Wildwood Lodge

Wildwood Lodge

(Organization)

Type

Religious (Old Faith)

Leader

4700–4724 AR: Valenar the Green

Headquarters

Isle of Arenway, Taldor

Goals

Protect Verduran Forest

Scope

Local

Source: Taldor, Echoes of Glory, pg(s). 6–7 (1E)
World Guide, pg(s). 129 (2E)

The Wildwood Lodge is an ancient order of druids who reside within the Verduran Forest of central Avistan.

Moot of Ages

Every year on the summer solstice, the druids of the Wildwood Lodge meet for a Moot of Ages on the Isle of Arenway in the Sellen River. For these gatherings, druids from all over Golarion travel there to present their findings to the assembled Old Faith community. Conclusions are generally not reached through logic and the enforcing of dogma, but rather by listening for and interpreting the Will of the World, the collective intelligence of nature itself.

Relations with Taldor

The central mission of the Wildwood Lodge is the protection of the Verduran Forest, particularly the parts of the massive woodland found within the borders of Taldor. Their connection to Taldor is particularly strong because of the signing of the Treaty of the Wildwood in 3841 AR.

In that treaty, the Taldan government agreed to limit their logging of the precious blackwood trees within the forest, and hand over the logging itself to the gnomes of the local town of Wispil. In exchange, the druids of the lodge agreed to help control fey attacks on loggers and oversee the gnomish logging while balancing the needs of the forest with the Taldan shipyards' desire for high-quality lumber.

This agreement was stipulated to last as long as the Taldan empire stands, and has been followed by both sides for almost 800 years to their mutual satisfaction.

The Taldan government gives the druids of the Verduran great leeway in administrating the portions of the forest within their realm, treating the region more like a semi-autonomous prefecture. Once a year they send a representative to the Isle of Arenway to reaffirm Taldor's commitment to the Treaty of the Wildwood. The envoy steps foot on the beach of the island and exchanges a symbolic bag of seeds with a senior member of the lodge for a piece of fine wood before returning downriver to Cassomir.

The government of the port city of Cassomir, where most of Taldor's navy is built, has a particularly strong relationship with the druids of the Wildwood Lodge. The latter are allowed to enter the city freely and even recruit for their organization among the city's youth. The people of Cassomir are quite aware that keeping the druids happy is vital not only to their economy, but to the safety of Taldor as a whole, as the navy is Taldor's first (and strongest) line of defense against foreign invasion.

Allies

Even though druids can be formidable combatants in their own right, the Wildwood Lodge also employs a large number of rangers to act as their intermediaries. The Lodge also has a strong connection to the elven nation of Kyonin that goes back to when the elves first returned from Sovyrian thousands of years ago.

The two groups share a mutual respect for the natural world (and forests in particular), and continue to share intelligence about the outside world, an increasingly important activity given the recent re-emergence of Tar-Baphon in 4719 AR. Rivethun dwarves from the Five Kings Mountains have also begun traveling to seek mentorship with the druids of the Wildwood Lodge lately.

Enemies

The Wildwood Lodge has a somewhat confrontational relationship with the governments of Andoran and Galt, who count portions of the Verduran Forest as part of their realms. The druids have no agreements with these nations, and they in turn plunder the forest to feed their need for lumber and other natural resources. The lodge grants representatives of these governments no protection from the fey and other dangers of the forest.

As of 4709 AR, a small circle of druids calling themselves Nature's Cataclysm had recently been causing trouble in Cassomir by working with a cult of Groetus to kidnap anyone working in the Imperial Naval Shipyards. They believe the Wildwood Lodge has given up too much of the forest to human despoilment, and seek to restore the dominance of nature.

References

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.