The Origin of Duulan
Posted on 2006-01-04 at 10:48
Spit into this world near the base of the Ageless Mountains, I have never felt a part of the greater scheme---in fact, I never even understood this greater scheme of which others spoke. How could they be so easily duped! While other young boys spent their early mornings in the temple listening to crippled priests spew old lies about Garl Glittergold and his travails against the Big Folk, I sat alone, staring out over the valley that spread beneath my window, and wondered. It was the unknown that called to me! It was the unknown that made itself in my image each morning as I stared over that wide expanse. I read voraciously from my mother's tattered texts of illusions. I longed for a taste of the valley as it really was, not as it seemed from my sterile cloister. Garl be damned! I would leave this place and seek true knowledge. Alas, it was not until my forty-third year that I had the funds with which to leave. But leave I did! And from there I sought the greatest illusionist in the land. My mother had mentioned his name casually once, but I did not forget. Haurdwen the Neverseen she called him---and her voice was pregnant with awe as the name lifted from her tongue. Yes, it was Haurdwen who would teach me.
Searching for nearly ten years, I found Haurdwen in the city of Moy, near the southernmost coast of the Mercara Bay. There he sat, alone and unconcerned. He was a gnome to be admired. Haurdwen the Neverseen. Haurdwen the Black. Haurdwen Shadowbringer, Many were the names of Haurdwen from the few people who'd heard of him and lived. To himself, he was merely Haurdwen. Haurdwen saw my potential and chose me as his only student in nearly forty years. The pride filled my fluttering chest and gripped my legs with iron as I heard him accept me as pupil. My tales would be grand. I would honor Haurdwen. Never would he look back on me and think this a mistake.
And he never did. My history with my mother's old texts proved useful to my studies under Haurdwen. I quickly moved past the basic Glamers expected of apprentices. Haurdwen chose well. It was my eleventh year of tutelage under the great master when he introduced me to the next level of my studies:
"Truly, Duulan, you have shown great promise and done me proud. It is time now to put aside your childhood and become one with the magic. For long have you studied the ancient texts, as I did in youth as well. They, Duulan, are not enough. I will now teach you the arts of subterfuge from which our illusions extend. You will learn to be and to not be, to exist without existing, to have and to not have. There are those who will name you 'thief' and 'scoundrel' and 'skulker', but they are craven and fear what you represent. You, Duulan, will be the unknown. You will walk carefully through this world while those around you stomp carelessly. You will whisper truths while those around you shout lies. You will be everpresent and neverseen. Duulan, you wished to know the unknown. I will make you the unknown. In childhood you spoke like a child, you thought like a child, you knew only what a child knows. For then you knew only in part, but now you shall know fully even as you meld with the unknown. This is my last gift to my greatest student. Accept it and be content that you have pleased me."
My lessons took a turn toward the stealthful arts. I learned the workings of locks, so that no secrets can be kept from me. I learned to move without the signs of sight or sound, so that I may come and go as I please in secrecy. I learned the arts of subterfuge and innuendo, so that I might speak without telling all and listen to parts while hearing the whole. Many were the lessons Haurdwen taught me, and many more were the questions I had for him. I learned well.
Then came the time---nine fruitful years later---when Haurdwen was to let me go into the world. Saddened but prepared, I left Haurdwen's lair---the place I'd called home for the past twenty years. Coming to Deas Caer, I called upon a party of adventurers in search of a thief. I am no mere thief, but they could not be expected to know that. Perhaps they weren't meant to know that....