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Leasiar

“Daithí,

I hear disturbing rumours about you. Lasraí told me you had lit the candle, but I told her she was mistaken. I told her you would not abandon me now, not when we were so close.

Nobody can escape what we have started, not even you.

I will find you, wherever you are hiding. I have even sent Lasraí to the Shaper’s Halls to make sure you aren’t hiding there.

G”

Who are the Leasiar?

The longest lived of all the species, the Leasiar are driven and passionate, and dedicate themselves to making a mark upon the world around them. They are one of the playable species in Five Oaths. If you’re playing a Leasiar you could be centuries old, while still appearing young and vigorous, and decide to take up a new life as a gallóglach after you finished your great masterpiece. You could also play a Leasiar who has just started a new life, waking up beside a crooked tree with a note written in a strangely familiar hand telling you to go the gallóglaigh headquarters at Corroch and report for duty. Leasiar have a lasting effect on the world around them, and see through plans which only come to fruition after decades.

Leasiar are set apart from the other species by their incredibly long lifespan, and many take full advantage of this. A Leasiar might live one incredibly elongated life, and reap the benefits of cultivating alliances with families instead of individuals, of accumulating wealth and reputation over centuries. Others reject this lifestyle and choose not to outlast all around them. For them, there is another way, called the Path of Many Candles.

Those Leasiar that walk the Path of Many Candles do so for many reasons. A particularly egotistical Leasiar might think that they have reached the pinnacle of mortal (for the Leasiar are mortal despite their long years) achievement, and decide to make themselves anew.   Another Leasiar who never wishes to become stale in their ways might see their lifespan as a way to experience many lives instead of one long one. They will be one person for the length of a human life, and then let that identity die, leaving their old self behind and starting entirely anew. If a Leasiar wishes to walk the Path, they must seek out the Hearth Shrine, a secret place known only to those who have sought out the Shrine and not walked upon the Path. Legend has it that when a Leasiar is ready to begin a new life, their wandering footsteps will draw them to the Hearth Shrine, even if they have no intention of going there. What happens at the Shrine is not widely known, but when the Leasiar emerges into the world once again it is as a new person.

Leasiar join up with the gallóglaigh at all stages of life, where their stamina and drive can come in very handy. They tend to be eager to increase their standing within a band through acts of martial prowess, though they will acknowledge leadership skills in others they respect.

Origins of the Leasiar

The Leasiar maintain that they were the first born of all the Shaper’s children, made in the Shaper’s own image and brought into this world to emulate the Shaper in their words and deeds. The Leasiar even claim that their ancestors had a role in helping to create the other species, which is why some traditional Leasiar claim to be the natural leaders in this world. The other species inhabiting Tirneach point to the declining nations of the  Eastern Reaches across the Shaper’s Sea as examples of unfettered Leasiar leadership, and politely decline.

The Eastern Reaches are inhabited mainly by Leasiar, it’s true, but the Leasiar of Tirneach claim that the dissolute and decadent Leasiar of the Eastern Reaches have fallen in their purpose in this world, and that they share nothing but a name. The other species, particularly the Wildlings, say that the Leasiar left to themselves will shape the world to their liking and then stagnate and rot. They will never admit it, but they need the other species to stir their minds and keep them connected to the real world.

Another theory on the origin of the Leasiar, which resurfaces among younger Leasiar at least once a generation, is that they were in fact the last species that the Shaper brought into this world, and the most perfect. How else to explain their long life when every other species wastes away after barely a century has passed? How else to explain their preternatural beauty compared to the…well you know. Strangely this theory does not get much traction with the other species either.

The origin of the Path of Many Candles is shrouded in mystery, probably because any Leasiar who discover its origins walk upon the Path and forget. It is said that the first Leasiar to walk the Path had lost in love or in battle, and rather than face who she would become with such loss she resolved to become someone else unstained by defeat. She built the Hearth Shrine as a monument to her own determination and as an act of worship for the Shaper, and the Shaper themselves rewarded her piety by granting her wish to start her life again. The Leasiar who start upon the Path now are still making use of the power of the first Leasiar to light the candle, as the practice is known. Some say she still walks among the Leasiar, starting a new life every few decades, and none are the wiser.

Playing a Leasiar

To play the Leasiar in Five Oaths, you will need to don a pair of pointed ears, which should match your skin tone. Leasiar tend to take pride in their physical appearance, as yet another way they can affect the world around them and pay homage to the Shaper, so you might wish to consider how your character approaches this.

In gameplay terms, Leasiar characters have the Well Travelled Feat, depicting their many years of living in the Five Realms and the lessons they have learned there. This gives them access to a total of three Realm Feats, including their automatic Realm Feat. This gives Leasiar characters the ability to be immune to more effects than others, as well as having extensive knowledge of the geography of their chosen Realms.

Leasiar are found most often in Siabhal, where Leasiar masons and architects built the great city of Iomra in ages past, and adorned the city of Barr once it became the capital of Siabhal in the years following unification. Traditionalist Leasiar are common among the highland clans of Baol too, where they refuse to forget their old allegiances and ensure the other species keep the troth.

The Lifespan of the Leasiar
Average life expectancy: 300-400
Maximum life expectancy: 550
Common causes of death: Incredibly varied. Illness, assassination, and accidents are the most common.

How Leasiar view other Species

Creidhe: They also recognise that the past needs to be preserved, they make good servants and workers.

Drakeblooded: It is good to remember the past, even if they have fallen very far from it.

Fathach: Loyal footsoldiers made of rock, not born. Keep the Vartach out from under your lands, lest an army spring up overnight.

Firetouched: The candle that burns bright, burns quickly. Enjoy their company while they are here.

Humans: If you have something valuable, keep it far away from a human.

Krieger: It is nice that they don’t let their short lifespans hold them back.

Vartach: They will never equal us. They don’t have enough time.

Wildlings: Always look a wildling in the mouth, not all of them are as tame as we would like.

Some Leasiar You Might One Day Meet…

Gurbhan the Bold is the Rider of Cheilg, which is located in the border marches between Siabhal and Uasa, an area called the Grey Lands. He is an artificer of some renown, though his nickname comes from his much-decorated service as a gallóglach. These days he spends very little of his time on his Riding, since his craft takes him so often among the Ruby Families of Iomra. He has been sequestered for months now in his townhouse, working on a project which he knows will bring him even greater fame. In his absence from Cheilg, he ensures the safety of his people by keeping a large militia, who keep a careful eye out for Gwyllt and raiders from across the border with the Crown Realm.

Gadhra is one of the leaders of Clann Aonghusa in the Baolach highlands. She has served the Clann for most of her three centuries, and it has been the fulfilment of her life’s work to see the Clann rise in prominence in recent years. She has led them in battle against their bitter rivals in Clann Donnchadha, and she has raided with them to take the ill-earned wealth of the lowlanders. Lately she has been leading kerns of hand-picked warriors on missions among the dells and valleys of the highlands. Her fellow leaders say that she has their complete confidence, but others wonder what Gadhra expects to find among the heather and gorse. Surely she does not seek the Amber Halls?

Cunór has decided he likes the name Cunór, and will call himself that from now on. He recently woke up just outside the town of Béalcaoch in the Realm of Uasa, with nothing but the clothes he stood up in and a pouch with a single pingin in it, walking along the Réig’s Road. He remembers nothing of who he was, and reasons that he must have embarked on the Path of Many Candles. Since he finds himself in Uasa, he has decided to set out upon the road to Corroch. After all, he’s never seen the Réig’s palace or the Citadel of the Shaper. At least he’s certain he doesn’t remember seeing them.

Further Reading

The Path of Many Candles