Flock warden

A Flock warden is one of the Wanderers. Long ago it gave up its core, and a heart demon settled where the core had been. Every flock warden carries a heart demon of the same shape and shares its knowledge, and each keeps its own memories. It cannot anchor ground. It comes into each new Hallow through the Mist, and it does not fight.

It serves in Bloom, the affinity of growth, beasts and living ground. That affinity belongs to Virenna, the Greenmother, whose First Seal holds back barrenness so that things may grow.

Once it has served long enough, a flock of Ewe joins its employer's army every turn. Some turns bring more than others, and the flocks grow the longer it stays. Those of its kind say the flocks walk in out of the Mist behind the warden, the way the warden once walked in. Later, every Farm in the kingdom yields more food. Farms feed and shelter people, and food and shelter limit how fast a kingdom grows. The card shows what each stage adds.

The farmers know, as everyone does, that the fields will be gone when the Seals open. They sow anyway, and the warden tends them anyway.

It costs geld and mana to keep, more as it grows, and it leaves when the pay stops.

The wardens say the demon wants to bring every stray home, and counts the warden who carries it as the last stray. Whether a warden can be freed is not known.

Player-visible facts