How Well Do YOU Know Puldrak the Wise?

1. About the author

Each man that considers himself to be a scholar should know Puldrak and his impressive work. He can be viewed as the authority on the orcish, elvish and minotaur race. His books belong to some of the most contraversive in the field creature-research. Allthough not much is known about the person Puldrak, he was either a skilled researcher, or he must’ve lived closely to the races he wrote about. The catchy title of his work – Puldraks wisdom – gave him the nickname Puldrak the Wise. Some scholars believe him not to be human, but one of the Ancients who personally witnessed all the events he described in the books. This theory might explain his knowledge about the lost elvish castes, the Abdaisim, Teshial and Chelabdil, but it remains nothing but a theory. What is certain, is that his work influenced and inspired many authors after him, including myself.

2. About his books

Puldraks wisdom about elves

Puldrak’s most famous work consists of five chapters, each one telling about one of the five elvish castes: Deraisim, Cenath, Kuridai, Teshial and Chelabdil. A small section of the first chapter also speaks about the nomadic tribe of Elves known as the Abdaism. Puldrak’s work about the Elves concentrates on the hideouts of each of the castes during the God wars. It also gives elaborate information about the lifestyle and the magic of the Elves. The source of his knowledge about the lost and magically hidden valley of the Cenath is still a mystery, but some scholars use it as proof to support their theory that Puldrak was one of the Ancients.

People that examine Puldrak’s work about Elves more closely, are able to notice a strange anomaly in the categorisation of the chapters. Eventhough the chapter about the Cenath’s hidden valley and the one that speaks of the end of the valley, are linked, the numbers of the chapters are different. Whether this was a mistake made by Puldrak, or it was deliberately is still unsure.

Puldraks wisdom about minotaurs

This piece of work, consisting of three chapters, speaks about the minotaur’s rejecting of Brog’s legacy and turning to a more peaceful and philosophic orientated lifestyle. Puldrak thoroughly explains the way the minotaurs combine harsh training of their bodies with the study of science and philosophy. An important figure in the books is Akkor, who founded the new minotaurian philosophy, which is remarkable similar to Daraman’s teachings. Turning away from rage, it was now the goal of each minotaur to reach the state of a warrior-philosopher that is in perfect control of his mind and body.

This work is considerably more favourable towards the subject than Puldrak’s other books about Elves and Orcs, but this might just be chance. Another reason could be that Puldrak was a follower of Daraman’s philosophy and recognized some of its teachings in the new minotaurian philosophy. This again supports the theory that Puldrak was an Ancient, as stated by the scholars who formed the theory.

Puldraks wisdom about orcs

Although less favourable as in the books about minotaurs, Puldrak is still surprisingly neutral in his approach. Unlike many other authors, Puldrak speaks about the orcs' feeling of community, about how new-born whelps are raised differently, and moreover, he is one of the few writers who explain the role of the orc women. His view on the orcish society was so contraversive that at a certain point, many authorities wanted to forbid his work, because according to them, it “idolised” the orcs. However, we can with certainty say that Puldrak didn’t favour any of his subjects. He’s one of the most neutral and objective authors that ever wrote about creatures. He simply choose to cover a more unusual topic: the society of known races.

3. Remarks on Puldrak’s work

1. Something that has been notified by everyone, is the absence of books about the dwarves. This race defenitely belongs to the list of important races, so why weren’t they covered by Puldrak? A possible explanation might be that the author died before having the chance to write about the dwarves. Or perhaps he did, but his work was destroyed for some unknown reason.
2. Some authors remarked that Puldrak had been too picky in his approach. His concentration on the topic “society” left out a lot of vital and important information. Others reacted by saying that this was his choice. He wanted to write about an unusual topic, to offer a different view on the lifestyle of the races.
3. It is still a mystery who Puldrak really was. As stated above, some scholars believe he was one of the Ancients. Although not everyone follows this theory, almost all scientists agree that Puldrak deliberately erased all knowledge about his existence, for some reason covering up his tracks and only leaving behind his books. So, as far as we know, Puldrak might just have been human. He might have been an Ancient, or perhaps a djinn, or any other race. He probably wasn’t a dwarf however, since no dwarf would be able to gather such extended and secret information about Elves.