The Warder's Hold: Aemon al'Teralas, Gaidin

Aemon al'Teralas, of Andor
Gaidin
djg3c@virginia.edu

Aemon Al'Teralas was born under the name Untal, in a small town of about 200 in southern Andor. His father, Teralas, was a retired Queen's Guard, who taught Untal the use of the bow and the sword as he grew up, in the hopes that his son would follow in his footsteps. Teralas also studied the history of Andor, and would tell the Fall of Manetheren on Feastdays. A good natured child, Untal could usually be found playing in the town square with the other children, and the songs he loved to sing and jokes he told were often the talk of the village.

So it was that fateful year, when the Beggar first arrived, visiting the Mayor and owner of the Rooster's Rest Inn. The children all knew he was evil, as he tried to make them cry with scowls and vulgar words. The Beggar returned year after year, and his laugh haunted the dreams of the young people of the village. Untal was often plagued by nightmares of the Beggar, his gnarled old hands breaking the necks of rats and laughing in his raspy voice.

As Untal grew, he enjoyed tracking the animals in the nearby forests, and practiced with his bow often. On one such tracking trip, he was surprised to see the yellow sticklike legs of the Beggar poking out from behind a tree. Untal had not noticed that the old man had not visited that year, but his fear quickly returned when that laugh filled the air, crackling like burning wood. "They need you," the Beggar said, and in a fright Untal sprinted home to find calamity waiting for him.

His entire town lay in the town square, their throats slit. The door of the Rooster's rest read "No one renounces Shai'tan." Untal buried the bodies, and left behind his past. He kept only two possessions, the sword of his father and ring of his mothers.

Years later, a man arrived in Tar Valon, seeking to train with the Gaidin. The man stood 6'4", had steel blue eyes and a scar beneath his right eye, and carried a sword with a silver hilt, and a blade that never needed to be sharpened. He no longer smiled, and the songs he once sang were but dim memories from a past he had shut out. He had taken the name Aemon, in tribute to the famed King of Manetheren, and the surname Al'Teralas, that he might remember his father. His pursuit of the Beggar had taken him to the Blight and the Dragonwall, the things he had seen in the wake of the Beggar were vile and possessed of the nature of the Dark One. In the end, the boy had lost his prey, and the Begar had escaped.

Since his arrival in the tower, Aemon has found sanctuary and peace in his new home. The Beggar was discovered dead, killed by a grey man, a fitting end for his evil. Aemon, while deadly serious in a fight, has returned to his easy joking way, and can often be heard singing to himself while he read the books of tactics he so loves in the Tower library. The wolflike grace so typical of Gaidin hangs less heavily on him, despite his apparent skill in both blade and bow. His horse, Muadib, matches his demeanor and occasionally flings Aemon from his back just for the laughs of onlookers, but never in danger has there been a better steed. Aemon seeks now to defend the Light, and combat the evil of the Dark One that he first encountered in the Beggar, and to live up to the memory of his father, whom he loves still.