Beor Valley, once known as Mag-Roth Stoneskin
Born to the Herd of the Northern peaks, Mag-Roth was the son of the great chief Ancrog Stoneskin and the sage Elleswith Stoneskin. Long before his birth, Mag-Roth’s father exiled an old friend for desecrating the sacred beliefs of the Stoneskin Clan. On the day of Mag-Roth’s seventh birth, the Exile returned. He challenged Chief Ancrog for the right to rule the Stoneskin Clan. The Exile defeated Ancrog in brutal, single combat. Watching the father fall, Elleswith grabbed her son and ran, she ran but was hunted by the Exile and his new tribe. Becoming cornered on the cliffs of their home mountain, the Exile slew Elleswith and threw Mag-Roth from the cliff letting the rocks below tear apart the young Goliath. Before Elleswith’s death, the sage had her final vision. A vision of her son avenging his father in a land of sand and stone.
At the base of the mountain Mag-Roth, bloody and broken, was found by a Loxodon monk by the name of Al’Shun, Grand Master of the Beor Valley Temple. Al’Shun took Mag-Roth upon his back, climbing the mountains to their highest peak. The Order of the Open Palm took in Mag-Roth, healed him, and began teaching them their ways. Mag-Roth trained for thirteen years, accepted by the monks, he began the path to Enlightenment through the arts of the Order. Through these long years, the Exile tracked him relentlessly until he found the temple and with the strength of the Clan Stoneskin, he killed everyone including Mag-Roth’s newfound father figure Al’Shun. The attack was bloody, monks and goliaths falling in equal measures. Al’Shun, seeking the protection of Mag-Roth, told him to hide within the halls of the Temple. Mag-Roth, unwilling to sit by while his family was dying, tried to find Al’Shun. Turning through the halls, Mag-Roth came upon the outdoor training hall. Rain pouring down from the heavens, Al’Shun and the Exile fought hard. Trading blows and the dark magics of the Exile trading equally with the powers taught by the Way of the Open Palm. Al’Shun, the more skilled fighter, brought the Exile to his knees. Standing over the Exile, Al’Shun was about to deliver the final blow with his staff when a bolt of dark lightning struck Al’Shun. Stunned from this bolt, Al’Shun was unprepared for the blade of the Exile as it was driven through Al’Shun’s chest. Watching the death of his father figure, Mag-Roth felt rage, a burning and unyielding fire. His vision going red, Mag-Roth charged the Exile. The Exile, turning towards the charging Goliath, braced, and struck. The last thing Mag-Roth felt was the burning of a blade sliding into his chest and into his heart. Blood clogging his throat, the rain pouring down, all feeling and life fleeing from his body, Mag-Roth faced death and accepted it. His tribe burning his new home and family around him, his new father dying next to him, he smiled for the first time in a long time. As his vision faded, he felt a large hand grasp his wrist. Turning his head, Mag-Roth saw Al’Shun kneeling over him, blood pouring down his robes from his many wounds and the rain. Channeling the last of his energy through his Ki, Al’Shun healed Mag-Roth. Al’Shun, having spent everything he had, fell to Mag-Roth’s side as Mag-Roth faded into unconsciousness. Mag-Roth woke a few weeks later, dreams of the fall of his temple and clan haunting him. As he woke, looking for Al’Shun, he saw the remaining monks. All of them wounded, all of them recovering mentally, emotionally, and physically. Seeing his brothers and sisters tending the dead and wounded of both monk and tribe, he gathered what energy he could and looked for his fallen father. Being guided by fellow monks, he found the body of Al’Shun, his great elephant features pale and serene. Mag-Roth sat next to Al’Shun for hours until a monk brought to him a journal and a letter. Reading the journal and letter, the journal containing decades of knowledge from the Grand Master himself in the ways of the temple and the letter containing few but meaningful words to the aching Goliath. “Find peace and finally be still. The Way of the Hand is a path, not a destination. Though the world moves, we try to force it to stand still, all things will live, they will wither, and they will die. All we can hope to do is live and die with a full life. Do not dwell upon death, but find a path, walk it, see the world, and try to make it a better place. That is all I can ask; all I can share. Everything else you must learn on your own, my son.”
With letter and journal in hand, Mag-Roth, filled with anger and sadness, vowed to find the Exile, and avenge both of his fathers so that they may rest in peace. Changing his name to Beor Valley to forever remember the fall of his temple and order, he set off into the world to find his way.