A more detailed history of the Guild can be found in later chapters of this volume, but this section will attempt to provide an abbreviated version to lend context to the rest of this entry.
The Honorable Guild of Wayfarers and Vagabonds was established in the years following the defeat of the Silent King and the Sorcerer Lords of Draenos. The final battles exacted a heavy toll on the heroes of the Grand Alliance, leading to the establishment of the garrison at the Palisade Pass and the formation of the Shadow Pact1.
With so many heroes of the established orders of knighthood, the Grand Temple, and the Towers of Osterlan either dead or recuperating from wounds, the kingdoms of the Grand Alliance were left unprotected from the more common Underlands incursions. One of King Willem II’s first decrees upon his ascension to the throne of Solaria2 was to create a loose affiliation of trouble-shooters who would patrol the lands bordered by the Shield Mountains. These adventurers came to be known as the King’s Vagabonds and would routinely travel from Sathsholm to Hightower, dealing with Underlands Eruptions and other tasks that normally would fall to the Knights of Rasander.
The King’s Vagabonds came from a variety of backgrounds and, for the first time, non-elani could participate in a Royal Order3. Many great heroes were born from those early Vagabonds, and it is this group that is viewed as the first true adventurers of the modern age. In time, all the lands that bordered the Shield mountains formed their own versions of the Vagabonds. Best known among these were the Wayfarers of the Northern Alliance. These adventurers had the advantage that the Northern Alliance gave them permission to patrol from as far north as Kundaraak to the northern border of Solaria.
During Redfang’s Horde4 it became necessary for the two adventuring bodies to work in concert to limit the bloodshed. It was at this time that the Honorable Guild of Vagabonds and Wayfarers was established. They were granted free travel across borders and broad powers to deal with a variety of situations.
For nearly a century, the Wayfarers were considered great heroes and an honored profession. Things changed with the rogue Guildmaster Ivan Kolssun. A Junn Islander, Kolssun was part of the Vykkun resurgence, which unfortunately colored his goals and attitudes. It is widely believed that Kolssun should never have been made a Guildmaster, but he spread enough gold around to gain the votes necessary for the appointment.
Once placed as Guildmaster over the Lodges of the Northern Alliance, Kolssun began consolidating power. The Vagrant Lord, as he came to be known, established a fortress in the forbidding Stairway of the Gods range of the Shield Mountains. Nearly a thousand Talented Wayfarers joined his breakaway kingdoms and joined his raids through a network of Underlands tunnels that they had mapped over the years.
The Vagrant Lord was eventually killed by Grandmaster Andras Coleford, arguably the greatest swordsman since Samson Shadowbane. However, the damage was done. Many of the powers and privileges that the Wayfarers had been given were revoked, as was much of their funding.
To this day, the Wayfarers still have not regained the trust they once enjoyed.
- For more information on this we suggest reading Blood and Shadow: A History of the Pactlands. ↩︎
- Willem Dromeas was Crown Prince of Solaria when his father King Torval died at the battle of The Gallows (Orus Arcos) For further reading on the history of Solaria and its various noble families we suggest Heirs of Malconia by Abbot Nolan Timus of the Ophean Library. ↩︎
- Solarian Royal Orders were restricted to elani only before this time, and before the reforms of King Odrin, the Orders were restricted to those of Malconian descent. ↩︎
- The first gathering of Gnoll Packs beneath a War-Mother was the Horde of Hasa Redfang. The Redfang pack banded ten other packs beneath a single War-Mother and assaulted the Palisade Pass. ↩︎