The Concord is perfect. Our duty is to keep it so.

Core Concept

The Heartwood Circle are the traditionalist, isolationist, and defensive heart of Arborian society. They are the monks, rangers, and deep-lore keepers who believe that the Sylvan Concord is a sacred, perfected state of being, and their primary duty is to protect its purity from all external and internal corruption. They are the immune system of the World-Soul, and they view any significant change, even one born of good intentions, with deep suspicion.

Species

• Primary: Arborians (exclusively orthodox).

Ideology (Faith / Fiction)

• Core Faith: “The Unbroken Harmony.” Their worldview is one of reverent preservation. They believe the World-Soul’s evolution has reached its most perfect state, and that any further interference, especially from “short-lived” species with their chaotic ambitions, risks introducing a fatal dissonance into the grand symphony. Their highest virtue is not creation, but stewardship.

• Core Fiction: “The Parable of the Wilted Branch.” Their most potent cautionary tale tells of a legendary Arborian bio-smith who, in an act of hubris, attempted to “improve” upon a World-Tree by grafting a faster-growing, more vibrant branch onto its ancient trunk. The graft took, but its aggressive growth threw the entire tree’s ecosystem out of balance, causing a blight that took millennia to heal. This story is the foundation of their deep conservatism and their suspicion of the Sylvan Crusade’s expansionist goals.

Goals & Motivations

• To protect the borders of the Sylvan Concord from all intruders, be they technological (the Hegemony) or ideological (missionaries of other faiths).
• To study and catalog the deep, ancient life forms of the Concord, believing that all necessary wisdom is already contained within their world.
• To act as the “antibodies” of the World-Soul, identifying and purging invasive species, blights, and heretical ideas that threaten the Concord’s internal harmony.

Player Interaction

• The Path of the Guardian: Joining the Heartwood Circle is to become a protector of a living world. Your quests will be defensive: patrolling the borders, cleansing blighted groves, researching the nature of ancient, slumbering bio-forms, and investigating any unauthorized off-world contact. They are a faction of immense knowledge and subtle power, but their rigid isolationism can make them seem xenophobic and slow to act in a crisis.