Professional and pitiless, Scouts were among the first of a new generation of Humans to take up arms against Nosgoth's Vampires. Armed with a precision bow, they are well used to hit-and-run tactics. Scouts swear loyalty to the Watchers, assassins skilled in picking off their enemies from the many hidden vantage points in the mountains of Dark Eden.

Messengers, Wardens, Warriors

From the mountains of the north, the Watchers have maintained a link between Human communities in the northern mountains near the territory that has come to be known as Dark Eden. Once a region twisted by corrosive energies, the events surrounding the Pillars of Nosgoth’s collapse rendered it inhabitable by mortals once more, an act of irony that would no doubt have brought a wry smile to Kain’s face.

In the centuries that followed, certain brave remnants of Humanity fled to the infamous region, desperate to find refuge from the Vampiric onslaught of Kain’s legions. They discovered that more mature Vampires were less inclined to pursue them in its rocky passes, eventually coming to realise that Dark Eden was now a designated hunting ground for newly risen Vampire fledglings, with Humans being their carefully cultivated prey. Despite their many losses, Humanity began to raise new generations, permitted by their Vampire overlords if only so as to provide them with sport. The name Dark Eden remained gruesomely appropriate, with the Humans who called it home growing more cold-hearted with each mortal life cut short.

Born and raised under such inhospitable conditions, the Humans of Dark Eden became some of the most shrewd and opportunistic that Nosgoth had ever seen, these skills being a necessary part of their day-to-day survival. They set up hidden camps high in the surrounding mountains, quick to erect and disassemble, affording them early warning of a Vampire raid. Armed with longbows well suited to picking off Vampire assailants from a distance, the men and women who manned these posts became known as the Watchers. Famed for their keen eyes and steady hands, the Watchers memorised every hidden nook and cranny giving them any advantage, however slight, over their hated enemy.

Honing their skills across each passing generation, the Watchers became a link between the Human communities in the northern mountains, eventually establishing lines of communication with settlements belonging to the Ironguard, far from the central Vampire cities. Watchers became renowned as much for being messengers and path-finders as for being warriors – the first to reopen paths after the heaviest snows had fallen or to smuggle scarce supplies to those in need. This is not to say their reputation was entirely benign. As the sole source of news for Humanity’s scattered communities, they were also seen as harbingers of woe, appearing as if out of nowhere only to warn of an impending Vampire raid seeking their destruction; or worse still, slaves for the construction of smoke stacks to blot out the sun.

After some time, stories about the Watchers of Dark Eden came to inspire related factions elsewhere in the hinterlands, from the secretive Assassins of the eastern lakes to the resilient Desert Stalkers of the far south, their members swearing loyalty to the Watchers as the originators of their creed.

When winged Vampires were first spotted exploring the upper mountain peaks of Dark Eden, the Watchers’ first thought was that Kain had devised some new and terrible way to terrorise them. It was not until they saw these desperate-looking creatures being attacked by other Vampires that the Watchers realised conflict had befallen the Clans and sent word to the Ironguard. It was clear that the winged Vampires were coming from the direction of Razielim territory to the south, pursued indiscriminately by the other Clans.

With the Vampires seemingly more interested in hunting their own kind, the Watchers seized the initiative and sent a force of elite Scouts westwards, over the mountains to spy on what was once Coorhagen for fresh intelligence. What they discovered was a city turned into a farm for human blood, with pens designed for the breeding and rearing of newborns, overlooked by a gigantic statue of Kain himself. Surprised to find only a scant few Dumahim and Melchahim on guard, the greater number of forces apparently engaged elsewhere, the Scouts marshalled their strength and mounted a daring raid. Taking the Vampires by complete surprise, the Scouts liberated scores of Humans, all whom had spent the entirety of what passed for their lives in captivity.

Delivering many of these former captives to the disciplinarian care of the Ironguard, the Watchers knew that the time had come to raise an army and turn the tables on their Vampire masters. Hunters and Scouts joined forces and headed south, away from the eye of the Vampire civil war, recapturing first Provance and then Freeport. It was here that they first met with the mysterious Alchemists, growing their confidence and swelling their ranks.
Now the Scouts have set their sights on a once unimaginable goal – the return of Nosgoth to Human rule and the total annihilation of the Vampire race, once and for all.

Looming, sheer, impenetrable mountain faces block the land to the East of the town of Provance, whilst to the West roll the treacherous rivers that feed the great Southern Sea. Protected by its geographical location, Provance presents a small defendable enclave nestled directly between the Vampire controlled Pillars of Nosgoth and Nachtholm on the one side, and the Human cities of Freeport, Meridian and Valeholm on the other.

Pinched into this corridor of traversable land, Provance has long been a strategic prize. As Kain conquered Nosgoth, his forces moved through the area to capture the Human cities beyond. Cut-off, their resources dwindling, the Humans had no choice but to abandon Provance. This remote settlement was immediately re-occupied by the Vampires as a place to process supplies and prisoners. It offered a place for the Vampires on this front to indulge in their hedonistic pleasures.

The Humans Return

On the fringes of Kain’s court, beyond the centres of power and of little importance now that Humanity had been crushed, over time the Vampires stationed at Provance came to see the town as a posting for the out-of-favour. Its streets were left deserted as Nosgoth’s Vampire masters returned to the cities closer to Kain and their Clan leaders.

When Humanity began the long creep back out into the Heartlands they returned to Provance, recognising that if they were to secure the cities they were rebuilding to the South then Provance would also need to be resurrected from the neglected ruins it had become. Slowly the town was reclaimed, back on the map as a place for travellers to shelter and resupply.

Where once Vampires had cursed their luck, marooned in a town garrisoned by the un-favoured, now Human soldiers shiver at their posts, huddled against the blasting mountain winds as they stand guard, protecting the approaches to the major Human settlements in the lands to the south. To the Humans who have returned here, the town is a stronghold against both the Vampires and marauding Human bandits who prey on the unwary; to the Vampires a town to be conquered in the quest to reclaim the lands to the South.

Provance in Peril

Whilst Provance has strategic importance, the town is yet to see a major assault from either side. Instead, the war around Provance has been fought in a series of guerrilla engagements. War bands from both races scour the mountain paths and fords, searching for the enemy and sending raiding parties into the town to disrupt and destroy the other side’s bases of operations. It is a cold and lonely place to die, but glory awaits those who can endure.

Control Provance and you open a clear route to advance on the enemy cities beyond.