Gramps Lights My Path to Cultural Exploration

Lharvion, 991 – Eyre, 992 YK

Grandpa Broken Sandal (Sandal) is a retired bard and the current sage/head Librarian of the Lassites library in Stormreach. The Lassites are one the Storm Lord families and they oversee diplomacy and commerce within the city. The family’s current head is Varen Lassite. Of all the Storm Lords, Lord Varen is the only one who is beloved by his subjects. He has a reputation for generosity, and he will buy a drink for anyone who suffers misfortune in the Marketplace. He is the epitome of the dashing swashbuckler—clever, witty, with a fine eye for beauty and an appreciation for skilled swordplay. (Baker, Logue, Desborough, & Suleiman, 2008) Blah, blah… not that you can’t find that out from anyone else in Stormreach. Anyway, I get to spend time with gramps, and this is where I really discover my interest in anthropology and archaeology. I also get an intro to a professor from Morgrave University out of Sharn and that’s who I introduced to the goblin craftsman, but that will come later. Gramps Sandal is a very smart guy. I mean, really smart. I don’t have an issue with being around Half-Giant enforcers, Hobgoblin battlemasters, or shadow dwelling Drow, but it’s sorta intimidating to be around gramps sometimes, because of his intelligence and intuitiveness. I learn to get past that, because when it comes down to it, deep down, I find out he really is just like everyone else. This is important because I get to meet some fairly high-powered/important people in the future (uh, the future from this point in the story, not from when I’m writing this – I’m not a seer (even though I pretended to do some of that with Mom)) and I managed to maintain my composure in all cases.

As smart as Gramps Sandal is, he was fascinated by my stay with the Biting Ants clan and the information I had learned from Jhazaali about the Dhakaani, so I got to feel pretty important for a while. My time with Gramps Sandal was fantastic. At times, it actually seemed more difficult than trudging through the jungle but the constant testing of my research and analytical abilities was great! I spent a good year in the library researching and seeking out ways to get answers to all sorts of questions that came from Storm Lord Varen and never got tired of it. I’m not really sure about the details to give here because there were some pretty far-ranging questions and detailing all of the different things would not only require a lot of writing, it would likely bore the regular reader (not that I haven’t done so already). Suffice it to say, I got to work with a genius who directed me in both researching and archiving information. I got to read books on Xen’drikan history, the various cultures that have spanned this continent, and found it’s crazy how little we know about our homeland. One of the more fascinating tidbits are the various curses supposedly set upon this great land. There are plenty, the curses of the Sovereigns and Six goes as such:

“The Sovereigns and Six each laid a curse upon the land. Aureon decreed that the creatures of Xen’drik would have no knowledge of law, and Boldrei proclaimed that no city would stand. The Traveler distorted the land so that no path followed twice. The Devourer unleashed fire and storm. And so Xen’drik remains a land of mystery, a realm that cannot be mapped, a place that holds secrets that could shatter the world.”

Vehovec, 2019

However, my favorite story is that of the Dragon’s Curse (this sorta goes along with Boldrei’s curse, and the whole Sovereigns = Dragons theory can be seen in some of this, but I digress). It seems that during the fall of giant society, the dragons cast a powerful and long-lasting curse called Du’rashka Tul or “madness of crowds” in the Giant tongue. I was only able to find the one historical document that spoke of it, but it oddly rings true when researching all the cultures that have risen and fallen over the last 40,000 years or so. It’s said that the curse lies in wait until a certain number of sentient beings gather in a confined area (scholars have put the number between 20 and 100,000 – very helpful). Within a few weeks the gathered beings are struck with severe paranoia and aggressive tendencies, and in short time, the community has ripped itself apart. (Baker, Bulmahn, & Scott, Secrets of Xen’drik, 2006) It’s terrible but makes for some good reading.