The year was 2058. Covenant had been destroyed and the great library razed. Among the most irreplacable works burned in the devastation was the last surviving copy of Forgall's Bestiary. So it was that my master, Antero, sent his students all over the land to gather knowledge for inclusion in Antero's Bestiary. I was assigned to study the bre'Unor, arguably the most dangerous assignment of all.
After observing them in secrecy for several months, I was able to learn their language and culture well enough to communicate with them. When I first revealed myself to them, the Bre'Unor responded violently. However, after having explained my mission as a historian, they hastily settled down and brought me to their camp. Apparently, to the Bre'Unor, history is a sacred tradition, and thus all historians are regarded as holy men. The bre'Unor exist now only as a few nomadic clans each consisting of less than thirty of their kind. However, their oral traditions reveal a more glorious past.
Bre'Unor legend speaks of a time when the bre'Unor roamed the Ermine by their glorious thousands. They were the undisputed masters of the Ermine, and no one dared enter the darkness of the Old Forest. Though these tails abound, the bre'Unor clans guard their stories fiercely. Historians are selected at birth; throughout their lives they are forced to memorize thousands upon thousands of verses to the letter. Apparently, a single mistake in related a story is punished by death. I witnessed one of these executions during my travels. I will not speak more of this except to say that the method involved wolves ... and bamboo poles. Sadly, having run out of rations, and finding bre'Unor cooking, or rather lack of cooking quite unpalatable, I was forced to leave before winter arrived.
I returned to the Ermine a few years later, in search of Gor-Ash, the leader of the largest of bre'Unor clans and rumored to be the greatest historian his race had to offer. My fir'Bolg guide was clearly nervous as we crossed the Meander, the river seperating the fir'Bolg lands from the bre'Unor. Countless thousands of bre'Unor and fir'Bolg had met their demise along its shores, apprently it ran red as often as clear in ages past. Usually, crossing the Meander results in a quick death at the hands of the Bre'Unor, which unfortunately was the case for my guide. However, the Bre'Unor were somewhat curious at my strange appearence and my ability to speak their language.
I was brought before Gor-Ash where I indulged him with the rich tapestry of human history. I told him of the golden age of Muirthemne and the fall of Ceiscoran. I told him of the Heron Guard's struggle at Bagrada, of the fall of the avatara Cormorant, and the battles on the Plain of Scales. I told of times long past, and memories still fresh in my mind, of half-forgotten childhood stories, and great works of literature. Every single story, tale, and fact that I had ever encountered was extracted from me over the course of five days. Gor-Ash and his holy men listened carefully, intently, and I was asked many times to repeat parts of my tales. At last Gor-Ash was satisfied. "You have greatly empored us with these stories" he said, (though I thought at the time that he meant this in a spiritual sence, I now know that Bre'Unor clans trade tales in exchange for military sevice in times of war, see Chapter 13, section 12) there was a brief silence as Gor-Ash nodded thoughtuflly. "Now I shall greatly empower you, here is the greatest of all our tales"
Gor-Ash dismissed all his warriors, leaving me alone with the giant cheifen. The mighty warrior shifted his weight, and in a deep, soft voice he began to tell his tale. "I am not the first Gor-Ash, nor shall I be the last. I am merely a mortal, but innumerable seasons ago, there was a great hero amoung our people who was also called Gor-Ash. This was the first and greatest of the Gor-Ash. Since his death every leader of our clan has taken the name Gor-Ash. Gor-Ash fought many battles and slew many hundreds of heathens. But his greatest battle was his first, the first because the fir'bolg did not yet fear him.
This is the Legend of Gor-Ash"
