Gau Drashari

Gau Drashari
Basic Information
Base	Toramunda Cathmoíra
Goals	Safeguard Mount Ygora
History
Formed	Pre-Age of Arcanum
Membership
Classes	Druid
Races	Multiracial Genasi

The Gau Drashari were the forebears of the Ashari tribes of Exandria.

Society

The Gau Drashari were apparently from their beginning the protectors of places of strong elemental magic. Many of the earliest of them, including their leader at the time of the splitting of the settlement of Toramunda into Cathmoíra and Avalir, were genasi.

History

The Drashari were an ancient order of Druids that tended to the historic holy sites of Toramunda and Mount Ygora. During the Schism, two mighty Primordials called Rau'shan the Emperor of Fire and Ka'Mort the Empress of Earth were laid low and sealed away by the Dawnfather and the Wildmother under the brumestone-filled and elemental magic-permeated Mount Ygora on the continent of Domunas. Early in the Age of Arcanum, the ancient Gau Drashari druidic settlement of Toramunda was built there. Over time, other people settled in the area as well, growing the settlement into a city.

About 292 years before the Calamity, a group of mages led by Imyr Por'co sought the permission of the Gau Drashari to lift the top of the mountain into the sky to become the flying city of Avalir. To gain this permission, the wizards agreed that 25% percentage of the magic collected by Avalir in its travels along the ley lines of Exandria would be apportioned to the druids. The Replenishment refers the city's return to its terrestrial sister city Cathmoíra every seven years to return the collected arcane ether into the surrounding area. In the year following a Replenishment, crops explode throughout the land, and often, a generation of magical children will be born and there will be a revitalizing.

“

Honorable Magister, your assurances are taken in the most generous spirit possible. I do not distrust you, the person, for all people are children of Exandria. But what I distrust is enchantment, the enchantment of a people and of their ways. The wizards of Avalir have proven time and again that they do not see limitation. They do not see the limitation of a city that will be borne aloft into the sky, nor do they see risk. I wish that I could trust you. I wish that my order could trust you. I wish that we could, in good faith, tell you of the tree's purpose. Sorrow fills my heart for even if you kept your word, the wizard behind you, if they knew the nature of the tree, I can only imagine would see all that they could do with it and not what they could do for it. I implore you. The endless skies of Exandria are yours. The wonders of your imagination are your only master. Please, simply tend for this tree and do not ask again. We cannot trust you with its secrets.

”

– 

Head Druid of the Gau Drashari, the Temple of Toramunda.

[!h]

The wizards also agreed to the installation of the Tree of Names within the city, although the Drashari refused to share with the wizards the purpose and function of the tree. The city also performed a secret function as it traveled the ley lines of Exandria: it wrote a spell of protection on the face of the world. Vespin Chloras was apparently aware, however, of this function, as he commented to Lacrytia Hollow and Micah Cormorant that the Tree was the reason that duplicating the ascension ritual of the Raven Queen was difficult.

Although the archmages of Avalir present the Replenishment as an act of charity, it was actually a legal obligation to the Gau Drashari under the "Pact of Crown and Throne" or the "Drashari Pact". Avalir became the City of Crowns, and Cathmoíra the City of Thrones.

About 119 years before the events of Exandria Unlimited: Calamity and approximately a year after the ascension of The Raven Queen to godhood, the Gau Drashari renegotiated the Pact by installing the Arboreal Calix over the Tree of Names to further protect it. After the installation of the Arboreal Calix, the Tree itself was no longer talked about so much.

Events of Exandria Unlimited: Calamity

During the night of "Blood and Shadow" (E3x03), the Ring of Brass entered the chamber of the Arboreal Calix. In visions, Patia saw the last surviving Primordials (Rau'shan and Ka'Mort) sealed under Mount Ygora, and the seals tended to by the Gau Drashari. The wizards came and proposed lifting the top of the mountain to create their flying city. Imyr Por'co offered to bring the Drashari magical energy, and they agreed. Later, the Drashari summoned the Tree of Names into being, to protect Exandria by scribing the names of "those things beyond which should not come", scribing runes of protection. "For 292 years, Avalir has been writing a spell on the surface of the world to keep it safe," and the druids kept this secret from the wizards in an attempt to protect the tree.

In a vision, Patia Por'co heard the leader of the Gau Drashari, at the time the Pact was reached, shouting, "Unhand it", and voices saying, "What has it been doing? The tree is a wall. The tree is a gate. The tree is a pen, scribing, blossoms, leylines, writing, writing the names, the names. Petals falling all over Exandria. This was our bargain, Imyr." Zerxus Ilerez also read the birchbark scroll they had found earlier wherein the Head Druid of the Gau Drashari at the time the Calix was created wrote of why they felt they could not trust mages and could not share the tree's purpose with them.

At the very beginning of the Calamity the devils attacked Cathmoíra following Asmodeus' orders, and the local druids used the Transport via Plants spell to evacuate many people to other places in entirely different continents (such as Wildemount, Gwessar or Issylra).

At some point during or after the Calamity, the Gau Drashari ended up disappearing, dividing in four different tribes, the Ashari, connected to each of the four elements and in charge of protecting and guarding portals to the respective elemental planes.

Oma-Dua vs Evithorir

One of the Gau Drashari in Issylra, Oma-Dua, at some point in history became the enemy of Evithorir, a dark fey entity known as "the Taker" who was a thief of essence and natural magic. The two of them fought against each other and eventually the archdruid managed to seal Evithorir beneath the rock of Cofferfall Hill.

Oma-Dua would die prematurely due to a mortal curse, but she spent her last years transmitting her teachings to others and protecting the Irriam Canyon in the Demithore Valley. When she died, a shrine-like tomb was constructed in that place inside a cave, and part of her spirit, connected with the local Elemental Eidolons, endured in the Emerald Tree protected by a circle of druids.

The Great Tree of Atrophy

Another Gau Drashari, Evontra'vir, became an archdruid and eventually transformed into a tree spirit that now resides in Kalutha, an island in the Shattered Teeth. It is said that their roots wind between the realms of life and death, and that they watch over the cycle of renewal.

Trivia

• Although Toramunda is the only confirmed location where the Gau Drashari lived as a community, there are stories in Terrah about how two their best warriors, the stoneguards, defended the town for ten days and ten nights against the elemental armies that were attacking Exandria. If there is some truth in those stories, it might suggest that the settlement that would become Terrah was present when the Gau Drashari still existed.

References

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