Companions

## The Companions

The Companions were an organization made up of powerful Adventurers, and in many ways, they were the first Adventurers to exist. Much of the world as we know it today is owed to them.

## History

The Companions were initially a party of eight individuals, who appeared in the world when it was at its most infantile, when sentient beings were just now emerging into the world and creating loose tribes and villages. These eight individuals were blessed by the deities, with great power, with the intent to shape the world in their image. As a group of friends, they pledged themselves to do right by this world, and help guide it along its natural path.

But not everyone had the same idea, as there were some part of the organization who wanted to grow their own power, and force the world under their heel. Initially, this wasn't obvious - the Companions began to help shape the world, creating their base of operations in the area known as the Greyhold, and then expanding to Calmera and Tolreiya to both explore, and find like-minded sentient humanoids who would be able to band together and fight against the encroaching darkness of monstrous tribes, and powerful beasts that still roamed the world.

Eventually, as the Companions grew, the original eight gathered their own companions and allies, forming their own parties, but still remaining friends. Some withdrew from the world, focusing on knowledge and learning, while other's roamed the world to gather strength, and fight the best fight they could. Other's, began to work on something deadly in secret, against the desires of their once friends.

## Organization

The Companions started out as a group of eight people, but as time went on, these eight gathered their own allies, their own retinues. There was little true organization to these groups, going largely off of a mix of power and veterancy, unless it was an Original Companion, who had seniority over all except the other originals.

## Notable Individuals

**Telmar**: A particularly large humanoid man, with a gift for crafting and blacksmithing. His favored weapon was a hammer, and he was well-known for enjoying greasy food. Telmar and Reiya were among the most well-known of the two Companions at the time, and in many ways, they were the defacto 'leaders' of the group. Telmar was killed by the Betrayer in the **Final Battle**.

**Reiya**: A kind woman, and one of the more well-known Companions. Reiya's Run is named after her, and in the north, Fenrir's Fangs is named after her famous Drake Companion, who she rode into battle. She was a Healer, but also a Defender, yet when pressed, she could fight as ferociously as Kor'tul. Reiya imprisoned herself with The Betrayer during the Final Battle to stop her rampage.

**The Betrayer**: The Betrayer is the third most well-known, but perhaps now, in the distant history, she is the most well-known. A woman of science, power, knowledge, and ambition, the Betrayer sought to create the perfect lifeforms to inherit the world - the **Chosen**. She used a powerful ritual to disperse an unknown substance into the atmosphere of Mythgate, which latched onto a large number of individuals, creating Chosen as we know them - yet like Aasimar or Tieflings, this change could be passed along without anyone in the family tree showing signs of it. It was imperfect, but it was what she had wanted - initially. She never had time to perfect it, as her former friends saw this as a betrayal, and sought to stop her. The Betrayer was imprisoned alongside Reiya during the Final Battle, as a last ditch effort to prevent her from claiming the world.

**Kor'tul**: Widely renowned as the most powerful of the Companions, Kor'tul was a simple Orc, who through a twist of luck, had been turned into a Weretiger. He learned to control his form, and became a monk. He grew stronger, and stronger, and sought out the most dangerous enemies and foes in battle, only to defeat them and claim their strength as his own. During the Final Battle, Kor'tul entered a Martial Trance, given to him by Irori, and achieved immortality and still roams the world to this day. He was often attributed the title "The Mountain", for his fists were like an avalanche of a mountain descending on his enemies.

**Ignota**: Ignota's page can be found, well, there, for more information on him.

**Carasi**: Carasi was well-known as the most Arcane of the party. An elf of significant prowess, Carasi was a Wizard first and foremost, and a Magus second. She pioneered the art of the Battlemage, and had vast reserves of mana to utilize. She created a dozen towers across the world centered on what she called a 'Leyline Nexus', which were intended to stabilize and control the leylines to harness them for future power. She perished in the Final Battle against the Betrayer, when she unleashed all of her mana at once to break a series of five artifacts that protected the Greyhold. Carasi was also known as the owner of Xakis, one of the largest dragons to ever exist, who is rumored to still live within the waters around Carasi's first tower, Caluna Isle.

**Jerok**: Jerok was the defacto Rogue of the party, and a skilled combatant on his own. Although he was known for being loyal, this loyalty was proven incorrect, when he was found passing information onto the Betrayer. He had falsely presented himself as a friend to the other party members, regularly engaging in merrymaking with them and treating them as comrades, but revealed he had been faking it all in a conversation with the Betrayer. Jerok disappeared when he was found out, and was never heard from again.

**Zha'danell**: Zha'danell, the Giver of Life, the Archdruidess, was known for her kindness, compassion, and love for nature. She created the Forest of Zha'danell, and when the Final Battle was over, she took in those minions of the Betrayer who wished for a new start, a new life, without any stipulations. There are rumors that she still roams the forest to this day, keeping watch over its inhabitants.