The Order of the Deep Watch

Off the coast of Try’Ket Island lies the smaller Ber’Ket Island, both part of the Azari Archipelago. A relatively small island, its location should make it a place of strategic interest to the surrounding nations, but it remains largely abandoned, with ships avoiding docking on the island’s only port.

The reason for this is simple: the Order of the Deep Watch makes sure of it. Beneath the island’s shifting sands lies a network of ancient, lightless caverns known as the Sunken Paths. It is there that the Order dwells, their vigilance absolute. They are the silent sentinels against a creeping dread that stirs in the deepest parts of the world, a threat so ancient and pervasive that most surface dwellers remain blissfully unaware of its existence.

The Order's origins are lost to time, predating even the oldest Vaelorian records. Legends among the neighboring desert tribes speak of a time when the island was a vibrant, fertile land, and the Sunken Paths were not a refuge but a gateway to something unspeakable. The first Watchers, it is said, were not born but forged from the very stone of the earth, imbued with the grim task of containing the Crawling Silence –an entity or force that seeks to unravel reality from below.

The Order’s training is a brutal regimen of sensory deprivation, forced meditation in utter darkness, and the mastery of what they call Stone Sense, an esoteric art that allows them to perceive vibrations through the rock, discerning the subtle movements of the earth and the monstrous things that burrow within it. They operate from a series of hidden strongholds carved directly into the living rock, their architecture stark and functional, designed for defense rather than comfort. These subterranean fortresses are interconnected by secret passages, known only to the Watchers, allowing them to patrol vast stretches of the Sunken Paths. Their weaponry is unique: heavy, blunt instruments crafted from petrified wood and magically reinforced obsidian, designed to crush rather than cut, and imbued with ancient wards against the ethereal. They rarely engage in direct combat, preferring to seal off breaches, collapse tunnels, and contain the creeping horrors before they can ever reach the surface world.

Few outsiders have ever encountered the Order of the Deep Watch, since the island’s only port is manned exclusively by hired personnel. They are not concerned with the politics of kingdoms or the squabbles of surface-dwellers; their sole focus is the unending vigil against the Crawling Silence. Some scholars theorize that the Order’s efforts are what truly prevent the world from being swallowed by the void from below, a silent, thankless sacrifice that ensures the continued existence of all life, even as their numbers dwindle and the pressure from the deep grows ever stronger.