Grove Keepers

## The Grove Keepers

We are the original gift, the chosen few by the dryads, blessed to maintain the balance.  Our magick was the first to allow the sentient races the boon of the strength of the wilds around them. They could take the forms of the creatures they wished to, adapting to their environment and invoking the full force of nature at a whim. They use this strength to defend their dryads and groves, protecting nature above all.

## Our Ethos

* Preserve Mother Nature above all. Let no one ravage or spoil the land.

* Protect the Grove at all costs. No outsider should desecrate its sanctity.

* Respect the Dryad which guides you, for their word is Her word.

* Destroy the Blight wherever you find it. The Midnight Forest is an eternal threat.

* Nature's Blessing is an honor. It is borrowed only by the worthy. Power given can also be taken away.

* It is the Grovekeepers duty to uphold this Ethos of Nature wherever they go. If you feel the pull of the Ethos, then rise to Her challenge.

## Our Story so far

### Season One: Symia

There used to be two Groves in the land of Symia- the Oasis Grove in the heart of the desert and its dryad Alder, and the Redwood Grove with its dryad Maple behind a great waterfall at the edge of the redwoods. But over a century ago, a sect of Nightstalkers, tired of being relentlessly hunted by the zealous Grovekeepers, staged an assault that killed the younger dryad of the Redwood Grove, Maple. The resulting battle decimated all forces involved, both Nightstalker and Grovekeeper. Alder harboured a bitter hatred for all Nightstalkers as a result, a hatred that continued even when the Midnight Forest appeared in the land- preparing itself for a full-scale invasion. Some of Alders Keepers attempted to persuade him to let go of his hatred, but Alder resisted and one day even killed a Grovekeeper for their refusal to harm their Nightstalker friends. This set off a chain of events that opened the dryads eyes to the true cost of their bitterness, and when the Grove itself was assaulted by the Blights forces in an attempt to kill the dryad, both Grovekeepers and Nightstalkers showed up to save Alders life. The elder dryad finally understood that to defeat the Blight, they had to let go of the past and move beyond their hatred. The Midnight Forest was ultimately defeated, putting a halt to the invasion.

### Season Two: The Northern Fens

There were two Groves in the Northern Fens until just recently when the Blight launched an invasion of the Alpine Isle, a territory in the Fens with a Grove at its very heart. Its elder dryad, Aspen, had just begun to nurture the newly matured dryad Birch, when the Blight struck a terrible blow in corrupting the dryads heart. The two Groves desperately tried to find a way to reverse the damage but as the Blight pushed harder and harder toward the Alpine Grove, the dryad fell more and more ill. Ultimately the dryad succumbed to the corruption and the Grove itself erupted in a devastating blast of Blighted magick that killed or corrupted everything at its epicenter. The remaining Grove and its dryad were disheartened and morale was low until the help of new Grovekeepers restored hope to the dryad Birch and her Champion, Rorran. But the Blight is a cruel enemy and it dealt a shrewd blow when it revealed that the dryad Aspen wasn't dead, but now a twisted puppet of the Midnight Forest commanding immense power and an army of Blightspawn. The Blight began to spread, and all hope seemed lost. But when Grovekeepers rallied together with old Slayer allies and new Wildblood allies, together the alliance defeated the Twisted Dryad Aspen and released their soul back to nature. The Midnight Forest was ultimately defeated, ending the reign of terror the Blight wrought upon the land.

### Season Three: The Grove in Velkus

Roughly 60 years ago, an elf named Cayde Quinley ventured into the less populous lands between the northern and southern elven cities to start a new Grove with a Dryad Spore. He was to find a suitable place to start and plant the Spore at its place of power, from which a new Dryad would sprout and create a wellspring of wild magick to create the Verdant Grove, set in a small cavern deep in the jungles of Velkus. The elf spent much time tending to the dryad, defending it from danger, and keeping its location a secret as it slowly grew. Once the dryad passed fifty years of age, the Dryad issued its first command to the elf: Grow the Grove. It was time.

Quinley needed to gather Grovekeepers he felt could be trusted to serve the budding Verdant Grove, the first of which was a young malvas woman named Valdiani Dasii. She quickly earned Cayde's trust and they became best friends over the next decade. Together they managed to gather a handful of dedicated Grovekeepers, and the Grove began to grow. Then, catastrophe struck the land. Vos Nox arrived, and the land shuddered as a rift tore open underneath it, pouring out of the Midnight Forest and into the land above. It happened quickly, and civilization was overwhelmed before it could regroup. Entire towns burned to the ground, and people abandoned the land in droves. But the Grovekeepers stayed, erecting a maze of jungle forest around the Grove in the dryad Moss’s first real display of power. The Grove was hidden from the Blight, and Grovekeepers worked hard to keep it from being discovered by its minions.

The next year was brutal on the aspiring Grove. A dozen or so Grovekeepers were picked off one by one, and sometimes two by two, until only Cayde and Val were left to defend the dryad and its tiny Grove. After a year of hell, the tide of Blighted and undead ebbed, and they ventured out to find that civilization was ready to fight back once again.

## How the magick works

Players need to turn in x amount of levels in total of the creature that they want to turn into. These creatures need to be adults, tamed and are able to be trained or bred for the total needed.

Players will also need to include their ic reasons for picking the creature in their tickets, and will need to include a runic tattoo that correlates to the level of the creature they turn into.

### Requirements to join:

* Proof that you completed the first quest [screenshot in ticket]
* Construct a little grove at your base to focus your connection. These should be no more than 6 triangle foundations, or 4 square foundation large and only one is needed per tribe. [screenshot in ticket]
* Rp paragraph (or more) about how it felt unlocking the power. You will need to include a part about drinking the water at The Grove.
* A description of your magickal environmental effect [optional]

### Requirement for new forms and/or rank ups:

* Small bit of writing [as in depth as you would like be, but at least a paragraph] about how they bonded with the species they picked to turn into, or what draws them to them.
* Image of your Rune  [if it is a rank up within the magick your rune needs to change and grow]
* Image of your grove with a few small changes to reflect your character growth
* A screenshot showing the required amount of levels for the animal you want to tun into.

### Runes:

* Runes are required to control magick as you grow and progress, it acts as a filter allowing you to tap into the magick the dryad rewards you with safely.
* Runes must be placed somewhere on the body in game.
* This is a Magick rune, it cannot be removed without the grove keeper’s permission.
* There are sample runes provided in our discord channel if you do not want to make your own. these come in black and white, male and female.