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"The Legend of Tiroch" is still sung by the bladesingers of the Banoc Forest. He was the most powerful Sylvan ranger to ever walk the earth, with a vendetta against the undead that spanned centuries.
Alkeveron Tiroch was the son of a bladesinger and a druidess of Barith, born barely a century before the Shaping Wars. He studied under both his father and his mother, achieving a unique harmony with his weapons and his environment. When the Artifact Wars began, no one could have foreseen how the world would change, and how it would be shaped by the various conflicts. As each faction raced to unearth the artifact or relic that would make it supreme over the others, many people and even whole nations were drawn into the battles and wars without ever knowing the reason. The elemental faction, a group of powerful elementalists bound together in common purpose, were led by The One. The One had once been a human sorceror, and through his knowledge of the arcane arts, he removed his soul from his body, achieving undeath. The One was driven, seeking to rule the entire world in the name of peace and harmony. He sought to end war once and for all by elininating any threat to his iron domination. Though his goals might have been lofty and ideal, his methods were ruthless -- and one innocent bystander was Alkeveron Tiroch's bethrothed. Alkeveron and his family strove to protect the ancient rainforests of the Banoc Empire, working against the elementalists, the var gauf, and even the demons of Argunas. As each side turned the world over searching for their respective items, and double agents ferried the items back and forth, no region was safe from intrusion and 'incidental' devestation. Alkeveron's bethrothed, Miedridya Verashke, was a innocent bystander caught in a battle between an elemental search party and a group of demons running with some artifact The One craved. When the Tiroch family learned of the death, they were heartbroken -- and then they were enraged. His mother and father joined him as he began a personal crusade against The One. From demons, Alkeveron could expect death and destruction, callusness and cruelty. The Tirochs could not stomach the peace and humanity that The One preached, yet could not abide by. Their hatred would eventually cause the downfall of the elementalists, and place them in a new faction -- that of Vengeance. To achieve their ends, they sought items and artifacts of their own to use against The One and his minions, and unintentionally added to the chaos of the wars. Alkeveron's mother was named Denaeledath, and she used a long and deadly longbow named Svedledath -- meaning 'Winter's Breath' in the druidic tongue of the sylvan elves. While her husband Murovren fought alongside Alkeveron as an advisor and personal body guard, Denaeledath used her considerable druidic talents to begin enchanting and enhancing Svedledath for use against the undead, and The One in particular. Denaeledath travelled over much of Gaeleth, finding hidden pools of magic and druidic power, breathing life and a hatred of the undead into the bow. The yew of the bow slowly became diamond wood. Ordinarily, diamond wood is made over the course of a decade -- when a young arrow wood sapling is lightly sanded, so that its sap just bleeds through. Upon this sap is sprinkled diamond dust, and the tree eventually grows around the diamond dust, incorporating the bits into itself. Performed month after year, for several years, the process yields a tree unlike any other. The arrow wood itself changes because of the abrasions, going from a deep brown to an ultra-deep purple in color. The bits of diamond dust found in every layer of the the tree make it dull tools extraordinarily fast, and so working it is difficult. On the other hand, the diamond bits allow for extraordinary enchantments to be laid upon the wood, and also hold a great deal of life energy. The life that had existed within the dead wood of the bow was slowly coaxed back, and Svedledath grew as a living thing, fashioned by the hand of a sylvan druidess. Naturally occuring silver veins that wrapped themselves around quartz crystals were sculpted by Denaeledath's own elemental power that was not magic, but druidic might. The silver was added to the bow, acting as a bracing, and a housing for prayers of elemental earth she bestowed upon the weapon. When Denaeledath was through, after nearly five years of effort, Svedledath was almost complete. The final step was the addition of bulette gut as string, but Denaeledath died in the attempt. Mourning the loss of wife and mother, the two remaining Tirochs completed the bow, intertwining the bulette gut cord with strands of hair from Denaeledath. The life force within the bow cared not for the passing of its maker; it had but one purpose -- to destroy the undead. In the course of the next year, father and son brought the elementalists to their knees, and eventually faced off against The One. The lich, the ranger, and the bladesinger fought for days, and The One seemed tireless. Alkeveron's father Murovren finally collapsed of exhaustion, and was slain by The One. Enraged, Alkeveron used the living earth to bind his fury into Svedledath, calling upon the druidic powers his mother had once used. Svedledath took the arrow Alkeveron fed it, and breathed life into such as the undead have feared since the beginning of time. The single arrow severed The One's contact with his soul, and seared the undead body with a flow of living energy. The resultant explosion, positive and negative energies colliding and unleashed, leveled the fortress of the Elementalists. Undamaged by the debris that killed Alkeveron, the family bow of Tiroch lay undisturbed for millennia during the Age of Peace that followed. Tiroch's bow is a special purpose longbow +1, designed for use against the undead. The bow radiates strongly of the druidic aura of plants when detect magic is cast upon it. Svedledath has a low intelligence (5-7), and speaks the language of the wielder, encouraging him to kill the undead. It has a weapon ego of 9. The bow has an innate sense of detect undead, but cannot impart this ability to the wielder. Its personality was once described as, "A predatory tree with the vocabulary of a troll and the disposition of a rabid dog." Of important note is the fact that the bow requires an 18/10 Strength to draw -- a tribute to the strength of Denaeledath and the Tiroch family. When an arrow is drawn back in the bow, the diamond wood and silver laces the arrow with positive planar energy -- the very stuff of life. Against the living and dead, the arrow does somewhat more damage than before. Against the undead, infused with negative planar energy, the arrow does considerably more. Regardless of whether the target is living or unliving, the arrow's damage is stepped up by one (i.e. flight arrows do as much as sheaf arrows, and sheaf arrows deal 1d10 points of damage). The step up in caused by changes in the living wood of the arrow, and alterations to the tip by druidic enchantment. The arrow also deals an +1 damage of purely magical energy -- a bleed off effect of the infusion of so much positive planar energy. Against the undead, the damage is three-fold. Thus, a flight arrow fired from Tiroch's bow would deal damage as three sheaf arrows +1 against an undead creature. The energy stored in the arrows it fires is still tied to the bow itself, and every granule of diamond dust in it. The energy enchantment is only effective within 78 yards of the bow. When an energy laden arrow is fired beyond 78 yards, the bow yanks back the energy, consuming the arrow in the process. Thus, a sheaf arrow placed in the weapon and fire off into the distance would burn up and turn to ash the moment it passed beyond 78 yards -- the distance between Denaeledath's body and the bow in the instant of her death. The arrows are only laced with this energy once they are fired; thus, an arrow knocked, and then unfired and stored, will not be enchanted. Magical arrows placed in the bow are similarly laced with positive planar energy; however, when they reach 78 yards distance from the bow, after being laced, they are allowed a save versus magical spells. If the item succeeds, then it continues on with all its energy intact, capable of dealing three times its normal damage, and then some, to the undead -- or just its regular damage and a bit more, to the living.
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