Aidan of Zel

Ranarim rarely leave the Luvam Wood for any reason, unless they are Aurthelin the Deviant, who has made a thousand-year habit out of visiting villages on its borders to find a new human wife every thirty or forty years. His antics have left him officially Houseless, and since the late-8th millennium FR his many children have taken to pilgrimages in the lands beyond the Luvam to redeem their bloodline. The most recent of these is Aidan, who not only went in search of whatever resistance group might yet endure the Dark Occupation, but was actually able to find one. Though generally considered somewhat past his prime, approaching his fifties by the time he had completed his training, Aidan was nonetheless able to survive nearly openly in the Occupied Kingdoms, despite being obviously elf-blooded and readily identifiable by his offensively red hair.

Aidan ascribes this to the protection of Heshtail, in whose service he acts as a paladin. Whilst capable enough as a warrior, his early days were marked by greater success as a healer and historian, drawing upon his rich elven education to support others in the resistance movement. Indeed, his proficiency with languages, one of the many skills deliberately suppressed in the Occupied Kingdoms to aid in the control of their populaces, proved itself frequently more useful than any of his martial talents. Elves were more amenable when spoken to in Altarian, spies from across the border were debriefed in Kelevan, and his mastery of Kingdom Common gave him an air of competence to the people of Zeland and Orland.

During this time, he was nearly slain by a goblin warband in the foothills of Dimrune. Salvation came in the unexpected form of an Erunian berserker, Embla Aslaug, with whom he has travelled ever since. His current status as a true adventurer was more accidental than intentional, having hesitantly accepted a request from help from a mysterious (and now-defunct) warlock coven in Daven`s Ruin Wood. It would be when he was trying to put together a team to respond to this that he encountered and recruited both gutter runner Isolde Ballussia and the unconventional Brokk the Gnostic. Very little has been heard of this quartet since they went west to Daven, though the forces of evil have experienced stillborn schemes and slain agents from Orland to Kale, nearly every incident allegedly involving a man with offensively red hair.

Unusually for one of elfkind, Aidan wields a huge warhammer as his weapon of choice. This is only due to having lost his original, preferred pairing of mace and shield during the goblin attack that nearly killed him, and having his weapon replaced by giant-blooded Embla, who out of habit had sized it for someone significantly larger than Aidan. Out of both gratitude and politeness, he made no mention of the disparity, and has gone on to use the unwieldy weapon to great effect against both the living and the undead.

For Aidan's exploits, see "The Mists of Daven."