Man of the Woods (Lore Book)

by Carl Dorc

The First Men were the favored people of what today we call the Wood Man, for he was one of their chief deities. This divine, touched by the devotion shown to him by his chosen people, granted them his blessings, to ease the burdens with which they fought so often.

These blessings came through their Druids, who would mold the shapes of the animals of the land to fulfill their purposes. Large wildcats who could deftly lead their owners through the forests, scaled oxen who could swim through the swamps while pulling the wooden boats our wildling ancestors so favored, and small, feathered beasts to chase off hungry foxes from the grazing chicks, were just a few of the many creatures they commanded.

It was through their devotion to the Wood Man that the animals of the land were docile and tame, harming not a soul among the people. And it was his blessing that kept the evil beasts, beasts who came not from the woods protected by the divine, at bay and away from the First Men.

But as the Vengard people came and spread their ways, and the First Men faded into obscurity, so too did worship of the Wood Man, and so did his blessings. Many fantastical beasts were lost to time for they could not breed. Large beasts of burden became wild and ferocious. And the Wood Man's blessing, which had kept so many monsters at bay for time uncounted, had faded. With these changes the old realm of the divine, which is what we would come to know as Vengard, became a realm like any other; violent and at the mercy of a cruel world. This is not to say that the practices with which his Druids conducted their rituals were not cruel in manner and in execution. Dreadful rituals of which we now condemn were common, and, in the opinion of this most humble author, were best forgotten. Such things are best removed from memory.