Shadow Thieves

The Shadow Thieves was a thieves' guild based in Athkatla, a large port city in Amn. They were formerly the most prominent thieves' guild in Waterdeep, but have since been all but routed from the city by the Lords of Waterdeep. It is alleged they had some arrangement with the Council of Six, as the merchants of Waterdeep are the main trading enemies of Amn.

Leadership
The Shadow Thieves were ruled in Athkatla by a group called the Shadow Council. Marune "The Masked", who reported to the Shade of Baldur's Gate, thereby the entire Shadow Council, led a sect of the guild still operating in Waterdeep.

Organization
The Shadow Thieves were a strongly structured organization, using this as advantage to avoid any action that desegregated the whole organization. The supreme leader of the guild was the Grandmaster of Shadows, that led the Shadow Council, previously known as Shade Council. The Council divided the Realms territory in region, each member of the council act as supreme leader of that territory, there were two members of the council as leader of the no-Amnian regions. Under the council's members were the Cloakmasters. One Cloakmaster administrated a territory that comprised maximum 10,000 people, so a rural area usually had only one Cloakmaster and metropolis had various Cloakmasters (usually divided for the districts or quarters of the city). Under the Cloakmaster there were the guild masters, or Silhouette. Usually there were ten guild masters, one for each different criminal activities in which the Shadow thieves deal: Assassins, Beggars, Bounty Hunter, Con Artist and Tricksters, Burglars, Cutpurses and Pickpockets, Enforcers and Thugs, Racketeers, Scouts and Spies, Fences, Smugglers and Pirates. The Guildmasters administrated their criminal activity in autonomy, although under supervision of the Cloakmasters, and usually law enforcers arrived to capture only to those level; by the name's status usually law enforcers believed to had dismantled the guild capturing a guild master but in truth was only a moderate rank.

History
The Shadow Thieves began to operate in Waterdeep in 1255 DR. After the guild was infiltrated by Lhestyn, a Lord of Waterdeep, in 1298 DR, it was destroyed, its leaders were unmasked or killed, and the Shadow Thieves were banished from the city. They resettled in Athkatla. They have since grown to be one of the most prosperous thieves' guild in Faerûn. With the exception of Waterdeep, they currently hold the lion's share of criminal activity along the Sword Coast and Amn.

Ever since their expulsion, the Shadow Thieves have long attempted to reestablish themselves in Waterdeep. Until around 1372 DR the constant vigilance of the Lords of Waterdeep had kept the guild at arms length. But as Waterdeep fell on hard times, the Shadow Thieves got an opening they were quick to exploit. For over five years, the guild slowly came to dominate criminal activity in the docks, southern and trades wards with the northern ward of the city being at risk as well.

In 1370 DR, Marune unveiled a grand scheme for giving the Shadow Thieves an unassailable edge over the Lords of Waterdeep. The necromancer began distributing slippers of shadowwalking to the guild's highest-ranking thieves. These agents could then effortlessly navigate Waterdeep's shadows, beyond the reach of the city's Lords.