Post by Aldrannath on Oct 28, 2009 18:23:02 GMT 1
Many millennia ago, the Kaldorei of old lived in small settlements on the shores of the Well of Eternity at the dark heart of Kalimdor, isolated by the vast, trackless forests that encircled them for many hundreds of miles in all directions. At that time, it is said, they had no contact with the Trolls - whose great Empires already spanned half the continent - and knew nothing of them; many Kaldorei believed themselves alone on Kalimdor, and that the wild forest stretched on forever.
Only legends come down to us of that half-forgotten time, but some of those legends tell of rangers (today they would be called hunters), adventurous travellers who forsook the safety of their quiet lakeside existence to wander the vast forest, alone or with only beasts for company. Doubtless many left and never returned. Some may have come back to their kin, after years or decades of roaming, to tell tales of strange seas and magical beasts to their sceptical listeners. A handful, according to the Druids, were permitted to meet with the demigod Cenarius - to some of these he taught the rudimentary ways of the Balance; a rare few, it is said, were permitted to change their flesh for living wood, leaving their lives as Kaldorei behind forever and walking the forests as treants. But rarest of all, sometimes not for many centuries, a rumour would come out of the deepest forests that a ranger had been blessed with a glimpse of the mighty white stag they called Malorne.
Most rangers knew of these marvels only as rumours, and received fragments of the simple teachings of Cenarius at second or third hand. They revered Malorne, even above Cenarius, believing him to be the father and guide of the Kaldorei just as Elune was their mother and protector. In the strange, loose fellowship wrought by their isolation, some of the more eccentric or imaginative among these primitive, forest-dwelling Kaldorei developed their own mystical beliefs and rituals; a way of faith in the Balance that fitted their hard, dangerous lives as hunters in the wild. They called it "the Way of Malorne."
As their great civilisation slowly took shape and spread across Kalimdor, most Kaldorei forgot this primitive faith, which in later generations came to be regarded as an obscure sect of nature-worshipping savages. Later, the War of the Ancients dealt a terrible blow to the remaining rangers of the Way, a few of whom even witnessed the death of their beloved guide Malorne at the hands of Archimonde.
Malfurion Stormrage, the greatest student of Cenarius, was the first to learn from him the craft of the Druid, the first to learn of the Emerald Dream without forsaking his flesh, and the first Kaldorei to drink deeply from the Keeper's well of wisdom. After the War of the Ancients, some of the few remaining followers of the Way of Malorne became Druids under the tutelage of Malfurion and his disciples, and reinvented their ancient faith in the light of this new and far deeper insight into the Balance. The Way of Malorne became a sect within the Cenarion Circle, regarded as primitive and eccentric by their peers, but accepted and tolerated nonetheless. A few Priestesses of the Sisterhood joined them, seeing the Way of Malorne as an opportunity for the Kaldorei to reconnect with their ancient heritage. These Druids and Priestesses, the Elders of the Way, established a tradition of teaching, healing, and fighting for the Balance, and a few younger hunters and Sentinels joined them.
When the Druids went into the Emerald Dream, and the Sentinels began their Long Vigil, the Way of Malorne dwindled to a loose and scattered network of individual followers, little known to the rest of their kin. For many millennia, the Way of Malorne was no longer taught, slowly becoming a faith practiced only by a few elder Sentinels, and understood only by one or two ancient Priestesses and a few sleeping Druids.
Thus it remained until recently, when two Druids of the Way of Malorne, having woken from the Dream, decided to reestablish their traditions. They do so in the hope of returning some of the Kaldorei to their "true place" and to their "true heritage" before the ways and values of old are entirely forgotten.
Only legends come down to us of that half-forgotten time, but some of those legends tell of rangers (today they would be called hunters), adventurous travellers who forsook the safety of their quiet lakeside existence to wander the vast forest, alone or with only beasts for company. Doubtless many left and never returned. Some may have come back to their kin, after years or decades of roaming, to tell tales of strange seas and magical beasts to their sceptical listeners. A handful, according to the Druids, were permitted to meet with the demigod Cenarius - to some of these he taught the rudimentary ways of the Balance; a rare few, it is said, were permitted to change their flesh for living wood, leaving their lives as Kaldorei behind forever and walking the forests as treants. But rarest of all, sometimes not for many centuries, a rumour would come out of the deepest forests that a ranger had been blessed with a glimpse of the mighty white stag they called Malorne.
Most rangers knew of these marvels only as rumours, and received fragments of the simple teachings of Cenarius at second or third hand. They revered Malorne, even above Cenarius, believing him to be the father and guide of the Kaldorei just as Elune was their mother and protector. In the strange, loose fellowship wrought by their isolation, some of the more eccentric or imaginative among these primitive, forest-dwelling Kaldorei developed their own mystical beliefs and rituals; a way of faith in the Balance that fitted their hard, dangerous lives as hunters in the wild. They called it "the Way of Malorne."
As their great civilisation slowly took shape and spread across Kalimdor, most Kaldorei forgot this primitive faith, which in later generations came to be regarded as an obscure sect of nature-worshipping savages. Later, the War of the Ancients dealt a terrible blow to the remaining rangers of the Way, a few of whom even witnessed the death of their beloved guide Malorne at the hands of Archimonde.
Malfurion Stormrage, the greatest student of Cenarius, was the first to learn from him the craft of the Druid, the first to learn of the Emerald Dream without forsaking his flesh, and the first Kaldorei to drink deeply from the Keeper's well of wisdom. After the War of the Ancients, some of the few remaining followers of the Way of Malorne became Druids under the tutelage of Malfurion and his disciples, and reinvented their ancient faith in the light of this new and far deeper insight into the Balance. The Way of Malorne became a sect within the Cenarion Circle, regarded as primitive and eccentric by their peers, but accepted and tolerated nonetheless. A few Priestesses of the Sisterhood joined them, seeing the Way of Malorne as an opportunity for the Kaldorei to reconnect with their ancient heritage. These Druids and Priestesses, the Elders of the Way, established a tradition of teaching, healing, and fighting for the Balance, and a few younger hunters and Sentinels joined them.
When the Druids went into the Emerald Dream, and the Sentinels began their Long Vigil, the Way of Malorne dwindled to a loose and scattered network of individual followers, little known to the rest of their kin. For many millennia, the Way of Malorne was no longer taught, slowly becoming a faith practiced only by a few elder Sentinels, and understood only by one or two ancient Priestesses and a few sleeping Druids.
Thus it remained until recently, when two Druids of the Way of Malorne, having woken from the Dream, decided to reestablish their traditions. They do so in the hope of returning some of the Kaldorei to their "true place" and to their "true heritage" before the ways and values of old are entirely forgotten.