Played by: Tim Cochrane
Name: Lygari
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown – claims anywhere between 54 and 88
Race: Ulven
Hair: Gray–White
Eye: Green
Occupation: Ulven Lore-Speaker
Known Skills: Lore
Birthplace: Unknown – accent points to Southern Mardrun
Appearance: An obviously old Ulven, stooped with age. Normally wears a bright blue cloak and typical, if somewhat drab, clothing.
Notable Traits: Missing his right eye, walks with a noticeable limp, right arm is permanently affixed to a sling, elaborate facial tattoos, white beard and mustache, tends to think for a moment before speaking.
Bio:
Ask Lygari about his past, and you’ll hear a different story each time. This old Ulven has been wandering Madrun for the majority of his life, collecting the stories and songs of his people and preserving the names of great heroes. He considers it his duty to act as chronicler to the Ulven people, preserving the stories of the great heroes of his people, almost to the point of fanaticism beyond that of a normal Lore-Speaker.
The only consistent story told by Lygari comes at the end of each night a village or pack hosts him, when all the other stories are exhausted. Pointing to the eye patch which covers his right eye, he tells the story of his first patrol around his childhood village at the age of 17 . . . or 14 . . . or 22. Though the name of the village and its location may change every time, the story advances along the same lines. The patrol members spotted a lone Mordok, poorly-concealed in what was clearly meant to be an ambush. Quietly laughing at the creature’s ineptitude, Lygari ran straight towards it, eager for his first opportunity to prove himself.
The tripwire caught him around the ankle, and the thrown knife caught him in the eye. He lost consciousness immediately, and the Mordok fled, melting away in the forest faster than the other patrol members could follow. His companions carried him back to the village and called for a healer, who managed to remove the knife but noticed a sickly substance on the blade – poison. They had no means to heal the poison, and the nearest Daughter of Gaia was three days’ travel away; he languished in unconsciousness while she was fetched.
On the seventh day, just as the Daughter arrived, he awoke. At this point, the story diverges once again. Sometimes, he claims that he was told by the Daughter of Gaia that he had been given a greater purpose in his life, to sing the deeds of others. Other times, he claims to have met the Great Wolf, who told him that the only way his name would be remembered would be if he sung the tales of a thousand brave heroes of the Ulven people. If every story he has told is to believed, in that week of unconsciousness, he met every single Ulven legend and was charged by them to collect these stories.
Seeing this as a sign, he immediately sought out a senior Lore-Speaker, in order to apprentice himself. It was three (or four, or eight, or nine, depending on how much he’s had to drink and when he’s telling the story) years before he was finally accepted into the Brotherhood of the Lore-Speakers, forever giving up his name. He chose the Old Ulven “Lygari” for a name, partially out of mischief at his own efforts to blur his own past and partially for his tendency to change stories in the telling. As he himself says, “The art of telling a story is exaggeration.”
While he is clearly somewhat odd amongst the Lore-Speakers, he has proven to know the history of these people as well as any other Ulven historian, and can recite the ‘correct’ versions of stories if pressed. Despite this, he finds the presence of the Colonists irksome; they have little respect for the older storytelling traditions of the Ulven outside of a few scattered scholars, they challenge the integrity and continuity of Ulven culture, and separate his people from the spirit of the Great Wolf, bringing them to empty causes. At best, he’s a somewhat gruff, distrustful storyteller to non-Ulven. At worst, he chooses stories that make the colonists look foolish, adding vain Syndar and impractical humans to any story he feels can hold it.
The symbol of this problem is the civil war with the Graytide. This is something he is certain that they learned from the colonists. However, he is torn between the stances of the warring factions; the Graytide’s position of expelling the colonists appeals to his distrust of this new culture, but the Longfangs have always steered themselves well, and at what cost must they be expelled?
Still, he is getting old. It’s been a great number of years since he gave up his name, and he can feel the jaws of the Great Wolf growing closer. One of his arms is forever bound in a sling, and he walks with enough of a limp to need protection. Despite the Lore-Speaker’s pledge to always move on when a story is known, he thinks he’s found the story that will find him his eventual death. The time has come for him to train an apprentice, as well, so that the lore of the Ulven people continues unbroken.
It’s hard to tell what’s truth and what’s a lie, especially when it comes from an Ulven whose willingly called himself a liar. On the other hand, many villages are willing to overlook this in favor of his knowledge of the great heroes and legends of old. If a hero needs to be remembered, Lygari will be there.
Relationships: Taught Ysla Stormhand a number of stories in her youth. Currently under the hospitality of the Watchwolves in northern Mardrun. Claims to know every important figure of the Ulven people.
Fully-sworn member of the Brotherhood of the Lore-Speakers
Rumors: Despite how Lore-Speakers are charged to wander Mardrun seeking out stories, he has not yet been to the territory of the Northern Watchwolves.
He is currently seeking an apprentice to take on his duties as a Lore-Speaker.