Name: Rashall Firemane Gender: Male Age: Stallion Species: Pegasus Physique: muscular, medium built pegasus Occupation: Keeper of the Shadowed Forest, Rashall looks over and guards those that make their home in the Shadowed Forest. A great majority of those that live in the Shadowed Forest are from outside of Equestria and do not leave the Forest. It is rumored amongst the inhabitants that Rashall is also the last of the fabled Eldar High Lords, though this is yet to be proven. In Equestrian lore it states that the Keeper of the Shadowed Realm also doubles as the Guardian of Equestria. This means that Rashall is also the guardian of Equestria, but this has yet to be proven. Character Summary: History – Rashall was born in the Eldar Craft City of Sar-Neith which lies outside of Equestria. Rashall spent much of his time in the city as it was one of the greatest wonders of the world and consider by many to be the Capital city of the Eldar. As a young colt Rashall spent much of his time training in the combat styles of the Eldar, or Paths as they were called amongst his kindred. At this time he made many friends and not all of them were ponies. Parents – Rashall's parents were none other than Spectral Star and Moondusk. At the height of the Eldar they were noticed far and wide as the High Lord and Lady of the Eldar, this equivalent of an emperor and empress. Though his parents had much to do they always found a way to spend time with their only son and his friends. Cutie Mark Story – Rashall's cutie mark, though those outside of Equestria see it as an honor mark, was given to him rather early. In fact it was given to him on the day of his birth after being but an hour born, this happened to two others as well a brother and a sister. There is a prophecy that dictates that one the same hour of the same night under the same star three shall be born and thus the Star Born shall come. Flaws – Though Rashall seem calm, collective, and open there is a rage that boils just beneath the surface. This is flaw is contained, but only just and can be set off in many different ways. Rashall tries to harness this rage during battle honing it into a spear of hatred that he can take out on his enemies, though it has escaped in the past. The one thing that keeps this rage from breaking it's containment are the ones that Rashall calls friends and family who always comfort him even in the darkest of hours. Personality - One thing that should be noted about Rashall is that he tends to be a loner and keeps his distance from those that he does not know. He is also very slow to trust others as he continually quotes, "Trust is earned not freely given." Those that do know Rashall though know that he can be friendly and outgoing and does everything in his power to help his friends. It is a rare honor to have Rashall to call any other a member of his family as this means he will constantly be there in any time of need and will always ensure the safety of those he calls family, even though he does the same for his friends. The text below describes the Country of Nekar and it's key features and some of it's history. Note: This is the country where Rashall was born. Far to the west lies a mysterious land known simply as Nekar. Many in Equestria do not know what this name means save only a few merchants that actually come from those lands, they say it means The Ancient Lands or lands of the Ones that Came Before. Other than the name only snipbits have been told by traveling merchants about what lies in those lands. Scholars all over Equestria know about Nekar from ancient tomes left behind by the princesses mother and father. These tomes only hint at what lies beyond the so called Veil and much of it seems mysterious. History- Tomes describing Nekar say that it as beautiful and lush, but dangerous as well. The truth is that Nekar is actually detached from Equestria via the Guarded Mountains far to the West a few miles past Sweet Apple Acres. This small z shaped part of the Mountain chain is located in the Shadowed Forest which is a forested region at the tail end of the mountains. The inhabitants-There had always been several inhabitants of Nekar other than ponies. There were the griffins whom roosted in the both the Guarded mountains and the Grand Mountains in the northern region of Nekar. Some of the most pristine Griffins made their homes in the fabled Warded Mountains further to the west. There were also dragons in Nekar, but of a more intelligent mind than their kin in Equestria. Many dragons in Nekar established themselves with one of the four main kingdoms of Nekar and helped them whenever they could. There was also another race that called Nekar home, the wolves, not to be associated with their four legged cousins these wolves are bipedal in nature much like the diamond dogs of Equestria but far more noble and caring. Founding-Years ago a group containing ponies, wolves, and dragons marched from their separate tribes to form the Eldar. At the time the land did not have a name until that is the Eldar came into being. They named their country Nekar, which meant Land of the Ancestors as they believed that their predecessors had come from Nekar many years ago. During it's founding many different sub kingdoms where formed one was the Empire of the Gilded Star. The Empire set up in the central part of Nekar on an island in the center of Great Star Lake, thus the Imperial capital of Nevermore was founded. A band of ponies and wolves broke off from the Empire and settled the frigid Northlands, these ponies and wolves soon called themselves the Icelanders. Their capital was the glacial city of Frostwall, the Icelanders became an independent kingdom after the founding of Frostwall. Others of the Empire went south in search of detachment from Imperial rule, thus the kingdom of Dune was founded. The inhabitants of Dune created the capital of Semmar, a desert fortress hidden by the shifting sands that only those raised in Dune know the ways in and out of the city. The Eldar were not without their capital, though it was not the chosen capital it. Sar-Neith, literally meaning Starry Night in the Eldar tongue, was built into the famed Warded Mountains far to the west. This craft city of the Eldar was beautiful by all standards, many other craft cities dot the landscape of Nekar but their locations are lost with time. Flight of the Council-Peace ruled the intervening years, until however nine council members of the Empire sought to take all land in Nekar. The council waged a continued war against the Eldar, but they lost every single battle. The Empire had never had to face the Eldar in battle and thus did not know how to counter the Eldar's lighting fast attacks. The soldiers of the Empire quickly lost ground from the Eldar attacks, until that is the council approved the making of titans. The titans were made in a place simply known as the titan mountains which were deep within Eldar territory, but this was the only place that the spiritual essence of the earth could be collected for forming a titan. The Eldar however saw this move and sent a small detachment with a pony named Spectral Star, along with a secondary unit under the leadership of Moondusk. These two Pegasus ponies, Spectral was an Autarch at the time while Moondusk was an exarch of the Shrieking Winds temple of the Swooping Hawks, coordinated their efforts to containing the now deemed renegade imperial troops into a small valley. The tactic worked and held the imperial troops until word reached them from the Empire that the Emperor himself would take absolute control of his Empire. With this the council was broken and the council members fled, one in each direction. There was one however that Spectral Blue wanted trailed, the ninth member known simply as the Agomare ran towards the northern portion of the foundling country of Equestria. The Twilight Years-The other council members faded into the abyss after countless battles never daring to attack a now Unified Empire and Eldar force. Both kingdoms had forged an alliance with one another, but the Emperor of the Empire wanted there to be a main definitive leader of the Eldar so that what happened to the Empire would not happen to the Eldar. Unanounced to all the two heros of Titan Ridge had fallen in love and together anounced that they would lead the Eldar if no others would. The others did not oppose this as they knew that both Spectal Star and Moondusk were capable to lead as any other. Moondusk eventually gave birth to a son on a night when the moon was an eerie spectral blue and a similarly colored star was seen its bow. Thus Rashall Firemane came into the world along with two others at the same time, but elsewhere in Nekar. The other two were brother and sister their names where Fire Skies and Void Shark, the interesting thing is that prophecy dictates that three shall be born under the same star on the same day at the same hour and thus the star born shall come into the world. It would be a few years before the three would meet, but in the mean time a Twilight like time period began for all those in Nekar. The Guardians- The Guardians came into existence when it was seen that the council members would reappear every so often and attack a different portion of Nekar. All of the Guardians were given the task of protecting those within their guardianship which could range for several hundred miles. To compensate for this those towns and villages in a guardianship would contain small ready forces, usually no more than three to five squads. These small squads would rapidly deploy to the area under attack, most often than not the squads would be formed from civilians and would repel the enemy forces long enough for a main force to arrive. The Guardians were mainly all dragons, the one area that did not have a guardian was that of Equestria. The Guardian of Equestria remained unknown for many years, even to this very day the Guardian is a myth or legend in Equestrian lore. Eventually the Empire also caught on, but instead of Guardians they created chapters of warriors that would deploy to different sectors of the Empire. Both Guardians and these Imperial Chapters fought alongside each other in more than one conflict and both came to trust the other. Each kingdom also had its own army there were the Cadian shock troopers from the kingdom of Cadia, the Valhallan Ice Raiders from Frostwall, and many more. Together there was almost nothing that could stand against them on the ground that is. The Imperial and Eldar Air Fleets- Both the Eldar and the Imperium understood that control of the air was critical, with no vast expanses of water a naval fleet of a different sorts was needed. Thus the Air Fleets were born, these fleets consisted of cloudships made by binding architecture and clouds with a spirit complex of nature. This basically meant you had a flying boat, the difference however was that the spirits needed to be maintained and payed attention to constantly. In this way the Spirit Seers were created, the spirit seers main job was to sooth the spirits of the air vessels. The first fleet of the Eldar saw action against a rival enemy sky fleet in what became known as the Battle of the Thunders Voice. The battle took less than four hours ending in an Eldar victory, but at a steep cost nearly all the Eldar vessels had either sustained heavy damage or had been lost in combat. The tactics for both the Eldar and the Imperium continued until a combined Eldar first fleet and an Impirial Second Fleet came in contact with a heavy raider fleet near Dune. The battle raged for hours, but thanks to a tag team effort between newly promoted Fleet Captain Ekan and the Imperial Second Fleet Admiral Dust Wind the battle was won with minimal loss to either the Imperial or Eldar Fleets. The Shadowed War- The famed Shadowed War took place in a land that had been declared neutral in all outside affairs since its creation, Equestria. Equestria was set up to be a peaceful land that others could go to to get away from the wars that almost constantly took place in Nekar. It had been a few years since the councils flight, but the Agomare had started to set up a plan to take over Equestria. At the time Equestria still did not have a guardian so Moondusk and a contingent of Eldar and Imperial units made for the end of the Guarded mountains where she would intercept the Agomares forces. The war wore on for months with no end in sight, finaly in a last act of desperation Moondusk sacrificed herself in order to save Equestria from the Agomares forces. This was a terrible blow to the Eldar forces, but there was one who was effected by this blow most of all Moondusk's son Rashall. The Fall- After a defeat at was now becoming known as the Shadowed Forest, the Agomare marched upon both the Eldar and the Imperium. The following battles proved crushing defeats for both the Eldar and the Imperium. Many of the Eldar started to flee their cities to take refuge elsewhere including Equestria, the last known Eldar city still standing was Sar-Neith. One dark night an enemy force marched upon the city, but somehow was found out the defenses of the city were quickly put up. Sadly it was not enough and the city still fell, but not without large forces of Imperial and Eldar military units escaping into the mists of Eastern Nekar. During the attack Spectral Star was seen fighting the Agomare head to head, sadly though he did not survive the encounter. However there was one that did survive the attack, Rashall who was on the fringes of the city camping out with the filly Fire Skies who's nickname was Nova and the colt Void Shark who's nickname was Akula. The trio had met up in a class and had known that they were different from all of the others in Nekar. Together the trio managed to escape along with the wolf known as Anubis who was part of the Dragon Guard at the time. The Dragon Guard were the 1st company of Sar-Neith's war host and thus were the protecters of the High Lord and the High Lady and their son. These four managed to escape to an Imperial encampment far to the south, the four of them told the Lord General there what had befallen Sar-Neith. Quickly and quitly resistance movements were formed all over Nekar to deny the Agomare complete rulership over Nekar, but the key was for the Agomare not to know that Rashall, Akula, and Nova had survived. The trio split up with Rashall heading to the eastern area of Nekar and Akula along with Nova staying in the southern areas along with Anubis. The Guardian of Equestria- Rashall eventually found himself in the Shadowed Woods and thus in Equestria itself. He enjoyed the land, but knew that even here disaster could not be avoided. Rashall saw as Nightmare moon returned and then watched as Discord as well came back, but never once did he intervene. Rashall had come to realize that he had been destined all along to become the Guardian of Equestria, he currently resides in the Shadowed Forest his home is located in what is known as Gaia's Grove. Rashall tends to all those that have come to call the Shadowed Forest home as many of the inhabitants are refugees that have fled from Nekar both Imperial and Eldar alike. Many in the Shadowed Forest know Rashall well since he is caring and devoted to protecting those under the boughs of the Shadowed Forest. There are however legends that state that there is no "Guardian of Equestria," but that the one that protects Equestria is one of the fabled Archons. The Archons- The Archons are normal ponies, wolves, dragons, and even griffins that are chosen to be one of five influential beings. There are five different Archons but only four are known they are, The Archon of Justice, The Archon of Redemption, The Archon of Hatred, and the Archon of Life. The fifth and most unknown one of their number is the Archon of Light who is rumored to only show himself when hope itself seems lost. The fifth Archon also goes by the title of Nova King this status in itself is one that can only be given to those that have the blood of the Eldar flowing through them. Those that are chosen to be one of the Archons will not know until something forces them to call upon a power beyond reckoning and that power rests in ones soul.
