Creative Director
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Zernebeth's alginment is not static. She's a character from a novel, after all, and it can be tricky converting fiction characters to rules. In her case, she was likely evil at some point in the past but has grown less evil as a result of the events chronicled in the novels; not GOOD per se, but certainly less evil, and it's at this point she's presented in Iron Gods, where she functions as an ally for the PCs.
Sellswords and battle mages are hired help; they're there for the money as much as anything, and as such aren't as invested in the Technic League's philosophies, and as such have "generic" alignments.
The Technic League itself is 100% intended to be bad guys; the majority of them and their leaders are evil and their goals are evil and their methods are evil.
As for CR scores... a creature's CR does not always directly relate to its position in an organization's hierarchy. Just as a king is not always (and is in fact almost never) the highest level person in the kingdom, the captains of the Technic Leagues aren't higher CR than the commandos. The captains are what they are because they climbed the Technic League political ladder or were in the right place at the right time to get promoted and so on, not because they have more levels than others.
Jarin not being able to be a captain because he requires arcane spellcasting but Geetan Prosser getting the role is also Technic League politics. Note that Geetan is disliked; the fact that he's not an arcane spellcaster likely has something to do with that.
The Pathfinder Society Scenario #6–20, Returned to Sky also has Technic League characters: team leader Neddrick Istavarti is a 9th-level NE human magus, his underling Siliana Enton is a 7th-level NE half-orc sorceress, and their hirelings are 2nd-level N huamn warriors. (The module also provides a 12-level NE version of Neddrick, a 10th-level CE Siliana, and 4th-level N hirelings. Siliana's stats are from the NPC Codex, so she changed more between different levels.)
Neddrick Istavarti is a high-ranking agent of the Technic League. Once an orphaned street urchin living in the slums of Starfall, he first joined the Technic League working as unskilled and expendable labor. Through the use of his sharp wit and the ruthless betrayal of an overseer or two, Neddrick climbed through the ranks of the Technic League to his current position: second-in-command of operations in the city of Chesed.
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Numeria, Land of Fallen Stars provides a Technic League Hireling, a 4th-level CN human rogue. She is not a member of the Technic League but does work for them, not necessarily voluntarily.
ericthecleric mentioned former Technic League member CG wizard/rogue Khonnir Baine. Furkas Xoud in The Choking Tower is also a former Technic League member, a 11th-level NE human wizard/technomancer. Sanvil Trett, 4th-level CE human magus, is an agent of the Techic Leauge in Fires of Creation. I view 9th-level CE half-elf magus/rogue/arcane trickster Ilarris Zeleshi in The Choking Tower and 12th-level LE tiefling slayer Hyrsek Caio in Valley of the Brain Collectors as hirelings of 13th-level CE human alchemist/wizard/technomancer Captain Ghartone rather than as direct agents of the Technic League.
And, of course, the article on the Technic League in Lords of Rust says, "The Technic League is corrupt to its core, a corruption steeped in old-fashioned avarice and greed."
The players in my Iron Gods campaign peacefully moved into Starfall to gather information during Palace of Fallen Stars, see Inconspicuous PCs Unmotivated in Palace of Fallen Stars. When I forced them into more action, the CG half-elf magus Elric joined the Technic League. I did not have the Technic League say, sorry, we don't recruit Good-aligned people, because Elric suffering the life of a Technic League recruit would be challenging fun for both me and the player. Instead, my premise is that the Technic League recruits gifted people of all alignments and working for the Technic League corrupts them.
The party left for the Divinity before fighting the Technic League. Before leaving, Elric heard that Zernebeth had earned leadership of the Technic League when she returned barely alive from exploring the Divinity and Ozmyn Zaidow took over as leader after he returned alive with loot from the Divinity. He figures that he will return in control of the Divinity and use that to take leadership of the Technic League and reform them. Lord Fyre predicted, "It won't work. There is just too much treachery baked in to the League." I plan on a civil war inside the Technic League between the anti-Elric power abusers and the pro-Elric technocrats.
Also, the commandos are CR 12, but the typical captains are CR 9. Shouldn't it be the case that the captains are higher CR and the commandos lower CR? Otherwise, why are they commandos and not captains?
Sellswords and battle mages are hired help; they're there for the money as much as anything, and as such aren't as invested in the Technic League's philosophies, and as such have "generic" alignments.
I recognized the hireling nature of the sellswords and created a separate organization for them and the commandos that provides muscle to the Technic League. I labeled them the Pinkertons. The Technic League likes to view themselves as masters of arcane and technological knowledge, so a fighter/sorcerer/eldritch knight like the commandos is not intellectual enough for their exalted ranks.
Though James Jacobs said the battle mages are hired help, I needed to fill out the recruit ranks of the Technic League, so they became Technic League junior lieutenants in my campaign. Their neutral alignment is because they have not been fully corrupted yet.