Stone family

Fan art of the Stone Family, by Kileigh Gallagher.

The Stone family is one of three ancient clans, along with the Clay family and Dust family, who descend from champions of The Matron of Ravens. The Stone family was tasked to create and protect the Menagerie.

Known Members

Unlike the Clays, who are all firbolgs, and the dwarven Dusts, the Stones seem to include all races, perhaps indicating that it is a family by adoption rather than birth.

Eremis Stone

Eremis is an elf who when found petrified by the party was dressed in very pious robes and wearing a symbol of Avandra around his neck. He was one of the Keepers of the Circle.

Mecatoth Stone

Mecatoth is a dragonborn who when found was wearing a heavy suit of armor and carrying a shield.

Darrah Stone

Darrah is an older human woman in her seventies, dressed in clerical robes.

Gaima Stone

Gaima Stone is partner to Darrah, and the head of the Guardian of the Shrine. She is a massive middle aged goliath half-giant with hair completely shorn, and beautiful tattoos of curling vines that come up from underneath the neck and wrap around and frame the eyes and go up on top and spiral to the back of the head. She has heavy fur around her collar, a sleeveless vest that drags to the ground, thick bracers, and a staff.

History

“

"[The Wildmother] told Stone that he should take the limbs of this hero, and walk the plains until he found an oasis and a red- and gold-veined cave, and that beasts would gather there, that he would feed the limbs of this hero to the beasts that would water there, and upon that site would be a Menagerie with creatures that would be a gift to the Changebringer from the Wildmother, to remind her that nature is infinite."

”

– 

Caduceus's story

[!h]

The Stone family are descended from one of the three champions of The Matron of Ravens. Millenia ago, following the death of a hero of a then-recent conflict, the three champions debated what to do with the body since it could not be maintained within a city for unknown reasons. The Matron of Ravens told them to seek instruction from The Wildmother, saying she had taken what was hers already, and that she had no domain over the body that remained. The Wildmother instructed Stone to take the limbs of the hero to an oasis and create a Menagerie as a gift to The Changebringer, where he would feed the limbs to the beasts there. The other two champions took parts of the body to create burial locations as gifts for The Allhammer and The Archeart.

The descendants of these heroes protect and care for their sacred locations to this day, occasionally making pilgrimages to the other families when the need is dire. All three families assist the families of those who have died with funeral rites, each burying the bodies in their own way.

The Stone family's ritual for the final disposition of the dead includes a series of rites spoken over the body, which is prepared with salts and minerals that begin the process of decomposition. A sign or vision from The Changebringer or The Wildmother indicates to which beasts the body should be given, and the animals then consume it, eventually returning it to the earth.

Trivia

• Fjord was given the last name "Stone" at the Driftwood Asylum orphanage to remind him that he was abandoned there. Though others in the Nein insisted that there must be significant, Fjord maintained there was no relation. Travis Willingham and Taliesin Jaffe developed Fjord's name and the story of the three families independently of one another and without guidance from Matthew Mercer.
• The Cobalt Soul and others were aware of the Stone family before Beauregard Lionett encountered them. Details of the Stone family, along with the Clay and Dust families, are in a chapter entitled, "Relation and Communication Between Prime Deities" in Delando's Compendium of Pantheon and Hierarchy.

References

Art: