Fandarr the Enchanter - Mad shaman of the Serpent People

Many years ago, before the Westroners came into the valley, there were several races of man that co-habitated with the Old Ones.  The most famous (and most numerous) were of course the northern Storm King Barbarians and the southern Sun King Barbarians.  But there are also numerous small groups of primitives - even less developed, culturally, than the Barbarians.  These include the Shagmen of the Aghanz Hills in the Darkearth Plains, the Oordut people that dwell around the Groben Caves, in the Enchanted Forest, and the Keepi-keepi rock dwellers in the Shattered Plains.


Another group of primitive men that live in the valley are the Serpent People, who live in a dense jungle-like area of the deepest south part of the Tiazarr forests, known as the Serpent Jungle.  The Serpent People are primitive humans, that live in treehouses in the jungle.  They are expert at extracting and using poisons and magical substances from the strange creatures that dwell in their jungle.

While the Old Ones still inhabited the Valley, one of their sorcerer-priests, who venerated the Earth Weaver (one of the elemental gods of the Old Ones), realized that the time would come when the Old Ones would leave the world.  Eager to leave behind some method for the Earth Weaver to make his presence felt in the world, the sorcerer-priest decided to foster a follower.  He selected a shaman from among the lowly Serpent People to raise up.  The shaman was named Fandarr-i-kyky and was especially adept at extracting and using venom from the spider-asps the dwelt in his tree.  He was visited by the sorcerer-priest, who not only awakened some latent intelligence inside the primitive, but also gave him the gift of speech - in the manner of the Old Ones.  Then he took Fandarr (who dropped his last name, out of shame from coming down out of his tree) on a journey, back, back through time - back to when the Earth Weaver was creating the concept of tree, and forest, and rock.  Fandarr saw how the Earth Weaver made for himself a sister-lover, who would give birth to the mushrooms and insects and other despised beings.  Out of pity, the Earth Weaver killed and ate his sister-lover, but the despised beings were loose in the world, and they have been there ever since, and are the reason why soil and trees and forests work.  Then the sorcerer-priest took Fandarr far into the future, where he saw how the element gods would come and devour the whole world, reducing mankind to little more than serving playthings, or food, or worse.  This was the dream of the four elemental gods.  Then the sorcerer-priest taught Fandarr the use of certain spells, to better serve the elemental gods, especially Earth Weaver and his followers.

Fandarr lost his mind.  But enough of it remained that he realized he would have to do his part to try and preserve some part of humanity.  He feverishly began studying magic, as much as he could.  He has knowledge that the Archivists at Parn Tandalorn would not even know how to categorize, much less understand.  But at a price - his mind? his soul?

Out of fear, over the years Fandarr turned his body to metal.  He has inscribed spells, supposedly taken from the book of Zargo Zar the Sage, on his metal skin. He has also extended his lifespan an extraordinary amount.  He has built a tower of star metal (collected, over centuries, from sites of fallen stars) near the Serpent Jungle of his birth, and now lives there.  He has begun teaching his people the flute-of-stone, and the songs and chants that would be used to appease the despised young of Earth Weaver's eaten sister-love.  With his weak grip on reality, he sometimes teaches the Serpent People how to actively worship Earth Weaver, and how to summon his servitors to this world for their own purpose.  At other times, he is actively trying to teach them defenses and ways to thwart Earth Weaver.  The situation grew out of hand, with tribes and tribe members almost open warring with each other over the two doctrines of Fandarr.  So the elders have prohibited contact with the mad enchanter.  The shamans and tribesmen of the Serpent People, now armed with knowledge of how to contact and appease and employ the servitors of the Earth Weaver have become a dangerous threat.  But very few know of the reason, nor do they know anything of Fandarr the Enchanter.

Fandarr still lives, although in his form of all metal.  He lives in his tower, near the Serpent Jungle, and summons and creates all manner of creatures (which inhabit his tower and dungeons beneath) who may help him once the elemental gods return.  In the meantime, the evil he unwittingly unleashed on the Serpent People has been growing and growing over the centuries.