What are the Lorekeeper/Wardens?

[Maina]

Rias has asked people who were a part of the Lorekeepers/Wardens to reach out on the matter to discuss the Guild. See here. I am not sure the best way to reach out these days, so I figured a forum post is my best option.

Here is the closest thing to a mission statement we have. Quoted below:

Sure! So the basic idea of this guild is that they are druids. They are interested primarily in the Gaea, protecting it, communing with it, and, when possible, helping others to be in alignment with it. They are spiritualists, teachers, and ritualists, interested in the spiritual and physical relationship with the land, and with Atros, the goddess who represents the Gaea, and Madrim, the green man and cultivator of herbs. RP often consists of rituals performed to strengthen your connection with the gaea, as well as using the guild abilities, which I can't discuss at any length, but they are in line with these general principles. For inspiration of possible rituals, you might look at
http://www.paganlibrary.com/rituals_spells/index.php
As for the name, it refers to the fact that they are supposed to have been in hiding, and possess secrets, or lore, related to the Gaea not known to other Gaea-using groups like the Udemi, though they work closely together.

I suspect we'd want to tie it less to RL pagan faiths going forward.

The way I roleplayed it was, effectively, a peaceful mirror to the Dunwyr. That is, opposing the harm caused by civilization and human acts via education and healing the damage done. As such, their abilities were less aggressive in nature than other Druids, who were all more-or-less designed to fight (either the Dunwyr fighting people or Udemi fighting Resen).

They also had a library which contained "dangerous" knowledge which they protected from those who would misuse it, including some works written by players. Some of which were donated by non-Lorekeepers, even. That is where the "Lorekeeper" name originally came from, though it was changed to Wardens later on.

Here is an old Maina quote as to how she saw the guild and what traits make a good Lorekeeper:

I suppose the core traits would be... a desire for a relationship with the Gaea, rather than treating it as a tool. An ability to act in the role of a, um... priest or priestess. Guidance, education, ritual. And um... able to understand the consequences of their actions, particularly when it comes to things others take for granted. That some knowledge must be kept safe and not freely shared. That some gifts, whether knowledge or healing or tools, can be used for harm in the wrong hands.

In function, they were the only pure druidry guild and of a more scholarly and peaceful bent than most guilds. Both things I found incredibly appealing.

I believe they had all of the Udemi Druidry abilities.

They had three unique abilities. These were top secret in the past, but I hope these details are fine to share, all things considered:
Herb Lore of Madrim gave special information on how the Poultice and Herb systems worked, allowing for a Lorekeeper to produce poultices of whatever potency or purpose they required with little to no experimentation required.
Atros Auspice gave a full list of how damaged the Gaea was in each region of the game, using IC and vague terms.
Atros Soothing Song allowed a Lorekeeper to heal the Gaea in a room in exchange for a massive amount of energy. If I recall correctly, it was enough to knock out the druid even at full. At the very end of CLOK's last run, Maina used this as part of a public event to try to heal the land around Keth (even if the settlement itself would never be restored). It would have been a recurring event, had the game not closed shortly after.

I suspect the lore may need to be tweaked, as I believe the Immortals (and Guild itself) were not by Rias, but I hope the core concept of a Guild for Druids who want to focus on pure druidry and healing/protecting nature by acting as priests and teachers can remain in the game in some form. I recall COGG pushed back against this kind of Druid a bit in the initiation rites, and the need is probably less without Haiban wrecking everything, but I think there's room for this niche still.

[Maina]

I found a lengthier mission statement that may be helpful, too:

Without going into too much detail, the Wardens of the Grove are a group of druids that focus on the wilds and the land and use their connection to Gaea in this way to care for it and heal it, unlike the Udemi whose goal is combat against the Resen and use what they have learned to combat th ethreat and take care of the lands. Udemi split their focus between these things while the Wardens primarily focus on herb lore, the land, druidry and teaching others as well as providing services with their knowledge.

This group has grown and changed since its creation as the original GM in charge of it is no longer on the team and no notes were left behind in their wake.

The Wardens are more non-combat, however they are not at all pacifistic in any way, but combat is not the focus.

This is a RP heavy group that takes time, dedication and patience to join because frankly, it is a slow burn sort of group, it is for characters in the long term and not focused on grinding skills by any means.

The Wardens used to be focused more on secrecy, however some of that is changing, however, there are some particular guild secrets that will never be shared openly. It is based on old world druids as they existed at one time, however this isn't quite the case, there has been some inspiration taken from them, however it is not meant to exactly resemble any real life form of Paganism in anyway, though it does have some influence.

I apologize to anyone who has found any information about this group hard to find, it is not meant to have a huge amount of members, but it is not meant to be so closed in that information about what they do is impossible to get.

As I stated before, this group has changed from what it was likely build as originally and changes and growth will continue to happen. Right now we unfortunately don't have regular Wardens playing, however, if you make your interest known we may keep an eye out, but joining will take time, possibly months due to real life taking our time and as well because it is intended to take time. Many times we have people join only to leave once they've gotten bored because they cannot take how roleplay heavy the group is, so care is taken in choosing.

The Udemi and Wardens share some abilities, however, they have some that are specific to the Wardens that are more focused on Gaea, reading and healing the land. Other abilities may become available over time, this group is still quite new despite being around for a while. I do hope that more abilities can be added, but this will be a slow process.

I hope this has helped to clear up at least some confusion. As for the Wiki page, I realize it needs updating, I'll have to see about getting that done sooner than later to provide a clearer image of what the Wardens of the Grove are.