Gravewards

A clerical organization devoted to Melara in the Holy Kaelthian Republic. Also exists throughout much of the Federated Nations, but the two organizations have different leadership. They cooperate as needed, but only with some friction. Their organizational structures and duties are very similar, however.

The Gravewards, although largely peaceful, is a militant order and its members are trained in the use of weapons (especially the shovel-axe which serves as a badge of office as well as a ceremonial and practical tool). Many can cast some form of spell (usually healing or preservation, rarely offensive), but clerics and paladins are few in relative number. Those with full powers (whether Oath-born or channeled) tend to join the Dead-hunters branch.

Structure

Two main arms

• healing/tending graves. The higher-prestige branch.
• Dead-hunters (necromancer-hunters, undead slayers).

Duties

• Tend graveyards. Many of the members wander throughout the land, tending and sanctifying graveyards. Others, especially near larger towns, are stationary.
• Hunt necromancers. Those that would defile the dead must be destroyed.
• Heal the wounded and sick, especially of wasting diseases caused by exposure to necromantic or abyssal energies.
• Maintain the records of the people. Records of births, deaths (especially deaths), marriages, and apprenticeships are recorded in rolls kept by the Gravewards.