Morvion - Maranwe Background

Morvion is the product of a primitive culture that practices hunter gathering and low-intensity subsistence agriculture. Elves in his society greatly value nature and simplicity. The technology level is generally stone age, with the exception of middle age long bows, although metal implements do occasionally enter the society through long distance trade. Metal weapons are typically melted down or reworked into more useful tools such as pots and shovels. Obsidian is considered to be just as sharp as steel and much easier to come by.
Tribe size is typically 15-50 individuals; most tribes live in elaborate tree villages that were born, not made. Tribes are typically separated by 20-40 miles. The tribes are interconnected by an elaborate gift-giving economy based on delayed reciprocity, debt, status, and reputation. Rivalries can form over decades between tribes based on perceived shaming due to excess giving or perceived slight due to insufficient reciprocity, but war between tribes is unheard of.
Other humanoid species wander throughout elven lands, typically oblivious to an elven presence. Due to the favorable outlook toward humans, elves engage with them through an extension of their gift giving economy, although the relationships are viewed as ephemeral and the exchanges as far more transactional, with expectations for reciprocity measured in weeks rather than decades. Orcs are tolerated, but they are engaged wearingly and strictly through a barter economy. Lizardfolk and kobolds are generally just avoided. The situation changes when other humanoids approach within a few miles of an elven home. Subtle warnings can quickly turn dangerous, then deadly.
Maranwe was born 100 feet above the ground and 200 feet below the jungle canopy in a small village among the trees. His father, Estelar, was a renowned hunter, but died when Maranwe was very young in a hunting accident from a lethal stegosaurus spike. He was raised by his mother, Saida, along with his younger siblings, his sister Myriani and his brother Kolvar. When Maranwe was in his pre-teen years, around 70 years old, he was accompanying the males of the tribe on a multiday hunting trip. During the trip, the hunting group set up camp near an elaborate stone arch, which was a well-known landmark on the outskirt’s of the tribe’s territory. Maranwe was immediately drawn to the stone structure, and spent most of the night studying the multitude of intricately carved runes by candlelight. A few hours before dawn, his last candle went out. Obsessed by the knowledge locked within the runes, Maranwe sat down in the middle of the arch and contemplated his discoveries throughout the day, and from memory, he carefully drew a symbol in the air representing the sun. Instantly, a bright light appeared in his hand as he learned his first cantrip.
Over the next several months, Maranwe made frequent trips to the arch, learning several additional spells. He eventually reached a plateau and was unable to progress further. As he studies the runes, he starts finding that more than one language exists in them. A language alien and undecipherable. He expressed a strong desire to his family to leave the tribe and to search for additional knowledge. His mother begs him not to leave, and the rest of the tribe becomes angry with him for his plan to abandon them. The tribe had been without magic for a generation and were in great need of a shaman. Feeling very guilty, he publicly apologized to the entire tribe and vowed never to leave.
Over the next 40 years, Maranwe’s status within the tribe continued to grow as he used his gifts to aid the tribe in various ways. On his 110th birthday, Maranwe was officially appointed as the shaman of the tribe. As an adult, he was finally able to participate in hunting parties rather than simply observe. Almost immediately, the fortunes of the tribe began to change. Through the use of spells such as grease and expeditious retreat, Maranwe was able to dramatically improve the tribe’s ability to take down large game. The tribe became well known for the large feasts they would host, with open invitations to neighboring tribes. Due to the status afforded to his family, his brother and sister were both able to marry the chiefs of neighboring tribes when they reached adulthood. Maranwe married Laerune at age 115, and they had a son and a daughter spaced ten years apart, Tanyl and Tishara.
Maranwe developed a reputation for valuing arcane writings, and bestowed great gifts upon anyone who gifted such writings to him. Over the next 40 years, he was able to acquire a handful of higher-level scrolls (invisibility, greater invisibility, and fireball). He studied them carefully but eventually realized that he would never be able to learn them without formal training. In a symbolic gesture, he returned to the gate and buried the scrolls, committing himself to his current life forever. Months before the start of the game, a large lizardfolk discovers his tree village and conducts a devastating attack in the middle of the night. Maranwe fights desperately to save his people, but the tribe is overwhelmed due to both numbers and the superior armor of the lizardfolk. He takes several grave wounds and is knocked out of the tree. Miraculously, he lands in a large plant and survived. Every other member of the tribe is killed, including his mother, wife, son, and daughter. Consumed with grief and rage, he becomes convinced that he could have saved them if he had pursued magic. The trauma invokes a profound shift in Maranwe’s personality and worldview. He changes his name to Morvion, in part to conceal his true identity and in part to mark the change in himself. He returns to the gate to retrieve the scrolls he buried a decade ago, and then sets out to exact revenge. The lizardfolk tribe were now living in his village. He uses invisibility to set pools of oil throughout the village, fireball in the middle of the village to ignite the oil, then greater invisibility to slaughter any lizardfolk that would escape the fire, including children. The slaughter of innocent children that day crystallizes his personality shift.
One member of the lizardfolk tribe is still unaccounted for, the shaman. He knows that the fire would attract the shaman, so he prepares an ambush. However, he quickly discovers that the lizardfolk shaman is far more powerful than Morvion, and he is forced to retreat. As he is running, the evil Lizard causes a bolt of lightning to lance down at him. It misses, but the bolt destroys a tree near him. He is still picking splinters out of his backside.
A few nights later, after falling asleep staring at the runes, a dream comes upon Morvion. In it, he see a vision. A wooden building set in a massive forest of wooden buildings. A wooden building like what those stuffy humans make. Could he have had a vision of City which he has heard of from time to time. The dream repeats the next night, but this time the building is covered in the runes of the arch, which he can’t decipher. Then the dream never comes back. He leaves his former life to travel to City to seek the knowledge he needs to protect the rest of his people. Knowledge he should have sought decades ago.
Venturing out over the next few weeks, he makes his way closer to City, now convinced that the dream is guiding him to the answer of the runes. He makes his way to City and quickly finds he is lost. Truly, this is a forest made of large blocking houses. There is no way he will find house he dreamed of.
While despairing, he doesn’t give up. Over the next two weeks he starts to learn a little of the customs of the city, at least not everyone wants to pick a fight with him or spit on him like those first few days. He finds an elvish merchant who is somewhat familiar with jungle elf customs and is willing to exchange gifts with Morvion, although unbeknownst to Morvion, the gold and gems he acquired from the lizardfolk were worth far more than the chain shirt and supplies he was given. Morvion also experiences bread for the first time, which next to magic is the most amazing thing he has ever discovered. He sleeps on the rooftop of his merchant friend (if elves sleep in this world).
One day, he turns a corner and he sees it, the house. It’s a large wooden building with a single door. This appears to be a lower back street which runs by the back of the house. He could go around to what he perceives is the front of the house, one story up on the next street, however this is the side he saw in his dreams.
It’s late in the day, however he thinks he understand the custom of knocking well enough to go and introduce himself.