Kal
Whispers
- Intent: Codify the guardian spirits watching over the hidden paths of the Shadows.
- Image Credit: New Calling by Mahealani Rodrigues; Ghost Reaper by Chris Cold.
- Role: Rarely-seen guardian spirits answerable to none but themselves.
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: N/A
- Unit Name: Warders of the Ways
- Affiliation: The Shadows (Oath)
- Classification: Guardian Spirits
- Description: The Warders of the Ways are not soldiers, not truly - their hierarchies are flat, their infrastructure nonexistent, and their desire for conquest entirely absent. If forced into battle they make deadly foes, but many will prefer to employ deception if at all possible. United mainly by the oaths they swear and the vigils they maintain over the hidden ways of their kind - the so-called Umbral Paths - they are a diverse lot in both skills and methodology; the kind may gently guide trespassers away from what they guard, while the cruel may torment and murder.
- Unit Size: Small
- Unit Availability: Rare
- Unit Experience: Elite
- Equipment: The Force; may carry scythes/staffs/etc. forged from the primordial essence of the Netherworld.
- Combat Function: An order mainly in name, it is rare for more than a handful of Warders to gather in any single place; most confrontations in which they take to the field see them alone or in pairs, not counting the lesser spirits they often herd into battle. Their greatest strength is the adeptness with which they manipulate the very fabric of the Netherworld, intensifying natural hazards, disorienting trespassers, and more.
- Mind Over Matter: The Warders of the Ways are highly specialised combatants trained to wield the very fabric of the Netherworld against their foes; every single fully-anointed Warder is a Force User of some skill, generally the equivalent of a Knight or Master of the Jedi/Sith.
- Spiritual Hosts: Warders are known to herd hosts of lesser spirits into battle, most often Shades, Shrouds, and Phantom Hounds.
- Netherworlders: The Warders of the Ways are oathbound to protect specific locations in the Netherworld and so rarely enter Realspace; if forced to do so for whatever reason, they would retain their Force Abilities but not the ability to exert influence over local reality.
- Overspecialised: The Warders have no military vehicles or centralised command structure - they are guardians first and only.
The exact origins of the Warders of the Ways are not a matter of public record, but it seems likely they were formed in response to violations of the narrow strips of territory claimed by the Shadows and their ilk in the shadowy corners of the Netherworld. While by no means unique in form or in function - many such shortcuts exist in that chaotic realm and some spirits can traverse it at will - these Umbral Paths are of immense importance.
At least to the Shadows themselves, others spirits are often ambivalent and the folk of Realspace are unlikely to have ever heard of them.
How exactly new Warders are recruited is equally mysterious, but it is generally accepted that aspiring Warders apprentice to a full Warder for a time, after which they undergo some sort of undisclosed trial and swear a mystically binding oath that, among other things, swears them to secrecy.
Warders are not expected to serve for life, in no small part due to the agelessness of the Shadows that make up their ranks. Given the relative youth of the order and the species as a whole, former Warders are few and far in between - and bound by the same oaths of secrecy as their active peers.
The strongholds of the Warders, rare as they are, are known as Wardhouses. Even there it is rare to find more than a handful at any given time.