EORIN

"You shall do no evil in the forest"

Eorin is an agility-based ranger hero of the Wilder faction. He can also teleport to enemies with the highest attack rating whom he attacks using Poisonous Mushrooms and Vines.

"Quickly, in there!"

Despite the darkness and the midnight thunderstorm, Eorin saw the hollowed-out trunk of the fallen tree clearly. Heeding his mother, he nimbly squeezes inside the trunk, and waits for her to join him.

Turning to look, he sees only her fleeing back as she runs.

Eorin starts clambering out to chase after his mother, but just then a pair of leather boots steps into view. Eorin instinctively curls up into a ball. The stranger stop for a moment, looks around, then turns and chases after his mother. The splash of his boots in the muddy water was more terrifying to Eorin than the roar of the thunder.

A long time later, when everything was still and silent, Eorin knew that he had lost his mother. She had hidden him there to distract the slave traders, and buy him more time to escape.

He climbed out of the tree, wanting to find a way home, out of the dark forest. All was strange and unfamiliar, however, and Eorin found himself frozen in place, unable to move.

"Wake up."

The resonant voice seemed to come from far away.

Eorin raises his head at the voice, and feels a large hand patting his shoulder before a steaming of tea is thrust into his hands.

Eorin woke up properly, realizing he'd dozed off in his chair. He picked up his tea and took a sip, the warmth spreading into his belly and slightly dispelling the chill of that thundery night.

"Thanks, Uncle Oku."

"Come now, we've known each other over a decade! No need to be so polite."

The old man sitting next to him threw some charcoal into the inn fireplace, before easily changing the subject. "You should follow Mishka's example. She's never constrained by formality!"

Oku knew very well that Eorin had been haunted by nightmares for over ten years.

Back then Eorin had been forced to find his way home all alone, having lost his family. He couldn't believe how anyone, in this unfamiliar land, could possibly find safe paths with only a Wilder's ability to sense nature. To survive, he ate wild fruit or pilfered what he could from carts of passing peddlers. One day, the starving Eorin spied a carriage stopped in the middle of the path. Intending To see if there was any food to steal, he cautiously lifted the side curtain.

A bloody scene confronted him. A Wilder, sitting cross-legged, was bandaging his own wound, two human corpses next to him. He soon noticed Eorin, and let out a low cry of surpirse.

It turned out that the Wilder man was Oku, a member of the Thorned Vengeance. This was an organization whose members had suffered at the hands of outsiders, so they came together to wreak vengeance upon them. For Oku, his daughter had been kidnapped by humans, and he had been hot on the heels of these two human merchants, who had sneaked into the Dark Forest to steal rare herbs. He'd followed the trail of the merchants almost to the Lightbearer Empire when he met Eorin.

Eorin tagged along with Oku as he headed home, suffering nightmares almost every single night. When he learned that his parents had been kidnapped, Oku readily agreed to help him search for them, and would gently coax him to sleep. He'd look at Eorin's little face, brows still tightly furrowed, before thinking of his daughter and trying to push the ominous thoughts from his mind.

Eorin and Oku talked after getting back to the Dark Forest, as he wondered if it might be better to send him to a Vulpen village. Eorin, however, wanted to stay with Oku.

"I want what you do. To get my revenge on those people." Eorin looked at Oku, his crimson eyes flashing with fire.

Oku felt a little awkward, and wondered if maybe Eorin had gotten the wrong idea when he saw the two humans he had killed. Eorin was still a child, after all, and children should not be involved in war.

Hearing Oku's explanation, Eorin retorted, emphasizing every word: "I am already involved."

Ultimately, Oku sighed and relented, accepting Eorin as the youngest member of the Thorned Vengeance.

After joining the Thorned Vengeance, Eorin was keen to learn combat skills from his elders, and asked the scholars of the group- who were studying humans to more effectively fight the enemy- to help trace his parents. It was only then that Eorin learned what happened to his parents.

Like the other Wilders, Vulpen were imbued with forest blood by Dura, allowing them to sense and perceive all of Nature. For the rapacious humans, this meant using Vulpen to discover treasures hidden in the earth.

This was the reason that Eorin and his parents were taken. The plan was to traffick them to some desert mines in the Lightbearer Empire, to live out the rest of their brief, miserable lives in the raging sandstorms. The number of Wilders in the mine had to be replaced every few years, as accidental deaths were all too common. The change in climate damaged their skin, while the fine dust and particulate matter clogged their lungs, not to mention the various strange vapors which arose from the alchemists' crucibles. But as far as the mine owners were concerned, what were a few insignificant Wilders, when there was so much precious amber to excavate?

Eorin fell silent upon finding out the truth. He built a small hut near a marsh, deep in the forest and spent every waking moment honing his fighting skills with diligence and intensity that worried Oku.

It wasn't long before Eorin ventured even deeper into the forest in search of the toughest wood he could find. He asked a local craftsman to fashion a detachable spear, the attempted to cultivate some wonderful swamp spore on the blade and hilt. At first, no one could work out what exactly Eorin was up to. Several years later, however, on his first mission for the Thorned Vengeance, an enemy's wound errupted in a sparkle of strange fireworks. From then on, everyone knew that Eorin had perfected a fighting style of his own.

It didn't take many years for the thin, weak boy to grow into a tall, strong young man. After several twists and turns, Eorin finally tracked down the slave trader who had trafficked his family. Eorin tortured his captive into unconciousness with a toxic fungus, before cooly noting down everything he had revealed under duress. Finally, he delivered the final blow with a chilling calm.

After the mission was over, his Thorned Vengeance companion couldn't help but tell the others that it was like seeing a demon with a face like ice. When the news reached Oku, it reminded him of something seemingly inconsequential that had happened in the past. One day, the first time that Eorin met Mishka, the young girl of the Bearfolk whom he had taken in, he immediately produced a beautiful silver coprinus flower from spores to amuse her.

Eorin was unaware of all this gossip. The information extracted from the slave trader provided the location of his true enemy, so off he went, headed for the Lightbearer Empire. This time Oku accompanied him. Now, Eorin and Oku have arrived at this small Lightbearer Town. Once again, the incident from ten years ago invaded his dreams, but this time Eorin believes the nightmare will soon be over.

Several days later, the owner of a famous mine in the Lightbearer Empire died suddenly from some strange disease. It was said that the doctors who had rushed to see him- but were only in time to see his corpse- were shocked at the strange thick algae which blanketed his lungs.