The Capwardens

For its first century, the Capwardens were a small defensive watch whose authority was based on practical necessity. They marked safe paths, escorted travelers between fields, and drove off monsters that wandered from the fen. Their greatest early triumph came during the Hollow Winter, when raiders from the north entered the valley and found every road leading to Mossvale looping back upon itself. The Capwardens held the village gates while the boundaries confused and isolated the raiders until they surrendered. The watershed moment came 61 years ago during the Ash Road Incident. A young Pathwatcher named Merra Voss secretly guided a group of starving refugees through an unapproved route. The refugees were peaceful, but one carried a cursed iron standard that disrupted the fairy pact. The safe route became visible for seven minutes, long enough for a distant army to see the village lights. The army never reached Mossvale, but slavers followed the route the next spring. They captured fourteen villagers before the Capwardens stopped them. Afterward, the village council granted the Capwardens extraordinary authority to imprison anyone who knowingly revealed a route. Since then, the organization has become more disciplined, secretive, and politically powerful. It survived two attempted infiltrations by treasure hunters, brokered a fragile truce with the Green Court, and stopped a plague cult from entering through the eastern marsh. It also endured a scandal when officers destroyed records proving that some outsiders had once been allowed into Mossvale. Today, the Capwardens are seen as necessary guardians, but their authority increasingly resembles a quiet military government.