History of the Order of the Druids of Chislev

[Dungeon Master]

History of the Order of the Druids of Chislev
(Information on Merwellyn)
This is all Conjecture and scraps of Information being collected
Vedvedsica was created by Paul B. Thompson and Tonya C. Cook
Merwellyn created by David C. Richardson
This is an Unfinished Work

Timeline-

The Age of Dreams

The Age of Dreams is an era of Krynnish history, often considered the beginning of recorded history, and running from ca. 9000 PC - 960 PC.

Three time periods collectively form the Age of Dreams: the Foundation (ca. 9000 PC - 5000 PC), the Time of Light ca. 5000 PC - 2000 PC), and the Time of Knights (ca. 2000 PC - 960 PC).

Foundations
Ogres, elves, and humans establish homes and the beginnings of civilization. Reorx gathers a select few creative humans and teaches them his craft. Ogres begin enslaving humans. An ogre governor named Igraine learns compassion and is declared a traitor by his race. Igraine and his followers call themselves the Irda and move to a distant island. The ogre empire descends to barbarism as human slaves revolt and elven civilization comes into its own.


The Time of Light

Reorx curses his chosen humans for their arrogance, changing them into the first gnomes.

The coming of the Graygem
4350  Hiddukel tricked one of these gnomes into stealing the Graygem from Lunitari. The gnome used the Self-Propelled Lunar Extension Ladder to pluck the Graygem from Lunitari and began to return to Krynn. As the gnome was returning, he lost his grip on the Graygem, and it fell to Krynn. The Graygem went wild, crisscrossing across the world, bringing chaos and change in its wake. Mortals, flora, fauna, and animals are all changed. By 4100 PC, Reorx saw the chaos and destruction the Graygem brought, and tasked his gnomes to search out and capture the Graygem. The gnomes immediately set out after the Graygem.


Eastern Ansalon

Not much is known about the early life of the one known as Vedvedsica. Though not even his real name, for our purposes, it will suffice. 

Early on, Vedvedsica took a leadership role even before the founding of the elven nation of Silvanesti. He was already the powerful leader of a collective league called the Brown Hoods. When the elves had the first Sinthal-Elish, Vedvedsica offered to back Lord Balif for leadership of the elves. He then cast a spell to show Balif his future, and when Balif saw it, he quickly backed Silvanos Goldeneye. Vedvedsica was the first high sage to Lord Balif and the nation of Silvanesti.

League of Brown Hoods was made up of a confederation of spirit sorcerers, rural clerics, and druids. The League is connected in mysterious ways to the grey traveler, Gilean, the god of the book, and his order of Grey Gods.

Spirit Sorcerers, Primal Magicians, and Proto Magic-Users. They were:

Irkis · Kadalvas · Vatore · Isida · Clilla · Diros · Zohas Graeme · The Witch Nikastia Storm · Delen
Fayal Padran · Parys Dayl · Kayn Wytsnall

Rural Clerics of the Neutral Gods, though mostly of Gilean of the Book, and his son Zivilyn, the Tree of Life. They were:

Isolde · Loric · Doran · Lysara · Corin · Quiran ·  Camille · Nyajn · Kethya

Among the first Druids from these early times were among the most respected from across Ansalon. They were:

Niana · Marieleth · Oisiodh · Tianan · Mordan · Erdian · Kyrissach · Sinturo · Noorne

The League lived on the fringes of elven and human-settled lands, mostly made up of early elves and early humans, originally heralding from the outside the wilderness realms of the elven lands.

It came to be heard from across the land that several of the druids’ brethren have been accosted, run out of town, and in some dire cases, they have been burned at the stake. Now, druidic laws have not been fully laid down, and everyone is just doing what they think is right. There are some outliers that greatly abuse offenders, but for the most part, druids have tried to be helpful to the general populace. 

The great thinkers among them sketch out a covenant law to adhere to. An outline that has been added with Amendments, but not many, the blueprint of the long training of the initiate, the druids of nine, the strength of the circles, the duties of the Archdruids, the Great Druids, the gathering of the Moot, the Ban, the Challenge, the Grand Druid of Chislev, and the Hierophant Druids. When they finished, Chislev blessed the effort, and the effort was passed around in the east and slowly filtered into the west.


The Removal of the Human Barbarian Tribes (4007 PC)
High Sage Vedvedsica visits the barbarian leader Karada and shows her what exactly her barbarian hordes were up against in the Silvanesti. He renders both of them invisible, and together they travel to Silvanost so he can show her the city and its people.


The First Dragon War (3900 PC - 3550 PC)
Called the Dragon War by dragons, it was a war that took place between the Metallic Dragons allied with the elves of Silvanesti and the Chromatic Dragons allied with ogres and followers of Takhisis. During the First Dragon War, Silvanos led the defense against the ogre armies that came against Silvanesti.

The war begins when the elven king Silvanos brings his people to a forest inhabited by chromatic dragons. The dragons fight the elves for control of the territory. The three gods of magic provide the elves with five dragon stones, which capture the spirits of the first dragons. The dragon stones are buried, stopping the war, but the other deities punish the gods of magic for their interference.

While the Metallic Dragons were occupied in the west with the death of their mentor, the Scion Patersmith, Crematia saw her chance and had her chromatic dragons and ogre allies attack the elven outposts in an attempt to throw out the elven invaders. Silvanos Goldeneye and his lieutenant Balif rallied all the elves in fighting back.

While the dragons were fighting in the sky, an ogre named Ironfist led the ogres in attacking the elves led by Silvanos and Balif. Eventually, leadership would pass to Blacktusk and then on to his grandson Talonian, who would fight the last battle of the First Dragon War.

When Aurican (who was a massive gold dragon that fought in the First and Second Dragon Wars) left his brother to fight against the hordes of Takhisis, he took with him three sages, Fayal Padran, Parys Dayl, and Kayn Wytsnall, who were triplets (this being very rare for elves). Together, the four traveled into the realms of the gods in some way. There, they met with Solinari, Lunitari, and Nuitari and were told the way in which to defeat the chromatic dragons. They taught them how to create dragon stones, and with them, capture the spirits of the dragons.

The War Turns
Just as the blues were about to attack and slaughter the elves on the field of battle, Silvanos used the power of the blue stone to capture the blue dragon spirits. With the threat of the chromatic dragons gone, the elves were able to slaughter the ogres.


Vedvedsica’s First Downfall
It is known that Vedvedsica overreached himself, and for that Balif dismissed him from his service. For his past services, Silvanos saved his life and was banished to the Valley of the Blue Sands sometime before the year 3995 PC.



Bloodlines

Allow me to pause here a moment, if you will, for me to be able to account for a few important lineages from the Druids of the Brown Hoods. The first is not represented by blood connection, but knowledge passed down from master to student, and so on. The student becomes the master, and he teaches a student. Information is passed down, but it may be that, for some reason, the information is diluted over time, in some cases, in the passing of the traditions.   

The wise Druidess Oisiodh taught Myrrdian from the time he was a boy. He was raised to become an Archdruid and sent out into the world to report back on the goings on across the lands. Myrrdian became known as a great explorer because he traveled far and wide, and now he has brought back a tale about a southern wood where giant forest barbarians erected great stones that they found in the Eastwall Mountains, and it is said that somehow they moved them into this forest area.  Myrrdian reports the stones are possibly from an earlier Neolithic endeavor, not from a settlement, more like a watch post; there are inscriptions that indicate High Ogre in origin. 

No telling how long ago this was done. At the standing stones, there is a shrine to Chislev, and she has blessed the site to keep it hidden from the enemy. It was a place of refuge. Some of the early druids of the wood lived in the winter months in caves in the nearby Eastwall Mountains. This wood, they named Merwellyn. 

Soon, Silvanos Goldeneye's early call became a demand, and some of the league joined migration away from the oppressive dictates of the Emerald Throne, and Myrrdian traveled to the eastern lands of what would become Balifor and settled and taught several initiates. 

It would be from these descendants of these initiates, who would go on to be Druids in their own right who’s bloodlines and teachings would survive the Dragon War, The second Dragon War, the coming of High Sorcery, and the Greygem, the coming of the Kender, the Kinslayer Wars, The Third Dragon War, The Kingpriests, and finally the Cataclysm.


AC: The years After the Cataclysm

From the East

The Age of Despair came, and from those Druid descendants came Cerlin of Balifor. Cerlin grew up on the tales of Myrrdian and his travels, but one story always stuck with him. The story of Merwellyn. He did not even know if it still existed after the devastation of the Cataclysm. But he means to try.  On his way from the east, he came across a strange sight, a young boy sitting with a Treant. This boy had wandered into the woods and become lost and could not find his way home, and was being kept alive by a Treant's wisdom and stayed with the elder tree, but winter was coming in a couple of months. The Treant requested that Cerlin take the boy with him, and Cerlin agreed. They would get to a place of protection and warmth for the winter before they set out across the Plains of Dust. One important site Cerlin wanted to visit was the World Tree of Zivilyn.

They would try to piece together where this forest was, for much had changed in the cataclysm. At first, when Cerlin heard about this New Sea, he feared it could have drowned the Wood, submerging it beneath the waves. Finding the Eastwall Mountains, they determined that this lonely wood that had been spared, sat on the very edge of this New Sea, had to be Merwellyn. A part of the ancient Ergothian highway can be found running north to south along the eastern edge of the forest. The locals claim the Forest is home to swarms of ghosts of the wood. Cerlin had tears in his eyes when the forest and its branches opened to Cerlin and Kaelan.

Kaelan was terribly frightened of the stories of swarms of ghosts, but Cerlin was not so sure. Within moments, they found wind chimes, and the occasional screech of an owl is the only thing going bump in the night, thus far. They found the standing stones and the shrine to Chislev that confirmed the tales of Myrrdian. The spirits of wood finally reveal themselves to the newcomers after several days. The spirits have determined that the newcomers are here to protect the forest and accept them as the guardians of the forest.

In their exploration of the forest, they find that it contains many exotic and rare plants, some of which are the main components of magic potions. They met the first living inhabitence of the forest when they noticed satyrs watching them from afar. The fey sprites and pixies also keep their distance until they are sure of the newcomers.  Cerlin taught Kaelan the ways of the Forest, as he was taught. Several times, they are visited by Brown Hoods, Fingondir Arbagon, and his son Tevarith. 

Cerlin died in an unknown incident, but he wanted Kaelan to succeed him as Guardian of Merwellyn.    Tevarith would visit Kaelan the Hermit, from time to time, for years to come. 

···

The Brown Hood Druidess Noorne taught several initiates, one of them was Tyana. It is through Tyana’s descendants that Tevarith (Talidaar’s grandfather) was born. bloodlines and teachings that would survive the Dragon War, the second Dragon War, the Kinslayer Wars, when one nation split into two. The descendants joined with the migration to lands west, ceded to Kith-Kanan Silvanos, to the forest of Mithranhana

The Third Dragon War, where Darkness almost completely extinguished the light, the Rise of the Kingpriests, to the Last Kingpriest.

A moment about the Last Kingpriest, his declaration that effectively waged a holy war against the Doctrine of Balance, driven by the belief that any faith other than his own worship of Paladine was evil, the Knights of the Divine Hammer were a radical military order established by Beldinas Pilofiro, the last Kingpriest of Istar, to purge neutral and evil followers, wizards, and non-human races. The Brown Hood league teetered on collapse by the Kinslayer Wars; only a few remained of the Druid Order, the Knights of the Divine Hammer systematically hunted down clerics of Neutrality, Black Robe mages, and various races deemed "evil" by the Kingpriest's ever-widening definition. The Druidic Order of Chislev was brought to the brink of destruction.

The Cataclysm finally ended the madness 


AC: The years After the Cataclysm

Western Ansalon

Tevarith’s (Talidaar’s grandfather) Father was Fingondir Arbagon, who passed down the teachings of the Brown Hoods and the ways of the Druids of Chislev. They lived in a small community of aging druid descendants on the edge of Qualinesti 

Tevarith (Talidaar’s grandfather) went on many travels with his father, Fingondir, across Abanasinia. They worked with towns trying to rebuild after raids. They tried to bring peace to the warring Abanasinian tribesmen and were moderately successful for a time until tempers flared again. Soon, they were brought to the Circle of Seven tribes of centaurs and were welcomed into Darken Wood. They were brought to the court of the Forestmaster, where they sat in council with the other protectors of the forests. 

Tevarith met this intoxicatingly beautiful elven warrior. She was one of the most skilled fighters he had ever seen, whether by bow or by sword; she was as lethal as she was beautiful, and they had many adventures together. Her name was Wydara. After a few years, Tevarith and Wydara had a son, whom they named  Eldrin.  They had many happy years together. Eldrin shows little to no interest in either parent’s vocation, to the frustration of his parents.

After his mother Wydara’s sudden death, Eldrin fully rejected the ways of Tevarith and his teachings and moved to Frenost, where he began a life integrating himself into Qualinesti society, though he was not altogether successful. He was able to secure a wife named Arlyn. Within a couple of years, a daughter was born to the couple, and they named her Wydara after Eldrin’s mother.

This story of Eldren and Arlyn leads to this 262 AC A Druid's Tale: The Story of Talidaar vol. I The World of Elves
https://thedamnforum.createaforum.com/the-hierophant-of-chislev-29/the-story-of-talidaar/