During this year, the Adept was allowed no communication of either speech or mind with anyone. They were instead trained to Listen with all their senses to the needs of others, communicating only through simple sign language and even then only of the most basic kind; yes, no, location, warning, etc. After the year, the Adepts were taken to the Rowan and Linden Forest of their respective Home World to be inspected as Candidates for Druid or Ranger Training. Of the hundred Adepts each year, only three in ten adepts made it through their Silent Service, of those, only five each were Chosen as Druidic or Rangers in training. Halt was Chosen as Ranger. He spent the next ten years learning from the Rowan, one of the Stewards of Light, of the ClanWorlds Realm. Druidic Trainees were taught by the Linden. As a Ranger, Halt learned to reverence Life, accept Death and, methodologies of Service, including Animal Husbandry, Police Science, Tracking, Hunting, Xenobiology, Fisheries Management, Game Management, Veterinary Science, Herbalist Healing and related topics. All these were necessary to the Rangers chief function as the ClanWorlds "police" force.

     At the same time, he continued his other areas of study, gaining first proficiency, then expertise and, finally, Mastery in Battle Craft and Crystal Technology. His Sage Craft skills proved more difficult to control, then master, due to multiple affinities. All CW'ers, as has been mentioned, are "connected" to the natural energies of the Multiverse, but these connections are exhibited differently, and in different strength by each individual. These are called "Affinities" and often have as much to do with personality as they do blood. The Affinities are; Fire, Air, Earth and Water and come in two basic "levels"; Major and Minor. All ClanWorldsers have, at least, one Minor Affinity, most have one Major and usually a Minor. Many, like Halt, have more than one, in Halt's case, he has two Major and one Minor Affinity; Air, Fire and Earth respectively. He has no affinity with Water, a fact which has caused him no small amount of grief throughout his life, not the least of which is an intense seasickness when aboard vessels on seas or oceans. Conversely and rather oddly, he loves to swim and fish and can often be found, when at Home, cavorting with sea-dragon kinfolk.

     As his discipline and control grew, with intense practice and continuous gathering of Knowledge, his Mentors began steering him towards Adept Status in that field as well, with much urging from his family Patriarch in the Dragon Clan, an Ancient Poly-Metallic named "Force of Knowledge" in the common tongue, but known to his Clan simply as "Gran-gon", short for Grandfather Dragon. Gran-gon, along with the rest of the Council of Ancients of the Clans, believed very strongly that the future of the ClanWorlds lay in each individual gaining as much skill and knowledge as their long lives could hold, something Halt himself, ascribes to. It was in these Disciplines that he learned to use his minds native abilities at Mind Speech, and Mentat Healing, although he never attained any great range without assistance from Crystal Tech or another Mentat to boost his meager skills.

     Thus after many years, most spent after leaving the Academy, Halt eventually earned the Rank of StormSage ... one who has gained Mastery Status in at least two Major Affinities and a minimum of one Minor Affinity. At the age of two hundred seventy five and, after completing his second tour as an Active Ranger, during which he and his Team accounted for more than seven hundred Undead and other criminals combined, Halt decided to once again, expand his horizons and took up the mantle of Traveler. Among other things, he had developed a desire to find once again, for his Kin, their original Homeworld ... a place called Earth. It was from there, thousands of years in their past, that the ancestors of the present day ClanWorldsers had come. Now, it lay lost in the mists of Time.

     And so, as a Traveler he returned to Greyhawk, where he spent some years as a Mercenary Officer, during the Lich Wars, rising to the rank of Commander of Scouts, then Comdr. of Mounted Scouts, then Lancers and finally, Lieutenant Colonel in the Light Horse Brigade In service to the Good Lich Hrothman the Wise. At the end of the Wars, about thirty years, he again Traveled, spending a year or two here, another there, always studying, always learning and, every day, practicing his weapons skills, often earning his keep as a Weapons Smith and Armorer or, as a woodworker, blacksmith, common laborer. And of course, always doing his Duty to Light as a Ranger, whether it be caring for sick and injured animals, teaching, or hunting and disposing of Undead and Drow that preyed on communities he visited.

     As Duty to Clan and Kin demanded, he returned to the ClanWorlds every five years to place his name in the Lottery, a device by which a Hybrids genetic material was distributed throughout the Clans. By the time he reached the young age of four hundred seventeen, he had sired thirty children, seven of which, were also Hybrids. As he spent his years Traveling, studying and practicing he also grew lonely and to an extent, sullen and depressed; all the time without roots to speak of, answering only to Light, obligation and Duty were taking their toll. Added to this, his hopeful search for the Ancient homeworld had proven fruitless.

     All this changed on one trip to his Homeworld of Old Aerthe; he was wandering through the main Rowen Grove on his Families lands, when he "felt" or "heard" or "sensed" a faint summons, from an elusive source. He followed this "siren song" into the deepest part of the Rowen. It was there that he was Chosen once again, this time as Companion by a Pseudo Dragon, whose name in Common meant, Whistler. This was a turning point in his young life, for Whistler, along with companionship, lent him another set of thoughts with which to balance his own, as well as an emotional connection to balance the emptiness demanded by his Duty to the Clans as a Hybrid.

      Many years later, his last Child was born; a unique child, a male Crystal Dragon named Earenaeth, which meant "Valiant Wisdom". Earenaeth and Halt formed an immediate and strong bond, far stronger than that usually found among Hybrids and their offspring. They spent much time learning more about their own Realm than Halt had previously, and this time was, even to this day, some of the happiest days of Halt's life. Halt often called his son by the nickname "Eary", due to the young Crystals uncanny ability to sense the tiniest differences in the environment around him. He had at the young age of seven, already been inducted into the ClanWorlds Academy, a fact of which Halt was most inordinately proud. Alas, their happiness was fated to be short lived; during a raid by the ClanWorldsers arch enemies, the Reavers and their' Corrupt, Earenaeth gave his life protecting the Clan and Family Crèche, dispersing all his life energy in one blast, which caved in the approach tunnel to the Crèche and burying the force of Corrupt and their Reaver masters. It took five days after the final battle for the rescue teams to uncover "Eary"s body.

      Halt was distraught to say the least. Even though proud of his son's actions, indeed, living up to his very name, he felt a deadness inside worse than any he'd ever felt before; even Whistler's faithful companionship could not shake loose Halt's despondency. Halt began to take on the worst, most dangerous assignments, often going against the Reavers single-handedly, in an attempt to purge his anger and pain. What he accomplished was something far different; he became aloof, isolating himself from all sentient contact; ruthlessly expending resources in personnel and material to exact his vengeance. Finally, after Whistler himself appealed to the Council of Elders, Halt was decommissioned and placed on inactive status ... even his genetic Duty was curtailed until he could find healing for his tortured soul.

     And so, for the next thirty years, Halt once again, donned the cloth of an Adept and went to serve with the Rowan Stewards of Light, deep in the Groves of his home, relearning to take pleasure in simple tasks and simpler thoughts. Fifty years after his son's courageous death, the Rowan Stewards returned him to the Council, stating that his mind was healed and his heart was ready to be. They recommended and the Council so ordered that he go somewhere off world and learn once again how to connect with people. The council further advised him, through Gran-gon, who concurred strongly, that he should seek out a group of people dedicated to Light's service and relearn the reasons ClanWorlders held Light so dear. And so, with Whistler on his shoulder, the Hybrid once again picked up the mantle of Traveler and began the Journey which finally led him to the Rhydin/Krinn Realms and the Brotherhood of the Rose ... his family of Choice.