Ruarstead

**Ruarstead**

The Ruarstad is a huge fortress in the north on a peninsula with the sea surrounding it on three sides. The fortress over looks the town of Fangholme which is a hug of activity in the north. The town is under the control of the company of the fang and is a major fishing port and trade hub. People of all kinds there live in peace and security despite the colder temperatures. The fortress was a gift from Acionna herself and Shidith put it to work during the Black sun, keeping refugees safe and after the incident the town itself grew, people didn't want to leave the security it provided. The fortress is heavily guarded and for good reasons, in its deepest recess lies Acionna herself, laying still not dead, the goddess had given her divine spark to protect her people and now she lays sleeping for eternity.

Ruarstead and the Company of the Fang

The company of the fang
"Wherever you tread, tread lightly. We are closer than you think, and our fangs are sharp."
Background: The company of the fang are a two-fold group comprised mostly of shifters, good aligned lycanthropes and other races sworn to hunt the evils of the world, to be relentless hunters and trackers to find evil and bring it to justice and to protect the communities of good folk of the world. They train in the Ruarstad, the fortress of the companies leader, founder and patron Shidith. Being of good alignment is a requirement and the company of the fang are the best of the trained individuals, some starting out as mercs or sailors in their previous life. The company of the fang finance themselves as hired guards for travelers needing protection travelling through dangerous areas or accompanying merchants on long trips. The company of the fang also work as a business enterprise of honest hardworking mutli-skilled men and women across the world in the areas of shipping, fishing and transport systems and schools

Often using the sea, a good knowledge of the workings of ships can help a newcomer join the ranks and fit in better however these are skills that the fang guard can teach a raw recruit. The patron goddess of the Ruarstad is Acionna, the beautiful sea goddess that rules over the protections of communities, seafarers and travelers

Affiliation: you must be of at least good alignment to join the group and swear fealty to it above all else and live up to the standards required, treat your fellows with respect and honesty, membership is for life and those who become old can find comfortable retirement on pension in Ruarstad with their families.

**The tenets of the company of the fang**
1: Honesty above all things, never commit a crime against a fellow member.
2: The man who has nothing can still have courage
3: Obey the law when you can and break it if you have no recourse
4: Support the brothers and sisters of your company, treat them as beloved kin.
5: Seek no payment for your services from those who can ill afford it.
6: Never deface a temple of Acionna
7: No innocent shall be beyond our aid; no enemy shall be beyond our wrath.
8: Always, always lead from the front. Never expect a man under your command to undertake an action you're not prepared to make yourself
9: The path of duty is often a stony one, made smoother by thought for others
10: The words of the faithful are the mountains. But the deeds of the faithful are the world.
11: Pain is temporary, Honor is forever
12: The wage of treachery is utter destruction.

Shidith Broadclaw the High Fang

Shidith Broadclaw lived in a small nomadic community, ranging across the cold reaches of the north, following elk and other game as necessary. The tribal structure of his family left him with no real concern for who his parents were, as everyone cared for everyone else, but Shidith always felt like something of an outsider. He was bigger and far more feral in nature noted by even the more savage of his kind. His physical size and constant sways of bad and anti social behaviour, didnt win him and friends. The Seer proclaimed him "Ona-Fel It 'Simaah", more beast than man, but that meant little for his standing in the community; his hunts were usually successful, and he didn't bring harm to others unless provoked, so he was at worst tolerated, and was usually included in everything. Still, Shidith couldn't shake the nagging voice in the back of his head. Something was constantly speaking to him, telling him to range out into the cold on his own, to find his true community. Whether it was truly Primordial Spirits speaking to him, or simply a product of his own loneliness, was uncertain, but eventually he did leave.

Wandering for months, Shidith survived in the wild on his own. It wasn't difficult; he had lived so long in the frigid mountains that he was quite in tune with how to get by. he would spend all his days as a polar bear roaming the mountians, fighting other beasts and occaisonally ransacking travelling traders and getting into disputes with furtraders, who made the mistake of targetting him

The turning point in his life came when he met his first real danger - a pack of worgs. The worgs had been a source of terror for the little pockets of civilisation in the north and they came at him, snarling and yipping as they circled his most recent kill, an elk he had brought down. It wasn't like Shidith to miss an animal's approach, but he had allowed himself to be distracted by thoughts of the elks blood and its taste. Listening to the beast insides hunger Shidith crouched low, listening to the blood rush past his ears as the spirit of the wild raced through him. Without a second thought, he faced the largest of the worgs, arched his spine, snarled, and leapt for him. Before he slammed into the beast, something happened. There was a rippling along his body, furs melding with skin, palms broadening and claws sharpening. By the time his paws met the alpha's shoulder, he had jaws that he clamped down on the surprised and rankled throat. With a quick twist, he had the alpha warg flopping on the ground, unable to gain purchase on the snowy surface, still slick with the elk's blood

A low growl emerged from Shidith's maw, and the alpha worg stopped squirming, lying still, panting. Sidith let go, and the warg now dieing, stared into the now-blackened eyes of the werebear. An understanding was reached without words, Shidith looked back inot its eyes and saw himself and stepped back. He had become little different then them, in his months isolated he lost himself to the beast and he realized that the beast wanted blood, there was never enough blood to keep it satisifed. He sat for many hours and considered his situation, he was not comfortable as a human and the beast was dangerous. He shifted into his hybrid form and set out to find something to ease his mind and give him peace

He came across a nomadic tribe, different than Shidith's, but Shifter nonetheless, Shidith decided to attempt conversation once more. Normally, one would assume a huge bestial creature approaching out of the cold would be cause for alarm, but the tribe offered him hospitality, and took him in. He spent a night with these people, drinking and laughing, enjoying the soical side of himself once more. He met his eventually mate Hotu and the he two fell in love but it was not to be and she was lost to him forever stolen away by slavers. Angry beyond reason, he tracked them all down one by one and slaughtered them like a ravenous beast, they told him Hotu had been sold and was long gone he would never find her, this only enraged him further and he in the course of night killed a dozen or more men in the slaver encampent he found with his teeth adn claws but it didnt fill the hollow that was left. Saddened and lonely and sick of life, he turned once again northwards. Sick with grief, he gave up hope and went to take what Lycanthropes called the last hunt, hoping to die fighting some thing worthwhile in the north. He traveled further on alone into the cold bleakness and survived just barely in the bitter cold of winter, he spent months in isolation away from all outside contact and eventually he came across a small temple to Acionna with a monstery and the monks were extremely kind to him and took him in. The abbot sensed the conflict within him and spoke to him at length and offered him training of body and mind. The training was difficult mentally but it did grant him a better sense of self. the monks taught him to let go of his worries and acceptance that he is what he is and how to strike balance between his alterantive selves and his Gui and Mo respectively.

The ghosts of his past and the demons that crawled in the back of his mind were quieted and he learned the hardest lesson that helped him greatly. Learning not to wantand being mindful of his feelings and the beasts desires. Animals will kill for food, but monsters kill for the sake of killing, the abbot explained to him, that having power doesnt mean you need to use it whenever you feel like. He enjoyed his time there and for the frist time in along time he felt like he had a place in the world.

It didnt last as long as he had hoped, a threat had grown in the north the terrible demon serpent Slythe had arisen with all manner of evil foul creatures under its sway and commited terrible atrocities and many refugees flocked to the monastry seeking refuge and the monks took them in. The enemy however had followed them and the monastery was to be their next target. Shidith asked the abbot to be allowed leave and face the enemy try draw them away and the abbot, reluctantly agreed. Shidith set out and by happy chance ran into a group of people from a mercenary guild and joined them. They successfully managed to rout the enemies army and their leader asked Shidith to join up, stating the world needed people with strength to keep it safe and he was preturbed by this. He returned to the monastry and spoke in detail with the abbot who encouraged him to set out.

He told him he would always have a place here and he should learn to put what he had learned into practice. That the world needed people who had power but had the discipline to use it correctly and the will to help those in need and do what was right. He thanked the abbot and set out to join up with the group and explore the world alongside the mercenaries

**The Resolute**

This polearm was once a masterwork dispaly weapon from which a banner belonging to the knights did hang in glory and splendor. It waved in many a hard battlefield and was honored in glory and splendor by those who fight for law, good and justice. It has had an important place in history and many paintings and tapestries show the weapon and its colors on a field of battle where the righteous have triumphed over the tryannical.

It was on a cold in the northern wastes of albion where the weapon however came into prevailance. Secured to the mount of a knight Sir Tricues of Chevalionne, and it rode to battle against the terrible Demon serpent Slythe. The battle was long and bloody, the knights of Chevalionne seemed to have turned the day when the demons right hand general, a hideous many armed monster named appeared. It towered over all that stood in its path and cleaved man and horse left and right. Tricues, unable to stand what he saw, quickened his horse into battle and engaged the beast only to be struck from his mount and lay with his legs injured and broken. The army's morale began to break and they fled from the demonic terror, who picked up the battle standard and burned it before tossing the polearm aside and moving to finish the stricken knight.

Fate however had a card to play and quite by chance, a monk arrived in league with a mercenary guild to aid in the battle. The monk was no ordinary fellow in his own right. A lycanthrope from the wastes who they called Shidith, he saw the foul beast and shapeshifted into his hybrid form, a towering werepolar bear and roared challenge to the demon.

It accepted and the two became locked in battle but despite the monks strength he could not injure the creature and its magical might forced him back. Slither advanced intending to kill the monk for his interefence, when he snarled in pain as the knight named Tricues who dragged himself closer drove his shattered greatsword into the ankle of the demon general. Shidith looking for something to give him an edge, his paw touched the fallen polearm, blackened but sturdy and charged forward and leapt into the air and bought the hammer end on the polearm around and crushed Slithers windpipe.

The demon grabbed his throat and gargled now no longer able to utter its cursed magic and the monk took his chance and bought the weapon around in a twohanded horizontal arc and struck the demon in the temple, cracking its skull and slaying it. Slither fell to his knees, shocked before falling fowards, struck down by the weapon. The battle ended soon after the enemy lost its stomach to fight as the sight of Slithers defeat and Shidith carried the injured paladin back. Shidith handed the weapon back but Tricues closed the paws of the monk around its grip. He told him anyone who can weild a weapon of justice in that way had earned the right to keep it. And so The Resolute has passed into the hands of a travelling monk. He named it the Resolute and went forth into the world to use the mighty weapon to defend those in need

He travelled far and wide and got himself in many adventures and following the advice of a dwarf in the mercenary company he invested his earnings in a business which eventually came to be the Company of the Fang. His dedication to Acionna's teachings of community and he became a figure head for the downtrodden and the good, using what he had to better the needy. He had a great deal of adventures and had many blessings heaped upon him by Acionna herself and even visited her realm and against all the odds she fell in love with him. Shidith resisted at first, he had not forgotten Hotu and even though he knew she was dead, he still looked for her hoping against hope. Acionna was saddened by this and did her best to aid him to put an end to this and eventually Shidith came across a foul merchant from Calais who wore his mates fur as a cloak. Shidith snapped, his inner beast coming out and he tore the merchant apart and the guards and everything else that got in his path.

Acionna herself intervened to prevent him going further, understanding why Shidith was enraged. She was able to calm him down and she took him to an isolated iceberg and let him scream his frustrations to the sea herself. Shidith when he came back to his senses was grateful to Acionna. It was this that softened his heart and they began a relationship slowly. Acionna helped him create the Ruarstead and during the Black Sun, she gave her all to protect Shidith and the people. Shidith has never forgotten this sacrifice and has been trying to restore her. He has become aware of the new evils of the world and the company of the fang have been mobilized with the task of saving the world form the darkness that engulfed it.