Characters:Factions:Gardeners

"Gardener" is a general purpose term for all Alchemists. Many now use the word and derivations, as surnames, at least in lands and cities were Humans carry surnames. Most gardeners are aware of aspects of good, evil, and questionable alchemistries and tend to declare their allegiances with choices of personal dress and trade signage. No rule is absolute, but in general terms, green, blue, white, and yellow are colors chosen by alchemists of a generous, altruistic stripe. Grey, purple, brown, and red are chosen by those alchemists who do not serve the Powers of light so much as their own wills. Few alchemists of dark design announce themselves at all, or trade as brown-gloves.

Few of the cities and tribes of the Northern Lands do not practice alchemy. Few now practice it openly, but where Men of the North trade in potions and salves, they do not make any distinction between Gardeners of goodwill and those who sow and reap to their own ends. Only among the men living south of the Galorean Sea does the distinction between darkness and light still hold great meaning, perhaps because they have learned their herblore from the Syulvanas.

The Gardeners, as the specific, identifiable group encountered in Erinsford and Waste's Edge, are almost exclusively found south of the Galorean Sea and are of a good nature. Padrig Kurwen and his wife are both Gardeners in the truest sense. Risartus Solmanus could also be considered a Gardener, but he is properly associated with a group of Mages, Alchemists, and Wizards from Elgilad and Cirdanth.