Eldryn was born far from the Great Tree, in a smaller woodland settlement where the old pilgrim traditions had begun to fade into ordinary life. His father — younger brother to Ellcrys’ father — still kept many of the old customs, though quietly. Small things mostly: tending trees before sunrise, speaking respectfully to old timber before felling it, carving simple spiral marks beneath roof beams “for luck.”

As a child, Eldryn followed craftsmen more eagerly than hunters.

While others chased deer trails or dreamed of carrying spear and shield, Eldryn lingered near workshops and timber stacks, fascinated by how raw trunks became halls, bridges, carts, and homes. He would spend hours watching older builders work joinery by lanternlight, asking too many questions and returning home with pockets full of wood shavings and bent nails.

The red hair earned him endless comparisons to Ellcrys long before they properly met.

At first this annoyed him greatly.

Wherever travelers passed through, they would laugh softly and say:

“Another one of that line, eh?”

Or:

“Careful. Those red-haired grovefolk always end up building something.”

Yet over time the stories began to matter to him.

He heard of Tremen.
Of the Great Tree.

Most of all, he heard of Ellcrys.

Not as a warrior or lord, but as someone who helped shape a place where people wished to remain.

That stayed with him.

So when he finally came of age, Eldryn packed what little he owned:
a travel axe,
a carving knife inherited from his father,
and a small bundle of cedar saplings wrapped in cloth.

The journey to Tremen took many weeks.

The old stories say he first arrived near dusk, exhausted from the road, and stood silently for a long while beneath the canopy of the Great Tree while lanterns flickered between the buildings.

Then, after all that distance, he supposedly said only:

“So the stories were true after all.”

Now Eldryn walks the same paths his older cousin once did:
learning timbercraft,
repairing walls and roofs,
helping shape the growing village,
and slowly earning his own place beneath the branches of Tremen 🌿