"...[name] stood in the [name2] Hall, a hundred peers watching from the galleys above. She called her Provider's name, and all could feel the power she commanded. [name3] summoned his wards, but all that watched knew his efforts were in vain. The next name she offered was his, and the misery of [name3] was legend."

translated from Dekàlan fragment found in ruins of Ilduùn

Book of Druids

• Hektor
• Kraden

Some druids fill an interesting niche in the Old Empire as they are viewed as priests but do not belong to the one of the Ten Temples.  Within the region, druids are most commonly followers of the old god Woad though other gods and spirits are also revered (i.e. Malaz, Nathal...).  What makes their Old Empire niche so interesting is that unlike other religions that ocassionally appear in the region, the druidic cults are mostly tolerated.  Whether this tolerance is due to their small numbers or some deference to the "ancient ways" is not clear.  Tolerance has its bounds however and most druids are not allowed near the established centers of worship....

* A player may re-roll one die (and keep the lowest of the two) for each +1 Intelligence modifier to determine the length of training.  Every five ranks of Profession: Teacher that an instructor has reduces the time by 1 season.

Name Index

Hektor (588- DR) has lived on the north shore of Ildûn since before most can remember.  Though he talks to few that see him, he mutters and whispers constantly in conspiratorial tones as if he is speaking to the wind's thousand small ears.  A strange nuisance to nearby communities, his scrawny legs and hiked-up robes and ringing bells have been seen and heard on many occassions, usually capering away with stolen pies or deer haunches.  One angry villager caught Hektor years ago to confront him for some minor thievery.  Hektor was seen running away with his robes hiked-up and the man was wound with his hand fused into a wooden post.

Hektor was born to a poor couple in 588 DR.  Their names are not remembered for they left young Hektor in a wood basket on the threshold of a farmer's home, whose wife had recently given birth to one of he own.  The couple raised Hektor as their own.  At an early age it was evident that Hektor was not like the other children.  He never learned to speak coherently and threw terrible tantrums whenever anyone tried to calm or teach him.  Despite these difficulties the boy had an uncanny way with animals and was able to soothe panicked horses and call birds to land on an outstretched hand.  A local wise woman visited the farm at the couple's request and explained that the boy was beseiged by spirits.  She began a series of rituals and anointed him with expensive herbs to no positive effect.

Reaching adulthood, his adoptive parents grew worried that their special son would never be able to provide for himself for he couldn't be taught a useful trade and had infuriated all of those who gave him a chance at employment.  Eventually his parents died and the farm was given to the eldest born who evicted him.  Hektor disappeared for five years; no one can account for where he went or who took care of him during that period.  In 613 DR, strange things began to happen at Gordain's farm.  First his cow and pigs escaped (or were stolen) and could not be found.  Next his vegetables were plagued with bugs and worms and his fields became overgrown with weeds that blossomed with stinking blossoms.  Finally, the house burned to the ground one night from a strike of lighting, sending him and his family into the storm.  The wise women gathered and spoke of his troubles and determined that he'd brought a curse upon himself and his family.  The family was thereafter shunned and soon left the town for parts unknown.  Days later, Hektor returned and he has not left in 40 years.

At some point during Hektor's disappearance he learned to weave the Tapestry.  It can only be guessed that he met with some Druids who recognized his abilities and were able to instill in him some teachings where everyone had failed.  Whatever the explanation, the seaside villages of North Ildûn now had a capricious spellcaster to contend with.  In most communities, Hektor is viewed as a nuisance while others welcome his erratic visits.  He has been known to heal ailing crops and animals, boost daily yields for unlucky fishermen, and reverse bleeding from grievous wounds and troubled childbirths.  The most famous act attributed to Hecktor was against a tax collector from the south lowlands.  The story tells that while the collector and his soldiers were holding a meeting with the villagefolk he talked to their horses and told them to carry their riders to the Cliffs Cor Borairen.  When the collector and his men saddled the horses took off toward the west shore stopping thumbs from the edges of those precipitous cliffs.  So frightened were the riders by their possessed animals that they dismounted and walked home.

Hektor is not known to have any permanent possessions other than his wool robe.

Kraden (604- DR) is a bent and angry-looking little man with a wild gray beard, browned pate and an over-sized lower lip that jiggles when he turns his head.  He walks with the aid of a slender white staff which leaves odd three-mark footprints across the Kre Dùlnar sands.  The club-footed druid leaves his home in the Northfields of Oth before dawn each morning, walking down a set series of alleys and channels to the city harbor.  There, he carefully picks his way down a rickety wooden staircase that switchbacks down the sheer stone wall until his rag-bound feet touch the beach.  As the dimmest dawn's light filters down into the harbor's rocky maw, the old man begins his morning beachcombing; collecting all manner of small shells and other flotsam left by the retreating tide.  When inspired, Kraden leaves cryptic messages in the sand before the sun rises.  When morning comes and the water grows foamy with breaking waves, Kraden works slowly back to his staircase and returns along the long path home.

He is fond of other people, but when forced to interact introduces himself as Meren.  Like many that reside in Oth, Kraden is a transplant from another place.  Where that might be, he does not know.  His earliest memory is laying atop a plank of wood watching seagulls standing at the timber's end as they floated in the sea.  His next memory is of fisherman hauling him into their boat and asking questions with words he did not understand.  He knows his name to be Kraden, but invented the name Meren at an early time feeling his true identity was something he needed to protect.  Years later, he could only surmise that his family had been lost in a shipwreck along the rocky coastline and that he alone survived.  He was raised by several fishing families, being moved around much of his childhood for none could easily support an extra mouth to feed.  Though he never gained a trust of boats he remained fascinated by the sea and its shores.  His unwillingness to help on the fishing boats earned him shame and ridicule from those that thought him ungrateful.

At the age of fifteen, he left the families of Botton Liche behind and wandered the Northfields and western lands beyond the City.  In the town of Anspar, Kraden met a mountain woman who'd hiked down to trade pelts and crystals for supplies before returning to her retreat somewhere high in the Tor'n Evalshat.  She spoke very little and met Kraden's glance only once.  Kraden felt an attraction to this woman and followed her into the mountains, making no attempt to conceal himself.  Days later she entered a small cave opening, started a fire and made a meal for them both.  Tikea spent the next six years teaching Kraden the ways of Woad.  At the end of this period he was taken to the high plateau and introduced to other mountain people that gathered there.  Standing among them he told his story.  The druids listened carefully, beneath the massive stones they believed to be incarnation of their primeval god.  When he had finished, the eldest stonewatcher among them (for no-one could guess her age) stood and placed his hands on Kraden's shoulders.  He explained that the Knerl was no place for the young man and that he must return to the sea that gave birth to him.  Only there, the woman explained, would he learn his purpose.  The others agreed to this and so Kraden thanked them and left the high plateau, returning to the land beneath the sickening black pall.  Since that time he has searched the shores for answers to his past and future, leaving messages in the sand that are read and swallowed by the sea in the hopes that one day, it will answer him.

* Read/Scribes Othic

Kraden is not known to have any permanent possessions other than a white walking-staff and the leather pouch of findings that hangs about his neck.  Other than the treasures he collects from the harbor beach, he keeps small shell talismans and mistletoe in the large pouch.

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