Elendas
Elendas Thanomere, Ranger and Acolyte of Mandador (Danian Rite)
Contents
Family History and Background
Father: Sir Zathial Thanomere of Zlin, Paladin of the Order of the Lake
Mother: Elissis, wood elfess of Manlen Grove, daughter of Eletheniel
The Story of Sir Zathial and Elissis, and the Birth of Elendas
Elissis is the wood elf mother of Elendas, a maiden of the wood elves of Manlen Grove. Zathial is Elendas’ father, a paladin and member of the Order of the Lake. Born in Zlin in Erin Dale, he was a knight-errant of Aber-Zlin, and was famous for righting many wrongs and defeating goblins. After adventures, he road to Manlen Grove in the Forest of Osholan to slay the green dragon Keshelaness, who had been eating halflings. There, he passed into the boundaries of the Grove upon hearing a beautiful elven song, and experienced the beauty of Elissis swimming with nymphs. He was instantly entranced, but the rangers of the Grove soon caught him for violating the sanctity of the Grove. Eletheniel, the father of Elissis, called upon the protection of the Grove against Zathial. Zathial on the other hand appealed to the druids of the Grove for the chance to court the wood elf maiden. They decreed nine challenges or quests as dictated by Eletheniel.
1) Defeat of the Trispine troll
2) Answer the three riddles of Tribbleplacer the Gnome
3) Tame the Restless Unicorn
4) Defeat Kanlis the Strong, strongest of the elves of the Grove, in a joust
5) Seal off the kingdom of the unseelie faeries
After the fifth quest, Zathial was nearly killed. The other four tests were never revealed. Barely returning to the Grove, Elissis rushed to care for him, and ignoring her father, took the injured paladin to Olten’s Post, a small human village. In his weakness, they shared a night together, and Elendas was conceived. Ashamed of himself for not fulfilling all nine of Eletheniel’s quests, he returned to the elf to continue the quests, but the father refused, and cursed the paladin. Zathial road away, ashamed, but arranged for Elissis to give birth at the bailiwick lodge of the Holding, whilst he atoned. Upon returning, he challenged Eletheniel himself to a joust for the right to marry his daughter, which the elf accepted. The two warriors threw each other down, and so a draw was declared by the druids, and so for half the year, Zathial could see his wife and child, and for the other half the paladin must depart.
Zathial thus had the boy raised at the Bailiwick of the Holding, where he was educated by the priest Ultas. In the spring and summer he would stay at Manlen Grove with his mother, but as a half elf was not permitted to enter into its inner secrets. He was trained there by the Rangers of the Grove, and by his father, in the arts of war. In the fall and winter, he stayed with his father and guardians at the bailiwick. Upon advanced youth, his father took him north, and as per his son’s request, he was initiated into the minor orders by Athis, the Archbishop of Tharkin himself. His father being beckoned to the War of the Siblings, and his mother assenting, Elendas was sent to assist the troubled archbishopric of Dantareth.
Early Life of Elendas
Mentors, Teachers and Instructors of Elendas
Sir Zathial: basic instruction in the warrior way, and in matters of faith, perseverance
Important Locations in the Life of Elendas
Manlen Grove
In early Mandadorian Empire, a paladin named Nimrel (Nimrelius Avanius Conthine), a warrior of invincible power, came to the great grove, which had long been the home of faerie folk, with a spritely king and queen. Chasing forest elves to the sanctity of the grove, as they would not convert, Nimrel bade his knights wait so that he might reason with the Queen and King of the grove, where he meant to use his terrible sword the Tolobranus to inflict his will. Instead, the spritely forest god Manlen appeared, and held a great contest of riddles. If Manlen lost the contest, the demigod staked conversion of all the in the grove. If Manlen won, Nimrel was to defend the grove with his sword for all time. Although directly divinely inspired, Nimrel still lost the contest due to a “dark trick”. Furious, he was changed into a great tree spirit of stone and wood. He guards the forest still, its ultimate protector, but rarely manifests, and his holy sword Tolobranus is embedded idly into changing stones about the magical wood.
The Quest to Save Sir Zathial
On the 8th day of the Festivals of Change (October) 888, while the party guarded the home of Atham Tiluvian Half-Elven against attack from Killithane druids and their gnolls, and while Elendas was watching and guarding House Tiluvian in the dark woods of night, Elendas was approached by Cornelius, a mage turned druid whom Elendas recognized as a member of the Nine, from the college or circle of druids at Manlen Grove. Now however, Cornelius bore the Staff of Stars, once held by the Great Druid of the Circle of Manlen Grove, old Wythircar, whom was kindly to Elendas when he was still very young. Elendas, remembering these rarely seen but powerful and important people, and recognizing the staff of office, concluded that Cornelius was now Great Druid. Knowing that his territory stretched throughout the whole of the Eastern Kingdom and beyond, Elendas knew that there was an important reason why the Great Druid had used his magic to pass the distance and come to him. Indeed, Cornelius told Elendas the following news:
The Wounding of Sir Zathial, as told by Cornelius
-that although a major victory was won by the Crown at a battle at the border of Polydidus and Quadrain, which has pushed the Empire back west and out of eastern Pompiers, a large force of Encyclonian cavalry, under an imperial guard hypo-myriarch named Count Solonochos, has taken much of the Holding
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Elendas’ ancestor Thanomere Blackshield, an adventurer, supported the king of Hollaton during an invasion by the Calians in which the king was nearly captured. In the combat, a bronze dragon descended to attack the prince of Hollaton, and with a great sword Thanomere, a commoner at the time, slew the beast. Later, the House of Thanomere was loyal to the Phoenix Lord of Mountainhall, although a cadet branch of the family moved to farms in Aber-Zlin.
Elendas’ great-great paternal grandfather named Antanis Thanomere, who was himself of knightly descent tracing back to the barony of Hollaton generations before that time. Antanis helped quell a serious rebellion using the monsters of the swamp against Ariathor. For this Antanis was made a knight banneret with inheritable title and a grant of land in addition to those already owned. Antanis was also the first to become a knight of the Order of the Lake, although Zathial was only the second of the family to join this order.
Character Points/Notes
-Tharkin, the city in which Elendas was initiated into the Minor Orders by the Archbishop himself, is an ancient and holy and sacred city, as it is the original home of the Prophet Ramian’s parents, and it is also where they are buried at the great cathedral.
