KEEPERS
01
Overview
Keeper is the name for the Oracles and Skalds. These wargs dedicate themselves to the service of Fenrir and Jord. They are not race-specific, and an Oracle or Skald may come from any of the races and clans of Hvalla. A warg cannot choose to join the Keepers and are instead chosen at birth, given up by their families and trained diligently from an early age. Keepers were known to assist individuals or cities on the path that dedicated itself in service to Fenrir and Jord. Before the Cataclysm, Oracles were the first to disappear, becoming almost myth while their Skaldic counterparts wandered Hvalla spreading warnings of discord and divisiveness. They vanished after their warnings went unheeded.
03
Skalds and Oracles
Skalds and Oracles cannot be created as player characters, and no player character can claim they were/are a keeper.
Skalds
Oracles
The Skalds were a timeless order of wargs who dedicated themselves to learning the stories of Hvalla and its people. Skalds often traveled alone or in pairs, visiting hamlets, towns, and cities to retell stories or pass along messages they had gathered on their travels. It wasn't often that lodgings were refused to a passing Skald, and it was considered a great honor if a Skald chose to winter with a clan.
Before the Cataclysm struck, Skalds had already disappeared from the land, leaving only a few of their texts behind and a memory of the legends they told. Their presence is sorely missed by many.
Skaldsongs
Skaldsongs are the stories and legends kept alive by spoken word, written down in lore retellings, and preserved in ancient texts. These are tales of those who have long since passed from the land of the living. There are a few Skaldsongs known across all the realms, but many are legends that belong to a specific hold.
Wargs might find traces of Skaldsongs within the walls of a realm’s hold, lost in the wilds or in songs held by those wargs who still hold the stories close.
The Oracles were a mystical society of diviners who lived in seclusion, steeping themselves in rituals to foretell the Portents of Hvalla. Nothing much is known of the Oracles and their ways are shrouded in mystery. Oracles were known to have painted themselves in glowing runes and symbols, with the symbol of an eye painted in the centre of their forehead in the place known as the ‘third eye’. Oracles, unlike their counterparts the Skalds, were viewed with a measure of fear and unwelcomeness, for bad news seemed to follow them like a shroud. It is said that their home is at the center of a labyrinth so deep, no warg has ever entered and found their way out again.
Portents
Oracles only reveal themselves when the Portents they foretell will change the fate of Hvalla. Wargs do not know how the Oracles perform their augury, but they do know that whatever an Oracle prophecies comes to be. The line of Kings of the Icewarg in particular have been heavily influenced by the prophecies of the Oracles.
While the Oracles have yet to reappear, remnants of their prophecies remain scribbled down in ancient texts within the walls of a realm’s hold or lost in the wilds.