Venlathyr Quenlarue, Lon’Törl

Chief Elder of the Quenlarue (Meadowstar)

At 248 years of age, Venlathyr Quenlarue leads with a hunter’s patience and a priest’s certainty. Chosen by open consensus of the Meadowstar glades, he is the eloquent standard-bearer for those within Clan Meldarin who urge a formal realignment with Celene, Faerie Kingdom of to shield the Gnarley from human logging and creeping lawlessness. His sharpest debates are reserved for Gilathadar Telva; together they frame the clan’s argument between pragmatic compacts with Verbobonc and renewed fealty to the Faerie Kingdom.

Appearance & Bearing

Tall, long-limbed, and sun-browned from the open glades, Venlathyr wears bark-dyed leathers beneath a meadow-green mantle pinned by an oak-and-stag brooch. His hair is copper-bronze, braided with fern thread and white flight-feathers. His eyes are bright green and keen, set in hard, elegant angles that soften only in prayer or song. In council he stands rather than sits, speaking with the cadence of wind through tall grass.

Origins & Rise

• Glade-born: Raised among the Starmead Glade singers and range-masters, Venlathyr learned to read wind and herd-paths before he learned letters.
• Twinning of Callings: Initiated into Ehlenestra’s mysteries as a shrine-warden, later scouting with Yularith and Nolbrael patrols along the Namburil approaches.
• Chosen by Consensus: Elected Lon’Törl after a season of town-hall moots in which he argued—persuasively—that the Gnarley’s survival requires a canopy-wide policy, not piecemeal treaties.

Faith & Magic

• Deity: Ehlenestra (Ehlonna), with reverence to Rillifane Rallathil and Sehanine Moonbow.
• Cleric Domain: Nature (oaths of stewardship, rites of sanctuary).
• Miracles in the Field: Ward-circles of thorns, moonlit benedictions for hunters, speak with animals when negotiating grazing corridors, plant growth to heal damaged copses, moonbeam when words fail.

Arms & Tactics

• Bowcraft: Quenlarue longbow, leaf-fletched; prefers distant warnings and controlled withdrawals to needless bloodshed.
• Ranger Paths: Natural Explorer (forest), Favored Foe (humanoids that trespass under torch and axe).
• Companions: Two trained goshawks for signals; a stag called Star-Runner for long rides between glades and Alaeduril.

Politics & Relationships

Within Clan Meldarin

• Platform: Realign all four Gnarley clans with Celene to gain a single, enforceable canopy law; close sacred corridors to commercial cutting; require bonded day-trade only.
• With Gilathadar Telva, Lon’Törl: Public sparring partners, private professionals. He argues “beauty with duty under one crown”; he counters with enforceable compacts and city leverage. Their debates are legend under the Besh’norin - Oath Oak.
• With Thonás Elaenda, Garad’a’Besh (Binder): Respectful; he presses him to set firmer red lines for Verbobonc and Dyvers. He often uses her pressure to win stronger concessions from human wardens.

Beyond the Clan

• Celene, Faerie Kingdom of: Trusted envoys treat his as the clearest voice for realignment; he reciprocates but insists Celene post wardens, not only words.
• Verbobonc, Viscounty: Skeptical. Welcomes honest wardens and Ranger partners; opposes new roads and large-scale timber contracts.
• Dyvers, Free Lands of: Alarmed. Dyvers’ “efficient” river-logging is, to his, simply faster ruin.
• The Gnarley Rangers & Druids of the Gnarley Forest: Strong ties; shared patrol calendars, healing rites, and sanctuary escorts for freed captives from the Wild Coast.

Current Agenda (Spring 576–579 CY)

1. Canopy Compact: A draft treaty, pre-negotiated with Celene envoys, requiring joint elven patrols and bond-marks for all caravans entering inner trails.
2. Logging Moratorium: Immediate halt on cutting within two days’ march of the Wailing Halls and all ley-adjacent groves; compensatory forage leases offered on the fringe.
3. Nulb Interdiction: Sanctioned ambushes of slaver-chains and torch caravans supplying the Temple’s sympathizers.

Notable Deeds

• The Seven Lanterns Moot: Orchestrated a moonlit assembly where Woodsmen elders, Rangers, and druids pledged to common signals and grafting quotas.
• The Amber Ford Stand: Led a prayer-ward and stalling action that turned back a Dyvers cutting crew without bloodshed—an example he cites in every council debate.

Personality & Voice

• Manner: Candid, collected, relentlessly courteous until pressed—then iron.
• Beliefs: The forest is not a resource; it is a polity. Oaths bind better than blades—but if blades must speak, let them speak from cover and end quickly.
• Signature Lines:
• “A road is a promise; a promise must be kept and kept small.”
• “We do not hate cities; we hate forgetting.”
• “If Celene will stand with us under the rain, let her stand with wardens, not only stars.”

Adventuring Hooks

• The Celene Draft: Venlathyr asks the party to carry sealed articles to an elven envoy in the Dawn Quarter—while Verbobonc agents try to “misplace” the pouch.
• Stag Hunt, Not for Sport: Star-Runner has been wounded by poachers near the Wailing Halls; track the culprits before their torch-trade reaches Nulb.
• Moonlit Court: An ancient way-sanctuary stirs; Venlathyr needs impartial witnesses (the PCs) to adjudicate a territorial claim between Woodsmen and elves before it sparks a cutting feud.

Why he matters at the table

Venlathyr gives you a strong, principled counterweight to city pragmatists. He can sponsor the party, oppose them, or force them to choose: paper treaties in Verbobonc or canopy law under Celene. Either path tangles the heroes with Nulb’s smugglers, the Temple’s agents, and the politics that make every road to Hommlet feel earned.