'Even rhul-thaun explorers who leave their homes in the cliffs to see what lies beyond may be stopped by the pyreen. The halflings’ benefactors are gentler, more kind to them than they would be to outsiders, but the pyreens’ dedication is absolute. Obviously, however, it is a simple matter for travelers to pass through the region without attracting the attention of the pyreen. The pyreen are powerful, but few.'
it seems pretty obvious to me that he was intercepted by Pyreen.
Also, on the subject of Reggelids, again from WRotJC -
'Sahl-oren’s Secret
What Sahl-oren actually found is a magical item that destroys life-shaped creations. He and a group of companions discovered the device in the swamp at the base of the cliffs, but they were unable to retrieve it. His fellow explorers died on the journey. Rajaat created this potent artifact when he realized that, despite his best intentions to the contrary, he may have to fight the rhul-thaun at some point. Rather than simply destroying them, he fashioned a device using his newly discovered magical abilities, which would take away their greatest assets, their life-shaped creations. The device, called little death, was never used. Sahl-oren learned of little death as he
explored the ancient citadel built by Rajaat in the swamp. '
Rajaat used magic to create last-resort anti-lifeshaped weaponry. It isn't too far of a stretch for someone notorious for sentient experimentation that Rajaat would create magic-wielding minions with the ability to destroy lifeshaped tools on contact. The Reggelids know his name, follow his teachings(at least about magic), are organically suited for his goal of death-free Rhul-Than disarmament, if necessary. He eventually abandoned his first attempt at creating magic-wielding warriors(nowhere near as powerful as e needed them to be). They seem to have taken this rather badly, and now hold a burning hatred for the favored 'pets' of the master 'who rejected them'. It was so long ago, they may not remember why they started hating halflings so much. But they remember,on some level, the one who created them and their powers. They may not remember that he just abandoned them. Maybe he planned to use them later, to police his new halfling society for him after the Cleansing Wars. And he just never ended up coming back, due to the Champions Rebellion. Eventually , the Reggelid directive to 'protect, contain, and if necessary disarm' was distorted into 'Destroy, imprison, and if possible, dismember'. There are so many signs pointing to this. Rajaat could have made them from Gith stock, which he knew to be of alien origin, thus not a hated Rebirth race. That would be his excuse for planning to keep them around as his enforcers and police after all of the Rebirth races were destroyed. They would have the same immunity from his genocidal intentions as the Kreen. Rajaat was an evil madman, but he had no interest in killing anything that wasn't descended from a Halfling but wasn't a halfling.Rajaat had no problem using minions of other stock, and shaping them to his needs, with the intent of keeping them permanently -
From WotJC, p 113, describing some of the contents of Rajaat's swamp citadel -
Area 3: Enchantment/Charm
'This is the site of the ultimate defeat of Sahl-oren’s group. It is the home of two ensorcelled
thri-kreen, trapped here long ago and forced to become guardians after Rajaat
experimented on them with his new creation.'
'The thri-kreen have become nothing more than automatons, mindlessly serving as
guardians in this place for untold centuries. They have no need for food or sleep'
From all this, I infer that Reggelids were possibly Rajaat's prototype Cleansing War army, and possibly intended to be his police force in his 'perfect world'. But then he decided to go ahead and make the Champions and let them take care of the dirty work.....
further into WotJC -
'Ecology: Some halfling scholars believe the reggelids to be the result of some of Rajaat’s strange activities or victims of the curse (they do not understand magic, but what they are postulating is the idea that they are somehow some leftover creations of Rajaat’s—a very plausible idea).
There is never any conflict among the reggelids themselves. They instantly recognize members of their race that are more magically adept or skilled than themselves and defer to them automatically. Their lust for all things magical is not to promote themselves within their own society but to advance themselves on a general level. It is the means that interest them more than the end.
Though they bear only ill will for all other races, reggelids despise the halflings of the Jagged Cliffs and their life-shaped creations most of all. The reggelids developed the following spell specifically to combat the halflings and destroy their shaped tools and weapons'
They are inherently magical, automatically organize themselves, seek to constantly expand their magical knowledge, and hate every other living race, and have an especially deep hatred for halflings? I think Rajaat abandoned them when he realized they had TOO much aggression infused into them to allow to run rampant over the whole world. Their inherent hate and xenophobia thet he bred into them backfired when he tried to breed loyalty to the halflings and their protection into the Reggelids, and instead it focused their genocidal nature all the more on the Rhul-Than and their creations. Rajaat let the Reggelids live, however. They could serve the purpose of deterring the Rhul-Than from migrating into Kreen lands, and would likely kill any Kreen they encountered, thus reventing them from invading the Rhul-Than even more. Rajaat most likely surmised that the benefit of keeping the Rhul-Than contained and pure outweighed the death and suffering of the few who are caught by Reggelids.
It seems likely that they are a race altered or experimented with by Rajaat, a potential issue that I don't think anybody's explored yet (aside from the much clearer experimentation conducted by Dregoth)... an issue I'd personally be very cautious to tinker with (ascribing too many world-changing abilities / interests to already powerful beings is dicey).
I'm fascinated by the choice of words the writers used "... many of us still believe he will return, in one form or another.."
The religious / cultural beliefs of the Rhul-thaun (as they are in most settings) are handed down verbally (and physically/visually via various hand-signs & gestures if you want to get technical)... from one generation to the next - lifeshaping for use as tools has been covered comparatively frequently, but it leads me to wonder about the very strict traditions handed down amongst them (vestiges of ancient lifeshaping practices that once had simple, solid applications) would handle artworks and invariably the intentions, beliefs and hidden suggestions made by such artisans.
I think it's more likely the Reggelids would've been a race, or an individual cloned(?) or otherwise crafted into a race of research assistants, caring only enough about living beings to associate with one another in pursuit of their single goal, the WarBringer's tell-tale loathing of all other races I'd prefer to think expanded an existing intolerance / high-mindedness rather than being inherent.
Either way I see them as a tragic story - long line of people who lost their 'humanity' to corruption and all consuming lust for their one fascination long, long ago.
Lord Rhan strikes me as an opportunity for an Aurthurian - Marco Polo cross, not to mention the intrigue of people potentially posing or mistaking another individual as him... I'd be concerned about how the sociology of it would be handled though.
Given what they know of the history of the rest of the world... I think the Pyreen might even stop him from returning... there'd be more than a few good reasons.
I can imagine crafting a pretty dramatic story about Lord Rhan finally returning to the Ringing Mountains and despite everybody's best intentions, things going pear-shaped & him being denied by the Pyreen (it'd need some insight into their motivations & methods).
. I was always struck by the inscription in (iirc) Mysteries of the Ancients in the Expanded Campaign Setting that talked about the return of the wanderer, the rhulisti and the Blue Age. I never thought that the "wanderer" here was the Wanderer of the WJ/WC, but that it was Rahn Thes-Onel returning aboard the Messenger. I don't think that this is supported by what we later learned about the three rhulisti aboard the Messenger, but that was my impression when I read it back in the day.It's been a while since I spoke to people through emails and MSN, but I do recall there's this poster with a rhulisti name that just loves Rhan. Ring a bell anyone?
Yeah, that's Ruhl-Than Sage. He was writing a fanfic about Thes-Onel, wasn't he? Had lots of cool ideas about the rhulisti/rhul-thaun iirc...
Sorry Sage for forgetting you! :D
I remember reading somewhere that the original devs had a plan that the messenger comet would return with 3 passengers: 3 ancient halflings, one of which was a nature-bender.
I was always under the assumption (based on when the highlord disappeared and when the messenger was first recorded in the sky) that Rhan Thes-Onel was one of the three halflings aboard the messenger.
Further, there's an adventure seed in windriders about someone showing up and claiming to be him. I figured it really was him (or related to his return) as it happens after the messenger seems to have returned (or crashed).