Ashen, the Driven Shaman – Steal this Eberron Background

There is very little I can remember of my past. I have gone by my self-given name for so long now, that my birth name is lost to the winds. I have only fleeting images of the place I once called home – the Eldeen Reaches are beautiful in the spring. The trees waving gracefully in the breeze, the forests were a comfort in my early childhood. I can still see my father’s emerald green eyes – I could have been lost in the depths of his love. For as far back as the tribe’s history is written, my family had produced a spiritual leader every generation. That all ended with me.

The only thing that stands out to me vividly to this day was a prophecy handed down through the generations of my family’s existence. “There will be one born to the tribe that will be its ruin. Beware the spirit of the eldest of races.” Little did I realize the implications of this prophecy.  Like every other spiritualist in my family, I began to commune with the spirit world at a young age. Unlike my father, and his father before him, I could speak with Eberron itself. Spirits of all the elements began to tell me the secrets of the dragons themselves. Many times I had visions of a far away island shrouded in mystery and mist. Strange symbols floated before my very eyes, and they began to make sense.

My thirteenth year of life was to be my happiest. I was summoned before the circle of elders, and my father as their leader. “You will be taken to the sacred grove to begin your journey as the next tribe leader,” my father said to me. His eyes fairly gleamed with pride and love. I was taken to our holiest of places, the circle of Indurai. There my father painted my skin with symbols of all the elements. I sat in the grove and began my search for the spirit that would help me lead the tribe for the coming years. As I think back on this sad time I can’t help but remember the ease in which I summoned him. I opened my mind to Eberron itself and was answered immediately by Arechion. The elders watched in stunned silence as he coalesced into being. Earth raised itself and was surrounded by the spirits of water, air, and fire. Soon it took the form of the spirit that would be my connection to the spirit world… the form of a drake.

I sat there, elated with what I had brought forth. As I stood and faced my father, my happiness was dampened immediately, the look of fear and hatred on his face stopped the very beating of my heart. His face contorted with rage as he told me, “The prophecy has come to fruition in my very family.  Leave this sacred place and never return upon pain of death.” Dumbstruck, all I could do was nod and walk away. How could such a perfect companion such as Arechion be the downfall of my tribe? I never could understand why they exiled me.

The years passed by as I wandered the Reaches in search of my destiny. Arechion was my constant companion and my only friend. It seems as though my moods shaped his very element of being. When I was angry he took the form of earth or fire, when I was sad he became more the essence of air or water. Fear brought out the very shadows themselves to fuel his form. The visions began to become stronger and stronger. I began to feel a pull to the lands outside the Reaches, and the prophecies of Eberron itself began to unfold before me. Soon enough, I began to journey in search of those who could teach me to unravel these mysteries.  Arechion was my guide into the Draconic Prophecies, glimpses appeared to me through his very essence. “We must begin the long journey to Argonessen to fulfill the destiny Eberron has set for you,” was all he said.