Guardkin

Dem dogs.

About them

Before the delegation headed by Benneit Drummondly brought the first two Guardkin to Escutcheon, the Hinichi were engaged in a perpetual debate: they did not want to breed the intelligence out of the dogs, but neither did they want to change them drastically enough to give them speech -- or not without their consent, which they could never agree that they had. Needless to say, Talthien's utterance of "Graeme says they've been waiting for someone like me all their lives" rather, um, rearranged everything.

The Guardkin consider themselves part of God's pack, so they think of themselves as a group as the godpack. Anyone who helps them find their bondmates is called a matchmaker. Brothers and sisters are referred to as littermates. Bleddyn observes that they are not technically dogs; they are related to the Hinichi, who were made with wolf DNA, so they are closer kin to wolves. But that there might be some 'working dog' DNA in there as well.

They can talk to any esper but prefer to choose one or two people and practice talking mostly with them. But their psychic powers often present to them as smells: they smell emotions and histories, along with more strictly biological things, like diseases and lineages.

They do *not* disturb the Pattern, so Eldritch with pattern sensing don't see their participation in it.

Vital Statistics (At a Glance)

See Hinichi for most

Characters

• Bleddyn
• Bran
• Graeme, Talthien's bonded. (gray with elegant black mask, back and tail and brown eyes)
• Madoc
• Moire (amber-eyed ivory with yellow dorsal fur), Graeme's mate.