The Gloamguard

“In silence we serve. In shadow we see. In death, we deliver.”

I. The Purpose of the Gloamguard

In an age where souls linger and the boundary between life and death thins with each pulse of the Convergence, there are still those who honor the old rites. They call themselves the Gloamguard — wardens of twilight, shepherds of endings.

Neither zealots nor soldiers, the Gloamguard are morticians of the spirit, tending to the dead as one tends to sacred gardens. They cleanse corruption not with fire or blade, but with understanding, performing rites so ancient that even gods pause to listen. To them, death is not failure—it is fulfillment. What terrifies others is, to them, a sacred trust.

Where others see horror in ghosts and ghouls, they see grief unspoken.
Where others seal tombs in fear, they open them in compassion.

Their faith revolves around Charon, ferryman of the Underworld — not as a god to be worshiped, but as a symbol of the eternal duty: to guide those who cannot cross alone. It is said that when a Gloamguard dies, a silver coin appears upon their tongue, proof that their passage has been earned.

II. Kaida Katsuragi – The Blade of Still Waters

Once a monk of the Azure Monastery, Kaida Katsuragi learned serenity from silence—until the storm came. When the cursed tempest struck her homeland, it warped her master into a shrieking husk of faith. Kaida’s blade ended him not in hatred, but in mourning. That act—half mercy, half rebellion—birthed the Gloamguard.

Her leadership is calm but unyielding. To her, every fallen creature, no matter how monstrous, deserves release. She wields her silence like a weapon; words from her are rare, but when she speaks, even the dead listen.

III. The First Disciple – Kohaku of the Foxfire Veil

Kohaku, chosen by fox spirits, wields illusion not to deceive, but to comfort. Her mirages ease restless souls by recreating familiar sights from their former lives—an echo of home to guide them to peace. She drifts between worlds, veiled in saffron light, her laughter as soft as incense smoke.

Some whisper that she learned her art not from mortals, but from the same spectral foxes who dance in Charon’s wake.

IV. Lorenala – Dream of the Forest

Lorenala was never born. She happened. A consciousness spun from the dreams of the Vermosa Trees, she walks as a living vision of serenity. To mortals, she appears as an ethereal woman with eyes like dew under moonlight. Her presence stills tempers, softens grief, and draws forth the truths people hide even from themselves.

From her quiet seat at the Whisperwind Tavern, she listens to travelers’ dreams and weighs their fates. Some call her an oracle, others a muse. The Gloamguard call her their anchor—the breath between life and death.

V. Eleithyia Anwar – The Winged Candle

A seraph cleric devoted to the Great Dragon Cassiopeia, Eleithyia embodies sacrifice. Her wings are charred from countless burnings—each flame a prayer offered for another’s safety. She believes salvation must be earned through endurance, that light means nothing without pain to define it. Many say she is too pure for this world; she insists that purity is a burden, not a blessing.

Her faith brings her often into conflict with Kaida’s pragmatism, yet their bond endures. Together, they balance compassion and judgment—the two scales of the Gloamguard creed.

VI. Practices and Rituals

The Gloamguard operate sanctuaries called Bone Gardens, places of quiet beauty where the remains of the fallen are tended as though they were seeds of new life. Lanterns carved from polished femurs hang above shallow pools of consecrated water, each flame representing a soul safely ferried to the next shore.

Their rites are slow and deliberate: cleansing with salt and shadow, guiding with hymns sung backward in forgotten tongues. When a soul resists passage, the Gloamguard never force it—they negotiate. A whispered apology often works better than any exorcism.

They are not without controversy. Rumors persist that every rite they perform exacts a coin of passage from the soul—a toll paid to ensure safe journey. Whether symbolic or literal, the Gloamguard do not deny it. They simply say, “Every road demands its due.”

VII. Enemies and the Burden of Mercy

No feud burns brighter than the Gloamguard’s war with Project Black Star. To them, the creation of Echo Constructs is sacrilege—a perversion of natural rest. They see Black Star’s constructs as kidnapped souls, bound in cages of steel and data. Kaida has sworn to one day descend into their laboratories and perform the last rites herself.

Necromancers, corpse-summoners, and soul traffickers alike fear the Gloamguard, not because they are cruel, but because they are inevitable. When the Gloamguard come, it is not vengeance they bring—it is closure.

VIII. Doctrine of the Gloamguard

“To lay the dead to rest is mercy.
To remind the living of death is wisdom.
To walk between both is duty.”

The Gloamguard believe that the Convergence corrupts not just the living but also the concept of endings. As the worlds bleed together, souls lose direction—becoming echoes, revenants, and mindless horrors. Their sacred mission is not to fight the Convergence, but to stabilize it through death—closing the rifts one spirit at a time.

Kaida teaches that even the Convergence must end eventually, and that when that day comes, it will be the Gloamguard who carry its corpse across the river.

IX. Closing Excerpt from the Book of Still Waters

“The living fear the dark because they cannot see.
The dead fear the light because it shows them what they’ve lost.
We are the ferrymen between both.
We do not judge.
We simply deliver.”