Saint Jaridan

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Saint Jaridan the Scholar was an exemplar of the path of peace and the first missionary of Dav's Church to the Plains. His tireless service, physical endurance and willingness to learn from other cultures allowed this sainted man to make contact with the devastated Charali and found the first missions in the territory. He was canonized a few years after his untimely death at the age of thirty seven.

Born in 104SC in the barony of Irisum to unknown parentage, Jaridan was taken in by the Church as a child. Raised in a small cloister upon the church grounds in the lands of the Castillius family, the young acolyte grew up among the first years of Dav's reign. His days were passed in prayer, attending to the grounds and the cloister's beehives. He studied canon, scripture and from an early age showed a precocious ability with languages.

Jaridan took his vows when he reached the age of twelve, adopting the traditional rejection of personal belongings and swearing himself to the service of the Church. His years in cloister continued until he was sixteen. His studies broadened into maths as he helped to manage the inflow of money from local tithes and the sale of Irisum honey and mead. At eighteen, he attracted attention from the capitol by writing a series of commentaries on St. Remiel's scriptures.

In Sun Cycle 123, a mere six years after the devastation of the 30 Days War, the young Lithmorran, now an ordained priest, began his trek to the Plains. His superiors instructed him to make diplomatic contact with the clans, but that alone would prove to be difficult. The approach was blocked by the freshly entrenched Merchant Princes. The initial defeat of Dav's forces prompted heightened border and port security, forcing Jaridan to smuggle himself across the stormy Kirulean amid the company of bards and soldiers of fortune.

He trekked across the sub-tropical wine country of Capua in the company of a Charalin tracker in the mercenary employ of the Merchants. Jaridan's honesty, exotic stories and quick grasp of language enabled him to gain the man's friendship. He acquired valuable information on the horsefolk before the tracker parted company. On his own, he was able to slip past Merchant patrols and into the grasslands.

By chance or miracle, he was located by a Charalin patrol. Mystified by the strange man with no horse, the natives took him into their camp. Over the course of the next few years, Jaridan began to incorporate himself into their society and learn their language. Though forbidden by ecclesiastical law to share the scripture in any tongue other than Lithmorran, he was able to put important tenets of the faith into the frame of local mythology. He was also able to document some of the cultural practices and teach them enough Lithmorran to share the word of Dav.

This important groundwork allowed some of the first missions to start once Vavard was brought to heel.

Though reports of his death vary, his actions in life assured him a place among the sainted exemplars of Davism. There are rumors that he is even venerated among the Charali as Jaridan Peacemaker, invoked in mediations and trade dealings.