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Finnan Oakstride

  • Biographical Information

    A halfling (he/him), of the Oakstrides
    Born DR 1678 (72 years old)
    Member of the Chasm Explorers

    Based in Zimkova

Finnan OakstrideFinnan Oakstride is a halfling storyteller, a wanderer, and a collector of tales.

Finnan was born on the road outside Telham, and spend his childhood on the road, like many halflings. His parents were not merchants, or traders. Instead, they told tales, sang songs, and did some juggling and acrobatics, traveling with a group about about 10 other halflings in three small wagons, sometimes trading them for a riverboat. They moved around, usually drifting among the small towns along the Teft and Volta, sometimes as far east as coastal Vostok, occasionally as far northwest as Breva. In most small towns, they could at least get a good night’s dinner for their time, and sometimes a place to sleep, if there was space – but when there wasn’t, the wagons sufficed.

It was a happy childhood, and Finnan loved the wonder of it. He learned to sing, and play (the fiddle was his usual performance; a small clay flute was his personal favorite), and even how to weave a touch of illusion magic into his stories, for even from a young age his voice had power. But what he actually loved to do more than anything was listen to the people in each small village. He started writing down songs, collecting the melodies of the folk tunes people sang at work, or in prayer, or for entertain in the long winters.

As he grew into his young adulthood, he kept pushing to go to smaller and smaller places, the more isolated, the better. For it was in the isolated tiny villages in the hills where he found people who still sung old songs in an ancient language and told tales of the kestavo. Of course, these places rarely could manage to feed the full group, and even if they did, Finnan knew they couldn’t really afford to. The family humored him, but always drifted back towards the coast, towards Tollen and Telham, and the smaller market towns dotting the lower reaches of the great rivers.

In DR 1706, during the golden age of Cece I, when Finnan was 28, he amicably parted ways with his family and headed into the highland woods, on the eastern slopes of the Sentinels. Over the next 18 years, he wandered widely, traveling through Zimkova, Breva, Ardlas, and the Lavnoch Plateau; exploring inland Vostok and the upper Volta; crossing the Sentinels via Nidzahar and traveling among the Deno’qai in the Highveil Forest; and even journeying to the high peaks and traveling among the Stoneborn in the Sentinels. During this time, he grew stronger, and learned how to shape arcane energy with his stories. But he always loved most the highland forests of Breva and Zimkova, and eventually found his way back to this part of the world.

In DR 1724, when Finnan was 46, he found himself spending more and more time among the Zimkovans, beginning to systematically gather their stories and songs and legends. Soon after, he met Justas Rhostrin, a local priest of the Kestavo, and for the past five years he has largely traveled with Justas, gathering songs and stories and legends.