Bluetwine (aka Shardeye Nolhunyeh, known aboveground as Shardeye Bluetwine and eventually only as Bluetwine the Memnoor) was a Tenthrum Thergerim (dwarf) who was to become the father of the Whisper, the half-Brownie who invented Void communication. Originally born near Kor Donion, much-travelled and eventually resided and died just outside the Ethereal Void as part of the Memnoor Brownie tribe. He lived from 440 b.S.-220 b.S.

Image description. The dwarf Bluetwine of the Tenthrum clan, father of the famous Whisper the half-Brownie. Picture drawn by Bard Judith.

Biography. Bluetwine was born "Shardeye Nolhunyeh" to the Tenthrum dwarf clan in the Kor Donion area. Even as a child he was tall and taciturn for a dwarf, and often broke down in angry tears for no apparent reason that he could communicate. When he was old enough to go above ground for the first time and then flatly refused to go below again, it became clear that the dwarven boy was claustrophobic - an almost-unheard-of condition among the Thergerim. Work as a miner was out of the question, so he was set to help the granthers and grannies with the gardens (some of the most open areas in the typical dwarf cavern). However, the boy remained sullen and depressed, and took to creeping out to the exit tunnels whenever he could escape from the head gardener's sharp eye. Eventually the Council decided to foster the boy out, and he was apprenticed to the Brownie Woodworker Clan, which at the time often contracted out to nearby human towns, in the nearby Vale of Brownies and in the Rimmerins Ring area, doing the heavy (for Brownies) labour and hauling. After a while he was trusted with mortise and tenon work on beams, then finer joinery, and by the end of his Baregozar (dwarven period of adolescence) became a skilled carver.

Shardeye never went back underground and dissolved all bonds with his clan, even turning away from the dwarven beliefs of Tol'Barol and the Stonefathers. As a symbol of this rejection of all things troglyoditic, he had himself tattooed profusely with indigo tendrils and vines, with day-loving flowers breaking out here and there on his flesh. At this point in his life he was to acquire the new appellation "Bluetwine" which he would use from then on. Shardeye Bluetwine received his master joiner's rank from the Brownie Woodworkers, and took formal leave of his friends and accquaintances there.

At this point his history is unclear. It is believed that he wandered most of the Sarvonian continent, looking for a place to settle and practice his craft, a lonely and rebellious misfit. Unwilling to live with dwarves, unwelcome by men, Bluetwine spent time moving from place to place, paying his way with intricately carved and joined picture and window frames, which were characterized by fantastic animals, beasts, and tendrils reminiscent of the elaborate tattoos on his body. He may have spent some time with the desert nomads, as pieces of what is believed to be his work have been found among the trading communities there. However it happened, he eventually found his way to the continent of Aeruillin, and was taken in, like many refugees before him, by the Memnoor tribe of Brownies at the edge of the Ethereal Void.

Their ascetic lifestyle did not disturb him, and he was finally able to find acceptance among this great variety of folk who only judged people by their skills and attitudes rather than cultural mores or racial background. He adapted his joinery to more practical chair and table construction, but his creations were always marked by the distinctive tendril patterns along their limbs and spindles.

It may be that Bluetwine's time with the Brownies in the Rimmerins Ring area was dear enough to him to prejudice him towards the small, easy-going people. At any rate, he not only found friendship, work, and a home, but love. Ashberry was a stunning Redbark female Brownie who had gone through Mage-Growth (a magically-assisted size enhancement). With her deep orange-red skin and cinnamon-coloured eyes, Ashberry attracted many glances, but she found the taciturn, bearded craftsman who seemingly only cared for his wood and his tools a fascinating change.

It was not long after they wed that they decided to create a child together as a token of their love. Realizing the inherent difficulties, they enlisted the resources of the community to assist them. Ashberry and Bluetwine went through the Ennkafer, or the Thergerim ritual of prenatal care, as well as the various Brownie practices, and even the religious observances. Bluetwine was tested, observed, and finally, three and a half years after he had married Ashberry, was required to wear a special symbol-worked groinshield for the month prior to conception. A skilled geneticist, a direct descendant of the famous Leatherleaf, worked closely with both Brownie and dwarven mages to do the intricate manipulation within Ashberry's body in the week before. Then the two lay together in a formal ceremony, with their attendants waiting outside the bedtent ready to perform further spells and lifemagic over the couple as soon as possible.

The couple were able to choose both the gender and the colour of their child, and Ashberry suggested blue to honour her father, while Bluetwine wanted a daughter like his lovely wife. Thus Whisper was conceived, and after a slightly longer-than normal pregnancy by Brownie standards (but indecently short by dwarven), the pretty indigo-hued baby girl was born healthy and noisily, in a skin tent on the desert sands at the edge of the great Void.

Ashberry died of old age 32 years later, causing Bluetwine to begin to feel his own years much more heavily.

Their daughter Whisper had a somewhat longer life-span than a full-blooded Brownie, and so waited until later in life to choose and marry her husband, Greybark. Whisper and Greybark, years later, immigrated to another world through the Void. They left their twin 5-year-old children with Bluetwine, who still lived with the Memnoor tribe, for him to raise. Bluetwine lived long enough to help in the raising of his great-grandchildren and even his great-great grandchildren.

Importance. Bluetwine is known mainly for two things - his beautiful frame joinery, carved with fantastic twining tendrils and vines, and his role as Whisper's father. It is said that he provided the first frames for the first experimental receivers that were created in Void space, with Brownie friends and mages funnelling their lifemagic into the wooden borders. To this day it is traditional to carve tendrils and vines on Void receivers, or to sculpt them into the living wood with mindchisels.