Sorleaf

See also: The First Rune
An Elven Legend (As Being Studied By A College Student)
Just before the Twilight of Change when the days of Chaos came quickly upon the world, there was a half formed Elf called Sorleaf. What manner of disruption spawned his birthright is not recorded but it was astounding in its time. Little did they know that his misfortune was but a precursor of the horrors to follow the Twilight.
The young Sorleaf was a wonderful storyteller and his ability to pick up hidden meanings from the rumors that abound a traveled society was to give him the kind of respect in his profession that his lack of stature could not command from the elegant and snobish 'higher' councils.
Being raised by the Ladies of the nearby temple, he naturally drifted into the church services where he was really never more than a novice in priestly skills, his main interest being elsewhere...much to his own doom.
The stories around Runes was his passion and one day he was struck with the possibility of using a crystal to enhance his skills if the right runes could be found and made to charge the crystal. He followed a lead from an ancient bird song that brought him to a haunted cave, and there he was confronted by a creature: "so horrible that time doomed it to stand apart from it, and so vile that light would not touch it..." or so the story he told went. Somehow this creature instead of falling upon him and having his soul, engaged in the honored tradition of a Riddle Contest for which Sorleaf was not to be bested at. For two days the contest went on each with the riddles of a lifetime and more to put to the other...Sorleaf would never speak of his winning riddle, which was always out of character for him, but he emerged from the hidden place behind a colorful misty waterfall with a crystal rune...With it he could see the distant towns that framed the rumors he heard. He also began to research further into the arcana of runes, using the crystal to open up new ways of reaching back to unlock the mystery of the Runes. Facet after facet he explored caring little for his own health or nourishment, till all that was left to explorewas the one plain plane without a Rune upon it. This he knew he was not to activate but in his hungered insanity he could not resist the call and summon it he did...the disappearance of Sorleaf was noted in the chronicles of his day, with a simple note: 'reports have reached us that little Sorleaf is gone, to where only he may know.'