the Cyclekeepers

The Cyclekeepers

“A soul unfinished must turn again. We are the keepers of that return.”
— High Archivist Rymra, Dawn of the 9th Thread

Overview

The Cyclekeepers are a revered and enigmatic order dedicated to the convergence and continuity of souls across lifetimes. They operate as midwives of birth and death, archivists of reincarnation, and guardians of soul-integrity. Where others see death as an end, the Cyclekeepers see it as a turning wheel—one in need of balance, cleansing, and proper memory alignment.

They believe each soul returns through Aeternum many times, leaving traces—echoes of grief, triumph, sin, or love. These echoes can distort rebirth if left unresolved. To prevent this, the Cyclekeepers maintain the Resonant Loom, a mystical construct said to record every soul’s prior passage, storing fragments too raw or dangerous to carry forward.

Their duty is not to prevent pain, but to thread memory properly—ensuring reincarnating souls return purified, balanced, and ready for the burdens they are meant to carry in the next life.

Core Tenets

  1. All souls return. But not all return whole.

  2. Memory must be weighed, not erased.

  3. Guidance begins at first breath, and does not end at last.

  4. No birth is new. No death is wasted.

  5. The cycle is sacred. Do not break it for power.

Roles within the Order

  • Threadkeepers – Historians who read lifelines from birth to death, identifying patterns of soul-resonance.

  • Soulmidwives – Gentle guides who aid the passage of souls into and out of life, often present at both births and funerals.

  • Whisperwombs – Sanctified caves or temple-crypts where the soul’s resonance is recorded during transitional moments.

  • Cradlewrights – Spiritual midwives who determine which memories must be repressed, kept, or reborn in a new vessel.

  • Shearwrights – Specialists tasked with cutting harmful echo-loops from corrupted soul cycles.

  • Archivists of Return – Elders who carry many lifetimes of memory and oversee major soul alignments across entire provinces.

Structure & Influence

The Cyclekeepers are organized around the Loom Temples structures often found near borders between worlds—mountains, crypt-lakes, ancient birthing hollows. From here, soulwatchers chart celestial alignments, memory tides, and birth-echo disturbances.

At the center of their influence is The Vaultstream Pillar, the place all new players begin—an ancient spire believed to be the crossing point between lives, worlds, and forms. Every soul born here is thought to be marked for a greater return.

They rarely interfere in politics, but their judgments are final in spiritual disputes, naming inheritance, and soul-claim lineage. Many nobles fear their pronouncements, for they can discredit an entire bloodline by proving a false or broken soul thread.

Associated Classes

  • Soulmidwife – Guides and protectors of soul resonance at the edge of birth and death.

  • Glimmerscour – Inspectors of emotional residue and soul falsification.

  • Chorusbound – Carriers of sacred memory threads, often binding the living to the soul-song of their former selves.

  • Eidomancer – Those who speak with past selves, using the cycle’s echoes to fuel magic.

  • Fragmentalist – Soul-historians who help unravel the snarls of memory and guide proper convergence.

Important Locations

  • Vaultstream Pillar – The epicenter of soul convergence, a mystical structure where memory flows are strongest and new incarnations begin.

  • The Loom Temples – Sacred sites where soul threads are read and recorded. Found atop cliffs, deep within womb-like roots, or beneath glowing skyfalls.

  • Wreathpoint – A sacred lake said to reflect a person’s former life upon its surface during the last breath.

  • The Cradle Spiral – A labyrinthine underground passage for the newly reincarnated to walk alone before taking on their new name.

  • The Echo Pools – Still waters where lingering emotions are drawn out of the dying, to be processed and archived for the next life.

Relations to Other Factions

  • Allied with:

    • The Whispered Path, who assist in gathering spiritual secrets needed to rethread lives.

    • The Altarbound, for their devotion to the purity of spiritual essence.

    • The Prism Wardens, whose soul-reflections aid in tracking distortions in the cycle.

  • Opposed by:

    • The Ledger Guild, who commodify memory and disrupt natural convergence. (mixed relation)

    • The Ashbinders’ Guild, who bind grief into steel and trap echoes that should pass on.

    • The Mire Echoes, whose obsession with the drowned past endangers the clarity of rebirth.

Secrets and Rumors

  • It is whispered that some Cyclekeepers can refuse a soul’s return, effectively damning it to oblivion.

  • A hidden sect within the order, known as the Unravelers, is said to destroy corrupted soul loops—wiping them from the Loom entirely.

  • The Vaultstream Pillar may not be the start of rebirth, but a prison built to contain something that remembers too much.

  • Some believe the Cyclekeepers secretly guide the fate of Aeternum, ensuring certain souls rise and fall across ages to maintain balance.