Portrait: Numae

Numaë, Daïkinee Guardian

Numaë is one of these divinely chosen individuals whose feats set ablaze the battlefields of the Rag’Narok. Guided by his instinct, he leads his brothers in battle to protect the Eternal forest.

Numaë was born in 951, from a military officer father and a vestal of Earhë mother. His mother, struck by the curse of their people died while giving him birth. Numaë was raised by his father and his aunts.

Quite early he showed signs of an intense sensibility and overflowing imagination. He told tales of battles from a terrible war, in which he served under the orders of his father, who he admired. He claimed to have seen this war to come in dreams; he was persuaded to have a determining role to play in it. At the time, the Rag’Narok was still no more than a feared hypothesis. For the people of his village, the whimsies of the turbulent Numaë had nothing of a prophecy. At best they were unpleasantly noisy.

Each morning, Numaë would, with great fanfare, throw himself in a new battle. The other children became bored of these bellicose games in which Numaë would be terribly authoritarian. Abandoned by his play companions, Numaë got into the habit of acting out his battles alone, in the forest, which amused the fayes. Armed with the patience of immortals, they became his new play friends.

Numaë was at the dawn of his adolescence when his father was killed in an akkyshan ambush. Shaken, he closed in on himself.

Lost, tormented, Numaë held tight to his only certainty: he would become a great warrior and play an important role in a war to come. He decided to become a soldier, like his father. His aunts tried to dissuade him, but Numaë no longer listened to anyone but the fayes, who tried as best they could to channel his anger. They encouraged the solitary elf to follow the call of his destiny. They then taught him to listen to the secret whispers of the forest, and revealed the art of war to him. Thanks to them, Numaë was exorcising his grief while preparing for the war to which he would devote his life.

The Soldier of the Rag’Narok

Numaë’s aunts believed that the unbridled imagination of the orphan and his privileged relationship with the fayes were the sign of a predisposition to divination. In their efforts to change his train of thought, they introduced him to faithful of Earhë: they were hoping to awaken a vocation in him.

The faithful discovered with astonishment that Numaë had simply been announcing the Rag’Narok from his earliest age, without even knowing its name or its meaning. They attempted to convince him to join the cult of Earhë. It seemed natural: his mother had been in the service of the goddess, he was an orphan, and the gods had chosen him to be their messenger. Numaëwould learn to moderate his temper. The discipline of the cult would help him find his destiny.

Numaë let his anger strike out. His instinct rebelled against the restraints that were being imposed on him. “The time for prayer is at an end”, he claimed. His destiny, just as that of all Daïkinees, was to fight! Faced with such determination, the faithful resigned themselves to let Numaë go on his way.

Having reached adult age, Numaë left his village without a look back. He presented himself at the nearest barracks and enrolled in the Quithayran royal army. Despite his prowess in combat and his qualities as a leader, his imagination and impulsiveness did not go well with the discipline and hierarchy of the army. All of his demands were refused: he wasn’t immediately sent into battle – and much less at the head of a unit – and he wasn’t exempted from training and drills, which he thought were pointless. Numaë had to learn to live with his brothers-in-arms. He was a warrior; he became a soldier.

Years passed and Numaë proved himself. His knowledge of the forest and of the customs of the fayes made him an excellent guardian. Passionate and impulsive, he was sometimes hard to control, but there was no doubt of his devotion. He sometimes took refuge among his faerie companions. His superiors looked the other way. This intimacy with the fayes caused in his comrades a reverent fear which eased his ascension in the military hierarchy.

The Faerie Guardian

In 999, Numaë led his unit into combat on the shores of the Ynkarô, at the very place where his father had died years beforehand. After three days of tracking, he and his men caught up to a band of akkylanian deserters, led by a renegade inquisitor, who had looted a temple further north. Numaë was an exceptional warrior and an accomplished tactician. The battle quickly turned in favor of the Daïkinees. The clash of battle attracted a band of Impures. The half-elves quietly surrounded the warriors, before rushing into the fray. Humans and elves were caught by surprised and massacred. Numaë became aware of the danger too late. He spun and killed the first two Impures, skewered the third on the next one’s blade, dodged, fainted. He fought like a cornered beast, but was feeling the tiredness from the previous battle. The Impures were too many, too well organized. The issue of the fight was unavoidable. The last thing he heard, as he collapsed, was the victorious clamor of the half-elves. Then everything went black.

When Numaë came to, he was lying on the shore. Many fayes were staring as though he had come back from the dead. The impetuous elf was the sole survivor of his unit. The Impure had disappeared with the treasure from the temple, but his instinct was telling him they were still close. Numaë, determined to avenge his comrades, convinced the fayes to fall in under his orders.

Accompanied by sylvan spirits, Numaë worked his way up the Ynkarô to the Impures’ bivouac. Measuring the importance of the Daïkinee’s quests, the fayes gifted the Secret of the chameleon to him. This talisman allows the elf to come closer without being seen. Then, taking advantage of a diversion made by the fayes, the drunk with fury guardian ran to his vengeance.

In a flash, Numaë slew all of the bandits who were watching over the loot. When his blade tasted the blood of the band’s leader, his memory came back: he remembered falling under the blows, remembered that Earhë had brought him back to life. Transfigured by this revelation, he stood in the nascent dawn above the bodies of the Impures, his blade dripping with blood. He was an Incarnate, guardian of the Eternal forest and champion of Earhë.

Upon his return, he was celebrated as a hero and promoted to an officer’s rank. A short time later, the Rag’Narok began and Numaë, answering the call of his instinct, left for battle.

Numaë’s dreams as a child have been made flesh. He now leads his brothers in the ultimate battle. This is his destiny.

Notes

The Portrait of Numae is from Cry Havoc volume 17.