The Eldership of Gildenstar
Born in the 8th year of King Yuri's grand reign, Gildenstar would become one of the greatest Elders the Chongun path would ever see. Learning of the Chongun path's ways, Gildenstar trained her mind and body as an honorable and brave fighter, and enlisted in the Chongun ranks by the 20th Yuri. LimDul, who was busy making guides at the time, saw great potential in Gildenstar, and being one to not wait, made her Guide of the Chongun path in the same Yuri.
After LimDul's prolonged absence, the gods and the walkers began to feel as they did during MaDog's disappearance - hesitant, but sure. The gods reviewed Gildenstar, Dopesoap, and ICeMAnAbk for the position of the third elder of the Chongun path. Dopesoap, a viable candidate, decided he did not want to become elder, and passed his support on to Gildenstar in a letter to the gods. ICeMAnAbk and Gildenstar were now competing for the highest rank in the path.
ICeMAnAbk had hopes of dividing the path into three variants, the Evil side, the Neutral side, and the Good side. This disheartened many of the walkers, who found that an evil Chongun was rather silly. Also, ICeMAnAbk was much more elitist in his goals for the path, whereas Gildenstar and the gods wished for the path to be open to any and all who could pass the rigorous tests set before them.
In the 28th Yuri, Gildenstar was made Elder. Keeping her promise of maintaining an open and ever-growing path, Gildenstar, in her eleven Yuris as elder, would make over seventeen walkers - the most any Chongun Elder had seen by that time. Along with the many excellent walkers, Gildenstar made many guides, the first of which being Ixeus, followed by Gamefire and Karina, who was one of her own walkers.
Gildenstar launched into change and reform rapidly, forging two new divisions of the path, the Soldier and the Scholar. She created ranks for each, which could be attained by completing creative and trying tests. Each side had three ranks, and then guide, which could not be as easily 'ranked' to. Dividing further, she split the Scholar side into the Illuminatus, the mysterious secret holders of the path, and the Shaman, the outgoing and helpful side of the Scholars. The Soldier side was divided into the Avatar and Templar, the Avatar being the open and helpful division, and the Templar the more mysterious. One of the Avatar's goals was to protect the Shaman, and the Templars to protect the Illuminatus. Another change implimented by Gildenstar was that of the Tribunal, a hearing in which convicted citizens could stand before a Tribunal of Chongun and plead their case for a pardon, or forgiveness. This revolutionized many things, allowing forsaken players to redeem themselves and have a second chance at life, joining clans and subpaths.
Many of the Guides from the reign of LimDul were only forging walkers as their primary duty, as were Gildenstar's. Gildenstar saw much more potential in the rank of guide, and assigned each a 'duty' to fulfill along with the training and admittance of walkers. Some of these duties included the Librarian, the Council of Events, the holder of Tribunals, and the leader of each side of the path (Soldier and Scholar). Along with these new duties, Gildenstar sat down and wrote out a new Chongun Creed, which also revolutionized the way things were seen and done.
When the Il-San and the Ee-San accomplishments were pioneered, the gods looked to the pathes to create new titles for their members who recieved these marks, and thus Gildenstar formed the Il-San Chongun, the Sonbae, and the Ee-San Chongun, the Kysh'itra. The Sonbae were the military group of Koguryo, who, when not battling foes, would assist the community in a variety of ways, such as building walls and harvesting crops. The Kysh'itra, the Ee-San Chongun, were the Spiritual General of the Hindu ways.
Along with the many other feats accomplished by Gildenstar, she also attempted to mend the wounds that were created during many altercations between the Barbarian and Chongun path, which were at this point, dire enemies. The peace talks worked to some extent, but the Barbarians and the Chonguns, even at the end of her administration, would still have bad blood between them.
One of the last things Gildenstar would do as an Elder was lobby the Gods for many new additions to the path that she did not have the mortal capability to grant, such as the ability to slay others in the Sodo, and to give the powerful guide spell "Invincibility" to the walkers, a great challenge indeed.
When Gildenstar stepped down in the Winter of Yuri 39, abdicating her title to Neese, she had made over sixteen guides, some still active, and others not; Ixeus, Gamefire, Vanq,Drien, DarkMaverick, Vaxure, PeaconJR, and EldritchFire were all guides made by Gildenstar that were no longer with the path, whereas BlueSkys, Karina, Hunt, Audi, Neese, Yosen, Jena, Sojiro and YunG were all still guides when she left.
Making many great changes, and altering the lives of hundreds for the better, Gildenstar was, by many opinions, the greatest Elder the path had seen, yet.
Author: Kamahamahe