Profiles in History: Rashan Twoblades

In his day he was one of the mightiest fighters on Dereth, and slew the legendary Monouga of Khayyaban. When the Nemesis races attacked, he protected the last of the Humans as they fled into the Shelters. Unlike the Fetterguards, he bore not a Soulbound weapon but two shining swords of refined dramastic, enchanted with special potency against Drudges. But the Drudges overwhelmed him at last, and tore him to pieces with their claws.

Now, west of Cavendo, you will find the Spectre of Rashan Twoblades standing on a hill. It is difficult to see him, for he is transparent and stands in tall grass up to his waist. But you may find him by the shimmer of the two swords he still carries. One may ask why, instead of haunting the road between Cavendo and the Drudge Citadel, Rashan does not guard the Fettermound to which his fellow Humans escaped. But talk to him, and the meaning will become clear: he stands on the borders of the Citadel because from there he can send adventurers out on his missions of revenge on the Drudges who killed him.

Kill seven Drudges of seven different kinds, and he will reward you with a sword like his own, a Drudgebane, and the Drudges will scream with pain and fear when you wield it. Speak to him again, and he will send you on a running tour of the Drudge Citadel to defile the idols that stand along the roads; accomplish this without dying and he will give you an enchantment that will strengthen you for your next fights. Later on, when you have become a Hero, he will ask you to take his sword and lay it on the Drudge Hero Shrine, by way of thumbing his nose at the Drudges one last time. Then he will give you a sword imbued with Rashan's Forging Fire, a spell that is well worth having.

But ... go back a few days later, and he will ask the same things of you, as if you had never done them. If you are still a junior, he will send you to slay seven Drudges; if you are a Hero, he will give you his sword to lay upon the Drudge Hero Shrine. Week after week, as if you had never done it before, and each time you return you find Rashan railing against the Drudges, praying Asheron to give him rest.

I think perhaps Rashan is not there at all. I think perhaps, in his dying moments, his tormented and vengeful spirit impressed itself upon the receptive air, leaving an echo, an image, an eidolon that lingers after him, repeating his few last thoughts to all passers-by and reflecting back a part of his energy on those who do his bidding. Think of all the ghosts we have seen, Elysa and Thorsten and Aulatah and the rest, each making a set speech, assigning a task, bestowing an award, and immediately turning to the next comer with the same speech, the same task. They are not really there: their spirits have gone into the Light, or wherever it may be that they have chosen to go. (For, in the last, it is always a matter of choice.) Remember Rashan Twoblades. Carry out his quests, receive his rewards, as often as you may: and remember him.