Thursday, February 23, 2012

Guardian

Cheloniartifex defensor practiced herbivory, passivism, and site compassion as the highest attainable virtue. The Guardians were assigned to protect temples and nurseries, but never to offensively attack another living creature with out just cause.


Guardians are officially chosen around the fourth life stage, at about twenty years of age. Physically larger, with a prominent frill and protruding horns, potential guardians are usually identifiable at birth. Once training begins, Guardians shave the feathers from their foreheads and paint their brows deep red. With experience, decorative symbols of honor are affixed to their frills, horns, and draped across their neckline.


Gender is not a determining factor for selection or for success. However, with in the sixth stage of his or her life, a Cheloniartifex would reach sexual maturity. At this time, many male Cheloniartifex leave the to tribe to find a mate; abiding by the ritualistic great journey, known as the Reieze. A tribe is put at a defensive disadvantage when too many Guardians are temporarily lost to the Reieze, but it is understood that friendly males from another tribe should arrive in time to assume the empty Guardian posts. An elder father Guardian will enter a form of semi-retirement during his tenth life stage, by assuming the role of a Guardian Mentor to instruct the next generation in the art of tribal protection.