Drasil
In the northernmost reaches of the World Torn Apart and in the center of a black water pond that ripples not when touched and infests the minds of those who sleep near it with nightmarish divinations is the new outpost of Ka’Rum. There, with its ramshackle tents, rules the il-Sarrum Drasil, Doyen of Dreams & Legacies.
Drasil is, as her name suggests, a Stygian Serpent — a member of an order of secretive sages in Tarnak whose experiments fusing Akaran knowledge with Torn mystery illuminates for them in the darkness of the world every secret there is to find. Drasil is a Doyen, meaning she herself leads ten more serpents in their pursuit for wisdom, and all those led by Drasil are scavengers too, unique amongst the order. Though loyal to the council, on which sits her leader Samua, Doyen of Thoughts, Drasil carries about her the hushed whispers of many perplexing truths, and she understands the hidden values of the various rumors, stories, and fables scavengers bring to her outpost.
Drasil is named the Doyens of Dreams and Legacies for the scrolls she has created that detail within them all the aforementioned stories gathered across Torn. Many of these are gathered from the nightmare-visions inspired in her by the black pond. As you sleep in Ka’Rum, those abyssal waters infest your dreams. Flickering nightmares of your twisted loved ones made hateful and wicked will prophesize cruel ends to torment you from dusk to dawn. From these has Drasil created codices of would-be dooms that could slither from out the Sea of Myst and end all life as we know it.
Her title is granted not just for this. Too has Drasil mastered the language of the Tornbloods and passed their trial, becoming an honorary Tornblood herself in all but appearance. This connection is what made her the council’s ultimate choice for Ka’rum’s il-Sarrum, as Tornblood Rings often descend from their islands to trade their Prismatic Verses for Drasil’s Tarnak-provided resources.
Her serpent, a Bataash Hangman called Scribe, was hatched and raised here in Ka’Rum. All Stygian Serpents rear their namesakes for various occult reasons, and this one represents to Drasil her ability to suss truth from the imperceptible so that it may be recorded for the future ceremony. The serpent has been trained to use its unique and non-apparent warped anatomy to sense with its flickering, holographic tongue the subtle phenomena happening around his master. Scribe knows when an item has been irradiated with shardstones or not when it is cursed, and when the hyper-dimensional is at work.
Trained as he is to illuminate the sublime, Scribe wanders often from out the darkness of Drasil’s tent to sometimes spy on other scavengers. There, if they see and talk to Scribe, they are often surprised to find that Drasil can use shardscience to speak through the snake and see what it sees. In this way does Drasil consort with others when busy with her own devices, and is how the scavengers, at least at first, are like to have their first meeting with her.
That lamp by Drasil’s leg is no lamp at all. Ka’Rum’s tents offer little in the way of privacy, and so this shardcraft makes them into personal voids. They were commissioned by the Council of Jade and Progress. Every outpost tent has one at its center, and when activated they project a shell of darkness and silence, gifting peace to those within.
Learn more about Drasil in our 2022 Kickstarter, Torn & Beyond.
