Caz Longshadow the Druid of Wind, Harbinger of Thar-Eris

Role

Chapter 5

If much of his time has been spent pursuing his goals as an Outlander, just
as much has been spent seeking to understand and appease his Patron.

Ceremony of Loss

At the Doll's suggestion, he has made plans for a great Ceremony of Loss, in
revival of a tradition that has for too long been ignored. Lord Rahsael,
whose faint touch Caz has felt a number of times now, has clearly taken great
interest in the event... Caz and the Drillmaster of Battle, Phelzhis, have
worked together to prepare it, and Caz now works to spread the word,
contacting many people, both the famous and the less so, and encouraging them
to attend.

Longshadow?

Another wood-elf, a forest protector, found Caz in the Weald as he prepared
to assault the Spire. They recognized him as a Longshadow, which was a great
surprise to him. Excitement turned to dismay as he listened to the cryptic
message left for him by another of his clan, clearly taken by her own
Longing. "She seemed pretty upset," the protector told him, "Said something
about only four returning... said if I saw another one of you, to tell you to
go home immediately or it all could be lost."

Disturbed, Caz's mind went to dark places. Only four returning? Had a Wise
One been Lost? Such things are rare, but not unheard of, and another always
replaces them. Where were they returning from? Go home immediately?

After fighting off Erigron, and finishing the re-raid on the Spire, Caz
instead went to the West, back to the Cathedral, hoping to find some measure
of clarity. Unable to shake the feeling that some terrible doom had afflicted
his clan, he prayed to the Mourning Star. After fruitlessly quizzing one of
the statues, he spoke to the Doll again at length.

Ultimately, the Doll suggested something that Caz had felt deep in his soul:
that whatever was happening to his clan might, and likely was, a blessing
from his Patron. His Longshadow family was an anchor of sorts, like the ocean
or mountains are to some who cannot bear to live too far away from them, and
Caz had not realized how deeply he feared losing them... even if he had no
illusions of ever returning home. "It would seem He knows me even better than
I know myself," the druid observed. The doll replied, impassively, "It is a
lesson we all learn, sooner or later."

"You will do more damage to yourself and everything you love if you fear
Loss, than if you accept it." Caz is resolved to grow stronger. He has so far
been uncertain and even unhappy while experiencing or anticipating losing
that which he values - he hasn't run away from it, and he has even embraced
it, but until recently it has been more of an intellectual embrace rather
than a tangible and real one. His conversations with Phelzhis and his
experiences with the Doll have changed him. He believes his clan is now among
the Lost, or doomed to be Lost, and that has changed him, too.

He will not let this journey break him.

Role

Chapter 4

Much has come to pass since Caz's journey began in earnest. Now fully mature
and in the prime of his life, he has spent much of his time over the last 75
years pursuing the enemies of Thar-Eris, encouraging those who he thinks
might have a future within the Refuge, and seeking to deepen his own
spiritual connection with the Ancients. His travels have taken him all over
Thera, and as he has walked, things that were previously hidden to him have
become apparent.

Following the path laid forth in his vision, he has tried to not pass up on
any opportunity to bring the wrath of nature to bear against those who defile
Thar-Eris. He has had some successes, and continues to hone his craft. The
powers he wields are not easily mastered, but in time they will be. Many of
his battles have been against foes significantly more experienced within
their guilds than he is, and he has had to adopt other tactics to bring them
down. Recently, he helped orchestrate the conjurer Erigron's death, bringing
together the Reaver Amucra and the Warden Thorawyn to fight their common
enemy.

Unexpectedly, he has started to feel a kinship with Erigron. A mutual respect
born from hours and hours of fighting with no deaths, as well as a bond
forged one day outside the Cathedral of Loss, has tied them closer together
than Caz ever thought. At the Doll's suggestion, they had made plans to
return to the Cathedral to continue developing this strange bond... since the
last time the conjurer was slain, Caz hasn't seen him.

Caz believes he was the last brought in by the former Harbinger, Telez,
before they stepped down from their position. He is thankful for that
opportunity, and made good use of their time together. Caz tries to speak to
those who pledge towards any of the three branches, to seek understanding of
what led them to the Refuge, and to weigh their merits. He encourages any and
all who show promise to live unshackled and free in pursuit of their own
path, offering a small measure of material support, and his counsel if they
wish it. Mostly, he listens. Each of them will find way, in time, or they
will not last long in the world. Already he has been disappointed by those
who appear, burn bright, then are Lost just as quickly as they came.

Role

Chapter 3

After his time spent at the Cathedral, Caz took to the forests nearby to
commune with the creatures and the spirits there. As he meditated, he looked
inside himself, and observed that the urgency of his Longing had begun to
fade. While still present and a part of him, it no longer felt as if his very
Spirit might leave him in pursuit of fulfilling its need. Curious, he
thought, and he wondered whether other Longshadows who survived the initial
pangs had felt the same. He supposed they must have.

Visions came and went while he walked the woods, and his thoughts danced like
dreams, first on one topic and then the next.

He saw a tree great Tree in the east, and living within it a chaotic assembly
of men and women of many races: the Outlanders of Thar-Eris. He had been made
aware of them before, by the Wise Ones, and took his vision as a sign to seek
them out. A moment of grief overcame him, for he felt it unlikely that he
would ever return to his clan, and he ached for a community to replace the
one he had left behind.

He saw the fury of the Ancients on full display: the Tribunal Spire and the
Empire's Palace struck by massive bolts of lightning, cities in flames and
then reduced to ash, dwarves drowned in their mines, and Defilers hunted
across the lands by a slender, ivory-skinned elven figure leading a host of
Treants and wild beasts into the fray. Deep within his soul, he knew that his
time would be spent bringing vengeance against the enemies of Thar-Eris.

He saw the same elven figure again, and again it was him, but this time he
was approached by others who are Lost. A touch here, an inquisitive word
there, and they sagged as if weighed down by some incorporeal burden. One by
one they came and shared their stories. Deep within his heart, he knew that
his time would also be spent in counsel to those afflicted by Loss.

The moon changed from new to full and back again while he walked the woods.
Eventually, the visions faded. There was a path ahead of him, and he set out
on it.

Role

Chapter 2

Caz's Longing took him across bleak seas and through shrouded mists to an
island upon which he discovered the Cathedral of Loss. Outside, he was found
by a broken doll marked with the tattoo of a darkened lantern. Although never
by name, it told him of Rahsael. It questioned him, and led him to some
amount of clarity regarding what constitutes true Loss, which they defined
eventually: "Loss is the unexpected or unintended absence of something of
subjective value." This, the doll told Caz, is the foundation of His
teachings.

Their conversation turned to how Caz would appease the God by creating Loss.
After all, as the doll noted, "Gods are not charitable, even if they claim to
be." It presented Caz with a few different ways he might go about
accomplishing what Rahsael expects: through mischief caused, or patient study
of the hearts and minds and values and desires of others, or through counsel
provided to those who have Lost. However, it stopped short of setting a path
for him, for it is up to Caz to decide how he will appease the God. As their
conversation lulled, the statues outside seemed to come alive, and light
began to drain from the world around them.

The doll led Caz into the Cathedral, where a shadowy figure emerged. With a
single touch, It brought a wave of sorrow upon him that was at once like yet
unlike all the other great sorrows of his young life. With a single touch, It
caused his very soul to struggle with renewed memories of home and past
regrets. With a single touch, it empowered him. Then, it dissolved into thin
air.

The doll told him that he had been found worthy of a chance, and that what he
felt was merely a taste of power. It tasked him with creating or renewing and
exploring Loss with two people before returning to the Cathedral.

Role

Chapter 1

When the great poet observed that not all those who wander are Lost, he must
not have had the Longshadow clan in mind.

A reclusive community of nomadic wood-elves, the Longshadows wander the main
Theran continent, never lingering too long in any one place. Away from the
encroachment of civilization, they raise their young to revere Nature, to
cultivate life and growth, and to stand ready to defend the land against
those who do it harm. Wise Ones, tasked with the rearing of the young,
encourage their charges to embrace their instincts for insight into the
Spirit that animates all living things. Even before they talk, Longshadow
children begin learning of the cycle of Life, Death, and Rebirth.

Eventually, every Longshadow feels the Longing. Some are visited by it in
their infancy, and these tend not to live long. Some it comes to in their old
age, and these tend to falter and fail under its weight, having lived many
centuries without it. For most, it comes in the early prime of their life,
and it drives them to leave the clan in pursuit of the unknown. Each Longing
is felt differently, and it is taboo for one Longshadow to speak with another
of their experience. Most never return to the clan, either perishing alone on
their travels or finding another life elsewhere after having discovered
something new about themselves. For a rare few, and mysteriously never more
nor less than five at a time, their Longing journey leads them full circle,
and they return to the clan to serve as Wise Ones until the end of their
days.

Caz's Longing came upon him in his 147th year. He knows it by the hollow
feeling in his stomach despite nothing outwardly apparent having changed
about his life, and by the strange pulling he feels to travel West. He knows
it by the voices that whisper to him as if on the wind, except that he has
heard the wind speak before, and these are not its voices. He knows it by the
urge - the need! - to affirm and to strengthen his connection with the slowly
awakening Ancients who once reigned supreme over all of creation.

He has traveled the lands and grown ever so slightly in power. He has seen
firsthand the towering cities and rapacious mines of civilization,
defilements wrought upon Nature, and grown enraged by them. And now, he has
heard tell of a more recently revealed God: Rahsael, the patron of the Lost.
The urge to head West has since intensified, and he cannot put off the
journey any longer. He will seek out this mysterious God, and undertake to
learn of their secrets.

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