The Watchers of the Adri are an elite group of rangers formed by a splinter group of the Knight Protectors of the Great Kingdom in 65 CY. A select few knights with forester skills took to the Adri to protect its inhabitants from the beasts that lurked within. Over the years, as the face of the Great Kingdom changed, the Watchers found themselves the guardians of those living within the forest and refugees fleeing the ever-increasing evil of the Great Kingdom's despots.
The Watchers work in conjunction with the free people of the Adri to ensure that the forest remains a place of refuge for those who flee the evil of the Great Kingdom. They work around the elven Sentinels and respect their charge of protecting the Coldwood. They ensure that treasure hunters or malcontents seeking the Coldwood are turned away before encountering the Sentinels. Since their founding, the Watchers of the Adri have become an organization no longer composed of Knight Protectors but rangers raised within the forest. Adri is their home and nation, and they pledge their lives to protect it and its inhabitants. Part of the culture of the nomadic Rovers of the Barrens is the worship of the spirits of the land. Shaman attempts to commune and learn from these spirits, and so does everyone else. Chiefs will make offerings to the spirits of the bear and eagle for strength and courage. At the same time, others might pray and make offerings to the spirit of fish so that they might have a bountiful catch. Among these plains warriors are a group of rangers that are chief among the hunters and gathers; these are the Spirit Guides.
Spirit Guides have a strong connection to the land and its spirits. They cannot only commune with the spirits but can also gain enhancements from them in short bursts to increase their abilities. To achieve these enhancements, the Spirit Guides protect the lands in which the spirits dwell and make simple offerings to them. While each tribe would have one or two Spirit Guides, their numbers have been reduced to only a handful because of the wars against Iuz. In the past, Spirit Guides were picked by the spirits themselves. Still, with the dire circumstances of the Rovers, many have begun teaching what they can to those that show any promise and hope that the spirits will accept them. Among the gods worshiped by the Tiger Nomads is Incabulos, the god of plagues, famine, nightmares, and disasters. He is revered by some who wish to win his favor and gain some of his wicked power, but most want only to appease him and keep his vileness at bay. From this belief came the Black Riders, a group of rangers that believe the only way to keep Incabulos pacified is to give him the death and destruction he craves. These rangers did not wish to commit these acts upon their people, so instead, they commit vile deeds upon others in Incabuloses name.
Black Riders conduct their raids into foreign lands under cover of night when possible, but this is not always possible when they roam far from their homes. The Black Riders are also valued combatants whenever the Tiger Nomads go to war as shock troops and scouts. Black Riders, like their name suggests, dress all in black and even dye or paint their armor and weapons black. A side effect of the indoctrination process turns their skin a pale blue color like that of a corpse. Those who can survive the process are forever changed and must live apart from the rest of their tribe for the tribe's safety. Hello everyone. The good news is that all of the writing needed for my upcoming Ravensrook grimdark city supplement is finished. Now its just a matter of waiting for some art and the last edits and layout before the final product comes out. And with that project wrapping up I now have more time to get back into generating more Greyhawk content for the Greyhawk Companion.
The Defenders of the Greenkeep are little more than a motley collection of survivors from the invasion of the Bandit Kingdoms by Iuz and the massacre at Steelbone Meadows. They inhabit a section of the eastern Fellreev Forest that was traditionally a zone of contention or a border region between the Dazark orc tribe and sylvan elf clans. The worship of Olidamara was the bonding agent that kept most of them together through the roughest of times. These bandits view life with a devil may care attitude. With the constant threat of possible death just around the corner, they laugh and live life to its fullest.
The Defenders of the Greenkeep exist in loosely knit bands of bandits turned foresters that move freely throughout their territory—Scavenging and avoiding trouble. A handful of permanent campsites are located throughout their area of the Fellreev, but are shared by all. They come to these camps to share news and recoup after encounters against Iuzian's Dazark orc and sylvan elf tribes. With a grim sense of humor and determination, they learned the ways of the forest. Their very name is a joke, as they can't defend the Greenkeep, their name for the Fellreev, they can barely hang onto their territory. While they have not allied with their stronger and more numerous neighbors, they have benefited from the alliance between the displaced Reyhu and the sylvan elf tribes. The Defenders have become master ambushers and deadly archers. They excel at hit-and-run tactics and are highly mobile when it comes to traversing the rugged terrain of the forest. Despite the close ties between the various bands of Defenders and their sharing of a common worship of Olidamara, no new leader has risen to forge them into a cohesive force. The Dreadwood is a large forest in southern Keoland that separates it from the Hool Marshes. This forest is home to a fiercely independent nation of wood elves that aggressively defend the wood from intruders, most notably monsters that filter in from the Hool Marshes. Still, even greater evil exists in the wood's thick interior centered around ancient ruins once used by dark wizards.
A royal writ was bestowed upon the elves giving them the right to govern most of the forest as its protectors. A convenient way for Keoland to save face appearing to grant the elves that which they already claimed. Still, the Keoland crown and the elves have been on good terms for centuries. The Dreadwalkers were founded over 900 years ago by House Lizhal to help protect against the foul and dark magics of House Malhel. House Malhel fled into the Dreadwood to escape their punishment by House Neheli and the Silent Ones for ravishing parts of Keoland with their foul magic. Unable to eradicate them, the Dreadwalkers did contain them in the deep interior of the woods. Aberrations sometimes emerge to torment the forest from these very same areas, and an evil taint has twisted the forest there. Over the centuries, the Dreadwalker's mission has changed and become one in line with the visions of the wood elves. Today, they protect the entire forest against all its enemies. Traffic traveling along the Dreadwood Road is often targeted by bandits and humanoids infesting the forest, forcing the Dreadwalkers to patrol its length constantly. The Dreadwalkers are comprised of wood elves, humans, and a handful of the indigenous gnome population. They are on good terms with the Keoland garrisons, the wood elf nation, the great druidess Reynard Yargrove and the druid circle that calls the Dreadwood their home. While they often work with these other organizations, they predominantly scout the forest in their own bands. |