[Dork] The Hearthkeepers

Hearthkeepers
The secret in plain sight, the things parents talk about when they all get together after the kids are in bed, the appeal of last resort.  The Hearthkeepers are the largest semi-secret tradition of witchcraft in the territories hidden under a thin veneer of a charitable health-and-service organization.  Witches found little love from the old empire and their Malist neighbors and began to evolve a public face of harmless, avuncular folks who just want to help.  That’s largely become the truth, but, ironically, it has, rather than defanging them, made them more powerful than the old witch clans could have ever become on their own.  The Hearthkeepers hold hygiene classes and health fairs to teach the old country sorceries, they have parades and charity picnics that often include Malist priests and public officials performing the ancient rites in harmless guise.  There are levels of membership, secrets, codes, greater responsibilities and cooler costumes, but these are smokescreens for the simple practices of wit and will that their ancestors used to practice in secret and in hiding.  Everyone knows they are witches, but everyone needs them too much to make a fuss and a third of everyone has a degree with them anyway.
Hearthkeepers use brooms and ashes, effigies, bonfires, fireworks and torches as symbols, as well as a library of sigils, codes, code-words, signs, countersigns and honestly a little bit of theater.  They don’t mind their members being part of other groups so long as they don’t spill the beans and keep to the code of helping, whether you like it or not.  Amber, Maroon, Indigo and Black are important colors with different meanings.
Hearthkeepers have a lot of medical lore, witchy swag and neat old books.  They have a cant which members learn by degrees (low degree cant and high degree cant, guess which one you have to learn first).  They have the recipe for making the white ash that bars the Gloom, and the black salt that draws it forth.  Healer’s kits and talismans (wands, brooms, sacred knives [not for stabbing people], ghostwood beads, sacred torches) are also available to those on whom they rely.
The Traits listed below are not the only Malist Traits there are, and you can feel free to alter, make up ones, mix and match them as suits your character.   
·         You are a Keeper of Secrets with some degree of authority and trust.  You watch over the lore of the witches.
·         You are a Fiery Priest who can lead covens in ritual; naturally this is also a position of trust and authority.
·         You are a Bleeding Heart who takes the healthcare remit of hearth very seriously and pushes for ever-greater responsiveness to the needs of the community.
·         You are a Seasoned Healer often a traveler and a teacher of medical technique and country sorcery, midwife, pharmacist, veterinarian; a position of respect, but not always tied to coven or community.
·         You are a Hardened Triage Veteran and you have been in blood to your elbows and seen patients die.  You do what needs must, and make decisions that others will shy away from.
·         You are a Enthralled Apprentice who is just beginning to learn the depth and breadth of this group, still finds the mystery glamorous and exciting.
·         You are a Tasked Agent with a specific goal and means to prove your trustworthiness and reliability.  This is the most common journeyman level of the Hearthkeepers, where one has a chance to distinguish themselves.
·         You are a Charitable Booster, who would just as soon bake pies as chant in ritual.  You are the public face of the hearthkeepers, either committed wholeheartedly to the public functions you serve or committed wholeheartedly to looking as harmless and boring as possible. 
·         You are a Repairer of Reputations who others seek out when things go wrong.  An agent with a lot of trust and deeds behind you, a reliable person who gets results.
·         You are a Witch, Damn Right and when people come for your help, you let them know it.  In some ways, you are the counterbalance for the Charitable Booster, a slightly ridiculous or embarrassing figure until things get real.