Shade

The Warden

The Warden is one of the major deities on the planet of Sprin'Torel. It is believed by some that The Warden was once a fearsome guardian spirit who nurtured and protected the wilderness in the times before the rise of the gods. Others believe He was once a mortal who, after some great tragedy, was forced to go on a quest for redemption ultimately concluding with His ascension to godhood. Regardless of His origins, The Warden rules over the domain of nature, watching over the world and guarding the wilds against corruption and destruction.

While some revere The Warden as the enigmatic guardian of the wilderness, others claim he maintains the boundaries of the material plane itself, and others still see Him as more of a boogeyman responsible for the mysterious disappearances and violent deaths of those who tread too deeply into the wilderness. All, however, see him as a manifestation of the primal essence of the world, in all its grace and savagery.

## Worshipers

The Warden's followers come in many forms, and show their reverence in sometimes very different ways. Many stay as close to nature as possible and spend their lives nurturing and defending it as some legends say The Warden once did. Others, most often those talented with the transmutive elements druidic magic, spend their lives in the shadows watching over all parts of the world and gathering information, acting only when necessary to preserve the balance. A rare few followers of The Warden stray further from nature in order to defend the wilds by way of word and pen, most often attempting to establish and enforce legal edicts banning or restricting expansion into unclaimed wilderness.

### Druids

Clerics of The Warden are very rare, although of those druids who worship gods, essentially all choose to worship Him. It is sometimes argued that those druids who claim no allegiance to any gods are in fact the closest to The Warden in sharing His respect for nature over any artificial organization, be it one of gods or mortals. While these druids sometimes offer their healing magics to heal those in need, they are also sometimes known to conduct dark rituals involving the sacrifice of those they deem enemies of the wilds. The druids themselves usually see both sides of their magic as drawing directly from the two sides of The Warden: that which nurtures and protects, and that which hunts and devours. The cycle of life and death is often highly regarded by druids, although many choose to look to The Warden as a symbol of the cycle rather than Haya and Alma'art, while others do not even distinguish between the gods in this regard.

### The Allies of the Forestmaster

The Allies of the Forestmaster largely revere The Warden, and some believe it to have even been founded by the mysterious god. They dedicate themselves to the preservation of the delicate balance between nature and civilization. There are followers of The Warden who believe the Allies of the Forestmaster to be failing in their duties to the god they claim to follow by often allowing civilization to encroach on nature. However, Allies tend to either respond that all lives, even those trapped within city walls, are equally parts of nature, maintain that a conflict between nature and civilization would merely end in the ruin of all, or even argue that The Warden Himself learned to appreciate, or at least tolerate, civilization during His journey to godhood. The truth of the matter is difficult to discern, although it is often joked that there is even more friction between the Allies and the denizens of the forests than between them and the governments they deal with.

### The Darkwood

Many of those who believe the more common legends concerning The Warden's path to godhood believe it to have began in an ancient forest known only as the Darkwood. While most believe the Darkwood to be no more than a myth, most likely a metaphor for the primal world which existed before the arrival of the gods, there are a few people who believe that it was actually a specific forest, and that it perhaps still exists. No one has yet been able to locate it, if it is indeed real. Or at least, no one who has found it has discovered its true identity.

## Rites

As with all other religions, the worship of The Warden involves many rituals and rites. Many of these involve prayers for the nourishment of land, although unlike those made to Qridite, these tend to result in what most would call overgrowth, causing masses of vines and thorns to erupt from the ground and growing trees to unmanageable proportions. One of the darkest rituals practiced by His followers, that requiring the sacrifice of a humanoid in order to create a creature known as a wood woad, is seen by followers of The Warden as an act of renewal and redemption which either transforms an enemy of nature into a defender of it or allows one to continue one's service to The Warden long after the death of their physical bodies. Below is an example of a prayer to The Warden:

> "Our vigilant Warden, keeper of the wilds, nurturer of our kin, we invoke you to preserve the sanctity of these woods from those who would defile it; may their misused bodies become food for the beasts, drink for the plants, and wards against future trespasses; we call upon your tooth, your claw, and your horn to rend their flesh and return it to the land whence it came."
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