Lorgan's Notes: ME!
Dear Redeemer of Laken:
I'm certain you're wondering why you should listen to me and delve into the research I've already completed. Well, you are in good luck, for I, Lorgan, will endeavor to enlighten you.
And yes, I've done quite a lot of research. A thousand years' worth, actually. So, you understand, I'm invested in seeing Laken Redeemed, no matter what he might think
Research:
Me, myself, and I by our intrepid Finder hero
Lorgan the Hard Working In this Biographical Document:
Me, myself, and I by our intrepid Finder hero
Lorgan the Hard Working In this Biographical Document:
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Mystic Art Design from Pixabay
Mystic Art Design from Pixabay
Early Years
I can't say I remember how I died. I was a hale man in my prime from a rich Bradic family who went to sleep one night, and woke up outside the Tunnel. That led to a, shall we say, undignified trip through my memories. I hadn't realized what an ass I could be, and to the people I loved the most. Many deceased scoff about the Tunnel being an enlightenment adventure, but for me, it proved so.
I decided, if granted the opportunity, I would Redeem myself, even if my faults did not justify my sitting in the Fields. Death was, well, amused by that.
I easily entered the Hallowed Council Building employing my Ether Touch, shocking my Greeter who expected days and days to pass while I and my fellow ghosts fought to learn the fundamentals of how spirits interact with the Evenacht. I believe the training and research in magic I did while alive aided me in this. The Finders, when they realized my talent, sent a representative to speak with me while I attended one of those dreadfully boring history lessons (history is awesome and can inspire and fascinate. The teachers the Collective employ to educate are worse than dry unsalted crackers. They truly need to fix this travesty.)
They offered me a position! And it paid! And I didn't have to worry about finding a place to live reside! At that point, I would have agreed to walk their pets if they allowed me a space where I did not have to worry about upkeep.
Amderion is a kindly sort, for an elfine who was a high priest of the Sun during his time in the sun. I've been told his instinctual manipulation of Touch has meant he has never looked gaunt--which means he's mistaken for an elden spirit all the time. That pleases him.
One of the reasons I know the Finder librarian Meracillis so well, is because of Amderion's friendship with him.
Becoming a Finder
So I began my studies to become a Finder!
The training was a simple endeavor for me, as I was a scholar in life, and greedily absorbed all I could concerning my new existence. The hardest part was learning the common language, since it sounded nothing like those I had heard on Talis (and I was a linguist. I looked into Reckoning, and it appears to be a patchwork of proto-Coastal Justati, which was spoken by the Astri many, many thousands of years previous, and Holy Faeth, a younger but Talis-important elfine language. An odd combination . . . But I digress). The history and the lessons in Touch fascinated me, and I progressed quickly through the coursework.
Sage Amderion agreed to sponsor me, for which I am grateful. He was known (and probably still is) for his skill in Touch, and I learned how to properly study it from him. He even told me I outshone his elfine students (if you are unaware, Amderion is an elfine, and very proudly elfine at that). His praise garnered me a bit of jealousy and bitterness from my peers, but having been a studious loner for most of my living years, their rejection did not bother me.
Within the year, I had completed the introductory Finder courses and eagerly conducted my first Redemption! Other sages skeptically regarded my progress, but Amderion assured them I would succeed spectacularly! And I did, for the most part.
First Redemption
I am certain you know about Finder research. One must gather as much information as possible about where the Condemned's essences have alit, and hopefully you do not screw up and go after the wrong one (something, thankfully, I never had to deal with. Being meticulous pays off).
While I flipped through journals and newspaper articles and mythology, I neglected a fundamental part; conducting a deep dive into the places that housed the essences. I was lucky that my first Redemption went quickly despite this neglect, and I count it as a profitable learning experience. If I had researched the dryans of Small Lake Cellel I could have saved my time and theirs by understanding the community and the geology better. I could have asked relevant questions instead of stammering incoherent sentences.
And that, my dear Finder, is the expertise I bring to your endeavor. My natural curiosity takes over and I can produce pages and pages of documentation that will aid you in discovering the essences, traversing the lands it rests in, and making Laken whole.
I completed over a thousand Redemptions before Laken. No, the Finders do not herald that because they now see me as a disappointment. They'd rather raise Nolaris up--a dull rock of a ghost without the brains or brawn to effectively Redeem a ticket to the faire, let alone a Condemned. And no, I'm not bitter, I state simple and unmitigated fact.
Eleonore Kemmel from Unsplash
I spent a great deal of time in the archives library. If you didn't know, most of the older materials are not housed at the Council Building. There is a special library that stores them. It's faster to simply go to the archives and ask for documents there, than waiting for assistants to retrieve them from the main library. And, bonus, the archivists are far more helpful than librarians in research endeavors.
Laken
Um, so you're probably wondering why Laken thinks I'm the Beast reborn. It's not because I wasn't successful in finding his essences--I found the first two, mind--but I realized I wasn't the Finder destined to complete his Redemption.
Yes, he will moan and wail about that, as a good Fields ghost is wont to do. But I didn't desert him. I didn't leave him to wallow in the Fields for another thousand years. (Well, yes, that is where he was, but I was being productive, something I told him repeatedly, and something that never managed to penetrate his thick skull),
I conducted the research into his essences so YOU DON'T HAVE TO. (If you don't gasp in shocked delight or clap or something after reading that, I will be very disappointed. It took me over a century to discover on which continent his right arm essence was! I am nothing if not persistently dedicated.)
That is correct, dear Finder. I knew that your arrival would herald a nasty backlash in the Finder organization (especially from Nolaris, who should have made a spectacular face-plant into obscurity, but for the Collective) and I anticipated that they would cut you off from their libraries and materials because keeping Laken in the Fields is more profitable to them than having him Redeemed.
I, however, worked for centuries without them the wiser. Nolaris did his best to undermine me with the Finders, and he succeeded, to the point that the librarians shook their heads and tsked and bemoaned my fate as I used their library to conduct the research they did not want conducted. Meracillis was particularly thorny, and you should thank me until the sun shines in the Evenacht that you don't have to deal with him.
The Results
My gift to you. Knowledge. My expertise in the places Laken's essences wait. I've done the dull part, you get to complete the exciting retrieval! Ask questions, I should have the answers. I have, at last count, three crates dedicated to each of the five essences, filled with the research I conducted. I have updated what I could (after all, I retrieved his torso and arm over a thousand years previous and already had notes on those areas, but a lot can happen in the meantime, especially in the native populations).
And, if you are so inclined, I would join your Redemption. I want to see through what I began, but realized I was not the one to finish.
Yes, there is a reason I forsook the Redemption, but if you wish to speak on it, we need to do so out of Laken's hearing.
And no, it has nothing to do with Laken being UnRedeemable. What trash the Finders' speak, when their cozy misconceptions are splatted against the wall.
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