Oasis Wayfarers
While that is great and all, I believe the Wayfarers probably save more lives every year by helping proliferate accurate maps and star charts to let people find known water source, and I can definitely respect this."-Basim, Confederate Satyr Apothecary And Reagent Dealerby Me with Hero Forge"Finally some Tenders that I don't mind tossing a coin to! Most Tenders, I've met are overly soft, if not outright cowardly, refusing to fight at all and barely willing to put in a hard day's work. On the other side of the river, their few holy warriors are usually affiliated with the Paladins. The Oasis Wayfarers have the courage to wield a blade and the restraint not to abuse it. The bard's tales love to sing songs of Oasis Wayfarers heroically fighting to keep brigands or monsters from camping near oases or saving lost travelers at the last minute by finding them and bringing them life saving water.
The Oasis Wayfarers are an unorthodox offshoot of the Wayfarers which are an unorthodox offshoot of the Tenders.
Mera is the goddess of many different things, including water. The Wayfarers are Tenders who serve Mera by helping safeguard major ocean travel routes.
The Oasis Wayfarers are a landlocked step-sibling of the mainstream Wayfarers. They share the goals of honoring Mera by safeguarding water, but their methods and daily practices are very different because ocean travel and desert travel are very diferent. The Oasis Wayfarers' mission is to make sure that the oases and water sources of the Great Colassian Desert are as accessible as possible to those who need them.
Mera, named by Zeta Gardner
Structure
A weakness of the Oasis Wayfarers is their extreme decentralization.
Basically, the Oasis Wayfarers are independent adventurers who volunteer their sweat and blood to help safeguard desert trave routes. Wayfarers can receive free or discounted supplies and equipment from allied Mera Temples but they are essentially a collection of independent agents.
The informal leaders among the Oasis Wayfarers are those theurgists or mages who have mastered the rare but valuable magical ability of overland flight making them able to traverse the desert much faster and easier than anyone else. Those that can scry or magically create water are also greatly valued.
The vast majorities of the wayfarers have to rely on horses and camels though. Their symbol is a blue camel.
Culture
The Oasis Wayfarers balance an altruistic desire to help others with a desire to encourage self-reliance.
Since the Wayfarers are expected to put in a lot of field work in the desert, and the order is not exactly swimming in money, formal insignia and uniforms are not practical but they often try to incorporate blue dyed items into their desert gear.
Public Agenda
"To ensure that all travelers in the desert can know the mercy and sustenance of Mera's benevolence"
Which is a fancy way of saying, to make sure people don't die of starvation in the desert.
They would never say the quiet part out loud, but when they say "people" they mean "people aligned with the Colassian Confederacy."
Few are upset if goblins, orcs, or kobolds perish in the desert. Even fewer are upset if dark elves or dabeshi perish of thirst in the desert.
History
The great war between the Colassian Confederacy and the dark elves of Kahdisteria drug on for over a century.
The Great Colassian Desert saw near constant fighting, but mostly on a small scale with skirmishes between dozens of combatants rather than armies of thousands. As humans go, the Greater Mereshnari Tribe are true natives of the desert but they didn't have the numbers or resources to defend their desert in times of war by themselves.
The Mereshnari are traditionally very independent, so they relied on their Confederate allies for organization and equipment. As the groups integrated, more non-Mereshnari had to enter the desert to aid their allies. After the war with the dark elves drew to an uneasy close, the Colassian Confederacy collectively decided that greater cooperation between the Mereshnari and their less sandy allies was needed. Which meant more people than ever needed to traverse the desert, sometimes without the requisate years of experience in desert survival that that the Mereshnari grow up with.
Before the war, the various human human nations were pretty isolated from each other. After the war, many friendships, alliances, and sometimes marriages were formed between groups.
Seeking to live up the heroic example of their parents and mentors, the children of the old war heroes, both by blood and by lineages of wisdom wanted to keep their swords sharp and many of the more Mera-centric young heroes and heroines of the new generation ending up forming the new core of the Oasis Wayfarers with the skills and values they were taught.
Demography and Population
The Oasis Wayfarers claim at least a few members from every corner of the Colassian Confederacy but the majority of them naturally come from lands that are near the desert. The Mereshnari are generally friendly with the Oasis Wayfarers, but surprisingly few Wayfarers are Mereshnari themselves.
Non-humans are not explcitly forbidden, but well over 90% of the Oasis Wayfarerers are human.
A disportionately high number of the Oasis Wayfarers are the children or grandchildren of the unions of different tribes and nations of Confederate humans, many are half-Mereshnari, half something else which is ironic as the Mereshnari have a modest but noticeable cultural bias against this sort of "blood mixing".
Military
Mera is a peaceful goddess and many of her followers are pacifists or have pacifistic tendencies, but the Oasis Wayfarers are certainly not pacifists. All too often, safeguarding an oasis means stabbing a monster with a scimitar or spear.
Religion
The Oasis Wayfarers are sponsored and supported by several Mera temples, but their members are not drawn exclusively from Tender groups. Anyone interested in their broad mission of safeguarding desert travel roads as long as their values are not grossly in violation of Mera's tenets.
This is my entry for Splash 2024
Type
Religious, Holy Order
Official State Religion
Parent Organization
Deities
Location
Official Languages
Related Species
Related Ethnicities
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