Shining the light of knowledge, how the Keepers play politics

The goddess Khemra's primary followers call themselves the Keepers of the Compact, which is commonly shortened into just "the Keepers" Khemra is the goddess of the sun, but the Lady of Light doesn't need her priests and priestesses to help her with physically lighting up Scarterra. She needs their help metaphorically lighting up Scarterra. Khemra is the goddess of literacy, wisdom, and tradition and these are the things most Keepers focus on bolstering in Khemra's name.

Khemra, named by Zeta Gardner

The Keepers seek Order

Khemra is a goddess of law and order, so it surprises no one, that Keepers usually try to shore up the local powers that be. Most civilized lands in Scarterra use some form of hereditary titles with a feudalistic governing model and the Keepers approve of this. They believe feudal monarchies provide a good combination of stability and flexibility.

by Me with Hero Forge
Apogee Jaromir of the Zenith, leader of the Fumayan Keepers
"Many believe that the Keepers love of law and order eclipses our love of justice and that we blindly support tyrants and oppressors. This is simply not true. We do not support the supposed 'order' of a mass grave or a slave pen. We support just rulers such as King Henryk. Khemra herself did not let her love of her order cause her to blindly serve Turoch, she led the Divine Rebellion in order to usher in a new and better Scarterra. We follow her lead and we oppose tyrants. The Kingdom of Uskala is technically orderly, but you won't see any Keepers on King Drosst's advisory panel."

by Me with Hero Forge
Norabruck Grumblespine, Dwarf Circuit Priestess of Nami
"Refusing to bend the knee to a brutal vampire king is not the flex you think it is. Damn near everyone in Scarterra disapproves of King Drosst, but until and unless I see a Keeper puts a stake through his heart, all the Keepers bluster about him is empty air. King Drosst is the worst tyrant 'alive' today, and the Keepers don't support him. Drosst is still only one man. Scarterra has lots of evil kings and queens that the Keepers can't or won't do anything about it.
Baron Alban, aka 'Baron Tollmore', does not have a mass grave of bodies underneath his throne, but he is still smothering his people with oppressive taxes and the Keepers are helping him do it. Queen Gwendolyn launched an unjust war of conquest against Fumaya and the Swynfaredian Keepers haven't so much as wagged a finger disapprovingly. 'We don't want to the orderly flow quo of the realm'. The Keepers will support good kings and queens too, don't get me wrong, but they are serving the crown on the head, not the goodness of the ruler.

The Keepers seek wisdom

Khemra is the goddess of literacy and tradition, so it makes sense that supporting education is one of the Keeper's primary political goals. Many Khemra temples boast impressive libraries and most Keeper acolytes spend a large portion of their early ecclesiastical careers working as copyists. The Keepers bend over backwards to get their own scholars in positions to tutor the sons and daughters of the nobility. While the Keepers certainly have an upper class bias, they believe that literacy is for everyone and they try to spread literacy to commoners too. They sponsor many schools to help peasants learn at least basic reading and math skills, and sometimes they give the children attending free food to help offset the fact that a child in school is not working on his/her family's farm or workshop. The Keepers value knowledge and literacy for it's sake, but they are not naïve to the fact that educating the young peasants and princes gives them a chance to inundate the next generation with Khemra-friendly values.

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Purple Cow Placeholder by Me with Midjourney
-Aurum Zara of the Dawn, chief historian of the Fumayan Keepers
I am aware that many Scarterrans don't have a flattering opinion of academics or 'scroll heads' as some like to call us. Many view us as superfluous and soft, but this is a foolish notion. Knowledge is power, and even so called soft knowledge can be surprisingly useful in the right situation. The Keepers of the Compact have more scroll heads among our ranks than any other Nonagon faction. Even if they aren't directly affiliated with us, most secular sages and academics are at least on friendly speaking terms with the Keepers and this expands our knowledge and reach.
The bureaucrats that quietly run the day-to-day operations of Scarterra are mostly drawn from or mentored by the sagely community and this indirectly gives us influence over how nations are governed."

Few Keepers would admit it openly, but they have a secret weapon to use against rulers who truly displease them. The Keepers are the foremost historians and chroniclers in all of Scarterra. Keeper historians claim to be free of bias and only concerned with the truth, but they are still mortal and thus have mortal biases which crop up in their writings. Would you rather be remembered as "Ivar the Fierce" or "Ivar the Boneless"? Whether they admit or not, many kings and queens fear alienating the Keepers simply, so that chroniclers will write about their reigns favorably.

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Keepers who play politics

The Keepers' members are divided into five orders each with a separate function: Dawn (orange), Day (yellow), Zenith (white), Dusk (red), and Eclipse (purple). Officially, the Zenith Order is the political arm of the Keepers. Keepers are not stuck in any one Order for the entirety of ecclesiastical career, and it's relatively normal for a Keeper to rotate through several orders over his/her ecclesiastical career.

by Me with Hero Forge

On paper, all five orders are equal, but in practice the Zenith Order is considered the most prestigious, so it's very common for Keepers of the other orders try to forge political connections in the hopes that they can be transferred to the Zenith Order someday. This propels the Keepers as a whole to acting more overtly political than most other Nonagon factions.

The Keepers political targets

Keepers tend to think globally and act locally. Locally they want to become an advisor to whoever the king or queen is. In the Elven Empire, the empress barely bothers pretending to care about the entire Nonagon. Keepers are found in every level of the imperial bureaucracy so much that the local Keepers are practically a branch of the government despite their paper thin veil of political neutrality. Outside the Elven Empire, the Keepers have to work harder to get a foot in the door of royal courts

by me with Midjourney

The King of Fumaya makes a point to try to curry favor with the entire Nonagon but currently, his primary diplomatic advisor is a Keeper and his chief royal investigator is also a Keeper. This is a relatively new high water for Keeper influence in Fumaya, and it may or may not last very long. If the Keepers can't get one of their own into the royal throne room, they will take a page out of the Masks' playbook and try to win over the lower level nobles starting with the dukes and working their way down the hierarchy to the barons. They also have the backdoor entrance into he halls of politics by influencing the low level bureaucrats who actually handle the day-to-day running of most Scarterran nations.

What is "the Compact" and how does it apply to the Keepers?

Symbol of the Nine by Pendrake

According to legend, "The Compact" refers to the formal agreement that the the Nine made among themselves when they agreed to rebel against Turoch and share administration of Scarterra after Turoch's demise. What exactly is or is not in the Compact is not known to mortalkind. Khemra was said to be the primary author of the Compact and is said to be the only deity among the Nine who has not broken or at least bent some point of the Compact. She still tries to use Compact to justify telling the other Nine what they should or should not be doing. Along similar lines, Khemra's priests and priestesses are all too eager to tell the priests and priestesses of the rest of the Nonagon what they should be doing. Sometimes, the other Nonagon factions find this welcome and helpful, but more often they would prefer to be left alone. Welcome or not, the Keepers are just as likely to try to broker political deals with other Nonagon factions as they with secular nobles and politicians. Between networking with secular rulers and networking with other Nonagon representatives, almost every Keeper moonlights as a diplomat at least occasionally.

Primary Related Location

Scarterra

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Related Organizations

What About Keepers among nomadic peoples?

by Eron12 with Hero Forge

Khemra's favorite nomads, the goat-like khnumar were driven to extinction during the Second Unmaking, but Khemra still has a modicum of influence among some of Scarterrans roving barbarians, most notably among the Mereshnari, the most literate and orderly barbarians you'll ever meet with desert maps that are second to none. Among nomadic peoples, Khemra priests and priestesses are the keepers of oral lore and tradition, sometimes called "The Keepers of the Way". They rarely take charge of tribes and bands, but they often serve as respected advisors to the tribal leaders. Nomadic groups with Keepers in them tend to take a long-term view of things and act carefully and deliberately. Keeper influenced nomads tend to cultivate good trading relationships with their civilized neighbors or at the very least set up a "good fences makes good neighbors" policy with them. They are still capable of harsh pragmatism and can be terrifying when their anger is roused.

Entry for WorldEmber 2025

Competition Homepage

Shining the light of knowledge, how the Keepers play politics

The Keepers seek Order

The Keepers seek wisdom

Components and tools

Participants

Keepers who play politics

The Keepers political targets

What is "the Compact" and how does it apply to the Keepers?

What About Keepers among nomadic peoples?

Entry for WorldEmber 2025

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