Hearthlan

The Progenitor. In a cold moment of introspection.

Unknown

The Inheritors (Descendents; varying)

> **"I have very good reason to believe you're not going to die anytime soon. Call it intuition."** - Hearthlan's parting statement after meeting Therilin for the first time.
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**Hearthlan Wakewind** is the originator of the Impossible Bloodline and founder of the City-in-Blood. As a long-lived sorcerer and craftsman, he boasts few rivals and, according to him, a justifiable degree of arrogance.

## **History**

### Early Life

It is not exactly known whether Hearthlan was birthed or created. Countless eras ago in an entirely different world, there was a simple farmer who went by Ofrylan Wakewind who tended to his fields with his wife.

The two of them tried constantly for a child, but could not conceive during their first few attempts. Bizarrely and without warning, their entire homeland was shifted into the Elemental Plane of Earth, horrifically petrifying all and sundry for a fortnight.

It would remain a mystery as to what caused these short planar shifts, but the circumstances did not deter the terrified couple from communicating to one another via the plane's alien logic. By the time they had returned to the Material Plane, they had cemented their desire to try for a child one more time.

When all was said and done, the resulting child was Hearthlan. It was a good name for a child, the farmers agreed, and that child was much beloved by the couple.

So much so, Hearthlan's parents routinely ignored the fact that the child spoke to rocks. Even later on their deathbeds, they never suspected that he was only half-human.

Needless to say, Hearthlan showed great promise in the arcane arts. It came naturally, him being a Sorcerer. His homestead was not far from a developing village and assisting the townspeople with their duties was practice enough.

When Hearthlan felt that his gifts could be put to better use elsewhere, he traveled by foot and always came to rest back home with his parents until their deaths.

### Creation of a Bloodline

Hearthlan does not speak much about his life's work or travels before the Impossible City, so little is known. What is known is that, eventually, the man wanted to follow in his parents' footsteps and start a family. Unfortunately, he found that to be a mere pipe-dream given his state as a half-construct.

But the desire turned into an obsession, compounded by years of other projects and experiments under his belt. He committed himself tirelessly for a majority of his mortal life to the examination of souls. Namely their origins, quantifying and qualifying their power, and the issue of reproduction. He wanted to mimic, as closely as possible, the natural process of bringing new life to the world in a way he could participate in.

The mother he had in mind for all of this madness is unknown. But Hearthlan's research bore fruit after half a century of work, at least. The sorcerer's Magnum Opus and whatever esoteric discoveries he cracked into to create it became the basis for the Impossible Bloodline.

The method is a bitterly guarded secret, but Hearthlan managed to transmit his desire across the multiverse in such a way that a single child born under a particular name had a chance to inherit his mystifying powers.

Besides choosing his Inheritors, Hearthlan made certain they would also have a home of sorts within the City-in-Blood, initially just a cottage beside a replica of the old Wakewind homestead. The very schematics, as well as both the key and door to this pocket dimension lie within any of the latest of Hearthlan's descendants.

## Personality

A complicated and mercurial man, Hearthlan claims he is entitled to arrogance. Not many people can claim to be the living progenitor of a millenniums-old bloodline. Whether the years or other strange affectations have had an effect on his mental clarity is uncertain.

Despite the long years and the countless descendants that he has met, he favors each and every one of them as a child or extended family-member. Even the black-sheep of the bloodline find a grudging place in his home.

The idea of fatherhood and family is vital to Hearthlan. What's more is that he commits every single one of his Inheritors to memory by their deeds. However, this inevitably leads to constant expressions of nepotism or disappointment, depending on the descendant.

However, even to his 'children, grand-children, grand-to-the-tenth-children', he can be elusive. The only Inheritor that can ever keep his attention or receive an audience on command would be whoever the latest one is.