About Mornar val YgrissStatistics:
Male Human Ranger (Skirmisher) 1
LN Medium Humanoid (Human) Init +2; Senses Perception +1 ------------------------------ DEFENSE ------------------------------ AC 20, touch 12, flat-footed 18 (6armor + 2dex + 2shield) hp 10 (1d10+0con) Fort +2 (2base + 0con) Ref +4 (2base + 2dex) Will +1 (0base + 1wis) ------------------------------ OFFENSE ------------------------------ Speed 30 ft. Melee
Ranged
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*ACP applies to these skills
*Acrobatics: +2 (2dex)
Languages Common, Sylvan Special Abilities:
------------------------------ SPECIAL ABILITIES ------------------------------ R) Bonus Feat R) Skilled: +1 Rank/level C) Favoured Enemy: +2 Bluff/Know/Perception/Sense Motive/Survival, +2 Atk/Damage
C) Proficiency: Light/Medium/Shield, Simple/Martial
Gear/Possessions:
------------------------------ GEAR/POSSESSIONS ------------------------------ Carrying Capacity Light 0-100 lb. Medium 101-200 lb. Heavy 201-300 lb. Current Load Carried 94 lb. (Worn) Breastplate (+6AC, +3maxdex, -4acp, Speed20ft); 30lbs
Money 24 GP 0 SP 0 CP
Background:
When Mornar was informed at sixteen that he was no longer the heir apparent, it wasn't a private affair. Raised in a way only the first-born royal of a druidic nation could be, amongst the court and the wild gardens and the warm den of the royal sabertooth pack, when his younger sister showed a spark of arcane talent during the Spring Court Festival she was immediately named the heir. The reality that this could have happened had always been there, but Mornar had spent so many years being tested and led along to try and spark his own magical talent that it had never truly struck home that he was running out of time. Practically discarded and exiled from the highest tiers of the court, his lessons with druidic and arcane teachers ended without a word, Mornar found himself nigh forgotten by his parents and his siblings. He was, for all intents and purposes, fallen from the royal family. It took two years of struggling to remain relevant in the court before Mornar decided it was time for him to give up - not his desire to rise again, but rather the method of his struggle. It was clear that without the favour of his family he was something of a floating, powerless body in the court, and so he fell back on the things that he had excelled in as a child. The forests, the training grounds. Hunting, training animals, learning about the people of the land and the land itself. After six months of 'rousting about' according to the rumours of the court, Mornar signed up for a five year commission in the Winter Wood, the roving and nomadic military force protecting the borders of the Circle of Taalbad. Together with the druids, hunters and warriors of the Winter Wood, Mornar began a new life in the wilderness, protecting the hamlets of the Drail from threats from the depths of the forest and from the lands beyond the edge of the Circle. Raiders and poachers were the usual fare, though more frequently than not the Winter Wood also served to track down maneater Cave Bears or Sabretooth Tigers, and even the occasional witch or necromancer despoiling the druidic sites within the circle. For the final year of his commission Mornar had been planning to sign up for another half-decade of service. He had come to enjoy his life and the compatriots he had made. Lowborn or high, all were equal in the Winter Wood as all served the land and the people equally. During his final month, however, during the Autumn Court Festival, the royal val Ygriss family made an official appearance, announcing that Mornar's second and youngest sister had shown druidic insight, and that they had also adopted their cousin Pellian vol Ygriss, his mother's nephew, into the family as third in line as he had shown the spark of the Oracle. There was no mention of Mornar in the address, his accomplishments on the border. His service to the realm. Mornar had been forgotten. Practically stricken from even the memory of the royal family. There had always been a way for the young royal to reclaim his place in the family, but after being so discarded Mornar didn't want that place any more. He wanted more. Leaving the Winter Wood behind, Mornar returned to the Hailfast and gathered what resources he could before approaching his father, the consort of the Kaiserin and the only part of the family who had shown him some interest after the eclipsing rise of Mornar's sister. Awarded a formal position as an Ambassador of the Circle, Mornar had leave to travel beyond it's borders and represent the desires of it's peoples. What Mornar didn't tell his father, nor his fairweather friends at court, nor even the few of his old tutors who spoke highly of him, was that Mornar was leaving for more than adventure. He was leaving to find a wife - and a powerful one. Love was no longer an option, it was power he needed and power he would return with or he would die far away without the Gnorn lookming on the horizon.
The Circle of Taalbad:
Other Names: Because of outsider confusion with the intricacies of the nations past, it is often referred to seperately as 'The Circle' or 'Taalbad,' as well as the Circle of Gnorn, or more colloquially as the Winter Gnorn by unfriendly neighbours. Government Type: Hereditary Monarchy; passed down to eldest magically talented heir. Sovereign: Kaiserin Oshalia val Ygriss Heir Apparent: Oscarlin val Ygriss (2nd born) Other Successors: Aniya val Ygriss (3rd born); Pellian vol Ygriss (1st cousin); Mornar val Ygriss (1st born*); Eriks vol Ygriss (1st cousin*)
Major Sites:
Major Religion: Druidic The Circle of Taalbad sits on the northern fringe of the Mountains of Gnorn, a series of tall peaks which runs along the deep southern end of the continent. Those areas of foothill and flatlands not lying in the mountain range are primarily covered in evergreen forests and southern tundra, the cold of the region focusing not from it's position in the world but rather from the gigantic, frozen peak of the Gnorn. An ancient and massive volcano, many thousands of years ago the Gnorn shook and quaked, threatening to release the wrath of the world below in smoke and fire that would have clouded the world and dimmed the sun. Only by the dedicated sacrifice of a circle of thirteen powerful druids was the Volcano quietened, the land around chilling with the natural magics drawing heat from miles around. The Circle, named after the Arch Druid Taalbad who led the initial ritual, is frozen in an eternal ring of ice at the centre of the volcano. The magic generated by this perpetual ritual is adjusted and corrected by a secondary ritual of powerful arcane and divine casters, directed by the current Kaiser or Kaiserin of the Circle, to continue calming the deadly volcano. The effects of this constant magical pulse created a miles and miles-wide circle of changed terrain which has fallen under the control of the druid peoples of Taalbad. The region is now renowned as being something of a wild land, one of the last places to find certain types of animals such as the Giant Elk, the Sabretooth Tiger, Cave Bears nearly twice the size of those in other lands and even two known herds of shaggy mammoths. The lands, and the animals within, are protected fiercely from outside poaching by the Winter Wood, the military of the Circle of Taalbad made up of stealthy rangers, druids and hunters working in teams to patrol and repulse any wandering parties who are not following the few travelling roads through the towns and villages within the circle. The ruling family of the Circle of Taalbad passes down power hereditarily, though there is a distinction made between the first-born and the 'highest'-born, or the child who has the most skill with magics. Because the Kaiser or Kaiserin is also the director of the Calming Circle rituals, children without magical talent are frequently passed over for younger siblings who do, the only exception being made when such a child has married and brought into the family a respectably powerful magic user in their own right. The peoples of the Circle are strong willed and dedicated to their rough lifestyles, living primarily in log cabins in smaller hamlets and travelling great distances to meet kin, attend trade festivals or follow the migrations of the herds. Those who show magical promise of any sort are often sent to Hailfast, the small city and fortress at the foot of the Gnorn where the ruling family and the currently active druids and sorcerers in the secondary Circle live, for testing and training. Because of it's somewhat isolationist nature, the Circle of Taalbad often has rumours circulating throughout the known lands about how they are barbaric peoples who live naked amongst the wild herds. In reality, the Noble Court of the country is extremely extensive, every small hamlet led by an ancient family that can trace their heritage back centuries in the carefully kept records. Twice-yearly great gatherings are hosted outside the Hailfast, where the nobles gather and partake in politicking over land, law and trade, with more minor gatherings of similar type occurring frequently throughout the country, all forming an intricate web of alliances, feuds and other complexities of a fully developed nation.
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