The Annals of the Guardians of the Yerkeii Forest
To any historian reading this, my only source are the voices in my mind sowwy
What?
Ok this is going to be a weird one so you gotta BEAR WITH ME for a hot minute ok? ok.
About 4000 years ago in a continent that doesn't technically exist anymore, there was a Forest called the Yerkeii. It once was the most magical forest of it's region, housing several unique species including gigant deers and mimic frogs.
And for a short, dramatic instant, the Yerkeii Forest had it's Guardians.
The Story if the Guardians of Yerkeii Forest, for real this time
The Forest had five guardians to it's name across five centuries.
It's first guardian was a centaur by the name of Asaris. She started her existence in the heart of the forest and lived there her whole life, having a close relationship with the local fauna whom she protected from hunters. While she has as little contact as posible with the outside world, it was such encounter that gave her the moniker of guardian in the towns that surrounded the forest, a title that she never used for herself.
Asaris didn't outright forbid the entrance to the forest, but she did check often that everyone entering the Yerkeii left without causing harm. That's how she once found herself following the tracks of a group of people deep into the forest. Out of this whole group she was only able to find a single survivor: a mousekin child that had hid in a hollow tree as his parents were eaten by a bear.
She took the kid because of course she would. What choice was there? Giving him to the bear as dessert? So the kid was named Serden and was raised as Asaris' own child; but most importantly, as her own disciple.
Serden grew up in the forest, with nearly no contact with the outside world. As he grew he started resenting this, in his eyes, the people from the neighboring towns should be properly taught the dangers of the forest, as well as how it ought to be cared for; in oposition to Asaris who seeked to have as little contact with civilization as possible. Often during his youth he'd visit the towns surrounding the forest, meeting friends along the way.
Then came the fire.
In the end of a particularly dry autumn, after a year-long drought, a fire started that would consume a third of the entire Yerkeii; and with it, it took the life of the first of the Guardians of the forest.
While Asaris stayed in the worst of the forest, doing all she could to save the creatures living there, Serden ran from town to town enlisting help to stop the fire. He brought over a hundred people that worked tirelessly for the better part of two weeks until the fire was finally stopped. But for Serden, his work had only just started.
After the destruction brought by the fire, Serden spent the next three years organizing recovery efforts. He worked close with the people living nearby, teaching conservation, the uses of plants and animals living there as well as their dangers, and above all else he taught of the delicate balance of the ecosystem.
He became known as the Guardian of the Yerkeii Forest in the whole region, a title he carried with honor. But as often as he could he told people that he was the second ever guardian, and would proudly tell the stories of the centaur that raised him.
It was less than ten years into Serden's guardship when he took in his own apprentice, a small tortle by the name of Mirtha. She had been abandoned by her parents in a small church near the forest, the main priest been close friends with Serden.
Serden seeked to give her the education he didn't recive as a child. Mirtha had several tutors growing up, learning how to read and write in ten different languages, as well as learning naturalist painting. As she grew, Serden and Mirtha worked for years in several encyclopedias documenting the Yerkeii's flora and fauna; books explaining techniques on conservation and restoration of the natural environment of the forest, common uses of medicinal plants, guides for hunting, fishing and gathering; all written and illustrated by the delicate hand of Mirtha.
This tomes were distributed along the neighboring towns, given to schools, guilds and monasteries.
Near the end of Serden's life, Mirtha and him also worked in documenting the stories of the Forest Guardians, the copies of these books ended up being very popular as adventure books reaching far from the Forest it originated from, specially among school-aged children.
Serden passed away peacefully from old age in his own home, and ever since Mirtha took his place as the Guardian.
Mirtha's guardship differed greatly from Serden once again, spending most of her time within her study. She seeked to immortalize the Guardians' knowledge in the form of her tomes. The little time she spent outside the forest was almost exclusively used for delivering books. Her time in the forest itself was also limited to scheduled patrols and the occational investigation.
The next guardian after Mirtha was an elf named Budorcas. He first came to the forest as a runaway slave. Mirtha defended him against his slavers, since she belived no living being can be owned by another, and decided to take him as an apprentice.
Budorcas was an older teen when he began his apprenticeship, and less than a year later he was already working independently patroling tha forest, leaving Mirtha free to work full time in her writtings. Due to his age, being a lot older than his predecesors, and the role he took working parallel to Mirtha; the relationship between them was a lot diffrent than the former guardians and their disciples, being closer to professional than familial.
A few decades into Mirtha's guardship a strange plague attacked the towns neighboring the forest. She had helped providing medicinal herbs during those years, and thus contracted the plague herself. While she survived, the illnes crippled her and worsened her health from then on. In the end she passed five years later during the winter from a flu, made significantly worse by her poor health, leaving Budorcas as the next Guardian.
Budorcas guarded the forst alone for over three hundred years. He guarded the forest jealously, rarely allowing people to enter past the most superficial limits, and harshly punishing trasspasers. Most people from the towns nearby feared him, both for his reputation and his own character, thus his relationship to the world outside the Yerkeii was rather limited. He wasn't as dedicated to putting his knowledge into writting as Mirtha was, only writting corrected versions of the tomes when he saw the necessity, limiting his contact with the towns reciving them and further isolating himself.
His lonely lifestyle changed one day when, as he was searching for an adventurer that had snuck into the forest, he found a lost child.
The little kid seemed to have no memory of how they got there, their family or even their own name. Budorcas initally planned on leaving them on a nearby orphanage but, at the child insistance, he took them as his disciple and gave them the name of Featherpicker, becoming the fifth and final Guardian of the Yerkeii.
Feather was mostly raised alone in the forest, save for the occational class with a tutor in town. As a child he picked for a companion (see the "mounts" section below) a faywolf abandoned by her mother, which was given the name "Fairy". The pup grew alongside Feather, becoming terribly close to one another. Sadly, this was what ended the Guardians legacy.
Sixteen years since Feather became the newest forest disciple, a strange creature fell from the sky in the middle of the forest. Feather and Budorcas found that the thing seemed to be carring a terrifying curse, most of it's fur had turned charred black, with glowing red stripes running through it's lenght. It was disfigured past the point it could be recognizable, and seemed to be in terrible pain, lashing out at anything that came close. Either due to the curse or the fall, the creature was already in the verge of death, and the guardians were able to finish it off with ease. But in doing so, Fairy the faewolf became cursed as well.
They worked tirelessly for two weeks trying to contain the curse, but ultimately their work was in vain, for fairy fell into the same state, mindlessly attacking everyone around. In that state, she killed Feather and nearly killed Budorcas as well. He managed to escape to a neighboring town to spread the word of the cursed faewolf that lirked the forest, before dissapearing, never to be seen again.
Those who were there to witness them, claimed thatin in Budorcas final words, he asked for Feather and not him to be remembered as the last Guardian of the Forest and not simply his disciple, citing his shame over abandonig the Yerkeii in it's hour of need.
And thus the chapter of the Guardians of the Yerkeii Forest, came to an end.
And then?
The Yerkeii became the Cursed Forest and for generations no one dared step foot inside, gugardians or not. Eventually there came a young hero by the name of Wolf, that hunted down the Cursed Faewolf, lifting the curse off the entire forest. By that time the arrival of the Sky People (that is, humans) has caused massive displacements of people all across the world. The neighboring towns multiplied and became cities that needed wood and pelts, fruits and medicine, and above all, space for their cows. The respect for the forest was all but lost, and in less than two decades, it had shrunk a whole third of it's size.
And then, I couldn't find anything else.
I could find no record of the forest after that. Either it became known by another name or dissappeared altoghether shortly after. The Yerkeii and the whole continent it was located in, that is. This all happened millenia before the Exile of the Gods which, for all I know, might have sinked the whole continent into the ocean.
The before-times is a difficult period to study as is, let alone a specific forest.
So please take this tale as-is, a self contained story in the never-ending annals of history. A link in the chain that contains everything that ever was and everything that will ever be.
Wait what did you mean by mounts just before?
I just shot myself in the foot there haven't I
So, about being a cool ass forest guardian, it's got it's perks! And one of them is an animal companion.
As I said up top, the Yerkeii held many species of magical animals including Gigant Deers, Faewolves, Moon Ownls, Mimic Frogs, some small draconics and, most crazy of all, Platypuses.
All five guardians, without exception, had bonded for life with one of the magical animals of the forest. Said bond wasn't too dissimilar from a spellcaster's familiar, both parties joining their souls, lending each other their their power and lifeforce, and even allowing for some low-lever telepathic connection between them. But unlike most familiars, the ritual is intiated my the animal companion and completed by their own volition.
And, as the title implies, most guardians could use their companions as mounts.
Asaris' companion was Edelken the Deer King, the most powerful among Gigant Deers. Both powerful and fearless enough to take a dragon in a fight. It's gray coat shinig silver from the magical power he carried. It was the first creature that accepted Asaris into the forest, and her loyal companion for the rest of her life.
Serden's companion was Frim, a particularly small mimic frog. Now, mimic frogs aren't frogs, they're closer to birds if anything. Their round bodies, green feathers and propensity to nest near the water makes them easly confused by frogs from a distance. And they had the capacity to perfectly mimic any sound they heard. Frim was Serden's spy, being as tall as an apple, it could infiltrate in most places unnoticed and then perfectly repeat whatever it heard. It was most useful when patrolling the forest alone, Serden taking a route and Frim the other, covering double the area, which came extra useful since they were both very small and could only cover so much on their own. Frim was the only companion that couldn't double as a mount.
Mirtha's companion was Sylvinne, the largest moon owl the Yerkeii had ever seen. She was large enough to carry Mirtha in the air entirely, which was Mirtha's favourite way to patrol the forest. After the plague, Sylvinne helped Mirtha with her movility, the only reason she could keep up with her book deliveries in the last years of her life. It was said that Sylvinne passed from sadness the night after Mirtha passed herself.
Budorcas' companion was Midas the Gigant Deer. It was Edelken's grandson and the most powerful of it's descendants. While it's power rivaled that of Edelken, it's temperament was much more serene, often avoiding a fight when it could. It's coat was a dull yellow that shined golden under the sunlight, quality that gave it it's name.
Finally, Feather's companion was Fairy the faewolf. Feather picked her up as a pup when she was abandoned by her mother. As an adult, Fairy grew to be as large as a moose, with fangs and claws sharper than any of her brethren; but she had the character of a sweet puppy, loving and spoiled. She was terribly jealous of Feather and often whined when they tried talking to other people. She was first cursed protecting Feather from the thing that fell from the sky, and after the curse took over Feather refused to escape and leave her behind, which in turn was the cause of their death and the end of the Guardians.
In conclusion
The voices in my head never shut the fuck up, so I thought that I might as well write about all they say. For ease of the poor soul I'll be next, for the better undersanding of the history of this world, and, mos importantly, for internet clout.
Goodnight Yerkeii forest.