The Green Man

The Green Man is a wandering warrior whose tale is as old as time. It is said that he rides across the Mortal Realm, making peace between man and spirit as he goes.

Appearance
The Green Man is described with only slight differences. His skin is always green, and his hair and beard grown long and curled. Sometimes it is described as grass or vines, and sometimes it is merely green hair. He is at times referred to as riding a horse not unlike himself, but often there is no mention of said horse. He is almost always described as wearing armor or some other identifier proclaiming him as a warrior, but is never described with a weapon. Instead, he wields a single branch of the Ylieks bush.

Biography
The earliest recorded sighting of The Green Man was by Clan Darachlas, in the olden days when all Laochran lived under the boughs of The Great Oak. The clan had abandoned their village to war on Clan Balaghlas, and when they returned found their home beset by foreign spirits. Through both summer and fall the clan beat back these spirits, and not a one in the village was fully rested for fear of being taken in their sleep. It was near the end of autumn that The Green Man rode through the village. He approached the yearl, and spoke that should he but plant a seed The Green Man had brought with him, then the spirits would leave the clan be. Desperation beat out the yearl's doubts, and so he agreed. After one night in the village, where he slept on the ground by his horse, The Green Man rode out in the early hours of morning, and was not seen for many cycles. The clan was no longer beset by spirits, and the seed that they had planted grew quickly to be a large oaken tree.

Seven winters later, the old yearl had died, and been replaced by another. The new yearl was young and headstrong, and would not listen when the elders told him to leave the tree be. The clan had grown in peacetime, and new homes needed to be built to house all the families. When none of the workers would cut the tree, the yearl picked up an axe and sent it crashing to the ground by his own hand. But in the days to follow, no crops would grow, and prey grew sparse. A great famine wrought the land in its clutches, and all the young died in their cribs, their thin and weary parents unable to save their kin. It was then that The Green Man returned, and asked the yearl why he had cut the tree. The yearl answered, truthfully, that he did not think any harm would come of it. The Green Man could not undo what the young yearl had done, and so he left. Through Lyra's doing, the land would eventually return to a more lush state, and today the area is known as The Boglands.