Sir,

This text was found on the corpse of a tiefling near the Mortuary, in Sigil. The author, Elenora the Pure, was known as a Centaur Druid from the prime world called Toril. This paper, from the bits we managed to get back, is a letter to a man so-called "King Volcano", living on the Inner Plane of fire.

Your Servant,
Yselda Kee Palion, of the Fated

[...]

I also went to this plane called Ysgard, to discover those I thought were only our planar brothers, and stayed with them a year, in a tribe called "Looreni", to study their organization.

The organization of the Bariaur society, first of all, is not centered, as most of the humanoids' society, on a gender. The bariaurs consider that as both male and female have a role in the Tribe, they are equal. I've been therefore welcome, with no difficulty by 'my' tribe, and they had the decency (some others did not!) to consider me as equal to them. I had the name "Kil'lera", i.e. the fast.

The Loorenians are a big tribe of 52 members: 20 males, 22 females, and 10 young. Most of them are the equivalent of our rangers, or fighters and some of them, particularly the females, have some magical healing abilities, or use petty magic for common life. The only members of the tribe who are really magically capable are the Druidess Lissandra and her Apprentice Kloer the Small.

The bariaurs most of the time wear clothes only on their human part; with quite good taste, and with a complex code showing their rank or role in the tribe, or their achievement. They sometimes wear a piece of wool or a fur on their goat part. They usually wear quite a lot of jewelry, which shows, like their clothing or equipment, their achievement.

I won't talk here about the famous clubs they use in their epic combats with the giants, but I'd rather describe of some signs that can be useful to you the next time you'll meet a Bariaur.

First of all, look at his neck. If he is wearing gold or silver, or any kind of metal, it means that the Bariaur has traveled in the planes, because in their home plane, they don't often dig mines, and they only get such wealth during a wanderlust.

Next, look at his hair, because the bariaurs have wear long hair as a sign of their strength. Each time a Bariaur loose a competition, he gives his winner some hair from his woolly head. This custom is not valid for females. Look also at the quality of the dressing of the hair, and particularly look at the colors they wear. It shows the status of the 'man'. Be extremely careful with those who wear black in their hair, because they are banned from their tribes, and give full confidence to the pure, who are wearing white or blue, 'cause they are priests or druids. The red belongs to great fighters, the green to bards. Some more complicated signs like or feathers in their hair can show a certain status. For example, if a Bariaur female has got 3 rings in her hair, she is for sure married; if she is wearing a feather, her heart is free. But if she wears 2 feathers, she must be a widow.

You can, King, contemplate also the belt of a Bariaur. Around his waist are the items he brought back from his wanderlust. Some of them are common, like weapons, some of them are extremely rare, and I will never forget this Bariaur who had at his belt a bag of pearls from the Castle of Deep Blue, in the Elemental plane of water. (I think you don't ignore the value of these pearls as spell components). Don't offend those who are wearing long hair around their waist, as a belt, because they are giants' hair.

[...]

Then, look at the weapons a Bariaur carries. His icon, his javelin, and his shield. As you know, we have seen lots of battlefields, during your career, but I've never seen fighters like a Bariaur tribe when in danger. Believe me, even the charge of the knights we've seen while on this Mission in the North for Elminster (remember, where we landed in the realm of this Vampire called Strahd?), is nothing if compared to the charge of a Bariaur tribe in front of a group of giants.

Once, in the plain of Palarir, in the 2nd layer of Ysgard, one of the Rangers the chief had sent forward came back telling there was a group of 3 giants coming ahead. The chief, a fighter called Oliphan, decided to send 30 members if the tribe, of which were 4 young and 7 females, to the fight. Lissandra blessed their weapons, and started to create enchantments and spells to protect them from death and harming. Definitely decided to help my new family, I went with them 3 miles ahead, and we met a group of giants of Ysgard.

These giants has nothing in common with those if the prime. They are tougher. The Bariaurs, not disturbed at all, charged directly, launching first their javelin, while running, and after going in melee with clubs and swords, plus shield. In 15 minutes, the combat was over, we had lost 2 members of our hunt, and the 3 giants were dead.

The party then came back to the rest of the tribe, bringing back the dead. The funeral ceremony took place during the night. We stayed in the plain, in a circle, and the bards, the elders and the chief told the virtues and achievement of the dead. We sang, we laughed, we danced, and no one was crying, or seemed to be sad. In the morning, they buried them, and we went away.

I asked Lissandra what would happened to the souls of the dead, and she told me that soon, bariaurs would be born, giving the souls a new place in the tribe. I was also wondering what was happening to old bariaurs, because I had never seen in the tribe old bariaurs, i.e. with the human part older than a 50 years old man. Lissandra told me that when a Bariaur feels that his time was over, he goes to meet his fate against the giants, in the north, for his last wanderlust. It's the most heroic way to die for a Bariaur, male or female. She told me that the legend said that those who had a good life were taken by the gods of Ysgard and brought to their infinite plain, where they were waiting for the great fight against the giants, at the end of the multiverse. (They call it Ragnear'rak, a kind of Ragnarok, legend of the Norse I've been talking about in my previous letters).

One month later, at an approximate rate of 8 hours per day of walk, we arrived in a part of Ysgard I had never heard about. Oliphan told me that I had to stay still and stay in the middle of their group, because they were going for a meeting with some of the tribes of Ysgard. We went on and arrived in one of the most wonderful valley I had ever seen. Even your realm on Earth looks like, forgive me, a backgarden in front of the magnificence of this place.

I was surrounded by cliffs thousands of miles high, of white granite, and the reflection of the sunlight on this stone was making of this place a miracle. The valley itself was a region of woodlands and hills, and apart of the bariaurs there was no other intelligent being. Some animals were wandering around, probably petitioners on the plane. They did not seem to be disturbed with our presence. "Some of the tribes" is a weak expression to describe more than 200 Bariaur tribes, which makes more than 9000 bariaurs. In this place, we looked like a small army ready for a war.

I thought that they were gathering for an important and serious reason, like a war or a religious ceremony, but this meeting had nothing to do with it. I went, with Lissandra and her apprentice, to meet the druids of the other tribes, to form the council, which chooses the druid who will take the staff and responsibility of ArchDruid of the Octaline Forest, for the next year. The one who takes the staff from the hands of his predecessor, usually a wise and powerful druid, is constantly in contact with the essence of the Layer, and has (I've been told) an incredible power.

Except the council, nothing seemed to be serious here. While the druids were gathering, all the other bariaurs were just having fun, were meeting, (and mating), and were making exchanges of presents between tribes. They were also organizing games, races, joust, weddings, parties... Kloer, who was my guide while her master was participating to the council, told me that this annual event was an excuse to meet old friends, make new ones, meet a mate, and participate in the games, and contests.