The Great Hunt
In the misty reaches of Pax's primeval forests, there once roamed a spectral guardian called Cernvar, the Stag of Justice. He was a hunter with the head of a mighty stag, crowned with antlers that gleamed like ivory in the moonlight. His eyes burned with an otherworldly light, and his voice echoed throughout the hills like the distant rumbling of an incoming storm.
Long ago, when the forest was still wild and free, the oak forests were sacred ground, where the spirits of nature lived in harmony. However, the elves of ancient Paxander, driven by incessant greed, began to despoil the land. They hunted the sacred beasts for sport, felled ancient trees for wealth, and spread corruption through their envy and cruelty.
The spirits of the forest cried out for a protector, and thus Cernvar was born from their combined will and sorrow. He arose as a force of nature and judgment, a hunter whose purpose was to bring balance by hunting down evil wherever it lurked. Stories say that those who committed grave sins against nature and the innocent would hear the whisper of his hooves in the night. Shadows would thicken around them, and the forest itself seemed to close in. As the final warning, they would hear a haunting, echoing call, like a stag's bellow mixed with the fury of the wind.
Cernvar's hunt was relentless. His quarry, be they poachers, greedy warlords, or corrupt rulers, found themselves trapped in a labyrinth of illusions and roots that shifted endlessly to confound them. They could run and hide, but there was no escaping the forests' warden. He would appear in the mists, antlers cutting through the fog like blades, before unleashing swift, unstoppable judgment.
But not all who encountered Cernvar perished. Those who showed true repentance and made amends to the spirits were given a second chance, marked with a stag's sigil on their hands as a reminder of their debt to nature. These individuals were often seen performing acts of atonement: planting trees, caring for the wounded, or defending the vulnerable from harm.
One of the greatest tales told of Cernvar speaks of a warlord named Varek Blackthorn, who burned villages to expand his iron domain. One moonless night, as he celebrated his latest conquest, a terrible silence fell upon his camp. His warriors vanished into the shadows, and his bonfire turned to ash. Varek found himself alone in the forest, where Cernvar awaited him. Varek, proud and fierce, tried to fight the Stag of Justice, but his weapons broke like twigs against Cernvar’s hide. Desperate, he pleaded for mercy, but the guardian’s voice thundered, “Only the humble and just shall find mercy here.”
Varek, overcome with regret, wept for the lives he had destroyed and vowed to heal what he had broken. Cernvar left him alive but scarred with the mark of a stag, and the once-cruel warlord became a protector of the land he once sought to conquer, planting seeds where he had once sown sorrow.
To this day, in the Great Woods, the legend of Cernvar endures. Those who tread lightly and with respect hear whispers of antlers rustling through leaves and feel the forest’s approval. But those who seek to harm the land or the innocent still fear the call of the Stag of Justice, knowing that the Great Hunt never truly ends.
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