Rhay Ariano

Rhay Ariano is a citizen of the High Kingdom of The Pale and a resident of Greywatch Hold. He was born in Greywatch territory, a former exclave of The Pale on the continent Leifmyrr. He is the Avatar of the Earth for the Order of the Essence, which is the second largest religion in The Pale after Skjotunhra. Rhay is the current innkeeper at the "Yellerstone Grillhouse & Inn" in Little Greywatch. He has also served as the cartographer for the High Council. Rhay is credited for the founding of the Secret University of Bastria Project and serves as its first president.

Rhay is the son of Duke Kaidus Ariano, Jarl of Greywatch. He has also gone by the name of Rhay Kjavo.

Early Life
Growing up in the Ariano household in Greywatch territory on the faraway continent Leifmyrr, Rhay was a shy but somewhat rebellious kid. Instead of advertising that he was from the noble Ariano family, Rhay opted to call himself Rhay Kjavo around his peers, and once he reached his late teens he insisted on his own small house in the residential area instead of living in the keep. No matter how hard he tried to conceal his identity in the small city, he couldn't hide the fact that he was spoiled as all hell, as he was extensively involved in the ever-drunken party guild of Greywatch territory.

As Greywatch territory was fairly isolated at the edges of the world, Rhay was fascinated by Karthhold, the capital, which was thousands and thousands of blocks away on the continent Onthukhan. He often fantasized about living there amidst its wonderful wooden buildings. Since he didn't want to upset his father Duke Kaidus Ariano with his plans to leave Greywatch territory but still short on funds, Rhay started the first Experience Bottle business in the territory. He helped construct the first mechanical cactus farm of Greywatch territory, and while his redstone skills were lacking, the farm worked still the same. Besides, it paid well to be the first.

Through the shop, which he called the "Greywatch XP Exchange," Rhay sold experience bottles he gained from cactus farming. When he was not available to tend to the farm, he was able to make small amounts of money from transaction fees of people buying and selling at the shop.

The Reckoning and Exodus
November was a time of great change for the fledgling nation of The Pale. Crises were brewing on two fronts. On continent Onthukhan, The Pale had peacefully acquired the Wolfwoods region from Avaria, which suddenly made the once-small-island-nation a regional power. With all that tasty new land, the acquisition stole Greywatch's thunder as the land of opportunity. The northernmost portion of this newly acquired territory was sold to the then-small island nation of Merconis, but this inadvertently caused a massive border conflict between Merconis and the Zamotz Union. What resulted was the Sand War, and The Pale answered Merconis's call for help.

Rhay fought at the Battle of Oblitus Oris, but was knocked off the walls of the fort by berserkers into the lava moat below. While not dead, the severe burns and broken arm meant he was not able to fight as effectively as before. The trauma of war made Rhay realize the importance of family of friends, and much to the delight of his father Kaidus, Rhay started calling himself an Ariano.

Meanwhile, much closer to home in Greywatch territory where Rhay was recovering, tensions with the bordering nation of Sylvania had reached a boiling point. Council members traveled from the capital to the territory and convened the citizenry in the town square to make the now infamous public announcement. They declared that the lands of Greywatch territory would be sold to a third party and that all current residents were to move back to the mainland. This came as quite a shock to Rhay and his peers, who were second generation migrants to the territory. While their parents were familiar with the mainland, several of the children had never set foot outside the territory. Rhay had done a decent amount of traveling to the lands surrounding the territory, but to give up his hometown was difficult.

Thus began the Greywatch exodus. Over 20 people left for the mainland. Rhay got his wish of living in Karthhold, except he was living miserably as a refugee in a tent at the outskirts of the city, surrounded by many other tents of now homeless Greywatch citizens. This tent living would continue for a month during the brutal winter, and food supplies were running low. Rhay himself almost starved, but thankfully a kind-hearted squatter by the name of "Laina the druid" would leave food in the center of the refugee camp, saving many a life in that dreary season.

A New Home and the Yellerstone Project
Alas, Spring came, and a new hold was announced to accomodate the refugees.

The Ellrians of former Greywatch territory, as they now came to be called, joyfully packed their belongings from the refugee camp on the outskirts of Karth, and with much excitement treaded north on the highway towards their new home. Among them was Rhay Ariano, who already had his eyes set on settling a small town around the hot springs. He heard very little about the hotsprings but he thought it would be cool as a new business idea: tourist town.

He was in for the shock of his life. Growing up in a Frontier town, Rhay was used to living near beautiful nature scenes. What he saw at the hotsprings biome was anything but beautiful. Rotting wooden fort structures littered the landscape. The land looked as if it had been blown up with tnt several times over, as squatters and miners over the eras had stripped away the landscape. To add insult to injury, he heard from locals that the constant strong winds pick up sulfuric acid from the geysers and spray it everywhere in view of the springs. This would chip away at buildings at an alarming rate. No building near the springs would stand very long, that is, except for 4  random chunks of land around a geothermal pond that were mysteriously shielded from the wind.

There, with plans for a town scrapped, Rhay instead decided to build an inn in the 4 safe chunks. He still believed this could become a cool area, and in conjunction with the construction of the inn, he launched the Yellerstone Restoration Project, where he aimed to restore the natural beauty of the hotsprings south of Little Greywatch.

The restoration project is ongoing, but the inn is basically complete and is today a fairly popular spot for lodging and drinking for citizens of Little Greywatch.

Secret University of Bastria Project
What secret? Ah. Just pretend you didn't read that.

November 2021 Map
Rhay was commissioned by his father Jarl Kaidus in late November 2021 to create a new comprehensive map of The Pale. With the endorsement of the High Council and that of his majesty High King Wulfgar Ironback himself, Rhay published a new creative map for his fellow Freemen to use.

He also created a separate clickable (i.e. interactive) version for the wiki, which has been included below.

Click on a Hold to go to its Wiki page. (If you're on mobile and can't see a map, switch to desktop mode.)

March 2022 Map
Around late January, The Pale needed an updated map that included the newly acquired southern isthmus territory purchased from Irisnia. Rhay noticed several maps in the map-making guild take on a similar style, yet the map-makers were different. He soon realized that they were all using a special technique called the "inkarnate." He hastily released a January map using this technique in response to the growing demand for a new map, but he was not happy with it.

Following the victory in the Second Sand war in March, The Pale reacquired Cromore territory that had previously been sold to Merconis. This became the new hold of Cromore, and the need for a new map arose once more. This time Rhay wanted to make a cleaner map using the "inkarnate" technique, with a fog of war effect just for fun. The image below is the result.[[File:Map of The Pale - March 16 2022.jpg|center|frameless|822x822px|

An inkarnate map of The Pale following the victory over Merkonis during the Second Sand War, the acquisition of the Southern Isthmus, and the reacquisition of Cromore.]]