Wardens

'We ward the world'

The threat of invasion from the demonic plane ended with the death of the Gods, and the Wardens now turn to deal with new threats coming from all corners. Undead drift across our lands under the command of their Lich, the Horde's cities are a festering blot on a once verdant field, and more and more feral creatures prowl just off the beaten path, their jaws slavering for a morsel of a hapless mortal. We Wardens track the foul, and the dark.

Founded long ago by Harker Sunjackal under the tutelage of the Wendigo, the Wardens and their Black Keep call the frozen forest of Ithaqua home. Harker was called upon by the savage spirit of Ithaqua Forest to stop the demons running rampant in the wilds of the world, and Harker answered - armed with an ancient weapon - and sealed the rifts, ending the demonic incursion that day. Magick is taboo to us, many of us have memories and lives long enough to remember the magicks of others being twisted by the nature of the Black Pines and scorch our homes and destroy the forest, instead we rely on the land, our skills and each other.

We are gripped with an unquenchable wanderlust, trekking far across the world to parts unknown and this suits our purposes well, taking our fight directly to our enemy in their own domain. We accept all who come to us seeking to add their might to ours, and grow the forces of the Wardens to the point where no mortal need to quake in fear at the next threat that comes out of the darkness. If you be of stout heart and strong arm come gather around our fires.

We are the knights of the road. We are the vagabond kings. Where falls a leaf there falls our footstep. Where is cast a shadow, there we have rested in the shade.

A Warden is a wanderer, a wayfarer. He is an explorer, a sojourner. Fiercely proud and loyal to his brothers, he is a member of a fraternal order of trackers and rangers. Sunken into the northern reaches of the Ithaqua, the Black Keep houses the scholarship and warrior's skills of the Warden. There they train in the frozen pines, practicing with glaive and bow, with wood and tinder, to hone the art of the woodsman.

Magick is forbidden to them, they rely on themselves and on the land, and on each other. The Ithaqua forest has raised them, and they have seen the fires of the land scourge their home, set free from magick's mercurial and unpredictable nature.

The Wardens were founded in modern history by Harker, learning the once forgotten skills from the Wendigo, spirit of the Ithaqua. The Wendigo called for aid to the wood, when rifts in the world were freeing demons into the wilds. The Wardens, once a strong force against such beasts, were needed and had been lost. Harker heard the call and answered, and bore an ancient weapon to seal the hellish rifts. Having done so, he was charged with the formation of the Wardens.

That is what we ward. The world itself.

The Wardens were founded on the 25th day of Halitus, in the year 434 AD.