The Hunter and the Hermit

Three hundred moons ago, deep within the Sands of Sorrow, an eldery and barren hunter struck at a fearsome beast of prey, and in so doing diverted its attention from a seemingly defenseless hermit. Unbeknowest to the man, this hermit was never in danger from the beast, for he was the last of a lineage of puissant druids who had once been responsible for the formation of the desert, in which they both now dwelled. This ancient druid was struck with a sense of amity toward the man. But, it was not due to the hunter's selfless bravery, nor because of the pity the soothsayer felt when gazing at this lone, destitute nomad, who was already bereft of anything to live for other than meaningless, daily acts of survival, while slowly whithering away from old age and a growing infirmity. Benevolent at heart, the venerable druid long had been burdened with notions of responsibility and guilt over what his forebears, in their hubris, once wrought in the lands of Sorrow. And in his meeting with the man, the arch-druid saw a strange act of providence - an unexpected yet hoped for opportunity for a modicum of atonement. Keenly aware the true hunters were born to embrace nature, the arch-druid invoked the full extent of his knowledge and chanted the power of Sun which once formed the desert itself, to bestow upon this man a new hope, and a fresh opportunity at life, rather than to deprive others of them, as his forebears inadvertently had done so long ago. The druid struck a Pact with the man, altering him yet further to extend his natural lifespan, restoring the vigor and fertility of hunter's most youthful days, and imbuing him with a great magical affinity for the warmth of fire and Sun, whether that warmth be physical, emotional or spiritual in nature, an affinity well beyond what most natural life could hope to experience. Where such powerful chants had once led to depriving others of their hopes, lives and futures, the arch-druid had, in the twilight of his own existence, used that knowledge to forge hope anew, and to offer a renewed chance at life to the man. His long sense of guilt and responsibility eased by his merciful act, the druid passed away not months after this deed, being, at long last, more at peace with his tragic legacy.

From Ashes to Embers

The life journey of Jaagern throughout Serin is the closing chapter in this tale of the Pact between the hunter and the druid, who, in his final act of atonement, had restored life and hope to a lineage that, at one time, had become as barren and bereft of hope as the desert had always seemed to be. The ancient druid, although venerable, and profoundly knowledgeable in all the conventional elements of Serin, would swiftly come to realize that the body of the elderly, destitute man, with whom he had made the Pact in search of atonement for the sins of his predecessors in the desert, already had festered within due to many and grave an illness, and even now it deteriorated rapidly, well beyond what even the druid's fabled proficiency in the arts of Healing and Transformation could hope to mend. And the arch-druid saw that the expiration of this lone hunter loomed large, very large indeed, and was seemingly unavoidable, and he knew now that the man had struck down the fearsome beast of prey with the last of its strength. Moved by this inference, and contemplating deeply the significance of the strange course of events that was now unfolding in his presence, the druid decreed that the tragic fate of the man's seemingly doomed lineage should only be such, if one were to limit one's self to conventional methods and procedures of Serin's nature. For the druid, who was wise, ancient, and cunning, as well as benevolent, knew of more than one way to yet honor his part in the fateful Pact he had struck with the dying man. And, acting in the knowledge that the man himself no longer could, or should, be saved, for such interventions would stray dangerously close to the realm of Necromancy, the grand druid took to an impromptu--a daring, refulgent recourse. No longer seeking to restore or extend just the human body of Jaagern, the puissant druid would instead initiate a rare, arduous procedure derived from the phenomenon of demielemental transcendence. And this entailed the cleansing and resuscitation of the natural processes of the man's body, to be accomplished through its entanglement with a wellspring of elemental energies from beyond Serin's confines. This mighty feat was, in turn, to be achieved by weaving the hunter's vessel together with a whole new essence, or soul, or spirit. The druid thus would lay the doomed man to rest, peacefully and painlessly, and then solemnly waited by his side, for the precise moment in which the hunter's body and spirit would no longer be joined as one. And as the moment occurred, and the man's body lay before him without an essence, yet containing still many of its fleeting life's energies, the arch-druid would feverishly chant his powerful rituals against time's mighty onslaught, and use his august knowledge of Spiritualism and Transformation to revitalize and enhance significantly the condition of the man's lingering, still warm vessel. Repurposing the body of the man, whose spirit he quietly and with dignity had laid to its eternal rest, the arch-druid began his labor to reshape the man's corporeal form into a youthful, vigorous, and virile state of existence--chanting and enhancing masterfully its rejuvenescent natural proccesses. Completing his grand and preternatural task, and sealing for evermore the Pact he had made with the hunter, the druid finally summoned forth an elemental spirit to inhabit the revivified and uplifted vessel of the hunter. Using the arts of Spirit Bond, the archmage enticed an elemental of fire, shaped like a Wolf - the last of hunter's prey, to enter the mortal realm of its own volition. And, using unconventional and developmental techniques of his own design, he powerfully bound the fiery spirit of Wolf to the hunter's altered & invigorated frame, to serve as the body's renewed essence, and its new spirit, and its new soul. The druid would labor long, hard, and passionately to complete the intricate, heterodox binding procedure... ... And he indeed was successful. In a state neither truly alive nor dead, the body of the man had been revitalized and repurposed as a vigorous, adolescent alpha male, brimming with great health, resilience, and fecundity--an exemplar of Spiritual craftsmanship to rival the very works of the high druids of the Great Tree itself. And as the little sprite of fire wolf, coaxed into entering the Serin realm through its own inquisitive disposition, now became powerfully bound to the still corporeal form that awaited it, this new body, that new form of spiritual life, which emerged from what once had been the human, as if a phoenix arising from the ashes, would once again draw its breath deeply and open wide its eyes. And a great lust for life, and yet more life, was burning inside them. For this proved to be the true nature of the Pact which had been struck between the arch-druid and the man: a transcendental, spiritual rebirth of the man's corporeal form, which henceforth would be inhabited by this lesser fire spirit, and which, in turn, would act as the uplifted vessel's renewed essence, a vessel fueled by the Sun itself.