Guardians and Protectors of the Grël
Two orders share a name but not a mission. The original Guardians Place The Guardians The southern mountain wall of Baramma, a rampart of dark peaks standing between the Saremma Plain and the southern sea. of the Grël were an Annil People Annil Small, scaled, and easy to overlook, the Annil were the earliest of the engineered lines, made as household aides and keepers of the systems that kept the world running. order founded at the start of the Maan empire Place The Maan Empire By AC 364 the long Throne War has reshaped the north: the Maan Empire proper rules from Goldenhold under Emperor Theodelf Vissor, an absolute monarchy of order, debt and flame w... era to protect the grël, a living protocol of the ISEMH system Technology ISEMH System The Infrastructure for Synthetic Emergence and Matter Hosting, the planet-scale Inarin-era system that underlies the fallen world: an identity, logistics, fabrication, and senso..., and to preserve the hibernating last leaders of the Inarin civilisation. They knew what grëls were and worked quietly toward Inarin's restoration. The Order of Randen Faction Order of Randen The fastest-growing power in the Maan empire at AC 50, the Order of Randen is a religious-political apparatus that co-opts the theology of Randenism and transforms it into a deb... destroyed them in the Month of Life Event The Month of Life The Month of Life was a twenty-day pogrom against the Annil people of the Maan empire carried out in year 36 After the Chaos, escalating from state-authorised citizen safety pat... pogrom on Ressor Cosmology The Two Moons Two moons attend Elshore: Liir, the near and swift one, and Ressor, the far and slow one. Day, AC 36, then immediately captured their name for a sub-order of its own: the Protectors of the Grël, who hunt for a grël they cannot identify, believing it to be a powerful weapon rather than the living administrator it actually is.
Key traits
- The original Guardians were founded by Annils and sympathetic Maan People Maan The most numerous people of Elshore and the baseline cultural reference of the age. at the start of the Maan empire era to protect the grël and guard the hibernating Inarin leaders from discovery and destruction.
- Guardians knew the true nature of the grël and taught a rotation-based post-guard system, using non-Maan-issued access tags and Iru People Iru The progenitors, and the only naturally evolved people of Elshore.-legacy infrastructure to move unseen inside the ISEMH.
- The order was exterminated by the Order of Randen during the Ressor Day pogrom of AC 36; the last surviving Guardian has remained at his post for fourteen years, unaware the institution is extinct.
- The Order of Randen captured the Protectors name on the same day and created a sub-order with the mission inverted: hunt for the grël as a weapon, not protect it as a living system.
- The captured-form Protectors maintain a visible presence in Jarabiir Place Jarabiir The terrace-city of the upper Abasa, cut into a shoulder of the Spine of the World in stepped courts that catch the sun the mountains try to keep. and are popularly believed to supply cures unavailable from the Medika; their members do not know what a grël is.
- The two orders are irreconcilable in purpose: one preserved with understanding, the other hunts in ignorance wearing a stolen badge.