Narth 2000: Famous Names

There are a number of persons who are "household names", and several more who are only spoken of in respectful whispers in the halls of power. Here are a few of these, people who move and shake, people who control and influence.

Shymsal Nymastyrendedhelmide

(SHIM-sahl NIM-ass-teer-EN-deh-THEL-mih-dee)

An elven bard in her mid 1100's and known almost exclusively by her first name, Shymsal's fame dates back to before Devastor. Her songs are standards, her histories are used for teaching all over the Jadiwan, and she was personally witness to many of the most important historical events of the last six centuries. She is said to have led the first of the great Diasporas from the Elven homeland shortly before the initial human invasion.

Today, Shymsal can usually be found in Krane, the capitol city of the Kironar Empire. Despite the Empire's dislike of nonhumans, she receives no small respect for her achievements and her influence. Previous emperors and empresses have courted her in order to win praise in her songs, but no one who did not deserve such received it. Shymsal is known also for her sharp, often sarcastic wit, and her almost insouciant attitude toward danger. She is believed to have the personal favor of Velyn, the goddess of music and bards.

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Iaruwitha i reve Iborelyn

(Yah-roo-WITH-ah ee REH-veh EE-bor-ell-inn)

A power to be reckoned with, Iaruwitha is the venerable half-elven leader of Lindelona's holy warriors, the Knights of the Living Bough. Although a princess of both human and elven blood (she is related to the Imperial House of Kironar, and to the Royal Family of the Sylvan Confederation), she forsook her secular duties for sacred oaths, and shortly before Devastor founded the Living Bough. She has personally guided the order for over four centuries, and despite her advanced age is said to still be a formidable knight in her own right. Those who have known her describe her as extremely formal most of the time, but with subtle glints of an almost subversive wit. She is a formidible personality who can dominate a whole room with a soft-spoken word. Iaruwitha is believed to have contacts and connections in many governments, particularly the Sylvan Confederation and the Kironar Empire.

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Diarmuid Rinuasho

(DER-mud REEN-you-ah-sho)

A half-elf who may be even older than Iaruwitha, Diarmuid is more a figure of legend than of history at this point. He is the Diarmuid who figures prominently at the center of Shymsal's mock-epic "The Ballad of the Hundred Duanes", but contrary to this humorous depiction of him and his pets, historical accounts record him as a fierce and sometimes cruel figure who nonetheless was allied with other heroes who fought as champions of the gods and the right.

Born before Devastor, he and his companions cut a swath through the land that is now the heart of the Kironar Empire before embarking on a one-person strike mission into the subterranean vaults of the Yadhai. It is said that he still lives, his aging retarded enough by magic to leave him in his prime. He is described as secretive by nature, but brash and sometimes ferocious. Those who claim to have spent time among the Yadhai say that they whisper fearfully of him at the brightest time of the day, and there are curious hints that his one-man crusade may have been part of the reason many Yadhai emigrated to the surface four centuries ago.

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Emperor Brendan III

The current occupant of the Throne of Golden Law is Emperor Brendan, the third of that name to sit upon it since Devastor. It goes without saying that he is powerful, for the lives of millions are at his fingertips, and nations across the entire Jadiwan Continent tremble when he casts his eyes upon them. Under his rule, the Kironese armies have taken over two neighboring nations and incorporated them into the Empire, continuing the Imperial family's relentless acquisition of the lands of the West.

Emperor Brendan is a human (of course) in his late 50's, but he is reported still to be in excellent physical shape. He has survived at least four assassination attempts, in the latest of which he personally killed the would-be assassin bare-handed. Brendan is a skilled general, a fair diplomat, and an iron-fisted administrator; under his rule, governmental corruption has been all but purged from the Imperial Palace, and the Empire operates like clockwork.

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Imasho Thiryllin

(EE-mah-shoh THEE-rill-in)

Imasho is the legendary elven mage who first discovered the unique properties of the area of the astral plane that is now known as Cerebrospace, and was one of the first to impose a personal structure there. However, this was only an addendum to his fame, for he is one of the most prominent and powerful mages to appear since Devastor. He dwells in the infamous "Imasho's Tower", nestled in the southern fork of the Dragonsmount range, in the Kironese province of Lysiria. He is almost always seen in the company of a petty drake, and it is believed that he has close ties to the true dragons of the Dragonsmount. Despite dwelling within the borders of the Kironar Empire, Imasho favors and aids the Sylvan Confederation; the Empire regards him as a dangerous foreign national, but to date has had no success in trying to deport -- or even approach -- him.

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Denaron Survylle

(DEN-arr-onn SIR-veel)

The leading man of the Kironese stage. The foremost human actor of the last century, Denaron is a formidable talent; not only is he a performer, he is a playwright, director and producer as well. He is the master of the Imperial Theatre, which has a company of over a hundred performers, musicians and technical staff. His plays range from dramatic adaptations of Shymsal's histories to light-hearted operettas, and they are both works of genius and wildly popular with the masses. He is in his late forties, and is said to be man of monumental ego, but with the ability to laugh at himself at the same time. The latter is an important trait, for often his most popular works are widely parodied by street performers. In addition to the patronage of the Emperor, Denaron is said to enjoy the favor of Broka; embedded in the proscenium arch of the Imperial Theatre is a fist-sized diamond that many claim the goddess gave to a teenaged Denaron after viewing one of his first performances in a dirt-and-plank street theatre, decades ago.

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Shealeigh Noramund

(SHAY-lee NOR-a-moond)

Known as the Merchant Princess of Dirria, Shealeigh was the first of the new wave of the fabulously wealthy. She is the primary owner of The Greater Jadiwanian Trading Company and its many subsidiaries, and is one of the wealthiest people in the known world. Her official published biography claims a checkered past for this relatively young half-elven woman: Born in a Dirrian slum and mistreated for her nonhuman blood, she became a treasure-hunter in her adolescence. Thirty years of dirt, danger and grubbing in the Blasted Lands ended with a jackpot discovery she made on her own time: a cache of treasure with which she founded the incredibly profitable merchant empire that she has run for the last fifty years. Shealeigh parlayed a single initial store into a web of companies that sell everything from wheat to mineral oils to magical artifacts. It is now impossible to go anywhere on the west coast of the Jadiwan without seeing the familiar logo of a winged shield with "JTC" written on it.

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Yndras

(INN-drahs)

An incredibly ancient elf, Yndras has been a fixture in Krane since before Devastor. Originally the proprietor of a small adventurers' equipment store called "Yndras' Anything Shop", he is now the CEO and co-owner of the Y&S department store chain. Not much is known about Yndras, except that written records of his presence in Krane go back nearly a thousand years before Devastor, and cite him as being able to obtain for sale virtually any non-unique item. Also, the histories note that of all the elves in Krane, only Yndras and his shop survived untouched the post-Devastor persecution of nonhumans. In recent decades he has been more reclusive than he used to be, operating Y&S from his office and leaving his customers in the hands of his staff, some of which are from families which have been Y&S employees for generations. Surprisingly, he has no known relatives, and Sidhai genealogists are uncertain as to his tribe and clan.

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