Day of the Unseen Guardian

The Day of the Unseen Guardian is a holiday celebrated in Evergarde and certain other surrounding towns in the Sudwin Valley of Arak. It is in commemoration of an unknown Vesperkin man who sacrificed himself to save Morn Grantham, an ambassador who carried out the peace talks between the Sudwin Valley and Yzerid Desert during the Yzerid Unification War. Though those that now celebrate him do not know the true story behind the events that led to the holiday's creation.

Nearly 700 years ago, near the end of the Yzerid Unification War, Morn Grantham, a Human man in peace talks with Six Tale, the Lynoxi feudal lord of the Yzerid Desert, was in Evergarde preparing to go speak with Six Tale regarding the unification of Arak that would eventually lead to the conversion of Arak's feudal states into a single proto-democratic government. Six Tale had held out against the unification wanting to remain a sovereign state, and started a bloody war that led to many deaths.

As Morn was preparing to leave for Sunguard, a Vesperkin man by the name of Roscoe Oldwort, who had been paid by a rival of Six Tale's, a Lynoxi by the name of Fine Hide of Saltstrand, was infiltrating Evergarde's keep to plant documents that would implicate the magistrate of Evergarde in a plot against Mythwell, hoping to bring Mythwell into the conflict so that Evergarde would have to fight on two fronts, thinning their military and allowing the Yzerid to reclaim ground. Roscoe had found his way into the keep, hidden by an invisibility cloak given to him by Fine Hide, and was in the middle of planting the incriminating evidence when he was interrupted by Morn entering the room. Roscoe quickly put the documents back into his pack and attempted to leave the room. However, unbeknownst to Morn, he had been tailed by an assassin paid by an unknown party who was attempting to kill Morn.

The assassin used a wand to fire off a spell of petrification meant for Morn, but Roscoe was unfortunate enough to be standing between the two and took the hit, quickly turning him to stone. This blunder allowed Morn just enough time to shout for the Enforcers, leading to the assassin's arrest. Due to Roscoe entering undetected, it was believed by many that he was a secret bodyguard of the ambassador, though none ever discovered his true identity, as Fine Hide certainly didn't come forth to correct them in the following years. Due to the petrification, the documents intended to spark a war between Mythwell and Evergarde were turned to stone along with him.

As a result, Roscoe's petrified stone body was moved to a quaint shrine in the city thoroughfare, where the citizens of Evergarde now gather yearly on the first of Umen to commemorate his sacrifice, unaware of his intended role in the war. Citizens leave lavender at his shrine, a plant widely associated with Vesperkin and Umos, as a tribute.