Wildling Way

"It is a mistake to assume the Wildling Way is in any way related to the Druids of Heath. There is no pantheon, no group of Gods vying or scrabbling among mortals, seeking patrons, among their followers, for glory. It is not totemic, nor animalistic, like some primitive species, and cultures, are so terribly fond of. In fact, it is nearly impossible to explain or describe. Were one to ask the various small villages and silent, solitary woodsies that infest the northern Sikasoon Ranges, precisely what the Wildling Way is - they will give you only a strange look, and one answer. It is a way of Balance."

- Brother Korbin, The Seductive Calls: A Monograph on False Religions

Wild Magic

Known to only a few scattered settlements in the Northern Sikasoons, those who follow the Wildling Way are hard to count or quantify. They move constantly, save for a few herb-witches and hedgewizards who find permanent settlements on the edges of villages. They die, usually alone, and new ones are made to replace them. While every huntsman and forester does his or her best to keep nature's balance, knowing that nature is where they draw their livelihoods, the Wildlings are the embodiment of that balance.

It is a following of feelings, of Prices. A young Wildling typically finds a singular Book among his or her possessions. The Book is unremarkable, of faded, yellowed pages and bound in tough, old leather. The script within is written in a neat, cramped style. From the Book a Wildling learns how to tap his potentials, and - though they are not mages, as such - it is a kind of energy, or magic, that they gain.

From this point on, they are seekers and actors of Balance. They ask a boon of the Magic, and the Magic gives itself to them, and always, there is a Price. The Price could be as simple as moving a badger's sett so that her kits do not become flooded by the rains, or comforting a girl who has lost a favored pet. It could be as complicated as being in a certain place at a certain time, or the murder of a certain, seemingly-innocent person. It could even ask for the Wildling's life to be given in a certain way.

Despite the randomness, and questionable morality, of the Wildling Way, it does appear to act in the best interests of the humans that wield it. When looked at from a long-term perspective, it has ever acted for the good of the many, somehow juggling the needs of Humanity with the needs of the Natural in a fiendishly complicated game.