[h3][color=slategray]Vorris[/color][/h3]
[b]Talpike fishing village, on the southern coast[/b]

Talpike was a simple village. Small, relatively unguarded, rested by the beach overlooking the Palidari Sea. The folk there were - for lack of any better word - survivors, through dull times at the least. The occasional bandit party, or stray demonic vermin, as managed to be dealt with, if only with a little hassle involved. They made their business out of catching whatever floated by, oftentimes going out on small vessels to try and bring in the bigger catches. The recent season had been withstandable, but not resplendent. All in all, dull times.

Until today.

The waters before Talpike rumbled at the coming of Vorris and his leviathan mount. Villagers stopped their walking about to look towards the docks, watching as from the waters ahead, the colossal eel rose up, with Vorris astride on its cranium. It did not roar, that would frighten the villagers even more than they already were, what with its mere presence. The leviathan’s head hung over the outwardmost pier, and Vorris leapt from it, making a landing on the water-soaked wood. He did not turn back towards the creature as it turned away, and returned to the ocean depths.

The villagers looked on - some in awe, some in fear - as the mariner made his way across the pier, towards the village itself. The villagers began to crowd, stepping away from him. Several men, wearing shabby armor and wielding spears, breached the crowd. “Hold it right there!” One of them called out, raising his spear towards Vorris, who did not falter.

“I said stop!”

He didn’t stop.

The guard lurched forward with his spear in stabbing-position, only for it to be promptly grabbed and broken by the mariner, who then shoved the guard aside half-gently. He reared back and said to his comrades, “G-get him!”

But they didn’t. They just kept their spears raised and watched as he continued forth, the crowd parting a way for him. He turned his head towards a shop, and made a turn for it. He opened the door and stepped through, the guards standing by, watching. Some of them seemed to ease up a bit, however. Vorris stood and scanned the shop’s interior for a bit, the aged shopkeeper and his son standing alert behind the counter. They all waited for him to make a move.

Vorris singled out his vision on a stack of folded parchments. [i]‘Map of the Realm, Revision 14, 15 copper’[/i] was written on a sign by it. He walked over, picked up a map copy, and unfolded it. He looked it over briefly, before taking it over to the counter. He gently placed the map down, reached into his cloak, and pulled out a few coins. Coins that had been sitting on his person for more than five centuries. Coins taken from the sunken wreckages of the ocean, for a ‘maybe one day’ scenario. And such a day turned out to be this one indeed.

Vorris held the coins forward, but then paused for a minute, wiping off the watery brine that covered them. They quickly turned from dull greens and whites to brilliant golds with the muck gone. He placed them on the table, and the shopkeeper’s son carefully stepped forward to take them. The shopkeeper himself looked at them in surprise. “Th-those are datalins… from the old Ermio Kingdom's last decade…”

“These are worth a small fortune!” The son said, in disbelief. They both looked as Vorris nodded, took the map, and turned to exit the shop. The guards stood in his way, but this time, the mariner simply waited. “Let him go, he’s not hurting anyone!” The shopkeeper’s son called out. Hesitantly, the guards complied, and let the mariner through. Vorris exited the shop, tipped his hat as a polite gesture towards the surrounding townsfolk, and headed for the town’s exit. No one bothered him any further.

He looked at the map along the way. Hagers wasn’t marked, as expected, but he knew where it was on the southwest coast. He found his current location on the map, Talpike, and deigned to make his way northwestward.

Been a long while since he saw the mainland. He’d get to see what all had changed in five centuries.

Probably a lot.