Characters of Cimmeria: Shratalanda

shratalanda

Shratalanda was a masterful elvish psion and the hidden guide of the Dragon War’s heroes. She foresaw the injustices the dragons’ law would create and set in motion events leading to the Dragon War. Many of the heroes of the Dragon War were unknowingly touched by Shratalanda at some point in their lives. For her own part in the Dragon War, Shratalanda favored magically transforming her body into a weapon in its own right and going toe to toe with her opponent.

Rumors surround Shratalanda’s life prior to the events of the Dragon War. Many suspected that she was actually one of the three Fates in a mortal form. She occasionally interacted with the other heroes during the Age of Monsters. These interactions occured more than anybody ever realized and often in an altogether unheroic manner. She steered the heroes towards their destinies by any means necessary.

Danar
Shratalanda convinced Rilopenaril the bronze dragon patriarch to exile Danar from Sheerzen, saying that a descendant trained in the wild might be stronger than all those trained in Sheerzen’s tower. News of this reached Invernix and he disliked the idea of the bronze dragon’ people gaining power. Invernix’s conflict with Danar and Rilopenaril led to Rilopenaril’s assisting in the imprisonment of the dragon monarchs in the Orbs of Dragonkind. Additionally, Shratalanda sent Eathirilu towards Danar’s swamp, aware of the initial friction that would result, but also knowing that Eathirilu would save Danar from Invernix’s fires.

Tentineh
When Tentineh’s mother was pregnant with him she was stung by a wyvern. The poison granted him his enhanced magical powers. Shratalanda was the one who irritated the wyvern so it would sting Tentineh’s mother. Long before Tentineh was born, Shratalanda trained his master, knowing that his master would one day train him. She taught him in such a way that he would never understand her powerful magic, but one day his own students would (but only if granted a piece of dragon magic). Tentineh benefited immensely from this indirect tutelage. Shratalanda also wrote the binding tome that Tentineh used to summon the infernal slaad that burned the trolls. This same book was later used as a reference for the forging of the Orbs of Dragonkind.

Tracy
Shratalanda enflamed anti-halfling sentiments in the Conclave, causing the halfling exodus. She searched the halfling populations for the right person to eventually combat the dragons. Shratalanda noticed Tracy’s talent at a very young age but also saw that she felt too comfortable to develop those talents. The psion killed Tracy’s parents to upset the balance that was restricting the young halfling girl. Tracy never learned who had slain her parents, always thinking it had been a mugging gone wrong.

Gorwinua
Shratalanda masqueraded as Gorwinua’s tribe’s storyteller, giving her a love for the craft and the skills to practice it. She disguised herself for almost a decade and a half, but occasionally used ectoplasmic duplicates when she was needed elsewhere.

Bigby
Shratalanda served as midwife during Bigby’s birth, delivering him into the world. She included a blessing chant throughout his delivery. This special magic led Bigby to develop his own unique type of magic later on in life. Shratalanda also assisted in the design of Bigby’s tree growth spell that led to his eponymous forest forever increasing in acreage.

Amalgami
Shratalanda was the oracle that told Amalgami to climb Doom Peak. East of Zeus’s Canvas she sent the half-goblin/half-dragon leader towards the west. This leader’s army caused Amalgami and Toffoun to raise an army of their own, pulling them into the first conflicts of the Dragon War.

Toffoun
In addition to inciting Toffoun and Amalgami’s involvement in the Dragon War Shratalanda also passed through Toffoun’s temple when he was just a novice. She saw him going about his duties and suggest to the temple’s high priest that Toffoun perform the rites of Ares. This led Toffoun down the path to becoming a righteous warrior of the gods.

Jovy and Cecilia
Shratalanda was not involved in every hero’s life before the Dragon War. She did interact with Cecilia and Jovy during and after the Dragon War.

Shratalanda joined the Dragon War along with the heroes whose lives she had shaped, some since infancy. She imprisoned Hazorshrakan the brass dragon matriarch and set her father Forsoman to guard the Orb for all eternity. Shratalanda created a monastic school for other psions in the Shacklack Desert before joining the other heroes of the Dragon War in slumber.

-GoCorral

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