The Guardians of Valenwood: Creating a Lurcher
By Gabrielle Benele
The lush forest of Valenwood is certainly a beautiful sight when one first gazes upon it, but hiding behind the trees, lurking in the branches, are threats, and even worse, the bosmers have set up hamlets and villages all over the province with no effective protection other than a few clusters of thickets. This produced a problem, despite the repeated insistence from the feral bosmers that they are perfectly capable of defending themselves, sending guards and battalions to these scattered settlements proved to be very troublesome. Some caravans would struggle to find their way through the forest even with the map made by the finest cartographers, let alone trying to reach a village should an emergency arise.
Due to the sheer amount of small bosmer settlements scattered around the forest and many's insistence on living undisturbed by non-tribal citizens, establishing barracks and battalions was obviously pointless and impractical. This dilemma lead to the creation of Lurchers, a sentient guardian made from wood. These creatures proved to be very competent warriors, capable of smashing in the skulls of even the toughest orcs with in one sweep, and some are even capable of harnessing lightning or breathing fire. By collecting and harvesting wood from the fallen trees, a body frame is formed, the size could usually vary between just a bit taller than a bosmer to a gigantic several meters high. After the creation of the body, life is given through a process which will animate the guardian, usually, torchbug, lightning wasps, or other small insects are used to form a hive mind that will control the wooden frame, although in rare cases, powerful magicka can be applied to animate it too. These cluster of insects are usually subjected to a spell similar to soul trapping, however, instead of drawing out the soul to a hyperagonal crystalline, they are drawn out to form together, creating a oversoul that combines all the insects, and this oversoul is applied to the body and control would be given. This hive mind then takes complete command of the body, the power of the Lurcher is usually dependent on the amount of insects drawn together and the resilience of the body itself, although it should be noted that the more insects are drawn together, the more potent magicka is required and this level of requirement could increase very sharply with more insects used due to the fact that each creature is required to be linked to every other one. Using different insects could produce different kinds of Lurcher, torchbugs usually will produce a simple Lurcher while lightning wasps could create guardians capable of rudimentary shock magic. These insects are usually taken near where the guardian created is needed as they seem to retain their memories of their habitats and the Lurcher created seem to be more zealous in combat, possibly due to the instinct to its defend home.
Lurchers offer an alternative to armed battalions in the hamlets of Valenwood, their presence is welcomed instead of ostracized by the locals and they prove to be effective guardians in general. Some Wyresses of High Rock, reachmen and even hagravens seem to enjoy the company of the Lurchers too, making these creatures quite popular even outside the bosmer homeland. Although some might regard these creatures as corruption of the natural forest, their effectiveness and influence cannot be disputed
