Elves tell that, when the world was young, Ishtra, the Goddess of Nature, made the first of the Talking Breeds - the Elves. They were tall and elegant and lived in commune with nature itself. While they built their cities of clay and toiled in gardens that could not be told from the forests around them, Ishtra worked to make the Living Fire, the Hearth Fires of the Elves. These green flames would burn no living thing, but could kiln clay and give light to the elves.
The first Elf Empress, Mistra Goldeneyes was named by Ishtra as Keeper of the Hearth and Ruler of All. She rules to this day, some seven millennia hence. Her age and wisdom have ruled fairly and well over the ages, they say, but even some Elves speak (when they think no flame hears) of a growing madness within her.
She burns with a desire to rule and conquer, she has grown inflexible in her ways. Darkness clouds and consumes the Nature she once wielded to the benefit of all. She sees shadows of treachery in her own communes and even her Mandarins are suspect. She organizes the Celestial Bureaucracy under her command in ways that set factions against one another, carefully playing the game of keeping power distributed and isolated – preventing a Coup or rebellion. She demands the loyalty of thousands of Lords in her home on the largest Continent known on this world, Aethria. She dwells in the Forbidden City of Liu Xan, where no peasant or mortal may stride.
Only one group ever openly challenged her rule, and that drove her to the breaking point. Their tale follows below.
The upstart God Alfric, God of Machines and the Forge, made the Gnomes in ages past. The gnomes were never a solitary people, preferring the company of Humans and Dwarves, their cousins. They lived is communities tied to their cousins’ own communities and served their function of bringing new ideas and inventions to the Talking Breeds. Well, they tried. Much of what they made and built and even drew made no sense at all to the other breeds, or sometimes even their fellow Gnomes. Possessed of the “Spark of Alfric”, a Gnome Tinker was a force not to be reckoned with as much as to stay out of the way of. Gnomes were innovative, but lacked the craftsmanship of the Dwarves or the focus of the humans. Alfric grinned over them and the three races spread wise over the chain of islands resting in the Sea of Larga.
Gnomes never liked ruling, nor did Dwarves, so Humans took the torch of leadership and gave homage to Alfric as well as their multitudinous Human Gods. The Dwarves cast out all Gods and Goddesses as madness and dwelled deep in their Sunken Halls beneath the waves and deep within the mountains. Humanity built a great Network of island city-states, each independent politically, but interdependent by trade. The Gnomes lived next to Humanity and helped guide the development of this network, with Alfric’s Truism “where goods cross the waters, warships will not have to”. Humans never felt that they were being manipulated out of forming a massive empire, but they were. Gnomes detested such constructs and worked to prevent their development whenever possible. All was as Alfric wished until the day Human met Elf.
Ten years ago, in the 1,327th year of Man’s civilization (1327 HC), the first Elves came to the City-State of Carron’s Wedge. Many celebrated the meeting of new people, especially as the wedge was but a small colony on the outskirts of the Human Reaches. Trade talks were made and discussed, but the Elves seemed to be beyond understanding these concepts. They took one look at the way Humans, Dwarves, and Gnomes lived and told the Elders of Carron’s Wedge simply this, “Our way is better. Bend knee to our Empress and our Goddess and we will place you back in concert with Nature. We will show you our ways, and remove toil from your lives. We will give you hearth fires, so you may know peace and be at one with the world around you. Swear allegiance now or we will punish your wicked ways.”
Carron listen to what he was told and the looming might of the warships of the Elves made him nervous for his people. Help was too far off to call for aid and there seemed to be no choice but to give in to the demands of this Fleet Captain and his conquering force. During this period, he spoke with his advisor from the temple of Alfric, who advised no surrender. The Gnomes, he was told, would handle this problem.
What happened next is largely conjecture. One of the ships of the Elven Fleet began to scream as fire engulfed it from an unknown source. The other ship was seen to have a balloon of some sort over it with small figures repelling down onto its decks. Red lights glistened everywhere and crossbow fire was heard in a chaotic cacophony. The second ship was disabled, but left alive and able to return with the Fleet Captain bearing the message given to Carron by his Gnomish benefactor, “The islands south of here are protected by Alfric and his Legion. Come any further, or bring more of your filthy authority here and you will find more of your ships burning and more of your sailors bleeding on your decks.”
It was, many say, not the best day in Diplomacy on either side…
What followed was a massive naval and land war. Elves recognized that the Gnomes were the Breed that resented most their offer and who stood the best chance to overthrow them. Humans were too scattered and disorganized, Dwarves did little that the Elves considered to be objectionable, since Elves were not offended by stonework or metalwork and Dwarves considered animal meat a delicacy – one they could do without for the sake of peace. Skipping by the compliant Humans and Dwarves, they only fought those Dwarves and Humans who pressed for independence and refused to bow to their Empire. As they went, all Gnomes were executed and all temples of Alfric were razed.
The Wizard’s Guild made some separate agreement with the Elves and declared themselves neutral to the conflict, allowing Wizards to fight on either side as their loyalties demanded. The Elves ignored the Wizards Guild’s Academy, which floated above the seas that were increasingly running wet with the colors of all Breeds’ blood.
The Humans and Dwarves who stood beside the Gnomes fought hard for their cousins, but the Gnomes could ask no more of them after a time. At the final battle of Hogan’s Limit (seven years after the start of the War), the Gnomes thanked their cousins and laid down arms to surrender to the Elves. The Elven Lords spared those who stood with the Gnomes that day, but every Gnomish prisoner was put to death, torn to death in the Vine-pits of the Elven Fleet.
In the months after the War’s end, the Elves installed Lords in every major city they had conquered during the war. Pockets of Humans Dwarves, and even a stray Gnome or two, escaped further South into Ork waters, never to be heard from again. Some found islands apart to hide until the Elven Lords find them. Some just bore the burden of defeat where they were.
The Elves did do as they said they would. They began to teach their laws and ways to the captured islands. Hearths and Temples began to be built, carrying the fires of their Goddess deeper South. Animal slaughter and consumption was banned, as was woodworking and the use of any fire but the green flames of the Goddess. Clay, stone, silk, fruit, rice, bamboo, and metal became the tools of the new civilization. The Elven Lords brought their way of life and their government to the Islands, and enforced it with an Iron Fist. Stick men and Vine-Pits continued to punish those who did not tow the line.
For some, this new lifestyle was a great boon – money no longer exchanged hands in those places where the temples had been built. Scarcity was forgotten, as fruits and rice and grain were plentiful in places where temple hearths burned. Seven times a day, all citizens of the Empire bend to the Goddess and the Empress who shelters them to pay homage.
The Elves continue to spread their influence, converting their conquered lands to their ways at a steady rate. Humans and Dwarves who have been ‘Enlightened” now travel to the islands yet to receive temples and preach of the coming of the Goddess to those lands and the bounty She brings her servants. Humans still worship their many Gods and Dwarves tunnel deeper and deeper into mountain and seabed to get away from a surface world that confuses and shames them.
Not all have cowed to the demands of the Elves. Smugglers trade in beef, poultry, game animals, fur, lumber, and any other contraband that the Elves forbid their subjects. Rebels forms resistance cells and perform what harassment they can. Temples hide pockets of Gnomes and Rebels from the Wild Hunt. Stick-men and Zombies, leftovers from the War, stalk in the shadows and attack those they still class as enemies.
Every month, the Forest gets more and more dark; the nature around the islands grows more twisted by the hearth fires and the Madness of the Elf Empress. Elves bear ancient scrolls and art that speak of them as a once-great Empire of ideas where Nature was loved – butterflies and flowers a common theme, but the truth is that Elves have become clinging vines and mosquitoes – dead leaves and fungus. The bestial and predatory replace the calm and serene more and more. The people who they govern do not want to see this – their bellies are fuller than during the War, they no longer worry about being rich or poor – just faithful and correct of mind.
Trade continues in the underdeveloped islands further to the South and free traders do some business, keeping free on the seas – the last place that offers true freedom, but at a cost. Food is scarce, Elves patrol the seas and search trade ships for contraband, and pirates grow more common as desperate men turn to crime for relief.
Temples continue to offer the balm of the Gods to those who will listen. Humans are known as the Breed of a 1000 Gods by the Dwarves, due to their many and varied Pantheons. Clerics have power that cannot be denied in this age, but the looming threat of the Elf Goddess creeps further South to meet it. The Elves allow other worship, but have a system of Celestial Bureaucracy that establishes the Elf Goddess as the Great and Enlightened Mistress of All Gods. Forgetting this simple fact, or forgetting your place in that hierarchy, is punished severely.
Each conquered island has an Elven Lord who rules it. Some of them are decent and care for their charges, some rule by the threat of the Vine Pit, a pit of moving briar vines that tear at their victims and soak in their blood – the method of execution favored by the Elf Cult. Each Lord has lackeys and some may command teams of elves brought from their old homes or Stickmen enchanted to do their master’s will. Elven Mandarins are experts at governance, but care little for the spirit of their people. They obey forms and regulations regardless of cost. People starve on some islands where cows are plenty, because meat is forbidden them. People shiver in the chill night because woodcutting is forbidden them. The only heat or light allowed by law is the hearth and its fires – and the Elf Goddess looks about from these. Too often, Freedom is traded for Security or Comfort. Too often, Men become willing slaves to a power that will take care of their needs and give them a purpose they can’t find on their own.
As I mentioned above, the Guild allowed us Wizards to back any cause we wanted. The Academy and the Guild were neutral, but the Elves never asked that the Academy bear a Hearthstone, making many of us suspect that some arrangement may have been made. The Academy continues to pick and educate Wizards from all over the world. The Elves do not stop this, and Wizards are afford great status in their Celestial Order, provided you were Politically Hygienic in your choice of factions during the War. No doubt when they find me, I will find a home in Vine-pit.
Orks have been sighted to the South and their galleys come further north each season. No one has heard of a raid, but the Elves have assigned war fleets to patrol for them in greater numbers. When even the mighty Elven Lords speak of Ork, they do so with a touch of fear. Stories of their bloody raids spread far and wide, and the Gnomes and Rebels who went South after the War have never been heard from again…
Undead continue to stalk islands, attacking those they see as enemies. With the War over, there is no one to tell them to stand down. Gnomish golems occasionally find a target boat or island for its failing systems to lock onto. Stickmen that once served dead Elves still wander the woods. Predator animals become more twisted and bold each season after occupation. Elf Lords frown on any killing beasts, and sometimes refuse to aid communities plagued by them.
Gnomish hoards and boltholes still exist after the War and occasionally a treasure hunter will find one and hire a crew to search them for trade items and treasure. The traps inside are wicked, and some are overrun by the beasts and monsters summoned to kill their inhabitants, but the rewards are often worth the risks. Dragon caves are also a common target of treasure hunters and adventurers, as are lost Temples and Guildhalls.
Ghost of the Fallen still haunt the battlefields they fought on, and Ghost ships sometimes are spotted on dark nights. The Gods have not the power to set to rest the soul of a body unburied… Sometimes, people will hire professionals to set someone to rest – or remove ghosts from their homes and communities. Ghost-hunter Clerics and Wizards and their entourages do good business on some islands (even Elves need their services on occasion).
Smuggling is always lucrative, and never more than when the government marks as contraband things that keep people alive, well fed, and prepared. Smugglers are just as likely to be idealists as criminals, but the treatment they can expect is the same. Eleven Fleets patrols reserve the right to board and inspect all ships and, with Ork threats looming, they have become much more active in the Sea of Larga.
We have also attached a report from Lord Stalmon Rivertrack describing the look and feel of Brandenburg, a typical city in the conquered lands. His domain has yet to see the full beauty of the Goddess, so it will lack some of the refinements we have come to expect of cities filled with Acolytes and Brothers. Please keep this in mind.
My Brother, High Lord Kardis Longbranch,
I hope this letter finds you in good spirits and filled with bounty of service to the Goddess and Empress. My own bounty suffers somewhat as I find my patience tried in handling the strange pagan ways of these Humans and Dwarves.
As you well know, my fief is called Brandenburg, and is what passes for a major city in these parts. The center of the city follows the standard layout of Human cities, a fountain sits that the center where water from the nearby ocean is brought and purified by the gifts of their Pagan Gods. The structures here are built in huddles close together with large stretches of land stripped to bare dirt that they call roads. The buildings are not tall, seldom taller than three stories, and are mostly made of dead wood. I can scarcely bear to look at them and have been converting them to adobe and Living wood as quickly as my work crews can manage. I am doing my best to encourage grass to grown once more over the roads they once used, but many were lined with pebbles and some have cobblestones. These materials are less offensive to me, so I have not made great efforts to wipe them away as I have all of the structures made of the dead trees.
The heart stone was installed in front of my house and burns bright with the green flames of our Goddess. I can feel her power flow from it, but the people seldom stand in her presence except during the required festivals. I am sure once the Priests arrive and a Temple is built, these people will have discovered the many benefits of our way of life. In the mean time, I make sure that my forces reinforce the concept that proper behavior entitles one to more of the bounty of our Goddess.
The rice patties we use to feed the people have started to provide enough food to meet demand, and we have started to reap bounties of fruits and vegetables from our gardens – human gardens were, as all Human things, placed in a designated area, but we have shown them how to cultivate wild gardens in our way. The people work for much of the day, as any Elf would, but instead of enjoying the fires of the Goddess and a time of pleasure and merriment and night, they fall into some sort of trance for most of the night. What a waste their lives are!
The town has several human facilities within it that are standard to the strange needs of humans. Most humans live in houses with their immediate clan unit, they dress in fabrics made of either our silk or older clothes made of their wool. I have observed the collection of wool from the sheep around here, and found it to be without harm. As such, wool production is still allowed. Leather (their name for dead cow skin that is worked in a morbid fashion) has been strictly forbidden by the Goddess’s decree. The humans are adjusting to the use of silk, metal, ceramic, and bamboo to replace the materials they once raped from Mother Earth. I see in them minds that are adaptive, and I still feel these people will embrace the truths of the Goddess soon.
I, like most Lords in the area, have allowed the continued use of dead wood that was gathered and worked before our coming. I hope this reinforces that we are a boon to these people, not a terror. I fear that few of them feel this yet. I hear whispers and my stickmen observe seditious attitudes with great frequency, but one must choose one’s battles. The human and dwarf ships are odd in design, and do not have the advantages of our living-wood craft, but they do allow them to bring in supplies from elsewhere. Much of this is bartered using a system of economics that I am beginning to master for the brief time it will be needed.
As to the fighters here, none are as skilled as we have. Humans and dwarves both depend far too much on weapons, their threat value without one of their inelegant weapons is childlike. My forces here carry only ceremonial weapons for patrols, drawing blade only for true threats. They have some simple archery, but their deadwood bows are no match for Elven skills. I have bundled and worked living-wood into the guardians the Humans call “stickmen” to serve my will and they move about as a constant reminder of Law and Order to the people. Some of them are found dead in the morning. When we find who did it, we let them feed the Holy Vine-pit as a reminder that “Faithful Brothers Stay Together”. Each one that dies brings us closer to the day that none feel compelled to spit in the Goddesses face as she gives them her full bounty.
I shall continue to serve in this position, but I wish those I have shepherd over better respected me. Time will come and they will forget the black call of the Gnome God and his heresy. They will learn that no one is alone, that we are all one and that what is best for all of us is more important than what is best for each of them. As I am, so shall they be.
Your Brother in Faith,
Lord Stalmon Rivertrack
His Celestial Accordant of the Conquered City of Brandenburg, Magistrate of her Most Bountiful and Filled With Justice Fleet, Maker of Enlightened Songs of Unending Joy, Undersecretary of Blissful Awareness of the Bounty