"Onward, to The Further Fire. We are Weatherwatch!"
- From Ackerly Green’s Guide to Magiq.
Hello, my fellow Weatherwatchers and anyone else who might have found their way here.
This piece is intended to explore the undefined concept of The Further Fire, the thing which guides the Weatherwatchers to pursue, to go beyond. If that’s what you wanted to get out of this thread, congratulations, we’ll get down to that in the next paragraph or so! If not, I guess you can leave? I’m not really sure why you’re still reading this if you’re not interested in this. Do as you please.
When I first read the description of Weatherwatch, I was extremely confused as to why the guide led me to the guild. I’m not exactly what someone would typically call adventurous. I typically find myself indoors, not outside pursuing my next adventure. I also create plans and schedule my time, though not as efficiently others might. But after looking further into the description this guild which I have now accepted as my own, I realized that it I truly did belong. In a way, all of us, no matter our guild affiliation, feel the pull, the call of The Further Fire.
On the Weatherwatch
Weatherwatch, in its most basic form, is a guild motivated by the pursuit of the new and by experience. As the quote above shows, we go “onward, to the Further Fire.” It is this very pursuit which defines, which makes us the Weatherwatch. Spontaneity, a sharp tongue, a stubborn nature, these are all things which are traits of the so-called typical Weatherwatch. The only requirement of a Weatherwatch is that they have a drive, one which is never truly extinguished. One that burns at all times, and calls one to the horizon, whether it be physical or metaphorical. The drive’s goal is given the name of “The Further Fire,” but beyond that, there is nothing that defines what this fire is. Because of the undefined nature of The Further Fire, you find a wide variety of Weatherwatchers, from the very typical swashbuckling adventurous types those like Ascender, who was driven for so long to recreate the Mountaineers, and to have them go public. Both of these are excellent examples of what it is to be Weatherwatchers, and they are driven, and they follow that drive on into the unknown.
Drives, Motivations, and the Guilds
From this point, we can begin to approach a claim I made in my second paragraph: all of us, no matter our guild affiliation, feel the call of The Further Fire. As stated above, it is this pull which is the signature trait of a Weatherwatcher. All of the other guilds have similar things which call them, but they are much more specialized than The Further Fire: The Great Chaos calls the Balimorans to pursue a balance outside of the bounds of laws and convention, for instance, and The Common Drum encourages the Gossmerim to welcome, support, and respect those who share life with them. Each guild has its force which drives it onward, but of all of these, The Further Fire (to me at least, and I may be a bit biased) is the least defined of these. This undefined nature is what I extrapolated from so that I could make my earlier claim, and I stand by it.
Each guild has a drive, and something which calls them to fulfill this drive, and as the most generic of these drives, one could replace The Common Drum, The Great Chaos, The Mindflame, The Golden Balance, or The Day’s Work with The Further Fire. Each is a guiding force which leads a guild’s members to act. In the case of The Further Fire, a Weatherwatch may be encouraged to pursue new information, new methodologies, new moralities or ways to make themselves and others have a better existence. Each Weatherwatch is unique in their drive, and thus they may intrude into the domains of guilds. Thus, the guild itself is composed of jacks-of-all-trades, with many different members with different beliefs and drives. They are all called by The Further Fire.
This is not to say that Weatherwatch is the best guild, as each has their own advantages and quirks that make the unique. There is no best guild: each is special in their own way. Nor is it to say that most Weatherwatchers are polyguilds as some, like the so-called typical Weatherwatcher who is interested purely in adventure is probably less likely to be a polyguild as their drive isn’t as related to those of other guilds. Rather, it is to say that there is a wide variety of Weatherwatchers, and each has their own desires and drives, which can be said of the members of every guild. The joy of the guilds is that they aren’t strict and defined, but are nebulous enough that they allow for a number of identities to exist within them. This is perhaps most present in Weatherwatch due to the indefinite subject of The Further Fire.
A Call to Action
Thus, I call all of us, Weatherwatch or no, to pursue our various aims, moving on as we will down whatever paths we may find. We each will experience difficult challenges, moments of doubt and frustration, and we will all likely all reach a point where we want to give up entirely. And that’s okay. For the Weatherwatch, the experiences we have on our path, rather than the destination, is the most important. So, even if we feel defeated, we must look towards the horizon, towards the thing which beckons to us: The Further Fire. If we have that supporting us, then nothing can stop us. We go onwards, to The Further Fire. We are Weatherwatch.
(I would like to acknowledge @Robert, and his own “A treatise on Balimora and the nature of Chaos,” found here. I would also like to recognize @OracleSage for encouraging me to write this piece after hearing me describe the concept.)
