We've had our eye on you.

Don't take it the wrong way — noticing people is most of what we do. The talents the respectable houses would rather not discuss. The histories they'd rather see buried. The work that needed doing, that no one will admit to needing. We notice all of it. We have noticed you.

You may have heard of us. Some of what you heard might even be true. We don't trouble ourselves to correct the rest — a little mystery keeps the right sort curious and the wrong sort away. What's true enough: we're who the city-states and the noble houses send for when the work is too delicate, too complicated, or too dirty to be seen doing themselves. Not all of it is cruel. A surprising amount of it saves lives. All of it pays.

And whatever you've heard about companies like ours — we look after our own. Sign with the Keep and your troubles become our troubles. We've buried debts, names, and the occasional body for the people who belong to us. You'd belong to us.

We think you'd do well here.

The details are enclosed within. Read them, and decide whether you're the sort to answer.

— a friend you haven't met yet

Press anywhere to enter the Keep
Recruitment MembersApply to Join
A heavy-roleplay Final Fantasy XIV free company

Raven's Keep— The Consortium —

Most of what you've heard is exaggerated.
The rest, we'd rather not confirm.

A homebrew-system roleplay company where what your character does actually sticks — reputation, history, and consequences that carry forward instead of resetting at the next scene.

Apply to JoinRead on
  • Mateus · Crystal (NA)
  • 18+ · 21+ preferred
  • Heavy RP · Homebrew
  • Estate · Shirogane W2 P7
  • Recruitment Open
Tonight——
Scroll · The Keep continues
IIWhat the Keep is

“Scholars, soldiers, smiths, and a few names best left off the ledger. If you don't want to know, don't ask.”

In plain terms.

Raven's Keep Consortium is a heavy-roleplay free company in Final Fantasy XIV, built on a homebrew tabletop system of our own. In practice that means three things working together.

  1. i.

    Roleplay in-game, the way you always have

    In /say, /emote, and prose — at our RP house in Shirogane, at events in the linkshell, and wherever else a scene takes your character.

  2. ii.

    A system underneath it that gives your choices real weight

    Combat, crafting, a player-run economy, and a reputation that follows you — every bridge you build or burn.

  3. iii.

    A companion app that quietly handles the bookkeeping

    Sheets, rolls, consequences, and memory — all handled, so you can focus on the roleplay and not on earning a math degree. You stay in the scene; the app keeps the books.

We've been running for about five years. We're picking up a new RP season now, and the door is open.

IIIWhere we operate

“Our work runs out of Corvos — a corner of the world still deciding what it is now that the Empire's gone. Good country for a company that profits from unfinished business.”

The estate, in plain.

Home base in-game is our estate in Shirogane, Ward 2, Plot 7 — a fully built mansion with a crafting hall, a hospital wing, and rooms set up for everything from a quiet conversation to a very bad night. Walk-ups welcome.

IVThe six departments

One treasury. Six trades.

Every member takes a primary department — your mentors, your colleagues, and the work your character is closest to. Here's what each one does, and what it admits to doing.

Dept. 01

Aetheric Studies

Magical theory, aetherial manipulation, and the scholarly pursuit of arcane knowledge. From practical battle mages to theoretical researchers pushing the boundaries of what's possible with aether. The Keep's magical specialists, advisors on mystical phenomena, and developers of new spellcasting techniques.

Dept. 02

Bio-Science

Goes well beyond providing medicine. The Keep's medical corps — and equally known for their creative applications of biological knowledge: combat stimulants, magitek prosthetics, chimera breeding, enhancement experiments. They push ethical boundaries in pursuit of progress. Not all of their work sees the light of day.

Dept. 03

Creation Studies

The engineers, craftsmen, and innovators of the Keep. They maintain its infrastructure while developing new technologies — traditional blacksmithing to cutting-edge magitek, artistic commissions to architectural marvels. If the Keep built it, Creation built it.

Dept. 04

Anthropological Studies

Culture, history, and the Keep's vast archives. Equal parts diplomat, spy, archaeologist, and librarian — they manage the flow of information, study old civilizations and current ones alike, and keep the Keep's knowledge growing. They often work alongside other departments to make sense of what gets dug up.

Dept. 05

Security & Operations

The Keep's military and intelligence arm. They train warriors, coordinate defense, and handle the delicate situations that call for force or subterfuge. When diplomacy fails, they're the ones who finish the conversation. Their network works in the shadows, gathering what's needed and removing what isn't.

Dept. 06

Wilderness Studies

The natural world and its exploitation. The Keep's agricultural backbone, beast masters, and frontier specialists — sustainable farming to monster hunting, animal husbandry to resource extraction. They keep the Keep supplied and able to operate anywhere.

A note on crossing lines. Department membership is fluid. You'll have a primary affiliation, but cross-department work is common and encouraged — picking one doesn't wall you off from the rest, and it's usually more fun to make friends outside your own circle. Your Department Head guides your development, but your path through the Keep is your own.

VHow it plays

What sticks actually sticks.

The roleplay itself still happens in-game — in /say, /emote, and prose. The system and the app hold the stats, the dice, the consequences, and the memory, so your decisions carry weight without ever pulling you out of the scene. Here are the two engines under it — and you can play with both right here.

Engine i · Combat

Combat that rewards nerve, not luck.

It's your turn. You can see every option and exactly what each one does — no die to pray to, no bad-luck whiff to blame. Which means the pressure lands somewhere better: on you. Press now, or wait one more round for the opening? Spend down to nothing for the kill, or keep a little back in case it goes wrong? You always know what your move does. You never quite know if it's enough — and that gap is the whole game.

It's also why the thing across from you changes everything. Trading blows with something armored is a slow, physical grind: you wear it down piece by piece and feel the fight tip the instant it's got nothing left to defend with and its armor breaks. Facing a mage is the opposite — a nervy back-and-forth of barriers and timing where one mistimed beat loses the exchange. And when your healer reads it right — a shield up half a second before the blow, a cleanse at just the right time — you feel the fight swing. It's won and lost in those reads.

And when you go down, you don't just go down. Last Stand gives you one final turn at full strength — your biggest move, on the way out. A friend can haul you back up with a Phoenix Down. And if a character ever reaches the real edge, no roll decides what comes next: a GM works with you to author the story of how your character comes back from the brink.

A duellist braced before a portal of red aether
Ser Halric Vance
The Bulwark · Security & Operations · Lv 30
Grandmaster Heavy plate (HQ)
7Powerweapon damage
0Aetherspell damage
0Healingheals + barriers
4Finessecrit + accuracy
6Speedturns / round
5RecoveryAP economy
10FortitudeHP + armour
2,023Max HP
10 × 25Plates · −250 / hit
36% / 20%Mit · phys / magic
6 · +3Start AP · regen
10Max Trauma
2 → 1Speed (−4 Heavy) · turn
Resolve a hit
HP
2,023 / 2,023
Plate
10 plates · −250 / hit

Throw some hits at him. Same input, same result, every time — that's deterministic combat. Notice the spell ignores the armour entirely.

Engine ii · Everything else

A picture of who they are.

Everything your character does outside a fight runs through the Matrix — and the Matrix is really just a picture of who they are.

It's a grid. Down one side are four Approaches — the ways a person can meet a problem: Forceful (head-on, immovable), Cerebral (analyze it, out-think it), Heartfelt (connect, mean it, trust your gut), and Subtle (work the angles, never quite straight at it). Across the top are five Domains — the kind of thing you're dealing with: matters of the Heart, the Mind, the Body, Society, and the Wild.

Every square where an Approach crosses a Domain holds a number. Fill them in and the grid becomes a heat map: the hot squares are who your character is, the cold ones are who they aren't. A high Subtle × Society is a born operator in a crowded room. A zero in Forceful × Heart doesn't mean “bad at it” — it means this is someone who simply never bulldozes through feelings. It's not in them.

When something comes up — a bluff, a bargain, a leap across a chasm, reading an old text — the DM decides how hard it is and which domain it falls under (persuading a guard could appeal to the Mind or the Heart, depending on whether you're winning them with logic or emotion). You decide how to approach it. The cell those two intersect is your bonus to roll, on top of the trades they've practiced, the reputation they carry, and whatever the moment is worth. And the more an Approach truly defines your character, the more it lifts everything they do in that posture.

Members at ease over a game of pool in a tavern hall
Heart
Mind
Body
Society
Wild
Synergy
Forcefulhead-on, immovable
8—next @ 12
Cerebralanalyse it, out-think it
14+25next @ 22
Heartfeltconnect, mean it
10—next @ 12
Subtlework the angles
17+25next @ 22
122 / 170 spent48 left
Subtle × SocietyExpert · +245 to rollsnext point: 8 pts
click +1 · right-click −1
Best roll · per posture
ForcefulBody +110+110
CerebralMind +195 · syn +25+220
HeartfeltHeart +150+150
SubtleSociety +245 · syn +25+270

Matrix only — the bonus you bring to any roll in that posture. A Lifestyle or Persona doesn't lift all of them: it sharpens its own work (an Apothecary's craft, a Spy's infiltration). Attach a few below to see what each grants.

Lifestyles are the trades a character actually practices — smithing, doctoring, sailing, spycraft. Each earns its own income, unlocks capabilities by tier, and leans on one Matrix cell that sharpens it. Personae are the reputations those trades earn — what a room assumes when you walk in. Attach a few; we'll light up the cell each leans on (above) and list what it grants.

hover to preview · click to attach
Black Market DealingShadow
Leans on Subtle × Society

the dealer's network of indirect contacts; navigation of illicit social space.

Practising it: +50 → +500 to its own rolls (Dabbler → Grandmaster)
What sticks

A reputation that follows you.

Every faction in the realm keeps a running tally on you — Honored at the top, Hated at the bottom. Help them and it climbs; cross them and it falls. Where you land decides who'll trade with you, what they'll charge, and which doors open. The realm remembers.

Caedes / the Crows
Faction · Local · Corvos

Walled city in southern Ilsabard known as 'the municipality of Murder' — a haven of healers, defenders, and eccentrics. Treats any patient who comes seeking aid, charging on a sliding scale based on their means; cheating a Crow is said to 'only end in misery.' Was the last city in Ilsabard to fall to the Garlean Empire, negotiating a unique municipality status that preserved most of its autonomy. Maintains a deep and active relationship with the Consortium, who aided in defending the city during the Final Days.

Trusted+250 / 500

Fair dealing and quiet favours when it counts.

A player-run economy.

It's a real market, and players make all of it — the gil, the goods, the prices. Pull ore from the wilds, refine it, forge the blade, stock your shop, and haggle the sale when the buyer pushes back. Hundreds of recipes across five tiers, with the familiar high quality and low quality you're used to. We have our own crafting simulation to let you make real items that real characters will really equip.

Crafting as a Grandmaster Smithd1000 + your modifier each roll · spend it on Progress or Quality
Recipe
Lifestyle tier · Grandmaster+500
Synergy · Cerebral × Aether (8)+300
Persona · Crafter (Renowned)+200
Row synergy+50
Per rolld1000 +1050
Quality0 / 6,800 · 0% HQ
Progress0 / 9,200
Durability8 / 8
Pick an axis, then roll d1000 +1050:

Pour rolls into Quality first — how full that bar is when the craft ends is your chance at HQ. The instant Progress fills, the craft locks and that chance is rolled. Low on durability? Cross Progress early to bank what odds you've got.

The Network Board.

The Consortium's work waits here, and every job wears its stakes on its sleeve: a Difficulty (how hard it bites) and an Impact (how far the outcome reaches). You choose how much consequence you sign up for.

Open postings
Security & Operations

The Saltmarsh Disappearances

D6 DifficultyI3 Impact3-chapter series

Fisherfolk along the southern marsh are vanishing between tides. The watch wants eyes that ask questions, then eyes that can fight — in that order.

Chapters
1The Empty NetsWalk the docks, read the room, find who saw what.D4
2Beneath the TideDescend into the flooded warren the trail leads to.D6
3What Took ThemWhatever is down there, it is awake now.D8
RewardGil + XP at chapter close, split by the scenes you joined. Standing with the watch.
VIHow we play together

Four ways to be at the table.

A scheduled night isn't the only way in. Most people use a mix of all four — pick what your week allows.

i

Live sessions

At least one GM-run session a week, plus events DMs can run whenever the mood takes them. Most run 5–11 PM PDT, weighted toward Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, with the occasional weekday.

ii

Asynchronous play-by-post

Not everyone can make a scheduled night — so GMs also run full arcs post-by-post on the forums, with a Storyteller voice carrying the scene. You answer on your own hours and the story waits for you. It's a real way to play here, not a consolation prize — built for the people whose timezone or schedule was never going to fit a live table.

iii

Drop-in at the estate

The mansion in Shirogane (Ward 2, Plot 7) is open for walk-up roleplay. Our most active times are Friday through Sunday, though there's often a handful of people around during the week. Many of us are adults with jobs and families, so the weeknight crowd tends to be smaller.

iv

Real life comes first

Always. No attendance quotas, no guilt. The story keeps for when you're back.

VIIWho we're looking for

The hand we'd like to shake.

✓ You'll fit here if —
  • you've been frustrated that nothing your character did ever stuck
  • you'd rather win on planning than on a lucky roll
  • you like a character deep enough to keep more than one (we allow up to three)
  • your schedule doesn't always cooperate, and you're tired of missing the story for it
  • you've roleplayed for years — or never once. Both are genuinely welcome; we'll teach you the rest
  • morally grey work and the occasional hard choice sound like a good evening
✕ You probably won't if —
  • you're after nightclub or pure venue RP
  • you want your character to be the Warrior of Light or otherwise the center of the world
  • dice and mechanics aren't your thing
  • every scene has to end in heroics

On characters and lore. We bend lore; we don't break it. Concepts are wide open with one ask: no ties to FFXIV's main-story characters. Play whoever you like — just not the realm's main cast, and no main-character syndrome. We'd much rather see where you take something of your own.

VIIIContent, conduct & safety

Rules of Conduct. Community first — always.

i · The stories we tell

Mature and often dark — including horror and the harder edges of the setting. To be clear about what that means: we don't indulge in gratuitous violence or suffering for its own sake; we don't pull punches about the consequences of war, poverty, corruption, and hard choices.

ii · The ground rules
  • In-character is never out-of-character. A feud between characters is not a feud between players.
  • No harassment, bigotry, or discrimination, full stop.
  • No god-modding, no metagaming, no controlling someone else's character without consent.
  • Get OOC consent before any lasting consequence — or any heavy theme — that touches another player's character.
  • Don't poach members from other companies.
  • Real life first.
iii · Safety

Any scene can be paused, faded to black, or stepped back from, no explanation owed. Bring anything to staff and it's handled discreetly.

iv · The fine print

18+ to join, 21+ preferred. No ERP in public channels, at events, or in shared spaces — what members do privately on their own time is their own business.

IXHow to join

The path in.

Four steps. A conversation with staff. A short sample. Then the Keep is yours.

  1. 01

    Read this page and the linked rules.

    Then poke around the rest of the site — Charter, the system overview, whatever pulls you in.

  2. 02

    Join our Discord and fill out the short application there.

    It's short on purpose. We're not asking for an essay; we're asking what kind of character you'd like to play and how to reach you.

  3. 03

    Have a chat.

    A staff member sits down with you — a relaxed conversation about your character concept. We'll ask for a small sample of your RP writing.

  4. 04

    Come in.

    Once you're approved, the Keep is yours. Pick a department, set up your sheet, and the rest is scene work.

Join the Discord →Apply

Questions? Reach itsgonnabemae or miracleka on Discord. Recruitment: Open.

XQuestions, answered

What we're asked most.

I've never done FFXIV RP. Can I still apply?

Yes. Plenty of our members started here. The interview is a friendly conversation, not a test, and we'll teach you the system as you go.

Do I have to use the app and the system to play?

The roleplay is yours and it happens in-game. The app handles the mechanics behind it — rolls, combat, consequences. You’ll lean on it for GM-run scenes; casual RP is just RP.

What if I can’t make the scheduled sessions?

Then play by post. GMs run full arcs asynchronously on the forums, on your schedule. It's a first-class way to be here.

How strict is the lore?

We bend it; we don't break it. Most concepts are welcome — the one hard line is no ties to FFXIV's main-story characters.

Can I have more than one character?

Up to three.

Is this an ERP company?

No. None in public channels, events, or shared spaces.

I'm not on Mateus / Crystal — what should I do?

Reach out anyway and we’ll talk it through.