Personnages

The jungle of Golmore, as beautiful as it is cruel, spawned seldom few Rava sons. Those that did not succumb to the wilds, grew to become hardy Wood-Warders, soulsworn to protect their lands. Solitude is their sacrifice. For the Rava Viera men, there is no other way. Harsh is their upbringing, and harsher is their existence.

Marn's beginnings were harsher than most male kits. Per custom, he was collected from his village at a young age, by a mentor for whom any lingering compassion had long been drowned in the blood of beasts, and any calls for mercy deafened by the echoes of dead wards. The older Viera’s methods were cruel, though perhaps born from a need to ensure his ward would survive where others had succumbed. In any case, when Marn faltered, his mentor abandoned him--well before Marn’s rites were complete. The senior Wood-Warder deemed Marn nothing but fodder for the jungle to take, a soul to be recycled and born to a sturdier body.

Bone-thin, starving, and scared, this premature abandonment may have seen Marn consumed by the unforgiving green, until fate set a wardless Rava hunter on Marn’s path. The hunter, closer to Marn in age, could have abandoned him, but the brutalities of the forest had not yet hardened his heart. He took Marn as his new ward and showed him a different way. His philosophy recognized both sides of survival, respecting the gifts of life and death. He instilled in Marn an appreciation for nature, not merely to be feared, but respected and revered.

By his tutelage, Marn learned to hunt, and to defend himself with or without weaponry. As he matured, Marn and his ward’s relationship grew closer, though the men acknowledged such intimacy was not the destiny of the Wood-Warder. This was yet another lesson for Marn: to appreciate all the goodness in life, for it was fleeting. Marn’s mentor marked him with a brand, across his face, so that he might remember that the wood was always with him, not against him.

These words rang truer still, when Marn’s ward put himself between his ward and a Behemoth, who took the older Viera’s life. The rite of passage complete, Marn was left in familiar company: that of his own, and only his own.

This is when his teacher’s final teachings resonated deep within his spirit.

“Sometimes the path takes one not further into the deep green, but out of it.”

For what had the Rava culture ever given Marn, but a life destined to loneliness? Marn’s heart craved something different—to experience all the riches in life. And, having experienced enough of the jungle, Marn cast aside his Ward surname, taking on the forename of his master--Vestnes. With heart to guide him, and his own two fists to shield him, Marn followed the path that led him out from the green...into the wider blue.

Thus, desert winds beckoned Marn towards an even greater destiny…