Uram son of Uras son of Boram held his head high as he walked into the small town. With him were two younger Ogier men, both carried heavy blades that would make most humans keep a safe distance. Ogier, as a rule, did not like violence, but when it was necessary, they were more than capable of delivering it.

The three ogier men were in the town to purchase whatever supplies they could find. They still had a long path to tread, and one couldn't plan based on where towns used to be. One couldn't plan based on where 'home' used to be either.

Uram's stedding, Hanguin Stedding, had been near a small town, much like this one, and when the time of madness began, they had taken in the local Aes Sedai. Four men who had worked for decades with Uram, all four were botanists who used the power to study how the ogier's song mixed with the dai'shain to produce such wondrous effects. Their research had become all the more important when society began to fall to its knees. People who were killing and cheating each other still needed to be fed... and then the war came. A harsh saying came to be spread among the civilians: a soldier is a walking stomach with a shocklance. The vast armies of the Light at least pretended to pay for the food they took. The Shadow's armies simply killed anyone who protested.

When the madness came, the four researchers fled to the peace of Hanguin. There, they were cut off from the Source, but also this new taint. They stayed for a while... but then the loneliness got to be too much for them, and one by one, the Aes Sedai slipped away. The first three left without doing any harm, but the final Aes Sedai, Canava Monne Donedin, who had earned his third name for his research with Uram, he stopped to speak to the people of the stedding before leaving.

"Your kindness in protecting my brothers and I shows that the Shadow did not win. As long as there is kindness such as this, the Light will always conquer. May you all, the folk of Stedding Hanguin, be lifted up as examples in this torn world, of what true goodness can be."

As he stepped outside of the stedding, the taint fell upon him, and he collapsed to his knees, giggling like mad. For him, it was a short road to madness. Turning back to the stedding, his smile a horrible rictus, he raised his hands and screamed "May you be lifted up!"

The earth began to shake, thrusting itself up toward the skies. Uram and his brothers ran around gathering as many of their people as they could, but of the 600 Ogier living in Hanguin, only 90 made it out of the madness caused by Canava.

Where the Aes Sedai had been, now was a smudge of soot on the ground. Luckily for him, he had drawn too deeply and burnt himself out of this life. Uram and his people didn't have that option. Their home was now spread over the peaks of a jagged mountain range.

Uram was the eldest survivor, so he lead their band. He knew that Stedding Nemaon lay to the south, and that they were far from the beaten path. There might be safety in that Stedding.

To get there, though, he needed to purchase supplies in this human town. There were no obvious merchants, so he stepped into a tavern. No one paid him any attention, so he slammed his fist into the beam that held up the front half of the building, making the whole tavern shake.

"I need to purchase some supplies. Could someone direct me to a merchant?" His voice was the rumbling of a mountain avalanche, his tufted and pointed ears laid back against his skull. He was not as calm as he should be, but he might be lucky and these humans might not know the signs of an angered ogier.