Taygor Saraius

Taygor Saraius was born in one of the small hidden settlements deep within the Derkwuds, and has spent most of his long life learning the moods, paths and warnings of the ancient forest. He belongs to the Circle of the Derkwuds Guardian, a secretive druidic tradition whose members watch over the mist-bound woods, guide those who enter with respect, and protect places they believe should never be disturbed.

Taygor grew up among people for whom the Derkwuds were neither wilderness nor legend, but home. From childhood he learned that silence could be a warning, that ravens sometimes noticed danger before people did, and that familiar paths could become unsafe without appearing to change at all. He was taught to read broken bark, animal behaviour, shifting fog and the subtle disturbances that suggest something unnatural has passed nearby.

Like most Guardians, Taygor does not pretend to understand everything within the forest. He has seen the black structures, stood beside the Derkwuds Tear and experienced enough of the forest’s stranger behaviour to distrust anyone who approaches its mysteries with excessive confidence. He regards the ancient structures as things to be watched rather than excavated, and has little patience for scholars, treasure hunters or merchants who assume every hidden thing must eventually become property.

His decision to spend substantial time outside the Derkwuds made him unusual among his Circle.

Over decades, Taygor became increasingly concerned with the relationship between Aranthaes and the lands surrounding it. The city could protect thousands of people, create extraordinary prosperity and still cause enormous damage when its interests expanded carelessly beyond its walls. Roads, logging, hunting, trade and settlement all brought the city steadily closer to places whose limits few urban officials understood.

When Taygor was eventually asked to lead the Merchant Volunteers Battalion, he accepted with some reluctance. The role gave him something he had never possessed from within the forest: influence over the people whose decisions could affect it.

He has since proved an unexpectedly effective commander.

Taygor is patient, difficult to provoke and remarkably good at allowing an argument to exhaust itself before speaking. He has little interest in commercial rivalry or personal advancement, which makes him unusually trusted in situations where several wealthy interests are competing with one another. His decisions tend to favour stability, public safety and practical outcomes, even when those decisions irritate the merchants whose wealth supports the battalion.

His officers occasionally discover that the apparently gentle old druid possesses very firm limits.

Taygor remains particularly protective of animals, vulnerable communities and those living beyond the city’s wealthier districts. He dislikes unnecessary violence and prefers negotiation wherever possible, though his idea of negotiation includes knowing when further discussion has become pointless. Anyone who mistakes patience for weakness may discover how thoroughly a Derkwuds Guardian can turn terrain, mist, roots and animal instinct against an aggressor.

He maintains close but discreet ties with the Guardians still living within the Derkwuds. Taygor will occasionally disappear from Aranthaes for days or weeks with little explanation, returning weather-stained and carrying news he rarely shares outside the Circle. He knows hidden paths through the forest that do not appear on any map and will guide trusted companions through places where ordinary travellers would quickly become lost.

There are other places he will refuse to reveal at any price.

His position requires ceremonial dress in the emerald and gold associated with his office, an arrangement Taygor tolerates rather than enjoys. Beneath it he still prefers practical clothing suitable for woodland travel. His most treasured possession is his staff, cut many years ago from a gnarled oak growing near the settlement where he spent his childhood. The tree itself still lives; the fallen branch from which the staff was shaped was taken only after a storm.

Taygor is weathered and unmistakably old, with long grey-white hair, a heavy beard and the permanently sun-and-wind-worn complexion of someone who has spent far more of his life outdoors than beneath a roof. Within the streets of Aranthaes he can look almost misplaced in his elaborate official cloak.

In the mist of the Derkwuds, he looks entirely at home.