Lexicon/OakenStewards
In the beginnings of the First Age, many wonderous devices and creatures were brought into being by the Exalted, among them the Oaken Stewards. They were one of many varieties of tools crafted to restore Creation from the devestation the Primordial Wars had unleashed upon it. While other tools tended to the substance of Creation or the Essence of Creation or the folk of Creation, the Oaken Stewards felt no loyalty to humans nor their Exalted masters. They were forged from kravelt merged with living wood, fungus and moss; they were given blood of fresh sap and their eyes were flowers. The Stewards protected the living plants and animals of the East, guarding them against disease and mutation by the Wyld. They roamed the forests, tending to damage caused by the War and fending off encroachments by the Fair Folk.
As the First Age wore on, the Exalted began to come into conflict with their creations. They often sought to harvest the life of the forests for their own purposes, such as the making of the Quaigh of Lost Luminescence and other Artifacts. The Stewards protected their charges, even against their makers. Their efforts were not appreciated and the Exalted struck down their rebellious creations. Oaken Stewards were hunted by Solars for sport and amusement, their bodies transformed into magical ingrediants and trophies. Only a few survived the First Age, fleeing into the farthest reaches of the Forest where Wood itself protected them from their infanticidal makers.
It was not until much later that the Stewards met their final end, at the hands of the Starwater Bandits. Driven into the forests of the Stewards by the powers of the civilized East, the Bandits came into conflict with the Stewards as they began spreading their alien magics into the forests. Many of the plants and animals under the protection of the remaining Stewards fell ill and began to die under the touch of the Bandits. Regardless of what redeeming qualities the bandits may have had, the Stewards attacked when they found their realms being threatened. Ancient and potent as they were, the Stewards were no match for the Bandits.
If any of the Oaken Stewards survived their battles with the encroaching Starwater Bandits, it is not recorded in the codices of Heaven. Should there be such survivors, they would doubtless be in the extremes of the East. Considering the fate of the Bandits who destroyed them, one must wonder if the Oaken Stewards were given a mercy in their relatively quick ends.
Telgar, Sidereal Historian. Chosen of Saturn.
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