The Gyrderi are a legend of the Tairnadal elves. The Keepers of the Past say that when the giants enslaved the ancestors of the Tairnadal, a few wise and stealthy elves escaped by making powerful alliances with the forces of nature. Over the course of centuries these elves, now called Gyrderi, developed a druidic tradition, becoming direct vessels of the power of the wild. When the elf uprising began, the Gyrderi aided the first of the Tairnadal and were instrumental in their earliest victories. However, the giants of the Sul’at League studied the Gyrderi and found a way to counter the druids—the giants enacted a terrible curse that forever bound them in the wild shapes they were wearing, trapping them and their descendants in the forms of animals.
According to the tales, the Gyrderi continued to fight alongside the Tairnadal, and the first ancestors of the famed Valenar warhorses were in fact Gyrderi druids. These mystical creatures are also the source of the Tairnadal tradition of natural magic, especially the strong ranger tradition found within the culture. Over the course of generations, the Gyrderi animals the Tairnadal brought out of Valenar lost the full intelligence of their ancestors. However, some believe that true Gyrderi still exist in the depths of Xen’drik as awakened animals possessing powerful druidic magic. Perhaps adventurers can find the truth of these legends.