Installment 2

Slodhi were useful because chaos cities were—well—chaotic.  They always changed.  One day Master Daven’s forge might be found on Seventh Street.  The next day it might not.  Things moved in a chaos city.  Shrubs went for walks when no one was looking.  Narrow avenues, upon a sudden change of heart, grew sullen and became dark alleyways.  Buildings shifted.  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs might appear one day as a building formed in the Rodello(4) fashion, the next day it might appear in the severe Drychtnothian(5) High Katsenu(6) style.  Suffice it to say, in such a place no one ever knew where anything was or where it might be tomorrow.  The citizens of a chaos city were constantly befuddled—that is, except for one particular and curious species—the rare and dedicated slodhi.

This was what made slodhi—and thus, Og—so utterly indispensable.  Slodhi were never confused or lost in chaos cities.  The entire species possessed an unerring sense of direction, a magical talent that flowed through their veins.  This talent was so rare and useful, even long ago, that unscrupulous wizards and their ilk once hunted slodhi for the magic qualities of their blood.  The process of extracting this power was often fatal to the slodhi themselves.  After centuries of being hunted in this way, the species was reduced to the brink of extinction. Only the timely intervention of the first Chaos Lords saved them.

There were few who claimed to understand the minds of Chaos Lords, yet one thing was certain and known about them.  Chaos Lords had always been staunch defenders of freedom, and all of them, with few exceptions, loathed oppression.  It is told (though no one remembers for certain) that upon hearing of the slodhi’s unusual plight, the ancient Chaos Lords came to their defense and offered them sanctuary in the tumultuous chaos cities.  The slodhi, it is said, accepted.  

As soon as their numbers were safely reestablished, it is believed that the slodhi immediately began repaying the Chaos Lords in the only way they knew how—by using their singular talents to guide lost citizens and errant travelers.  It is conjectured that in this way a curious symbiotic bond developed between the slodhi and the Chaos Lords, a bond that had lasted many hundreds of years before the eventual destruction of the cities of the First Age, a bond that now seemed to transcend time and space, for here was Oard, here was Chaos Lord Roland Wrightson, and here, too, was Og.

(4) The Rodello period of Nyandar was an architectural style influenced heavily by the limbs of trees. 

Thus a typical Rodello building would have much raw timber within it,

columns shaped like tree trunks, and roofs drawing upon the canopies of deciduous forests.

(5) Drychtnoth—pronounced: Drackt (as in the word ‘backed’)- noth.

(6) The Katsenu style is one of aggressive architectural themes characterized most by sharp, piercing ornamentation, high pinnacled facades, and narrow towers made popular during the reign of Lord Komaaks Nagutsikatsenu.