Shadgard Orphanage: Nasty or Nice?
Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2020 8:55 pm
I was made aware of some speculation a little while back about nasty nuns treating children badly in the Shadgard Orphanage, so I wrote up a little blurb to clarify things and got Jirato's approval to post it.
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The Shadgard Orphanage is a modest facility on the south end of Shadgard where orphans and any other youth seeking shelter can find food, beds, and some basic education and care, free of charge. It includes a small playground with a slide and swingset on a patch of painstakingly-tended grass. Funding, services, and goods are largely donated by citizens. The town of Shadgard itself also provides some grants.
Though founded largely due to the efforts of a monk by the name of Lucien, the orphanage is its own entity, and is neither run by nor affiliated with the Church of Light as is often assumed. The children are polled and staff reviewed on a regular basis by town officials to ensure that the facility is run effectively and the children treated well. Many Shadgard town officials have taken a personal interest in the orphanage and the well-being of its children, including Mayor Susannah Buckmiller, Town Council member and renowned philanthropist Wynn Avery, security director Agostina DeMattia, and sheriff Samuel Cotton.
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I'm not saying the place is 100% perfect and scandal-free - I imagine the place would have to have had at least the occasional problem child and bad-fit staffer, as claiming otherwise seems unrealistic - but there was never any intent for it to be a wellspring of dark stories or tales of corruption and abuse. I get the trope: orphanages tend to attract this kind of thing, but it wasn't the intent for this one in particular. This one's a pretty chill place, and its young inhabitants generally get along well enough, considering their circumstances. If there ever was or is some in-game event that involves something nasty happening there, that would be fine and believable, but it would be a rare exception to the norm.
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The Shadgard Orphanage is a modest facility on the south end of Shadgard where orphans and any other youth seeking shelter can find food, beds, and some basic education and care, free of charge. It includes a small playground with a slide and swingset on a patch of painstakingly-tended grass. Funding, services, and goods are largely donated by citizens. The town of Shadgard itself also provides some grants.
Though founded largely due to the efforts of a monk by the name of Lucien, the orphanage is its own entity, and is neither run by nor affiliated with the Church of Light as is often assumed. The children are polled and staff reviewed on a regular basis by town officials to ensure that the facility is run effectively and the children treated well. Many Shadgard town officials have taken a personal interest in the orphanage and the well-being of its children, including Mayor Susannah Buckmiller, Town Council member and renowned philanthropist Wynn Avery, security director Agostina DeMattia, and sheriff Samuel Cotton.
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I'm not saying the place is 100% perfect and scandal-free - I imagine the place would have to have had at least the occasional problem child and bad-fit staffer, as claiming otherwise seems unrealistic - but there was never any intent for it to be a wellspring of dark stories or tales of corruption and abuse. I get the trope: orphanages tend to attract this kind of thing, but it wasn't the intent for this one in particular. This one's a pretty chill place, and its young inhabitants generally get along well enough, considering their circumstances. If there ever was or is some in-game event that involves something nasty happening there, that would be fine and believable, but it would be a rare exception to the norm.