Welcome to Cheshire's Guidebook! Today I will be delving into the most mysterious of tribes, the Waerd, their culture and religion!
Here I will be putting my info/lore junkie ways to the test by providing those who plan to play Waerd by choice or by the harsh reality of domain selection with a perspective on the Waerd that may help you find a way to make the Waerd mesh with your Elyrian dreams. Want to try your hand at Conquest? The Waerd offer one of the most unique playstyles for those looking to expand their influence by force. Commerce more your thing? The Waerd communal nature can be a huge boon to both crafters and far flung traders alike. While many look at the Waerd and become wary at seeing things like "no pitched battles" and "communal property" and freak out, the Waerd actually have some interesting ways to make that work for them. All you need is a little perspective.
The Importance of Settlements
Let us begin by tackling the first of the two societal theme tags of the Waerd. Their primary tag being Civic. Civic means the tribe's primary focus is on the development of their own settlements. Waerd settlements are often built into the faces of desert cliffs and the surrounding lands, so expect a more vertical flow to the settlement in a similar manner to the Kypiq. Rather than spread out, the Waerd build up the cliff face. This can lead to very interesting and defensible set ups for Waerd. More so since the Waerd also dig into the cliff face with their mines and wells, similar to the Hrothi. In a sense, the Waerd take some of the best defensive elements of both the Kypiq and Hrothi and put them together. Keep this in mind when planning your settlement layout and expansion.
To the Waerd, their home settlement is everything. It is their family and home. To some, it is even their business! Unlike other tribes where multiple separate families live in a settlement, the Waerd view their entire settlement as one big family. All Waerd of the "Told" social rank and up are part of this Settlement Family. This makes the settlement leader (Mayor, Count, etc) the head of the family and all other Told+ are members of the family. That means all Waerd from the same settlement benefit from family bonuses such as skill bolstering, death-sense and tethering, and what is probably one of their greatest strengths, family chat.
What does this mean? It means that when two+ Waerd from the same settlement are in proximity to one another, they provide each other with a skill bolstering buff, making it much easier and beneficial for the Waerd to work together in all that they do. This also means that when a Waerd from the settlement dies, the other Waerd from that Settlement will know and be able to assist the soul of the fallen in finding its way back to its body.
What makes the Waerd amazing to me though is this last bit, the Family Chat. This chat has a range that continental. As long as they remain on the same continent, Waerd from the same settlement can communicate with one another and pass actionable information between each other. What is actionable information? In CoE, information is a commodity like any other. It can be passed from one character to another, thus giving that character the knowledge as well. This is what makes it so powerful. Actionable information cannot be passed through third parties like Discord, only through the in game chat systems.
Here is an example. Say a Neran and a Waerd each witness a crime together. For the Neran to get the word out and report the crime, they would need to go to other characters and pass on that information of what they witnessed. The Waerd on the other hand need not move at all, simply conveying this information to all other Waerd from their settlement through family chat. This means that all the other Waerd from that settlement will know the same things as the one who witnessed the crime, such as the criminal's identity, and be able to act on it to dish out justice. To the game, they have the information needed to act against the criminal, aka a Bounty Token. Going back to that Neran, say they tried to tell everyone in their discord who the criminal was and other players attacked the criminal without first getting the actionable information in game that the person was a criminal. This would make their retaliation illegal murder, making those who attacked the criminal criminals themselves. The Waerd and their people need not worry about this.
Pretty neat eh? But what about the communal property thing? No need to worry, I've got the breakdown on that too! Since Waerd of the Told+ in the same settlement are all considered family, this means that the Waerd view property in a familial sense too. Think about your own family growing up. Your siblings and/or parents could and often would touch and handle things that may technically have been yours, but it wasn't a crime for them to do so. Look at it this way, say your brother came into your room and started playing your guitar. Now, some of you may be like "I'd smack the shit out of him" but seriously, is what they're doing a crime? No. Not like if some random stranger came in and did the same. The Waerd view each other (Told+) as family and more or less allow their family to use their things, this however does not mean they may take those things! If your brother came into your room and then proceeded to run off with your guitar, that'd be theft.
Now, some may see this as an annoyance if they have to put up with family barging in and out all the time touching their things, but with proper city planning, I think this communal property thing can really work out. For instance, instead of having numerous smiths working at forges all across the city, it would most beneficial for the Waerd to instead put all those forges together in a communal space. Why? For a number of reasons! First of them being the skill bolstering of family. All those smiths working together and bolstering each others skills would be a huge boon for the family! Why have one master smith when you could have a dozen eh? This also puts all relevant tools of the trade in one place, making the communal sharing of tools much easier and safer.
Safer? Well think about it. Some worry about theft in Waerd settlements, but if all the blacksmithing tools are kept in one communal place, it would make Waerd walking around with smithing tools and supplies stand out elsewhere in the city, making it easier to spot potential thieves in the settlement, and with the family chat, figuring out who is walking off with things they shouldn't be would be much easier to do. Through some self policing, the Waerd could be extremely difficult to steal from. Those who get caught stealing can also be excommunicated from the family as well, essentially being demoted to the ranks of the Named in Waerd society and thus loosing all communal family access and benefits. A lone Waerd is little more than slightly buffer desert Neran.
In the end, my advice for settlement building is to view the settlement as a familial estate or family run business rather than a town of several different families and sub communities. The Waerd are at their strongest working together as a family and having a city layout conducive to that will make your people a lot happier and oh so potent in all they do. As a Waerd Player, I need to keep in mind the importance of the settlement as a whole and look at the family as my character rather than the individual body I inhabit.
The Integration of Church and State
The Waerd's second theme tag is Political. This theme means the tribe focuses a lot on information, travel and communication. The Waerd's politics are vastly different from other tribes and is strongly influenced by their history and religious values. Historically speaking, the Waerd were once part of the Erishe tribe, but betrayed the Erishe during the second Godswar, siding with the Qin of war instead of the Erishe's patron Erathor, Qin of the Desert. The Waerd lost this war hard. This led to the Waerd's exile from their hot semi arid desert homeland and eventual settling of the cold semi arid desert. The extreme temperature shifts from hot days to freezing nights was far too drastic for the early Waerd and would of been the end of them if not for the intervention of the Two-Fold Queen. The Queen taught the Waerd how to find water and shelter in cliff caves and in return, the Waerd swore their allegiance to the Two-Fold Queen as enforcers of balance.
The Waerd have sworn off taking sides in wars since their utter defeat in the second godswar, preventing them from gaining the benefits of participating in the pitched battle mechanics of CoE. While the Waerd can still engage in guerrilla warfare and can still defend their settlements from siege, they avoid fighting in pitched battles. Keep this in mind when war comes to your door. Instead of meeting armies out in the desert expanse, fortify your settlements and ambush their supply lines. With so few resources in the desert outside of the settlements, your enemies will not be able resupply in the field to keep up their war efforts for long.
So that's how their history impacts them, now how about their religion? The Waerd's faith in the Two-Fold Queen is a key motivating force for much of what they do. The Waerd see themselves as enforcers of balance and the Queen's will. When the Waerd act, they do so both subtly and harshly. The leaders of the Waerd look to the Queen for guidance, often using drugs to induce visions which they use to interpret the Queen's will. A good example of this would be in the 2018 Queen's Gaze story Ilnajaren. In this story, a Waerd leader (My guess is a Baron) saw a vision of death claiming many Neran lives, and sent a Waerd Assassin out to find the cause of all this death and put a stop to it. While the Waerd see death as a tool for balance, so much death can throw the balance off, thus the Waerd sought to find the cause of these deaths and put an end to it. This story also demonstrates that while the Waerd are reclusive, they still take interest in the matters of other tribes and will try to enforce the balance in lands of other tribes.
The Waerd are an interesting tribe in the political arena. They dislike outsiders in their lands but are all too willing to poke their daggers into the affairs of other tribes if the balance is at stake. The Waerd also send many of their people abroad into other lands as merchants, tutors and assassins.
While the Waerd care little for wealth in the form of money, they value information highly. With their ability to transfer actionable information across the continent instantaneously, information is seen as a far more valuable currency when dealing with outsiders.This doesn't mean that the Waerd can't have wealthy merchant enterprises, this just means that their motivation for making such a thing is in the information their traders can gather abroad rather than the money and goods. Think about it, with traders all across the continent being able to exchange information with other Waerd from their settlement who are also travelling abroad, the Waerd can more effectively control and manipulate markets to their own ends. The Waerd know the trade language "Neran" as well, making them pretty well suited to the life of a merchant, even if they are doing it for the gossip and information they can gather abroad more than the jingle of coin.
The Waerd are also known for their tutors, and for good reason too! With their ability to transfer information between each other, the Waerd have the closest thing to Google in all of Elyria. The bastard you're tutoring need to learn about Architecture? The Tutor merely contacts their settlement's architect and asks them for the information needed. The tutor themselves may not know a thing about architecture beforehand!
This ability also works well for the professions of couriers, researchers, explorers and even the infamous spies and assassins among the Waerd. It pays to be an enforcer of the Two-Fold Queen's will.
Waerd society is broken up by social ranks that differ rather vastly from other tribe societies. At the bottom of Waerd society are the Named. The Named are those who have yet to give themselves over to the Waerd community and Two-Fold Queen's will. These are the children who have yet to make such a commitment, Waerd who have chosen the life of an Outsider, and the Outsider tribes themselves who have chosen to settle in Waerd lands. The only way up in Waerd society is to become one with the community by giving your property over to the community and ceremonially giving up your name. This makes it so your property now falls under the family rules talked about before. In other tribes, owning land is required to move up in society, but for the Waerd, giving up your land to the community is what moves you up in society. This makes you one of the Told.
The Told are the second from the bottom but are the lowest class of those who have officially become one with the Waerd. The Told work together to carry out the will of the Two-Fold Queen and to support one another in surviving and thriving in the harsh deserts and shrub lands of Elyria. What about their names though? While the Told still might use their names when interacting with outsiders, the Waerd prefer to refer to each other by profession. So if you were a Blacksmith, you would be called Blacksmith by other Waerd. Settlement names are often used as surnames if needed, so in SBS's example of a Blacksmith from Copperhead, you would be called Blacksmith Copperhead.
Next up are the Set, which take the place of Mayors and Barons in Waerd society. The Set are essentially community organizers who keep their settlements running smoothly and see to the needs of their settlement families. They are essentially the head of their families and have the authority of such. Those who also serve as Barons enforce the will of the Queen.
The Familiar are the final tier of Waerd society. These are your Counts and Dukes. The Familiar coordinate multiple settlement families together and guide their Set in following the will of the Two-Fold Queen. The Familiar interpret the will of the Queen, and pass on her orders to the Set who drive their communities towards her will. In a way, the Familiar are sort of like the priesthood of the Two-Fold Queen while the Set and Told are her following.
In the end, the Waerd seem to view the matters of church and state as one in the same. This is an important perspective to acknowledge when dealing with the Waerd as well as thriving as the Waerd.
The Waerd at Home
The layout of Waerd settlements being vertical is sure to provide inspiring views for the Waerd who chooses to stay and support their settlement at home. The Waerd aren't all doom and gloom like some believe. The Arts are of the Waerd can be religious, informational like a depiction of anatomy, or it can be made to challenge the perspective with optical illusion, opening the mind to a more flexible way of thinking and giving a fresh perspective of a world that often misunderstands Waerd by lacking this flexible perspective themselves.
The Waerd also enjoy singing and chanting, often in pairs or quartets! I'm personally excited to hear a Waerd a cappella group in action!
At home, the Waerd typically stick to the robes of their people for comfort in their desert home. The Waerd don't value outward appearances like non-Al'tifali tribes do, a trait they share with their Queen worshiping friends the Dras.
To escape the heat, the Waerd dig into their cliffs for shade and to find water, a valuable commodity in the desert for sure. Finding and keeping their resources in their settlements makes it easier for the Waerd to withstand siege while invaders starve and dehydrate out in the desert wastes.
These mines the Waerd create are also home to some valuable metals and substances not found in Hrothic mines. The Waerd are even known to have access to explosive substances mined in their tunnels which are then used to make things like fire and smoke bombs.
The Waerd also enjoy communal schools, with knowledge shared freely among their own people. Drawing from the knowledge collected by the Waerd abroad, the Waerd can easily prove to be one of the most well educated tribes out there!
Some Waerd schools are made available to outsiders, like their renown combat schools, but in return, the Waerd often ask a steep price in the form of information. If you can bring information of value to the Waerd, they may just teach you a thing or two.
The Waerd Abroad
Not all Waerd choose to live in the communal settlements however, even those who still choose to become one with the Waerd may choose to travel or live abroad. These Waerd are an important part of the Waerd community despite living outside the settlements. A Waerd abroad collects information the Waerd back home would otherwise not have access to.
This is key to the Waerd's ability to monitor the balance of the world at large while also providing the settlement with the valuable commodity of information which can be used to help the settlement's other pursuits, whether they be commercial, research, warfare or otherwise.
The Waerd abroad normally wears a travelling outfit that is uniform with other Waerd travelling outfits to better hide their identity from other tribes. However, the Waerd are also renowned masters of disguise and will sometimes adopt the clothes and appearance of the tribes they seek to integrate with. So if you wish to wear something other than the Waerd's traditional clothing, perhaps the life abroad is what you seek!
Even far from home, the Waerd supports their community and their community supports them. If you need information, guidance, or even some supplies, do not be afraid to call home and ask for assistance. We are Waerd, and we will provide what assistance we can, so long as it doesn't harm the rest of the community to do so.
In Conclusion
So ends my first pass at a guide to the Waerd. I hope to expand upon and refine what I have here with future posts. For now, just keep in mind that the Waerd are a collective that comes with a unique perspective of the world other tribes lack. For best results, look at how you can benefit your community as a whole rather than pursuing personal gains. A Waerd who cares only for themselves will find their existence to be a lonely one without the many boons of family.
What I have shared above may sound like a lot of roleplay, but like all lore in CoE, they are intended to be backed by mechanics. Take advantage of the Waerd's communal abilities to become a true powerhouse in the political arena that is Elyria and respect the culture, for without it, the Waerd will likely lose all these benefits which are rooted in their history and religion.
Live well my friends!
Cheshire
