The Conclave of Wardens

Maintained by the Conclave itself; this entry is permitted, that the living might know whom to call when the border fails

Known by: the sealed sun-and-chain sigil
Watches: the thin places and the Boundary
Founded: in the ash of the Grand Battle

Purpose

The Conclave of Wardens is the oldest vigil in Aedelore, older than any kingdom. Where the Boundary between the world and the Void wears thin — Amber's Call, the Frozen Wastes of Borea, the scar of Brightwood — a Warden stands. They do not cast spells and they do not seek glory. They dig in. They hold the line. They keep the lists of what must never be read, and the older lists of what must never be spoken.

Doctrine

They believe the Void is an enemy: a hungering dark with a champion, Zelgor, who was driven back but never destroyed. Their doctrine is war without end, and their comfort is grim — that the darkness cannot be beaten, only held, generation upon generation, "until the stars themselves grow cold." The border-guards known to villages as wardens are the outermost branch of this order, most never knowing the depth of what they serve.

For the Game Master

Hook: a Warden arrives ahead of ill news, asking the party to escort them to a place where the birds have gone silent. Open question: the Conclave guards the seals — but it was a Conclave archive that first catalogued the rituals that break them. Do they study the dark too closely?