The Hermits of Cornivil

## History

They were originally founded when a group of educated men in Vore wandered off into the woods to discover nature.  They never founded churches but instead felt sacred ponds and pristine forests inspired holy worship and poetry.

They migrated to the Wilderlands and most survived the Guavani invasion by retreating to one of their most defensible groves in the Penumbra, known as *Cornivil*, a rocky hilltop on the eastern bank of the Wildwater.  For several years they survived on the bounty of nature.

## Summary

### Thaumaturge

In *Thaumaturge* the Hermits of Erwagan appear in Vanador and spend a lot of time drinking ale and standing on street corners and at the markets, shouting horrible poetry about nature in a very loud voice and begging for alms.

The focus of the cult is on a combination of natural history and natural philosophy with an emphasizes on solitary contemplation.  They rarely if ever bath or groom their hair and beard.

They caused a lot of problems in the early days at Vanador as they cluttered up the streets preaching against civilization and horticulture, feeling that everyone should live off of the bounty of nature.  But having no problem with begging for the fruits of everyone else’s labor.

They had no set purpose in town, nor a set location to stay in, instead they wandered out in to the forest or any place where they weren’t ejected from.

Trouble started when one of the drunken Hermits preached against the construction going up and the tearing down of nature.  He tried to arouse a crowd to tear down a house that was going up, resulting in a riot with several injuries.

After another near-riot by a trio of drunken Hermits, Gareth and Minalan had enough of their aimlessness and troublemaking, so Minalan got the leaders together and bribed them.

First Minalan threatened them and laid down the rules to their preaching at the markets, then he bribed them by funding a convocation for all of their fellowship, out in the woods, far from Vanador.  Each of the leaders were given 20 ounces of silver to ensure that all of the Hermits attended the extended convocation and not a one of them to appeared in Vanador until after Luin’s Day festival. When they returned, they must have a plan on how they are going to be of service to the Magelaw or they will be ejected from the County.

Magelord Landrik befriend a few of them, he admired some of their philosophy’s and so got to know a few of the Hermits.  Upon the hermits return from the convocation, Landrik informs Minalan that some of the more extreme hermits were returned to Cornivil and the rest are contemplating forming a legitimate order with the help of Brother Bryte.

### Arcanist

Landrik had invited the Hermits to his domain, *Honeyhall*, for refuge and after talking to them, a score have agreed to be trained in battlefield medicine and as stretcher bearers.

Landrik felt that the ones that were so devoted to poetry were the worse layabouts and they were encouraging some of his peasants to ignore their duties for contemplating nature instead. Minalan suggested that a visit from the “Scion of Rysh” might help those hermits find some direction, if nothing else Jannik would be able to give any of the hermits that thought they were great poets perspective on what great poetry actually is.

Later after Jannik had returned from *Honeyhall* he updates Minalan on what transpired when he met with the Hermits. Jannik was not impressed with the poetry of the Hermits.  He also helped them to understand the role they should take in greater society.

## See Also

*See also: Erwagan*
.

## References

1. ↑ Mancour, Terry. Thaumaturge: Book Eleven of the Spellmonger Series.  Chapter 21. Kindle Edition.
2. ↑ Mancour, Terry. Arcanist: Book Twelve of the Spellmonger Series (p. 146). Kindle Edition.
3. ↑ Mancour, Terry. Arcanist: Book Twelve of the Spellmonger Series (p. 217). Kindle Edition.