Graver

Overview

The skull bearing priests of tradition and advice, Gravers are known as sometimes dour individuals who carry the weight of tradition on their shoulders. Priests of Panoply or Cervitas, Gravers are advisors by trade, either working closely with notable leaders or serving as a font of wisdom for many people. While Sagites ensure that the lessons of the past are not last, it is the role of the Graver to ensure that the lessons are heeded.

Above focuses of success and failure, Gravers carry two important focuses: cost and responsibility.

To Gravers, cost is an understanding of the wider damage and expense of any course of action. By studying the past and holding it close, Gravers ensure that no one forgets that their actions have wider effects than what they might appear. In this, the skull Gravers carry is a true example of this. Ensure that those you speak to know that every action they take walks on the bones of those that came before and threatens that those who walk with you now may join them. All action must be taken with the weight of the dead.

To Gravers, responsibility is the acknowledgement that we are responsible for our actions. So often in the Valley burdens are carried together and in this it can be easy for those who have caused harm to shy back, allowing the amorphous whole to carry their shame. It is the duty of Gravers to teach the Valleyfolk that the honourable thing to do is to stand forward when we fail. To acknowledge our shortcomings, rather than weakening the whole through our meekness. In this, the skull Gravers carry is a promise. Acknowledge your failing and even in death you will be honourable. It is better to die honourable and right in the eyes of your ancestors than it is to live in the shadow of your shame.

This drive leads Gravers to be respected, particularly among reeves and other Leaders of the Valley. Their presence denotes wisdom and careful planning, but they also mark the severity and intensity of Iron Valley tradition.

Need:

Divine Lore: Cervitas or Panoply

Gravers are priests of Cervitas or Panoply. This understanding of responsibility, the cost of things and advising others is deeply rooted in these Spheres.

Shouldn’t:

Any other Divine Lore

The role of Gravers is focused on the use of lessons, rather than the learning of them, the upsetting of them, the interpretation, or the violence of them. Gravers who dip into other Divine Lore not only diminish their focus but also spread the role beyond its intended purpose.

Costume Marker:

Gravers Skull

A morbid and primitive token to some, the Gravers Skull is the truest representation of cost and responsibility that can be found. The skull to traditionally an ancestor of the Gravers borough, often a blood relative of renown or an individual from a line of mentors. The Skull is treated with reverence as an honoured companion and is traditionally worn or carried as a part of a Gravers equipment (as opposed to placed and an ornament). It is essential that a Graver have their skull on them as it not only marks their purpose but also emphasises that cost and responsibility cannot be laid down but must always be carried. Most Gravers wear their skulls on the belt in purpose-built leather frames, some incorporate them into armour or tools.

In rare situations, Skulls can break or be shattered. During this time, it is the role of the Graver to seek out a new one. For many this involves meeting with their borough or family to study the sagas and seek out a fitting replacement. Some Gravers will seek out the Skulls of those they have assisted who have since perished, to carry the weight of their memories. Regardless, it is traditional that a Graver steps down from their duties during this time, particularly if they are acting as Reeve or similar as the symbolic weight of their choices is no longer present, impeding their ability to complete their work.

History:

The Graver tradition is born of defeat.

History and place are of immense importance to the Valleyfolk. A boroughs crypt or burial site is a place of great importance, with the lessons, wisdom and weight of hundreds of lives centred in a single place. Across the High and Low Valley these burial sites are scattered and for many they are places of introspection and unity, where they can speak to their long-lost ancestors for guidance and support.

But when malady and war befall a settlement, it is seldom easy or possible to carry this history with you. As the Valley began to restrict from its furthest reaches over the last two hundred years a great many graves were left behind in the Bailes, True Landing and even further afield. Lessons lost and their voices forever silenced from our quiet meditation.

It was local priests who had conducted many of interments that began to carry the Skulls with them, so that the memories and voices of the lost may still be heard. At first this was a temporary thing. But over time the lost Lees and boroughs were not reclaimed, and these skulls were often all that remained of those that had called these far-flung outposts home.

The weight of loss and responsibility pushed these priests to positions of prominence, it was their tales of woe and guidance that often-forestalled future downfall. This in turn gave enough respect to their position that transformed their carried skeletal charges from macabre oddity to honoured duty, across the Valley. Over the ensuring two centuries, what was once an obscure Low Valley tradition became a role felt across the Valley. Voices of the dead, warders of the living, while the Sagites ensure the past is never forgotten, the Gravers ensure it is never forgiven or ignored.

Becoming a Graver:

For most Gravers, their training goes hand in hand with their studies to become a priest of Panoply and/or Cervitas. The nature of the Valley is that would-be-Gravers will seek out a borough of Gravers if possible, or apprenticeship to an individual Graver if they are few and far between. Groups of initiates are far more common than single apprentices given the presence of Cervitas within the understanding of their task.

Initiates will find themselves in mixed study, part moral theology of Cervitas or Panoply, part historic work (often alongside Sagite apprentices) and will also find themselves embroiled in local politics. The process of study is varied and while not undisciplined, often makes use of current events and the larger society to teach its lessons.

Recognition as a full Graver comes from without, not within. Late-stage initiates will be granted an ‘Initiates Skull’ which is often literally that, the skull of an initiate (be they Huscarl, Sagite or Graver matters little) and be sent to act as Witan to a different borough. Should they serve their term (often a year) and return with both their own skull and the skull in their charge intact, they will be recognised as a Graver. They then return their Initiates Skull and are permitted to seek out on of their own, at which point they can take up their work.

Three Things Gravers Are:

Priests of Weight and Woe

Gravers draw their traditions from funerary priests, and they carry the dead with them. While they are not always dour and serious (they are people like any other), it is the duty of Gravers to make sure that the costs and responsibility of power are not forgotten.

Advisors to One and Many

It is the duty of Gravers to offer guidance. This normally takes the form of advising a single powerful individual as their Witan, but also manifests as providing guidance to the general populations. Gravers should seek out positions as advisors and should make time to help others sift through the quandaries of their lives.

Teachers and Warders

Gravers are often teachers and educators. Their unique mix of history, morality and practical knowledge of society leaves them in good stead to help assist the next and new of the Valley. Gravers ensure that they are involved in bringing the culture of the Valley to those who have recent joined the Valley or are seeking citizenship as a young person.

One Thing Gravers Aren't:

Advisors to their Own Ears

Gravers are supporters and advisors rather than leaders themselves. Outside of their roles as Priests, it is seen as inappropriate for Gravers to take positions as power. Such is the nature of power that it can obscure the burdens and you cannot be an advisor to yourself. As a supportive role, Gravers should seek to assist rather than take leadership themselves. The exceptions to this role being Reeve of a borough of Gravers and positions within The Church.