A necromancer known in the north as the Plaguebringer and elsewhere as Gerald the Lifegiver. He traps souls in his ring — not to hoard them, but to keep them from being collected by the powerful and bound into permanent service to whichever god their owner happened to worship.
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About this record: art and source provenance, discrepanciesMERGED 2026-08-03 from four records for the same man: `129-gerald-brightspring`, `129-gerald-brightspring`, `129-gerald-brightspring` and `129-gerald-brightspring`. All four have been deleted and their references repointed here. NOTE: `335-gerald` is a DIFFERENT character (a beetle, Wizard War) and was left alone. == THE ARC, IN ORDER == Born h-129, died h-176. Raised by Deepwood fairies and gifted a unique healing staff that could heal even the dead. Cleric of The Grove. In Path to Arla he is the healer who arrives after the fighting — the savior who is always late, carrying deep guilt about it, and the standing excuse 'That brightorn held me up...' After the coup of Arla he becomes a major saviour figure, rescuing survivors. He witnessed Ren Sawada's soul transfer into Maddie Cassius' child, and the process captivated him. Without rune crystals he could not replicate it. He observed Doomguard Jael use a Hesh sword to draw the souls from elders at the Ravenwing library, and he helped create the mug that cured the Prisoner's Plague. In Kingdoms and Clouds he studies the Arla elders and the Hesh — specifically Partanus and the Greycaller family — seeking the Greycaller tome of life, and at Fairbreeze (ch-09) he absorbs the life essence of those he cannot save during the burning. By the final battle (ch-21) he is known as Gerald the Lifebringer. He took his research to the GRE and Arla and was rejected by opponents who saw all old magic as dangerous. He followed Yolich Fairbreeze north into exile, and learned from her — after her descent into madness and paranoia — that the souls' power could itself power such an object. When Yolich was tracked down and killed by an extremist party from the GRE, Gerald concluded it was his duty to protect people even from themselves. He created the RING OF SOULS. In the north he is known as the Plaguebringer. == TWO THINGS THIS MERGE RESOLVES == 1. GERALD THE MAD. The 141 record flagged as unresolved whether Gerald Brightspring and 'Gerald the Mad' were the same man or a namesake coincidence. The 176 record's source background ends by naming him 'Gerald the Lifegiver, creator of the Ring of Souls' and then, on its own line, 'Gerald the Mad' — so they are the same person, and 'Gerald the Mad' is recorded here as an alias. This connects to the Rayne thread: Samuel Dustborn, the first Brightborn, was executed by Gerald the Mad for refusing to massacre innocent villagers, Rayne raised him, and Dustborn and the Brightborn later defeated Gerald the Mad at the battle of Tears. His death year here (h-176) should be checked against the date of that battle. 2. RYSEN. The 172 record establishes that Rysen was secretly behind the Ring of Souls all along, intending to use the stored souls to restore his own collapsed plane. == UNRESOLVED, LEFT FOR THE AUTHOR == - ALIGNMENT is recorded as Neutral Good by both the 141 and 149 records, which describe his healer period. Nothing gives an alignment for the Plaguebringer / Gerald the Mad period. Kept as Neutral Good rather than guessed at; it plainly needs revisiting. - CLASS drifts across the records: 'Healer' (141), 'Cleric/Arcanist' (149), necromancer (172). The middle value is kept. - The 172 record was itself created 2026-08-02 to resolve dangling references to `141-gerald-the-lifegiver`.