Lessania's Orientation

The next few pages describe what Ganeth told (well, thought to) Lessania when she woke up in the back of his mind during the Shadowing; little did I know this particular pile of prose would be used to orient Web surfers as well. (And even though this was written in July 1995, it's already getting outdated.)

I. Whose body are you stuck in, anyway?

I'm really not sure how much you know about me...how much you've been aware of since your spirit was grafted on to mine. If you tell me about your dreams, maybe we can work out what events they correspond to.

Anyway, my name is Ganeth, though most of my friends call me "G"; that was all I remembered of my name back when they met me. My clan was called the Barshen (related to the Mareks) back when it existed; when it suddenly stopped existing, my death was staged and I spent a few decades forgetting my identity and creating a new one, until I ended up believing I had total anmesia but figured I'd grown up around humans because of my accentless Common. I've been adventuring for something like eight years along my personal timeline (though closer to twenty as far as the outside world is concerned), and I suppose I've been busy since name level is off on the horizon somewhere. Since I've been adventuring with grey elves for most of that time, I got caught up in extraplanar intrigues pretty early on...drow, demons, spiders, shades, that sort of thing. I'm technically the subleader of a clan called the Nirduks, though it isn't particularly relevant to my everyday life. The Nirduks are actually the ones who finished off my clan, but when their old leader died they went from evil toward neutral, and then when the new leader went insane he picked up some good tendencies (though he claims he's still neutral), so we made peace and there I am. Unfortunately for the Nirduks, becoming good has been bad for membership; there are very few left, and the (neutral) Shorin and the (good) Parnos clans both seem interested in swallowing what's left. But I try to leave the politics alone as much as I can, especially since it seems to be leaving me alone for now; I'd like to see Streck Brightblade Nirduk and his followers become a force for good so I stay associated, but that's about as far as it goes for now. Incidentally, I'm led to believe that the Barshen and the Nirduks are both fragments of whatever clan you belonged to once upon a time; the Barshen insignia is a solar eclipse, and the Nirduks use a seven-pointed star.

The rest of my personality you can probably work out from talking to me and watching me adventure. I'm pretty strongly CG, heavier on the good than on the chaos, though I tend to think that on a large scale, NG might be best for the world as a whole. But since most of the high-profile good types are LG, chaotics like me are important to the overall balance. My main contacts in this part of the world (apart from the Nirduks) are with the Temple of Hollerith in the Keeplands (who would probably love it if we wrote down your autobiography for them someday), the Temple of the Wind (friends of Cirrus, apparently -- they say Cirrus himself is no longer with us, but they may be able to tell us something about his spirit/soul), the grey elven forest (the grey elves themselves have gotten a lot mellower during my lifetime, so don't be too alarmed by this), and a group of Moradin-worshipping dwarves to the north (the same group who went with you against the balor, apparently).

As for the rest of my adventuring party: Silvana is currently the Champion of Good sponored by Whitemoon and holds an ex oficio seat on the Council of Lords (though the Council is somewhat moot now that the West has become a theocracy); Stealth is Silvana's mate and likes to go around summoning and shooting things; Derdriu is one of the higher-level priests of the Belhor Temple here in the West; Warthol is Derdriu's apprentice; Thorongil is a classic anti-giant ranger who prefers to stay out of the extraplanar intrigues my life sometimes seems woven out of; Tremere is a "nightblade" -- a mage/thief combination -- from Silverton (which was probably Hajmola's city back in your time too) who has recently converted to good and joined the Order of the Phoenix; Shabana is Tremere's bodyguard from the East -- she seems to be running from something back there, but she doesn't talk much.

I suppose I should also tell you my attitude toward the current situation. We're both here, and we're both going to be here for the forseeable future, so I think it makes sense for us to try being friends. (After all, I'm basically a friendly guy.) I'll be as open and honest with you as I can, and I'll also be asking lots of questions. Regarding extraplanars, I think the ki-rin are probably the best ones to consult, since we both have some connection to them and they won't try to do anything with us that we don't agree to. Among mortals, my party will have to know what's going on. Nomistrus also has good insights sometimes, but it would be good to know what your status was in the Keeplands before deciding to tell him anything.


Click around here to go on to:
Background from Nomistrus
Background from the dwarves
IV. The balor mission

or around here to go back to:
the Lessania page
the Ganeth page
the main Campaign page
the index for my piece of the Campaign site
my home page

Written, compiled, and maintained by Erich Greene; last changed 12-15-95