keep the oaths of old
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To flesh out a Force tradition centered around radical non-attachment, spiritual compassion, and itinerant service. The Oathwardens offer an alternative Jedi legacy for RP involving pilgrim-guardians, philosophical dilemmas, and emotionally rich stories of impermanence.
- Image Credit: AI art by me
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: Cerys Dyn, Order of Shiraya
GENERAL INFORMATION
- Tradition Name: The Oathwardens
- Tradition Type: Decentralized, Monastic, Wandering
- Tradition Focus: Spiritual, Sensory, Ethical
- Influence: Solitary
- Orientation: Light
- Influence Area: N/A
- Symbol: A ring of nine diminishing lines, encircling a hollow flame—representing the Nine Masters and the vow of non-possession.
- Description:
The Oathwardens are a radical offshoot of the New Jedi Order, founded by nine Masters in the generation after Luke Skywalker. Rejecting hierarchy and institutionalism, they each took a single apprentice and dispersed, guided by the Force. Their oath is sacred: to form no attachments, settle in no place, and serve all beings with equal compassion. Their presence is subtle, their identity often concealed, and their legacy shrouded in mystery. They left no temple, only stories, questions, and whispers of balance made manifest.
SOCIAL INFORMATION
- Membership:
One is not recruited to the Oathwardens—they are recognized. A Force-sensitive being may be taken as an apprentice by a traveling Oathwarden if they display exceptional balance, empathy, and a willingness to relinquish. Training is intimate, lifelong, and solitary: one master, one apprentice. To become a full Oathwarden, the apprentice must be acknowledged by an outsider they helped without attachment. - Motives:
To care for all beings equally. To serve the Force without favor or desire. To walk without roots and leave no burdens behind. Their mission is compassion expressed through absence of possession, not absence of feeling. - Rules and Teachings:
The Oathwardens follow strict non-attachment—both emotional and geographic. They show compassion but form no bonds; they act with care but do not claim. They renounce titles, homes, and legacy. Their teachings are oral, embodied, and rarely written. Among them, oaths are not rules—but sacred disciplines lived every day. - Reputation:
Largely unknown. Occasionally mentioned in Jedi circles as a vanished or heretical path. Some scholars mistake them for myth. Most galactic citizens would not recognize an Oathwarden even if aided by one. - Openness:
Extremely closed. Oathwardens rarely declare themselves. They do not teach in groups, nor create temples or texts. To reveal one's nature is only done when utterly necessary—and often only to those they will never see again.
SKILLS INFORMATION
- Characteristic Equipment:
Each Oathwarden carries only what they need and nothing more. Most wield lightsabers of simple design—often yellow or white. Some possess handmade beads, tokens, or one keepsake—given up upon completion of a service. Their cloaks are unmarked. No badge or crest is worn. - Notable Force Skills:
Exceptional skill in:- Force Empathy and Sense
- Precognitive awareness through meditation
- Force Cloaking and Presence Suppression
- Healing Touch
- Mind Soothing or Pain Transfer
- Notable Force Limitations:
Oathwardens avoid powers tied to domination or possession:- No Force Lightning, Telekinetic Choke, or offensive aggression
- No Force Bonds or intrusive mental links
- No mind control or memory alteration
MEMBERS
-
Cerys Dyn
– Last known apprentice of the late Master El-Vana. She was trained in the tradition until age 18 and continued to walk the Path in solitude until relenting and joing the Order of Shiraya to complete her training. - Master El-Vana (NPC, deceased) – A wandering Oathwarden who fell during the Sith invasion of Coruscant. Believed herself to be the final of her kind.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The Oathwardens began in the ashes of the Galactic Civil War, in the generation after Luke Skywalker's reformation of the Jedi Order. Disillusioned by the re-centralization of Jedi influence, nine Masters quietly left the New Jedi ranks. They met once—only once—beneath the twilight stars of Mirial, and vowed to walk paths apart.
Each Master took an apprentice. They became dyads of purpose, pairs of seekers bound by an oath to serve the Force without territory, without lineage, and without favoritism. This movement was never public. No temple was founded. No record was kept. The Nine vowed never to gather again, believing that even unity was a seduction of ego.
Over the decades, the tradition faded. Some fell. Some vanished. Some may still walk the stars under other names. The last known Warden, El-Vana, died in defense of the innocent during the Sith assault on Coruscant. Her final words, spoken to her apprentice Cerys Dyn, were: "Even in ending, the oath is not broken. You are not my legacy. You are the flame I could never hold."
OATHWARDEN CODE
There is care, but no claim.
I walk beside all beings, yet I bind myself to none.
There is compassion, but no possession.
I feel the suffering of the galaxy, but do not make it mine.
There is presence, but no permanence.
I serve wherever I am needed, and I do not remain.
There is duty, but no dominion.
I act without ownership. I help without demand.
There is love, but no favoritism.
I give freely to all, and lift none above another.
There is self, but no center.
I am not the light. I am its passing.
WISDOM SNIPPETS
"Care for all. Cling to none."
"Go where you are needed, stay where you are forgotten."
"Do not weigh the scales. Simply serve."
"Let the heart open—but remain unheld."
"No home. No rank. No reward."
"I act because I care. I leave because I care equally."
"Pain is not possession."
"If I am loved, I must still depart."
"Do not become the fire. Become its warmth."
"Balance is not neutrality. It is discipline."
"Detach not from feeling—but from favoritism."
"They will not remember my name. Let them remember the kindness."
"My oath is not to the Order, but to the living."
"Stillness is not inaction. It is precision."
"Let no one be your reason to stay—and no one your reason to leave."
