With the Android Launch a lot of new Players joined Gwent, so its the perfect time for the first Palmerin Faction Guide.

Here The Palmerin Club gonna teach you the in and outs of every Faction so you can rank up.

For our first Faction Guide, we chose the easiest Faction in the Game : Syndicate.

First, we gonna dive deep into the lore of Syndicate, Novigrad and its 5 founding Members.

Then we stop this Guide . You have to figure out the rest by yourself i am not your Mother.

Syndicate

Syndicat is an underground Alliance of shady gangs , church members and the worst of them all Toilet Paper Hoarders. The Alliance orginally started in the City of Novingrad , but today they active all over Nothern Realms. First lets have a look at the City Novigrad where everything began.

Novigrad

Novigrad is the only free city in Redania and it isn’t control by any Kingdom. With its 30.000 inhabitants its one of the biggest Citys in the North. But for the Freedom, the Novigrader residents have to pay a high price. Novigrad isn’t only the biggest city in the North , but also the city with the worst performance in the world.



Performace drops under 30 FPS with the low settings? Oh, that’s Everday’s life!

Bumping against a pole that wasn’t loaded in? Get used to that!

Geralt quicksaving and smiling at you while pulling out his Sword? Oh, boi this gonna hurt!



In Novigrad only the strongest PCs survive and the strongest PC require alot of Money. Everything revolves around Money so it should not be a supriseSyndicat has it roots here. If you don’t bow to the Money you become Weak. And you know what happens to the Weak?

A free trip to the depths of the Pontar …

Crownsplitter

Let us start with the Crownsplitters the Dwarven Gang lead by Carlo Varese.

Carlo formed the Gang a long time ago in Mahakam at the same time the Faction Scoia’tael got formed . Carlo knew it was a mistake, but no one in Mahakam wanted to listen to him. He gathered his most loyal Henchman and they flew out of Mahakam the day before Scoia’tael got created. Every other Dwarf that stayed in Mahakam had to experience a Fate worse than death:

To share the same Faction with a Elv.

After years of wandering around Carlos and his Men found a new Home in Novigrad. Carlos realized that being a Dwarf got a lot of Perks, especially if you want to earn some cash. On his First Day in Novigrad Carlos visited the Dwarf Bank Vivaldi to request a Loan. In the waiting room , a Human gave him a bag full of gold and said without even looking at him ” Ehh Boi , stash that money for me in the bank and do it fast”. For the Human all Dwarfs looked the same . Carlos got simply mistaken with a Worker of the Bank. Carlos knew that the Human wasn’t wrong with this. Identity theft is a common problem in Dwarfen Society and identity theft is not a joke.

Carlos tested this new way of earning money by sending out his Henchmen to every Novingrad Vivaldi Bank. Every single one returned with a bag of gold, even the gang Pet boar Sir Skewertooht.

Carlos used the Money to buy a hideout for his newly named gang the “Crownsplitter” and started to expand his territory from there. Today the Crownsplitters are responsible for financing all criminal activities of the Syndicat and creating a world, where elves :



Tidecloaks

The Tidecloaks are the most important part of the Syndicate. They control the Harbor and Dock in Novigrad and are lead by the fearless Gudrun a former Pirate Queen.



Gudrun was born as a simple girl in a Skellige Village. She lived a peaceful quit life, collecting flowers, petting the Farm Animals and going on the occasional raiding of Nilfgardian ships.

One a fateful day Gudrun went to the Skellige “WalRaid” market to buy food for her family. Going to the market was always a dangerous task, especially for young women like her. The last time she went there, two Clan Members started to fight for the last package of Viking-Gummys what lead to a 20 year long Clan War that wiped out half of Skellige, transformed every third Guy into a Bear and lead to the destruction of the Viking-Gummy Factory.

When Gudrun arrived at the market, a new battle already broke out and was finished before her arrival. Sadly most goods got plundered in the battle except the only one that isn’t essential for survival: Toilet Paper.

When she returned Home her Family kicked her out, because the Toilet Paper was useless for them and they didn’t want to eat the transformed berserker bears she picked up from the battlefield.

Equipped with a lot of Toilet Paper Gudrun traveled to Novigrad to find a new home. When she arrived she was surprised that the Novigrader never have heard of Toilet Paper. The Novigrader used to wipe there Ass with Money. By selling the Toilet Paper to the Novigrader she became rich really fast. She used the money to open up her first Toilet Paper production at the Harbor and now controls with the help of the Syndicate all the Toilet Paper trading in the North. She provides with her Gang the “Tidecloaks” the softest Toilet Paper on the market exclusiv to the Syndicate and became through that an essential member for the Alliance.

Flamesworn

The Church of Eternal Flame is the most influential Religions Constitution in Novigrad and in the whole North. Its hierarchy Cyrus Engelkind Hemmelfart is the reason the church joined the Syndicate.



Cyrus never had a hard life. He was born in a rich Merchant Family and had everything he ever could of dreamed of. When Cyrus was young the Eternal Flame wasn’t really a popular religion but his Parents believed in it. Small Cyrus was overall a prick, but still the most popular kid in school.

In the ” School of Eternal Flame and Spontaneous human combustion “, every Kid wanted to be Friends with Cyrus and sleepover at his place. He always had the newest toys, torture instruments and a giant Army of Witch Hunters in his Cellar. It’s surprising how popular you become when everyone is afraid of dying to witch hunters. Worked pretty good in Cyrus School and even better later when he became the Hierarch of the Church. Other Religions can’t really compete with you when they don’t exist after all.

For Cyrus this wasn’t enough, he wanted more. The now Adult Friends from his School Days still come over every Weekend for Fire and Cookies. But some of his friends left him to play with Emhyrs from Next Door. His Toys where cooler and crueler, also his Army was bigger.

To get his Friends back he forced the Church to join the Syndicate, so he can earn more money to overtrump that stupid Emhyr and his ” cool” toys.

Blindeyes

The Blindeyes is a gang composed mainly by thieves, prostitutes, and beggars. Its led by the King of Beggars Francis Bedlam.

After Francis Bedlam became the King of Beggars the Power and Influence of the Gang started to grow fast. A lot of People mistakenly think the only source of income for the Gang is stealing, Information trading and blackmailing. But the reason for the success of the Blindeyes is Francis second profession: Geraltinoses

Named after the famous Witcher Geralt of Rivia the Geraltinosist studies in the Art of distracting Geralt. Over the year’s Bandits have suffered heavily under Geralt. Every single time he gets killed by a bandit time turns back. Also, every new Game in the series Geralt’s movements become more fluid and annoying. The Bandits learned fast that Geralt inst killable and to have enough time to do the crime they needed a way to distract Geralt. As a Result, Geraltinoses got created and became a popular free time activity for Bandits.



Some Bandits tried to distract Geralt by creating monster contracts just for him. They caught Monsters and even hired Actors to create an engaging Story for Geralt to experience.

Sadly after some time, Geralt got so overleveled by killing all the monsters that he started to skip the contracts. Every Bandit tried something different. Someone stole Geralt’s Map and put a lot of

?-Stickers other one forced every Tavern to offer Dice Poker for Geralt and one Bandit even went so far to hire tons of Women to create a Love Mini-Game where Geralt had to collect “Romance Cards”.

Nothing worked until Francis Bedlam finally appeared.

He learned from the Failure of his Colleagues that Geralt loves to collect Cards and play games.

He combined both passions of Geralt by copying the old Dwarven Card Game Gwent. He used his Beggars to distribute his custom made Gwent Cards around the World and teach everyone how to play Gwent. Francis used important figures of Geralt lives as a Motiv for the Card to motivate Geralt even further to collect them. And one the top of all, Francis organized a Tournament in Passiflora to give Geralt a goal to reach. His plan worked perfectly and Geralt started to travel around the world collecting cards and not doing his Witcher Duties.

Finally, the Bandits of the World could do whatever Crime they want to do!

With Geralt out of the Way Syndicate could finally grow its power even more. After they got rid of the Wild Hunt that Geralt forgot to stop while playing his Spy for the fixed time.

Cutups

The Cutups is a really “special” gang that is led by Cyprian Wiley. The Members are easy to recognize by they Clown Like Makeup. But the Cutups wasnt a criminal gang in the beginning. The Orginal Name of the Gang was “Act-ups”.



The Introduction of Gwent initiated by Francis Bedlam had a lot of negative consequences on the youth of Novigrad. Gwent fast became a popular Game to play in School. Most Kids saw the game just as a Hobby, but some started to get addicted to Gwent. Society branded these Kids with the name

“Gamer” and one of these Kids was Cyprian . Cyprian grades dropped so hard that his Mother forbid any kind of Gwent for him. Cyprian knew that Society brainwashed his mother. He wanted revenge!



First, he posted a several mean messages on the market notice board. Of course, anonymously he could not risk that society track him down. Sadly this didn’t help.

He knew he needed more drastic measures, so he found other opressed Gamers like him and formed the Gang “Act-up”. Cyprian used Clown like Makeup as the Gang Style, because that was a friendly nickname his gamer friends gave him.

Cyprian had a sinister plan in mind . He gonna create a the perfect Play about the Struggle of the Gamers, that even the Society has to agree to him.

Everyone in the Crew poured everything into the creation of the Play. Hours went into the Discussion of the Acts, Actor choice, stage design and how to escape the friendzone.

After Years of preparation, the Day of the Performance began. Everyone was excited to unleash this piece of Art on the world… But no one came to the Act ( not even Cyprians own mother).

After intensiv research, Cyprian found out that everyone in Novigrad watched the new Play:

” How to tech Parasite in a non Organic Deck ” a play made by a Monster Gwent Player.



Cyprian was furious, not only was he betrayed by a fellow Gwent player, but a Pointslam player.

Abandon by Society Cyprian turned the “Act-ups” into the today well known Gang “Cutups”.They joined the Syndicate so they can have their Revenge on Society.

“One Day they will know, that I got these scars from because my mommy didn’t allowed me to play past midnight.”

Sigi Reuven and the Collusion

Sigismund Djikstra is the former head of Redanian Intelligence. Despite having being seven feet tall and thicc enough to block arrows with his belly he was considered to be the sneakiest Spy in the World. Sigismund’s secret wasn’t a hard training or some special technic, it was his true profession: tailoring. Sigismund always was ashamed for his thiccer body. Despite being the most popular Men in Redania thanks to his perfectly shaped bald head, he still felt ashamed. He started to learn tailoring from the best tailors in Offir and they taught to create clothes that make your stomach disappear. After perfect the Craft, it turned out that not only his stomach disappeared but his whole body. He became of the best spies in the World, always keeping his secret for himself.

After some unpleasant events, Sigismund Dijkstra had to flee to Novigrad and he changed his name to Sigi Reuven. He realized he had now enough time to perfect his craft and he lived a happy peaceful creating new clothes. But there was a problem on the horizon. He wasn’t the only thing Men in the world. A lot of the Nilfgardian aristocrat had the same physique like Sigi. They hired the best tailors of the world to make them look thinner. Sigi needed to stop them before they find out that black isn’t only a good color for armor.

Sigi returned to his Roots, brought himself a Hideout and started to expand his power to build his own network of agents. But he knew he didn’t have enough time. Sigi had an idea, called the Syndicate Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable criminals, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when Novigrad needed them to fight the battles they never could.

Sigi organized a meeting with the Cyrus and leaders of the four most influential Novigradian gangs:

Carlo, Gudrun, Francis, and Cyprian. Together they formed Syndicate.

Every single member had their own goals in mind, but together they could save the world of Fashion.

Thank you for reading my Palmerin Faction Guide for Syndicate .

Till the next Faction Guide and be the Coin with you ❤