Ornst Teller

Playwright, mayor, and the living pulse of Koh’Las, Ornst Teller is both leader and dreamer. He has shaped the town into a living stage, every street corner another act in his endless performance. Yet behind his broad smiles and booming laughter is a man stretched thin, caught between revelry and the weight of always being light of his town.   He became famed as a playwright who could organize a show with whatever a town provided. In his youth he went from Turin to Skygarde to Retch, all across the mainland to seek fame and stardom. Now that he is older, his shimmer has dulled. As he travelled the Ivorian Heathlands, he came across the hamlet of Koh’Las, a dwindling Terra Aelfe community that had taken on hard times.   Ornst became friends with a Hiskovan Monk named Erdit Bouldran as the tenats of belief between the Dwarven God of Material and the elven god of Stone and Balance had a lot of overlap in worship. Ornst took time to rest and recover from the burnout he put on himself and Erdit taught him the calming ways of Stablos while worshipping at the Zetel.   With good intention and agreed upon goals, Ornst pitched his idea of a festival circuit, just like how he used to do but instead of constantly being somewhere new, he would run his shows here in Koh’Las, give the town some new life while bringing new members of the community to benefit the terra elves. Erdit agreed to allow Ornst to give it his best.   The Playwright Ornst Teller now runs a nearly yearlong festival circuit in Koh’Las, it is always a busy time in this town. There is a thriving musical and performing arts culture, with regular concerts and shows,   He is a thin dwarf with ink-stained fingers and a voice trained to carry over tavern halls, Ornst Teller is as much performer as politician. Once famed across the Heathlands for his plays, he now serves as mayor of Koh’Las, though he insists the true stage is still where his heart lies. His pub, The Ballad’s End, rests beside a cemetery, a quiet place avoided by most, but Ornst retires away here most evenings to escape the constant work of running to town.   His face is clean shaven to allow him to don any wig or beard to portray whatever character his patrons require, it only takes him one read to memorize his lines in case he needs to fill in, as they say “The Show must go on”.   Ornst’s faith lies with Gulnsten Ironfoot, the Dwarven God of Materials, and he shares the god’s quiet sympathy for the disrupted terra elves. Only recently has the Order of the Red Blade made their presence known within his town walls but so many Wyndan took to their beliefs that before he knew it, the very people who started this villge were being targeted by the Dharan House of Fire. Ornst himself has been threatened by this branch of the Church of Dhara for his beliefs in Gulnsten.   Erdit sees his old friends inaction as cowardice. the Hiskovan of Stablos already grew irritated when poets started using the old burial mound as a venue to read their amateur writings atop the hill. Erdit’s people were displaced from their own home and forced to commit to the church of flame or else they were taken away by verdict of the Grand Pontiff of the Church of Dhara.   Erdit and Ornst’s friendship truly ended when the mayor did not act against the Order of the Red Blade when the Zetel of Stablos, the very building Erdit showed Ornst balance, was destroyed in a mysterious fire.   Koh’Las has no town guard and if the towsfolk did not join the Red Blade, they fled the city. Even tourists and festival goers took a second thought to risk going to the town. As Ornst always says, “The Show must go on” so even with these disruptions, he continued his work, he kept writing, he kept prepping and ordering costumes. His love for his craft may have cost him a dear friend but the dwarf just keeps working, to what end, it is hard to say.   The stage is set as the Tenth Eastern Moot nears, his town is busier than ever with entire towns migrating up to Blackstock to watch the challenge that determines their next Eastking or Queen.   The playwright’s life has become tangled in darker dramas than he ever penned—actors gone missing, rumours of war, and an old friend attacking the Red Priests in open daylight. The final play of the season, a grand retelling of the Ninth Eastern Moot, is in jeopardy. For Ornst, the performance is more than entertainment—it is the soul of the town itself. And failure, he fears, will be more than just a poor review.