Verdant Wheel
"Truth Sprouts from the Ashes"
No matter how many verdant jungles, grassy plains, and untamed hills agents scout, the Pathfinder Society is not strictly an environmentally minded organization. Even so, nature enthusiasts of all stripes—from grizzled trackers to bright-eyed ecologists to tenacious druids—gravitate to the Society for opportunities to witness natural wonders, catalog new species, and better protect the world’s pristine realms. While both the Horizon Hunters and the Grand Archive have a vested interest in these endeavors, they lack the focus that many of their members called for. These individuals came together under faction leader Urwal to form the Verdant Wheel, a minor faction that gives a united voice to the Society’s dedicated ecologists. This faction has a particular fondness for discerning patterns and cycles, such as the ebb and flow of creation and destruction, as exemplified by new growth sprouting from a fire-ravaged field, but those intent on preserving that which exists also find a welcome home here.
Faction Leader: Urwal
Nobody entirely agrees on where Urwal (NG male lizardfolk astrologer) came from, though one Pathfinder admits to having encountered him in Varisia several years ago and being accosted about a copy of the Pathfinder Chronicles containing misleading information. Flustered, the Pathfinder told Urwal that if he were so upset, he could visit the Grand Lodge and file a complaint. In 4718 ar, Master of Scrolls Kreighton Shaine entered his locked office to find Urwal waiting there with five heavily edited volumes of the Pathfinder Chronicles, a stack of supporting documentation, and a disappointed glower. “These are full of errors. I question that your agents even traveled to these places. I will bring more; the stars foresee it,” declared the lizardfolk before clambering up a wall and out the window.
After finding Urwal reorganizing neglected entomology collections, correcting placards on a collection of Mwangi artifacts, and painting astrological charts on a Grand Lodge walkway—all helpful yet cryptically explained—the deans of the three Pathfinder Society schools decided it more prudent to recognize Urwal’s esoteric knowledge and benign infiltration by granting him a field commission (which the lizardfolk has never formally accepted). That he has since organized a cohort of nature enthusiasts as the Verdant Wheel befuddles the Society’s leadership, especially since nobody has yet figured out where he came from (including the Verdant Wheel’s agents, who maintain ongoing bets about his origins). For all his eccentricities, he is a compassionate mentor who encourages his colleagues to seek out nature’s greatest wonders and most humble treasures, understand them, and protect them in the way each agent deems best.
Objectives: The Verdant Wheel has no single vision of what it means to preserve nature, leaving it to an individual’s interpretation and each region’s unique circumstances to determine the best course of action. Agents travel far and wide to study the strange and pristine, and their journeys often bring them into conflict with undead, fiends, and aberrations. Most of all, the faction is a home for those who revel in the glories of nature in its many forms—even the occasional alien landscape beyond Golarion itself.