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Sun Apr 06, 2008 6:18 am Burneal Forest: Eshaddoshuron

Eshaddoshuron: Venerable Sage of the Burneal

The Burneal Forest is vast, ancient and deadly. Equally so is the knowledge possessed by Eshaddoshuron, an Elder Treant of the Ancient Northern Wilds. Affectionately called the Venerable Sage of the Burneal by the Chakji people or simply Esh by the aboriginal Uirtag tribes, this wizened being hails from a near mythical era in the Flanaess. Eshaddoshuron was a sapling during the Battle of Pesh and he claims to know about the Builders of Exag; he has seen the glacial Black Ice wax and wane and he supposedly knows truths about the fabled City of the Gods.
Few civilized sages and lore-seekers in the last millenium have been lucky enough to gain an audience with the Venerable Sage, but they continue to try because his first-hand knowledge and memory of the past has few peers. Esh is said to only associate with the Grand Druid of the Old Faith and possibly his ascended predecessors, the Hierophants of the Cabal. The wild Quaggoths of the Burneal probably know Esh best however through their own considerable oral history.
Their legends say Eshaddoshuron was already old in the world when the elves of that age launched the grisly War of Extermination against the scaly races of the Flanaess. This War erupted into the Bitter North where Esh lived when the elves' former allies the Quaggoths turned on them for mastery of the forests and slew the beloved Olven Queen Amaranthe with her entourage. The furious retribution inflicted on the Quaggoth race was not to be repeated by Olvenkind long until the relatively recent Hateful Wars. Eshaddoshuron is said to have mourned over Amaranthe's grave for a decade after the War and thereafter he never ventured from the cold Burneal. Some scholars of the Old Lore know that Esh still openly roamed the Burneal at the emergence of the Flannae in the north and gladly lent his wisdom to their early druids until the power-seeking Ur-Flan sorcerers came on the scene and caused him to angrily retreat into hiding for good.
Eshaddoshuron now eludes all divination and location while in the Burneal Forest through the divine favor of Beory and several other respective deities. He is only found when he wants to be or through cryptic seasonal and astrological means handed down from one Grand Druid to the next. The Uirtag claim to know when Esh is near when at times their wild wolf-dogs howl solemnly. In this the tribesmen take solace from his omni-presence. The Quaggoths of the Forest feel differently and fear certain parts of the deep Burneal where they say Esh still waits to take revenge for their ancestor's treachery. For the fortunate outsiders who wander the Burneal and meet Eshaddoshuron, they all leave profoundly changed in one way or another, punctuated by the fact Esh will never reveal himself to them again.

Sun Apr 06, 2008 2:51 pm

Nicely done Mort Wink

Sorrowful and yet poignant.

Wed Apr 09, 2008 9:00 pm

Thanks Crag. This was something that just came to me when I was at work not doing what I was supposed to. I did a decent amount of research on some bits of it with what I had on hand but I am not sure if there are any Treants of note in GH canon already.... Question

Thu Apr 10, 2008 3:31 pm

That was way cool Mort. I hope you put it in line for an article. BTW, are you admin now?
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Plar of Poofy Pants

Fri Apr 11, 2008 10:21 am

I had made up a treant npc for the Suss as an info source for my players, but Eshaddoshuron leaves him in the dust. This is great stuff Mort!

Tue Apr 15, 2008 8:50 pm

Thanks for the kind words. I don't use treants much if at all IMC, but if I were to, Esh is who I'd love to use. Someone with history not just another sentient tree.

Wolf: Yeah, me and Cebrion are admins.