Profiles in History: Aun Ralirea

The Tonk passed through Asheron's portals from Ezheret-Hazahtu about a generation before the Humans made the same trip from Ispar. In Elysa's day, there were still many Tonk living in Timaru who remembered the journey. Aun Tanua was one of these, and another was the warrior-turned-hunter, Aun Ralirea.

During the days when Asheron was first experimenting with portals leading from one world to another, he and other Empyreans had visited Ezheret, and the Tonk still remembered tales of the Legendary World from which the strange tailless beings had come. When the portals appeared again, but no one emerged, the shamans studied the portals and determined that the Empyreans had vanished from the Legendary World and that the children of Wharu had overrun it. Many warriors and shamans, therefore, came to Auberean to fight Wharu's children, the Olthoi. After many battles, they descended into the depths of Palenqual (which we now call Arramora) to battle the Bride of Wharu, the first Olthoi Queen. Ralirea was among the Tonk warriors who helped to slay her, but one of her attendants severely injured his leg, and ever after he walked with a limp.

Ralirea had loved a lady named Mirakah, but after he came to Auberean they were separated and he was never able to find her again. After the defeat of the Bride of Wharu he became a hunter, bringing in gromnies and other prey to feed his xuta, and he wandered the Marescent Plateau singing:

"In a distant land my love came to me,
Her hair in braid and bow;
And long ago over shining sea
My love was lost in a gate's blue glow.
'Where has she gone?' her mother wails.
'Where has she gone?' she asks of me.
The wind asks, 'Where?' in the sails
As ever I search over land and sea.
In a distant land my love was lost.
I seek it still, wherever I go,
Through snow and gale and storm and frost:
Just a glimpse,
One more glimpse
Of that gate's blue glow."

In those days the Marescent Plateau was divided between Aun lands to the east and Hea territory to the west, with the river Volkama forming a boundary between them. Ralirea, however, roamed freely on both sides of the river in search of prey, and the Hea resented his presence.

The little chieftain in Ahurenga, Hea Arantah, whom the Aun still called by his old name Aranpuh, offered a reward to any adventurer who would slay Ralirea and bring as evidence the totem he wore around his neck, the gift of Mirakah. But Ralirea was difficult to find: travelers would hear him singing in the distance, but if they followed the sound, he would vanish. If they found him indeed, their troubles were not over, for although Ralirea would never begin an attack against them, he was accompanied by two powerful Elder Shamans who would attack on sight. If the adventurer was slain, as he fled to the Lifestone he would hear Ralirea saying, "Alas! This was not what I intended ... go in peace." If the adventurer succeeded in slaying Ralirea, he would hear this:

"Ah, Mirakah," he murmurs, "I shall not be able to fill our stores this winter. But I will meet you in the lodge, my love... at last...." So saying, the hunter passes like the wind over sea.

But always he would return to the Plateau, to hunt the gromnie and the carenzi to feed his xuta, and to sing in memory of Mirakah.

In the fulness of time Aun Ralirea died indeed, and was buried in Palenqual beneath a shrine hung with the skulls of his prey. But during the Fifth Sending of Darkness the island Palenqual was laid waste, its portals disrupted, its shorelines swamped. The fleeing Tonk took his bones and reburied them on the plains of Artefon, that later sank beneath the waters of the lake, and in our time appeared again. Ralirea's shrine remains, and this is its inscription:

"Though Aun Ralirea was laid to rest in the fellowship of strangers, far from the blasted shores of Palenqual, the descendants of Timaru shall ever sing praises of his deeds. He saved the Legendary World from Wharu's Betrothed, but at the cost of his only love. Blue Mother Heaven will hold him forever in her memory."