Waywatchers

A Hard Life
Waywatchers are a self-created group group of rangers, scouts, survivalists, and wayfarers that keep watch in the vast stretches of wilderness that make up the Free Realms. A solitary bunch of outcasts, Waywatchers come from all walks of life. While many are just natural outdoorsfolk, some are escaped criminals or convicts, while others are the rich nobility that grew tired of the life they led. Created unofficially before the Reclamation, at some point their teachings and techniques were gradually gathered and written down by wandering bards and scribes saved by their selfless acts.

Waywatchers impose a life of self-sufficiency and isolation on themselves, interacting as little as physically possible with the town and city folk that they swear to protect. A small group of Waywatchers might patrol around the outskirts of Gyliad, while a small town like Somerlend used to be might only have one or two at the most. People will occasionally leave trade goods, metals, or tools out in a remote section of woods as a gift to their silent guardians, and the Waywatchers, not forbidden from accepting them, take them gladly. A small symbol was adopted by the order (that looks kinda like this <<|>> for example) to carve or scrape into nearby material as a sign of thanks. Waywatchers are often forgotten by nobility or elected officials, but the common people never forget them and often say a quick prayer or two for them when the weather gets hard or the nights get dark.

A Light in the Dark
The unofficial ranks of Waywatchers are often the ones responsible for lighting waybeacons, the system of towers and fortifications that provide a bit of light for those on the road and fire coded flares to warn of impending danger. Waywatchers have also been known to stumble bleeding into a town and promptly die once inside, often with a hastily scribbled note warning of an impending band of orcs or gnoll warband, which often inspires others to take up their position and replace them. It's also not unheard of for sounds of battle to echo out of a forest or down a mountain, and when a search party investigates an entire group of monsters is destroyed with their symbol for "it is done" (like (<\\^//> this) carved into a tree, sometimes with their corpse nearby. Waywatchers have few symbols for necessary communication, but there isn't one for "you're welcome" because their jobless is supposed to be thankless one. Waywatchers never conscript, never recruit, never post notices. It is volunteer only, which has put their order at risk of extinction multiple times, if it wasn't for a few infamous waywatchers that were known for wiping out goblin nests or dragons on their own without so much as a notice, or even before the neighboring settlements were even aware of them. They just walk out to the road one day and a few miles from the gate are a few dozen goblins dead in the dirt, riddled with arrows and knives. Waywatchers creep unfound and unnoticed throughout the Free Realms, unthanked and unloved. It is a sacrifice they believe they need to make, and once the roads aren't fraught with danger, they'll retire.