Winter Magician of Yadar

• Birth: Unknown
• Death: 355 DR
• First Appearance: NA

The story of Jyrik of Yadar begins in the Town of Ordùrag in the Winter of 331 DR. The old wanderer arrived at the Round Fire Inn in Ordùrag, having braved a particularly bad snowstorm with only a woolly goat to carry his provisions. The proprietor set a chair and table near the hearth while his wife grabbed some blankets to warm the old man. Jyrik sat in front of the fire for many hours before he was finally able to speak. He first asked about the state of his goat. The innkeeper’s son explained that the goat had died but that he’d managed to take its crates to the man’s waiting room. This made the old man despair and he refused to eat more. Removing his mittens, the owners and guests gasped to see that his hands were covered in strange lines and symbols, the marks of a magician. He explained that the goat had been his apprentice of many years, recently transformed to weather the storm and carry their belongings. The innkeeper asked why they had gone into the storm and the old man explained that they had hoped to reach the Frozen Lowlands before the storms began. That was two weeks ago. For the better part of a month they had wandered through the snow, winds, and freezing rains looking for shelter. It was luck that they’d found Ordùrag at all. Jyrik explained that his home was overrun with Feyri, and he couldn’t abide their mischief another day. He described watching them disassembling his home, stone by stone, as they left. After an evening of tales about Feyri and other creatures, the old man retired to the prepared room.

That night the storm grew violent, tearing shingles from the roof and collapsing the stables. People dashed about the inn closing shutters and doors that opened and slammed in the dark. Through all of this, the old man slept soundly, unaware or unwilling to admit what was happening around them. In the morning, Jyrik gathered his things and found the inn’s people gathered in the common room, weary and restless from a sleepless night. In fact, there were more people in the inn than there were the night before, for the same problems had occurred throughout the Town of Ordurag and this was where people met when queer things were afoot. Jyrik ate a hot breakfast while the townspeople eyed him, waiting for him to finish. When he was done, the proprietor explained that he had brought ill-magics upon the town and that he needed to continue his travels. Jyrik pulled his coats about himself and hefted his books to his chest. As he left the town he marveled at the damage done. Wagons were dismantled, fences were undone, chimneys had collapsed with their stones ordered in small piles, and everywhere lay pieces of the town in a perfect state of careful disassembly.

The old magician next appeared in Jandir in the Spring of 332 DR, before the Spring Court. A broadsheet detailed how Jyrik had been tied to the mast of a small moored ship in the Jandir harbor for two days while magicians and priests Weaved magics to divine his complicity in the city’s recent vandalism. The news explained that since the magician appeared, the buildings near him were systematically destroyed over the course of several days. There would have been no accounting for the damage if the destruction hadn’t moved to another neighborhood when Jyrik took his books and found another inn. Included in the damaged buildings and property were several homes and businesses, a Lyrasti timepiece heirloom of inestimable value, and an orphanage that had stood for three hundred years. The diviners determined that the orderly demolition was not the work of Feyri at all, but rather snow-formed servitors created by Jyrik’s own misguided magics. The miniature snow-golems had been created to move the magician’s home from one location to another, one stone at a time. The automatons were very simple and could only perform one task, so Jyrik created disassemblers with the thought that he would create assemblers at a later time. As their master, the miniature workers would never leave him for long, always trying to return when the task was done. The magician had created hundreds of the servitors without any means to dismiss them. They had pursed him from his mountain retreat to the shores of the Bay of Nurn, destroying untold property in their path. His pillorying on the harbor ship was meant both to embarrass him and end the march of disruption, for the snow-servants dissolved in the harbor water. For his willful disregard for the property and the safety of others, the Spring Court ordered the magician exiled from Yadar.

Exile

Details of Jyrik’s travels after leaving Yadar are spotty. It appears that he ventured east toward the Kingdom of Golgàra and managed to work his way south into Morēun. From there he continued to Palda, where he was able to catch a merchant vessel to carry him to the North Coast of Teréðor. Disembarking at the City of Oð, Jyrik took residence with a local Circle in exchange for spell transcriptions. In this way, Jyrik was able to provide for his room and board until his death in 355 DR.

Works

• Jyrik’s Ice Walk
• Jyrik’s Rain of Icy Knives (Dragàmyr krēádra Mærū)
• Jyrik’s Savage Spirit
• Jyrik’s Snowy Servants
• Jyrik’s Spear of Ice
• Jyrik’s Storm Shelter