The Wickwardens

Goal: keep the lighthouses lit and the Heartcoal asleep.

The Wickwardens were sworn the year after the first Vespertide, when the islands learned that a lit lighthouse is the only thing the Sallowkin will not cross. Every keeper takes the oath in a lighthouse chapel, with the lantern burning above and the sea black below, and learns Ebbtongue, the order's chanted signal-language.

The order is old, proud and short of everything: keepers, cindrels and the city's patience. Its keepers prefer Ebbsong to Brandwork, because a verse leaves the cindrels alone.

• Leader: Keeper-Commander Ysolde Marr, from the Wardhouse in Caerlune.
• Toward the players: allies. The players are its newest keepers, sent to relight Skerrow.
• Rivals: the Aurel Combine, who sell the order its cindrels and would like to sell it everything else.
• Faith: most keepers pray with the Ilvaric Vigil.