Winter Watchers

The Winter Watchers are a group of rangers, druids and woodsmen that act as a militia in the northern parts of Terragard. The members themselves tend to strike out on their own, and report in at Embermill or Duskfall, being the two closest towns.

After a rapid expansion in the northeast of Terragard during the first initial colonization of the region, there was a winter everseason flux that consumed the entire northern section of the continent, snows were too much for travel, and many towns froze or starved in the years of harsh winter conditions, then one day, the winter receded, and every man woman and child from those towns were either frozen solid, or missing. The only two towns to survive were Embermill and Duskwatch, still standing to this day, but expansion in the region has since halted due to fears of another winter.

History
The watchers first started their watch as rangers and druid who had settled in the region, and soon found that their jobs were harder than just saving lost travellers or providing food and blankets to the poor families in hard times. Rabid bears and wolves come down from the mountains frequently, as well as other beasts of incredible strength and size, all sick with some mad disease known as 'icerot', all of them need culled before they spread the infection. They started to notice that icerot can spread to trees and birds, as well as humans, and it posed a very real threat to all life in the area. Luckily, it only spreads if someone or something with icerot wanders down the mountainside closer to civilization.

The watchers decided to send an expedition up north into the mountains to see if they could scout out what is causing the beasts to become sick, this is how they learned that icerot was contagious to humans. Half of the rangers contracted the sickness, and slew the other half after destroying their supplies and shelter in the night. The watchers that returned told a story of how the sick, though they appeared mad and feeble, were able to band together and carry out their devious plans, quietly and with emotionless stares. They have not since returned to the mountains and seek a cure to this day so they may truly form a viable defense against its ravages should it ever slip past them into civilization.

Structure
The Winter Watchers have no figurehead, but are instead structured like a brotherhood, every member is equal in rank and has equal say in the groups actions and politics. If a member is found to be untrustworthy, they are excommunicated from the group and their name is publicly shamed.

Goals
To keep vigilant watch over the Northern mountains and protect innocent villages and people from any dangers that wander down from the mountain, as well as to maintain the equilibrium of the winter/autumn everseason regions of the forests. To provide stability to the people living on the frontier and in nearby towns, curing sickness and providing directions, supplies or food to ill-prepared travelers. Also, a primary goal of the watchers is to warn the people when winter begins to spread down from the mountains, it can quickly starve or freeze any villages who aren't warned to prepare.

Limits
Winter watchers will not bear false witness against another watcher, will not abandon any innocent to perish of sickness, exposure, beast, or any other danger of the winter forest. A winter watcher who contracts icerot is to either slay himself, or trap himself before he succumbs to the disease fully, before he becomes a danger to others. Watchers have been found in pits, stuck in bear traps, tied to trees and hung from high places, victims of the sickness from the mountains.