I have been thinking about a possible direction for the Caretakers, particularly in light of their historical association with death and preservation. Rather than treating these as separate responsibilities, I think they can be brought together through the idea of memory and what remains after loss.

Death in the realm is rarely permanent. People, alliances, even lands may wither only to return many years later. What is lost in the process may therefore be something subtler and more delicate: a role, a relationship, a place, a practice, a memory, or simply the way something once was.

I have proposed a new alliance statement to the Grand Duke and now I would like to make it public and hear from you. I believe this could be a good direction to move beyond the focus on death that has defined much of the Caretakers' identity for so many years.

The Caretakers attend to what has been lost, and to the imbalance its absence leaves behind. A Caretaker preserves the relationship between what is here and something that is no longer fully present.

A void is not necessarily something that must be repaired: it may be acknowledged, filled, or sometimes, even, caused. A Caretaker may place a memory, a remnant, a ritual, a name, a place, or an act within that void and see what happens. The result may restore, transform, disturb, or create something entirely new. We tend to what follows.

To preserve one continuity may be to disrupt another; to fill one void may create another elsewhere. Caretaking does not place one outside the things it changes. In this sense, the Caretakers can also be understood as seekers of motion. Not because movement is always good, but because that which has been lost may leave behind a stillness worth disturbing.

I would welcome your thoughts, objections and suggestions. Let us see what it stirs.

After a long thoughtful discussion with Aelis I agree with this move and will, once a short period of public discussion occurs, put this forward to Mur to action.

As the last leader of the alliance I think that Aelis would indeed lead the Caretakers in an interesting direction, and therefore support his leadership bid.

I agree with the proposal from Aelis.

But just for easy reference, following is the copy of the original post from phantasm.

I think the caretakers are more a Graveyard type caretakers then the trim the hedges caretaker. I don’t see much of a point to an alliance that is just a face for a land. It should have a deep rooted sense of something it wants to accomplish. What better person to lead such an organization than me. I am slightly undead, have a love for finding trouble to get into, and think that an alliance such as this should be able to War as well as tend. What is a hedge trimmer going to do in battle? Gravediggers, throughout history, have been well known for taking matters into their own hands. Doing dark experiments, finding fresh corpses when none are available, and keeping the dead where they belong. I have a shrewd and keen mind, am more than willing to pull battle if needed, and have an overall love for things shady and dark dealings.

I also have strong feelings towards guarding what I think needs guarded. I also have a great respect and would demand a great respect for togetherness. I have never liked the idea of people jumping in and out of an alliance. Once you are in you are in, and once you are out you are out. If people decide to apply, and I decide to accept, they will not be allowed to jump around freely with their tag. Alliances are a bond, a family, meant to care and watch after each other, and the lands they hold at ALL times.

The Caretakers

Purpose of the Caretakers--
The underlying purpose I think should be about death. Just as a caretaker would tend to the gravestones and prepare the dead for their travels, that should be the role. As I think the Tribunal will be about monuments and pieces of great people in MD gone by, they will tend to the research and care of these illustrious names, and keeping a good care over the lands and the actions that hold within.

Role of the Caretakers---
To preserve and glorify names of the most memorable people of MD’s past, and to an extent, present. To all great sick and twisted caretakers, life wouldn't be complete without a little death and mayhem. Darkness would be their cloak. Death would be their sword. Fate would be their mind. Sometimes it is needed to hasten the process in which things happen. Caretakers have a love for the end of things. Sometimes the end of things do not come as fast as they would like, so they….hasten things. I think the alliance would be classified not as good or evil but as Chaotic.
To walk through the lands with a shovel in their hand. The self proclaimed judge and jury of whatever they feel to be the judge of. Is it any more evil to see who should be judged anymore than a knight would judge who is wrong or right? Is it any more wrong to bury the not-so-dead for a little pay than to burn your enemies alive for the sake of religion?

“Grave digger…when you dig my grave…please make it shallow…so that I can feel the rain”

Structure of Alliance

Master Chief- The Leader. The man with the master plan. Responsible for leading activities and making sure the alliance itself runs smooth. Approves or Denies Plans set forth by the Grave Diggers

Grave Digger- Right and Left hand seats. Those deemed worthy by the Master Chief to carry out plans approved for action. Usually carries out secret plans that are only known between the upper management. Runs activities set forth in the land and keeps watch over the lower levels of the alliance

Scribe- Responsible for keeping logs of meetings. Also keeps a record of festivities, duties carried out by the alliance, and a secret log of the things carried out that no one knows.

Concotionist- The thinker. Thinks up ideas for activities and festivities. Is not aware of the more secret of workings though may be an unknowing participant in its actions. An active role in anything and everything within the alliance, with the exception of certain plans held privilege to the top 3 of the alliance.

Caretakers- The grunts. The 5 general population members of the alliance. Carries out all propaganda and general actions of the Alliance. Those of the position to care after the land and the things concerning the alliance outside the land. All around fun people and held accountable for the smooth running of the land.

Aelis should have been leader if not for him leaving for Soldiers of the Inner Sun... Rather than that pesky Ledah character causing all kinds of trouble like forcing me to deplete Loreroot and kill Aeoshattr. I support this new direction in the alliance statement. Let me leave some passages I think about often and are related ...

"In the quiet, heavy amber of the fading afternoon, when the shadows stretch like tired limbs across the floorboards of the empty house, I find myself standing at the threshold of a memory that I have spent years trying to pave over, realizing finally that some ghosts are not residents of the places we leave behind, but are carried within the very marrow of our own bones, refusing to stay buried no matter how deep the silence we craft around them."

The horizon is a line where sky and earth meet, serving to gather all our prior movement into a single, coherent vision of a journey defined not by its destination but by the expanding scale of the view, a sustained line of thought where the tension between the reach of the hand and the reach of the eye becomes the engine of meaning, proving that the most complex structures we build—whether they are paths across a continent or sentences across a page—are ultimately evidence of a controlled escalation toward a truth that remains, beautifully and necessarily, just out of reach.