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Warden Esk of the Oak — human render

PERSONAE · THE GREATWOOD

Warden Esk of the Oak

The Greenwake's Wake-master, who keeps the Hollowing Oak and speaks for the living land — calm as deep water until you bring an axe or a relic-broker.

Esk has wardened the Greatwood since before the relic-fever, and treats the town-powers' squabble over the Wright's Shard the way she treats a forest fire: a thing to be contained, not joined. She'll teach a newcomer the wild's skills freely and warn them, exactly once, about the Rootbound who went too deep into the green and didn't come back as themselves. She and the Mourners' Veil-Keeper write to each other; they are the only two who think the relic's answer is simply to wait.

KIND

mortal

SPECIES

Human

CURRENT LOCATION

The Hollowing Oak

ROLE

Wake-master

Connected

The GreenwakeFACTION · Esk is Wake-master.The Mourners of the HushFACTION · Esk and the Veil-Keeper write to each other — the tw…The Hollowing OakPLACE · Esk keeps the Oak.The RootboundFACTION · Esk grieves and watches the Rootbound.The CullersFACTION · Esk sends the Cullers out.The Rootbound HollowPLACE · The Wake-master forbids axe and broker from the holl…

Voices & Sounds

Game Data (1)

Read live off disk from data/content/*.json — the game data itself, not a copy.

data/content/npcs.json

idgreenwake_steward
genderfemale
canon_refcharacter.warden-esk
nameWarden Esk of the Oak
factionashari
health70
disposition46
greetingYou smell of road and iron, not of the wood — but the Greenwake takes who'll do the work the land needs, and just now the land needs it badly. There's a wood east of here dying the wrong way. Interested?
spawn{"x":-1730,"z":2536}
regionthe_mirrenmere
behaviorwander
wander_radius3
guild_contact{"guild_id":"greenwake","welcome":"Then you're Greenwake now, Sapling. An echo's got into the old stag of the eastern wood, and it's dying slow and taking the glade with it. Go thin what its ruin has drawn in — then come back, and we'll decide how it ends.","business":"The old stag still suffers, and the wood with it. Do the work out there, then bring me your answer."}
quest_fork{"quest":"greenwake_dying_beast","branches":[{"key":"cull-it","label":"✦ Cull it clean — a plain arrow (the Cullers' way)","say":"A clean arrow, then. The Cullers will thank you and the wood will forget the stag by spring. It is the mercy that asks nothing of you. Go well, Warden."},{"key":"perform-the-rite","label":"✦ Perform the full rite — let it return (the Rootbound's way)","say":"The full rite. Sorrel will weep to hear it. The echo fades into living green, the glade wakes — and a little of the Rootbound quiet stays in you now, whether you meant to keep it or not. Welcome deeper in."}]}
topics{"greenwake":"We are not the Mourners, though we keep their patience. We keep the living land living, and let the great echoes fade in their own time — and cull what they twist before it spreads. Three minds under one oak.","stag":"The old stag of the eastern wood took an echo into itself and now it can neither die nor heal. It draws the lesser beasts into its ruin like a wound draws flies. That is the work, if you'll have it."}
bounty_on_assault80
bounty_on_kill1000
racehessk
Type Fields
kindmortal
speciesHuman
current_locationplace.hollowing-oak
affiliationsfaction.the-greenwake
roleWake-master
disposition55
voice_notesUnhurried, low, patient as standing water — she lets a question sit before she answers it, the way she'd let a deer decide you're not a threat. Plain, not wry; talks about the wood as a neighbor with moods, never as a symbol. Goes cold and short only at the sight of an axe or a relic-broker's coat.
secretThe Hollowing Oak is dying. She has known it a full season — the crown is thinning from the inside out, the sap runs wrong, and the sickness is the same wrongness creeping the whole green at the Vale's failing edges, the thing everyone blames on bad winters. The Greenwake's authority, the Mourners' rites, the tribes' faith in the wood all rest on the Oak's endurance, and so she has hidden every sign, pruned away the dead crown before the moot could see it, and told no one. She warns newcomers about the Rootbound who went too deep and did not come back as themselves — and does not say that she goes deeper than any of them now, alone, trying to find what is killing her tree before it is too late to matter.
All Relationships (18)

leads

  • →The Greenwake — Esk is Wake-master.
  • →The Greenwake — Warden Esk is the Wake-master of the Greenwake and the keeper of the Hollowing Oak.

references

  • →The Mourners of the Hush — Esk and the Veil-Keeper write to each other — the two who would simply wait.
  • →The Rootbound — Esk grieves and watches the Rootbound.
  • →The Cullers — Esk sends the Cullers out.
  • →The Rootbound Hollow — The Wake-master forbids axe and broker from the hollow, and names the sap a thing not to be sold.
  • ←quest.the-weeping-galleries (unresolved) — Warden Esk gives the quest — she cannot end her own kin and cannot let the wood die of them.
  • ←quest.where-the-cords-lead (unresolved) — "Where the Cords Lead" involves warden esk.
  • →The Rotcrown Stag — Warden Esk has refused to decide the stag's fate, leaving the choice to a stranger's hand.
  • ←quest.the-sap-that-slows-the-ring (unresolved) — Esk's eventual question — did you find the Drinkers' cache — is the fork the quest turns on.
  • ←quest.where-the-cords-lead (unresolved) — Esk asks once — and only once — for someone to follow the Mistways Deep's last charm-cord.
  • ←quest.the-dying-beast (unresolved) — Esk gives the Dying Beast quest — and explicitly refuses to choose herself, leaving it to the player.

located_in

  • →The Hollowing Oak — Esk keeps the Oak.
  • →Oakwatch — Esk's hearthstone is the centre of the Oakwatch camp; she wardened here before the relic-fever.

authored

  • →A Culler's Tally — Esk keeps the Culler's tally where he can read it, against the day he stops pretending he hasn't decided.
  • ←Esk's Warden-Notes — Esk's field notes are her own work — pinned to the Oakwatch hearth-post for wardens to read.

ally_of

  • →Sorrel, Who Is Rooting — Esk comes to talk to Sorrel and to remember the cost — keeping newcomers away until they're ready.
  • →Veil-keeper Orsa — Esk and the Mourners' Veil-Keeper write to each other — the only two who think the relic's answer is simply to wait.

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Warden Esk of the Oak — Valenfeld — Valenfeld