Who Is Cahni?

Cahni is the polished face of the Dolorii priesthood when Johann and his companions first enter their forest realm. After an alarming detention, he apologizes for the treatment, orders an elaborate feast, provides fine clothing and quarters, and presents every action as part of meticulous hospitality.

The welcome is genuine in form but dangerous in purpose. Cahni knows that the arrival of sacred pilgrims has enormous religious meaning for his people, especially as their great tower nears completion beneath the path of the Exalted One’s Sanctuary.

A People Without Fear

The Dolorii possess one of the supernatural gifts granted among the peoples of the wider kingdom: they are not slaves to fear. Their tree-city reflects that gift in every rope bridge, leap, climb, and dizzying height. Cahni moves through this world with ceremonial confidence because falling, pain, and death do not hold the same psychological power over his people.

That strength also has a darker side. Without ordinary fear to restrain extremism, Dolorii religious zeal can turn terrifyingly practical. Cahni’s hospitality therefore becomes part of Book 3’s larger question about whether a divine gift remains virtuous when a culture builds the wrong conclusions around it.