Walken Keyr, Windrider of Shaundakul
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I was reading trough my forgotten realms book at one time and landed on this old deity from the Myth Drannor glorious era called Shaundakul.
This god of travel and exploration ended up being downgraded to a lesser deity after the fall of Myth Drannor.
And somewhere, while I was reading that, the concept idea for Walken came alive. I was going to play a follower of this almost unknown god of the realm, I was going to play a windrider of Shaundakul.
Where Walken was not my first contact with Narfell (my first PC was a simple fighter named Armer and lasted about 2 games before I created Walken) he was the one I played the longest.
Since I never was able to play long period of time on Narfell and that many time, due to RL constraint, I had to go away from the gameworld for extended period of time, Walken had the perfect excuse to disappear.
Being a windrider, the worship of the god of travel and exploration required traveling. So, leaving Narfell to wander the realms was just a natural thing to do for this character.
Nevertheless, Walken always ended coming back to Narfell at one point or another and noticed all the major changes that occured. From the first stepping stone of the building of Norwick and part of the Rawlinswood to the creation of the Nars pass, Peltarch, the camp, Jiyyd, Minthas Relgor, etc….
But the time of Walken truly was from the beginning to the near end of what is known as the first Defiler war.
Another interesting thing about this character is that he was made to be a side-kick character and he did that quite well. Where Walken had his part in lots of major events that preceeded and made up the first Defiler war, he never was a front row character. He would bring in informations here and there, fill in new comers on recent events, offer advices and ideas, and sometimes spells or weapons support. But always, he stayed behind the true heroes of the war and remained in their shadows.
In those times, where many heroes, and unfortunately there are many names I forgot and therefore cannot give tribute due to those fantastic characters. May I be forgiven.
What killed Walken?
Time.
As RL took more and more of my time, I could but give less and less to Walken and Narfell and at some point all thoses characters that made the time of the first Defiler war were gone. Being in Narfell just didn't had the same feeling. Walken had became a shadow of what he was and no one knew who this windrider of Shaundakul was and what he had been a part of.
Moreover, since Walken time on Narfell was on and off, many new characters took places of importance (that it be story wise or level wise) and Walken was relegated to a shadow of his former self. Hard to declare yourself a hero of the first defiler war when anyone not even arrived in Narfell at that time have more notoriety than you do and that you can't even do Norwick-Peltarch without someone holding up your hand.
So, without any link to any of the major events running in Narfell. With not enough levels under his belt to make a show of prowess.... Playing Walken turned out to be dull and duller.... and eventually I just stopped playing him and Narfell altogether.
And that his how, following the whim of the windlord, that Walken Keyr, windrider of Shaundakul, left the land of Narfell for new horizons. The realms are vast and much are yet to be discoverd.
But who knows, perhaps one day, as the wind blow down the Nars pass on the eve of spring, a lonely figure dressed in green and black and bearing a strange gauntlet might be seen, guiding travelers and marchants along the road.
(On the end of this post, I would like to thank Masume and all the devs, DM and ADM as well as fellow players who contributed in making my experience on Narfell a most wonderful one. No wonder Narf is still kicking after so many years. Good job!)
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Nice to see you again Decker. Walken is well remembered!
Jazz (Call Sanner)
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As I might have mentioned Walken was indeed the first character that I met on Narfell. You told me to pick up the food rations and bed roll I had thrown out all over the inn, you adviced me kindly not to use the shout channel when responding to your whispers and you explained politely what Role Playing was all about. In fact, you explained it so well that I am still checking these forums after 4-5 years have passed.
Thank you
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I hope RL is going great for you Decker. Walken Keyr was a great character. I still remember all of the stories he would tell at Vino's fire. Him and Lo'en are the only two followers of Shaundakul i ever remember from Narf. Both her and walken played a major impact in Ohtar's development.
I hope that you both bring walken out of retirement -AND- roll out a new character for narf. It will be good to see you around again. There are many new adventures to be had
