Disa

Disa
[[File:{{#setmainimage:Disa the Restless.jpg}}|250px]]
Details
Race	Human
Birthplace	Kjeldor, Terisiare, Dominaria
Lifetime	End of the Ice Age, died in The Thaw
Spouse	Kolbjörn
Children	Kaysa (adopted)
Colors
Sources
Story "Feast of Kjeld" in The Duelist #5

Disa the Restless was a human Kjeldoran explorer, scout and writer on Dominaria during the Ice Age. She was married to the Elder Druid Kolbjörn and was the adoptive mother of Kaysa.

Description

Disa was an expert explorer; most of the writings about Terisiare during the Ice Age were written by her. Always restless, she was constantly exploring and roaming the earth. When she came back from her famous expedition, her face was lined with age, and her ears were scarred by frostbite.

History

Disa's earlier Armada look

Ten years after the first attacks of Lim-Dûl against Kjeldor, Disa led an expedition into the west in the hope of finding allies to fight together against the necromancer. After leaving the knights Lucilde Fiksdotter and Klazina Jansdotter guarding a mountain pass, Disa and her companions continued their journey through the Adarkar Wastes. After passing the wastes and Yavimaya River, they reached the end of their journey, when they arrived at a huge wall of ice that blocked their advance. The expedition had only found a few clutches of dwarves and goblins and many beasts of every description, but no other people who could come to aid Kjeldor.

Feast of Kjeld

On the return, the group was attacked by the undead legions of Lim-Dul, west of the mountains, as it emerged from the Adakar Wastes. Most of Disa's companions were slain; the rest scattered. She waited at the rendezvous in the mountains for three days, but no one else arrived. She rejoined Lucilde and Klazina, and the three started making their way to Krov, to reach the city in time for the Feast of Kjeld.

However, the three women were caught by a storm and forced to seek refuge in the village of Mikkel. After asking for hospitality without receiving answers from the villagers, the three reached the village church, where the priest Halvor Arenson and his protegee Kaysa were the only attendants. The two were starting to celebrate the Feast and explained that the villagers were too scared of Lim-Dûl's dead legions to come out from their houses.

Halvor, Kaysa, the two knights, and Disa decided to celebrate the Feast of Kjeld, in their way. After hearing the report of Disa's voyage, Kaysa started crying. When the woman neared the child for consolation, she saw the mark of the Elder Druid on Kaysa's cheek. Right at that moment, the Elder Druid Kolbjörn, Disa's husband, arrived at the church. Disa's face lighted at the sight of her husband, but her smile faded when he heard him speak again of the goddess Freyalise. She told Kolbjörn of Kaysa's mark and the druid explained that he had come exactly for that: he would take Kaysa with him to Fyndhorn and teach her the druid's way. He also revealed that all the villagers had been killed and turned into undead.

At that moment, the door was opened again by Avram Garrison, a knight of the Order of Stromgald. He greeted Lucilde and Klazina, and the two were relieved to know that a valiant knight had arrived to help them. Avram, however, revealed that he had allied himself with Lim-Dûl, becoming an undead, because he thought that Kjeldorans had become unworthy by allying themselves with elves and dwarves.

When the hordes of the dead villagers broke into the church, Lucilde and Klazina started to fight against them: even Disa helped, using her mace. However, even if the knights fought bravely, they realized that they would be overrun by the dead. While the knights were fighting, Kolbjörn and Kaysa intoned the chant of Freyalise. With her magic, all the undead were stripped of their unholy life, thus saving the group.

The next morning, while Kaysa agreed to go to Fyndhorn with Kolbjörn, Disa asked her husband if he had missed her. The old druid replied that he valued all life, even if impertinent as Disa's. When the woman watched him quizzically, Kolbjörn added he valued especially such a life as that one of Disa the Restless. Disa replied that she wasn't always restless and would always come home, sooner or later. She would travel with Kolbjörn and Kaysa to Fyndhorn.

Encountering lhurgoyfs

Though she had encountered lhurgoyfs beyond the Yavimaya River before, it wasn't until her travels to the Fyndhorn forests that she gained more firsthand experience of them. She and her travel companions were ambushed by a lhurgoyf, but instead of running Disa faced it head-on and, after a grueling fight, managed to defeat and subdue it. Rather than kill it, she tamed it, managing to cow it into submission. From that moment on it acted as a guide and guardian for her and her companions. However, when they reached the edge of the lhurgoyf's territory, it refused to leave. By then, Disa had come to know it well enough that she had developed a sense of how to handle lhurgoyfs. For the rest of her travels through Fyndhorn, whenever she encountered a new lhurgoyf, she was able to tame it similarly to help guide and protect her troupe.

Fate

Disa was one of the victims of the plagues that ravaged Terisiare during the Flood Age; her death would be mourned by her husband.

Note

• In the no-more-canon (prerevisionist) comic version of Ice Age, Disa was present during the casting of the World Spell.

Journal entries

About Kjeldoran borders:

• "No one in her right mind would venture off the coast of Kjeldor during this season." (Monsoon)
• "This was quite possibly the least pleasant occurrence on the entire expedition." (Hurricane (Ice Age))
• "Two of my Warriors found that the creature was dangerous not only in combat but also in simple proximity." (Kjeldoran Frostbeast)

About the Adarkar wastes:

• "We encountered the sentinels in the wastes, near no living thing. Their purpose was inscrutable." (Adarkar Sentinel)
• "The creature we fought in the western waste was doubly dangerous: mortally wounded, it rebounded and attacked again." (Hoar Shade)
• "We could see the horizon blacken with the great beasts, but it was too late. The icefield offered no immediate safety, but luckily most of us reached a crevasse in which we could take cover." (Stampede)

About the Yavimaya forest and river:

• "It is our third day of travel on the Yavimaya River, and still, these creatures plague us. Davin Lansson, our naturalist, has facetiously labeled them ‘gnats', and the name has stuck." (Yavimaya Gnats)
• "We learned this at a dear price: once you cross the great river, get through the Yavimaya forest at top speed." (Gorilla Pack)

About the ice wall and the shaman:

• "The drawing of maps is fruitless in the west near the ice walls; the very earth is formless." (Illusionary Terrain)
• "We are farther west than any could have imagined possible, but I still wish to press on. Unfortunately, huge walls of ice block further travel. We can't believe they are natural." (Glacial Wall (Ice Age))
• "As we followed the ice wall, we had the distinct feeling of being watched. Many of the party wanted to turn back." (Clairvoyance)
• "We could feel the Shaman's power, as surely as we felt the storm." (Illusionary Presence)
• "The shaman waved the staff, and the land itself went mad." (Anarchy)

About the end of the journey:

• "The pass was completely blocked by the avalanche; we're forced to turn back. Nevertheless, we've gone farther and seen more than any before us." (Avalanche)

About various facts and creatures:

• "They're a hardy bunch, but I'd still bet that they just slept through the worst of the cold times." (Balduvian Bears)
• "Although my official log will state there is no evidence pointing to the existence of the Mistfolk, my certainty is lessened by the cursed consistency of the expedition's eyewitness accounts." (Mistfolk)
• "Mammoths may be good to ride on, but they're certainly bad to fall off of!" (Woolly Mammoths)
• "So large and so quiet: a combination best avoided." (Giant Trap Door Spider)
• "They aren't the brightest or the quickest of giants. For that matter, the same holds true if you compare them to rocks." (Karplusan Giant)
• "The Titans claimed to draw strength from the rocks, but I suspect them of some darker allegiance." (Mountain Titan)
• "The Dryads told us to stay, as no new horrors would come when it was so cold. Three of us left anyway. The rest believed their lies, and their skeletons weren't found until the thaw." (Rime Dryad)

In-game references

Represented in:

• Disa the Restless

Referred to:

• Stench of Decay