The Seekers of the Marked

Elder Thistledown Earthsong, when the Great Tree wept sap the colour of blood

We do not search. Searching is for the lost. We listen — for a brightness against the gathering shadow, a resonance in the pattern that does not know its own name.

Purpose

When the seals beneath the Lake of Shadows began to fail, the Halflings did not raise an army — they have none. They sent seekers. Rooted to the land and to one another through the dreaming of the Great Tree, the Halflings feel the world's wounds before others see them, and they alone remember the true purpose of their people: to guard a threshold, and to find those who can hold it when the ancient words are not enough.

The Marked

The Seekers travel without maps, following prophecy the way a plant follows light. They are looking for souls "marked before birth" — not the mighty, but those who, when the moment comes, will simply not turn away. In this Age of Awakening they walk the roads in numbers not seen for a thousand years, which is itself the darkest omen: it means the hour foretold has nearly come.