8.6.9 the Praadi

Arising from the ashes of the Druidic guild within the Heartwood, the Praadi are the awakened guardians of Dia'ruis that stride the ancient forests. Known amongst their people as augurs and spiritwalkers, the Praadi aim to protect the lands of Dia'ruis and enact the will of their masters: the Praadi an-Kiar and the spirits within that claim dominion over that fledgling plane. Situated beneath the whole of the Great Oak, the murmured song and rituals of the Praadi can be heard, reverberating throughout the ancient Heartwood.

United in their reverence for the Cycle and the plane of Life, the Praadi encompass three distinct paths of service, each drawing upon different aspects of nature's eternal struggle between life and death. These devoted servants stand as watchers of an old world and do not give quarter to those who move against them in their sacred task.

The Shamans among the Praadi serve as awakened seers of Dia'ruis, fervent priests of life, death, and the ever-turning Cycle. Blooded in the ancient rites of Shamanism, Primality, and Naturalism, the Shamans stand as weavers of old oaths, bending nature to their will and calling upon the Rhythm itself in battle. Invoking the spirits through Shamanism, they deliver foul portents in battle, while Primality allows them to wield primordial elements and scourge the very lifeforce from their foes. Through Naturalism, they command the forests themselves, calling forth overgrowth that spreads in a tide of seething life across the earth.

The Runecarvers represent nature's darker twin, serving as fervent priests of mortality, decay, and rot alongside life. These sagacious ritualists claim the wild places as their home, drawing power from the less savoury aspects of the wild world through their mastery of Malediction, Sporulation, and Runelore. By attuning themselves to the subtle turn of the Cycle, Runecarvers weave terrible curses that plague their foes with illness and insanity, cultivate living spores in fungal shamanism, and call upon utilitarian magic through primitive runic symbols, understanding that without Death, there can be no Life.

The Sylvans stand as brutish warriors bound by an oath of vengeance on behalf of Life Herself, transfigured into honourary Fae by the magic that binds them to their promise. These savage predators serve as vessels of Dia'ruian fury through their mastery of Glamours, Caprice, and Extirpation, wielding raw Fae magic to forge binding oaths, speaking the incomprehensible language of High Fae, and practicing an animalistic combat style that employs brutal blows and deceptive feints, making them inexorable avengers capable of shrugging off wounds in unstoppable pursuit of their prey.

While each path within the Praadi embraces different aspects of nature's will, all understand that nature strives for balance through duality. Life and death, growth and decay, creation and destruction - these forces work in eternal harmony within the Cycle, and the Praadi serve as guardians of this sacred equilibrium against all who would disturb it.