Biography

Druden Elemenis was born in a mountainous region West of the typical metropolises most people think of when they think of elfs. The people known commonly as the “wood elfs” live simple, rural, and occasionally disastrously poor lives. Druden’s family was one of these poor mountain folk, living in a small town close to a mineral-rich mining facility that was the basis of the local economy. 

 

Druden had a tolerable childhood. Though poor, he grew up surrounded by a large extended family, working as a group to keep each other afloat. In this town, most people either turned to working in the mines, selling drugs, or leaving the town entirely. It seemed to Druden that he would eventually join the mining operation like his father, and his father before him. 

 

This was not an appealing prospect. Druden was not the most athletic child and the idea of working all day in a mine displeased him. He decided, at a young age, his path of life would be to leave the town. He would become the first member of his family to be admitted into a university. Knowing that his family would never be able to afford to send him to any college, he worked as hard as possible to earn any scholarship to any university. Though it took years, Druden eventually was able to save up enough to get into a decent school in a decent city far away from his home.

 

Moving away from his family for the first time was difficult, but Druden took it with pride. What wasn’t so easy for him was moving away from the mountains and forests that he was so familiar with. The stone streets of the city were nothing like the dirt roads he was used to - crowded with people, none of whom would ever stop to talk to each other, or even stop to help someone in clear trouble. Even his chosen major of herblore had much less to do with nature than he thought - it was more of the study of individual specimens indoors. His discomfort with the artificial nature of his surroundings is what led him to join the college’s circle of druids.

 

Druidism right away appealed to him. Its emphasis on nature, the earth, and the natural cycle of life reminded him of his hometown forests. Not to mention their emphasis on recreational drug use, classic rock music, and going out into the forest to smoke massive amounts of weed. Yes, though it was a sincere spiritual method of relating to nature and the self, drug use was a hugely important factor to Druden’s decision of what extracurricular to join.

 

The circle welcomed Druden with open arms, and initiated him right away. The archdruid Farnyr took an immediate liking to Druden (though he takes a liking to everyone) and personally taught him the Druidic secrets of nature and magic. Druden learned the secret language of animals, the sacred unity of the four elements, and participated in many sacred dances under the influence of a variety of powerful hallucinogens. Finally, at the end of his initiation, Druden was taught the most sacred and powerful ability of shapeshifting to take the form of your inner animal. Druden focused, centered himself, and changed his body into the animal that represented him the best, the one that would become his Druidic name from that point forward: he turned into a little black and white rat.

 

Druden was immediately reblessed as Rat and was welcomed as a full member of the circle. Rat, as he would henceforth prefer to be called, was pleased with his inner animal. A rat was a tenacious, friendly, and highly social creature that could survive in any environment. It was a good reflection of where he had come from and the life he was living now: a person who could scrounge together the means to survive by any means necessary. Even his large teeth matched his new rat aesthetic.

 

Rat’s studies suffered as he became more and more involved with the workings of his circle. Eventually, on the verge of flunking out as it was, Rat made the choice to drop out and focus full-time on being a circle member. As it turned out, being a full-time circle member meant becoming heavily involved with the circle’s primary mode of fundraising: drug dealing. Rat had no problem with this; by this point he was more than familiar with the circle’s drugs of choice, so progressing to selling them came naturally. 

 

Over time, Rat realized that dealing drugs out of the forest was a less-than-appealing lifestyle and decided to move in with a few former college acquaintances: Solare, an elf who was an occasional customer of his, and Grungen, a dwarf that shared a few classes. Now living in a home with a basement, Rat immediately began a personal grow operation and has become the primary moneymaker for the household.

 

If Rat listened to music from our world, he would like Primus, Rush, and John Denver.