria.

To that end, they began training elite warriors, wizards and thieves to hunt and kill humans and dwarves in their own lands. To an outsider, they resemble the famed Bladesingers of Elvallie, in that many of them wield blades in one hand and hurl spells with the other. That would be where the similarities end, however.

While Bladesingers protect the lives and rights of elves, the Manhunters hunt down and murder men and dwarves wherever they encounter them. Occasionally, they are sent on special missions to eliminate important or powerful humans and disappear afterwards.

Fallen Manhunters are easily identified by the guild rings they wear. These rings of mithril are enchanted to provide some protection from physical attacks, and to identify guildmembers to each other. The are engraved with a sigil unique to the guild that represents man and death:

The majority of the Manhunters are fighter/wizards, with some wizard/thief members and a few thieves. They all train with longswords extensively, and the wizards learn to wield their spells one-handed to allows them to cast while wielding their blades.

One captured longsword (as the Manhunters are more likely to leave a dead member behind before one of their weapons) was examined by the Mistress of Divination at the Sorcerium, Myarlin Stormeyes. She stated that the weapon was enchanted to be sharper and swing faster, even more so against humans. Also, it imparted minor protection from human and dwarven magic!

Almost all of the information on the group has been gleaned from Speak with Dead spells cast on the very few casualties among the assassins.