Role

Chapter 3

As he was raised to prize order, and in need of a cause to dedicate himself, Gortol was always
very observant in his early youth. The priests who raised him at the direction of the Perpetuim
ensured that his knowledge of thera did not end with the Sultan and the sands. Over the years he
lived with them they brought him to all the great cities, Galadon, Tir-talath, Udgaard, Arkham, Seantryn
Modan, even so far as Aturi, Hillcrest and Dagdan. They pushed Gortol to speak the common tongue
as though born to it, and even taught him the basics of many of the other racial languages, so he
could thrive in any environment, and learn from any teacher, no matter who or where. These lessons
served him well, and continue to do so. But because of his travels, and his uncommon upbringing, he
was also brought into contact with people, and powers, that normal children and youths would not.
His travels and his explorations showed him first hand that the single biggest cause of chaos in all
Thera is not any one person does, or even what any one country or race does. No. The single largest
threat to order in the lands of thera is the unchecked use of magic. Magic disrupts order and the
logical manifestations of the universe as nothing else does. In heat, a mage produces cold. In desert,
a mage produces water. Born a man, a mage becomes a tiger, as though a natural tiger is not enough.
Man - meaning all mortals - could create in thera a more orderly existence, but only if the
natural laws are allowed to stand and not be broken by magic. Now, some surely say "what of priests" who
channel the power of the gods and can produce similar results? Do they not bend the same order, break
the same laws, that magicians do? No. Because deities and their powers, used by mortals of their
choosing, are naturally a part of the universe. Magic, is not. Magic is a gaping hole in the order
of the universe which needs to be plugged. It leaks in, and is sustained by those magi who use
its power. Because some of the gods who prize disorder and chaos fight to maintain such magic,
those that might oppose them are checked. But if all magic users were destroyed, all mortal power
that flows to those chaos gods would be cut, and they would lose the near-eternal battle.
Because of this, Gortol has dedicated himself to the destruction of magic. And lest he fall prey
to the very disorder he fights, he remains honest to his cause, and the path he has chosen.