The Dirty Truth about Elves

 

“Never trust an Elf.”  And that should be the end of it, but humans are foolish and it is the doom of men that they forget.  Today in the Northern Province, it is wise to keep your Elvin slaves hidden or at the very least keep their faces and heads covered.  It is tradition to brand your elves with the symbol of the Bar & Cross for the memory of the men who stood and fought to buy their people time during the incursion war.  It is not uncommon to see a group of Elvin slaves chained to a wagon, naked and barefoot with black hoods on painted with the red of the Bar & Cross. 

Though few in the Northern Province have even heard of Shiboa it is also unlikely that dark elves have found their way up north as slaves or assassins.  There is a drink at the FreeWinds tavern in Brighton that was inspired by the Owners trip through Shiboa, and one of the Fletches of Woodwake makes a few tips in the Shiboan style for grappling and snaring.  The Lord Hale Darkhearth claims Shiboan Blood line (distant but it does not show in his face).   Some time ago, during the Winter months when the sea moves north, a Ptolegian ship put in and the way to Tarsus and tried to sell half a hold full of slaves from the Dark Islands but no one want’s more elves up here, not even for 1 Silver a piece.

There are two scholars that speak and write in the Dark Tongue and will teach it to any Elvish Speaker for one slot.  They will not teach the reading and the Writing of the Dark Elvin runes though.  Some of the more Veteran of the sailors have had run in with the Dark elves and some even have acquired some of their skills in subterfuge and sea combat as well as swimming and grappling feats.

While the occasional Elf may pass through populations in Strong Company, where there is a will there is a way, and many an adventuring Elf has been killed in his sleep or in a street or a pub or leaving town despite the company it keeps. 

It has been less than 200 years since the Incursion war.  A time when the Nation of Westfolden, or, the Gray Elves wiped out almost all human life in the Northern Province to a man.  The story of the Bench is still told and can silence a room.  When the killing started, the Priestesses of Leah Dah were the first to fight and the first to warn the King.  The passes and the forts fell next, SeaHolm, Tolla, Mount Ocean, Delian’s Key, Witchwake, Escantia, Coldwall, Highunder Towers, Hollowell, Geret by the Sea, High Geret and many others.  The City of the King in the North was next, then the Lords, the Hamlets, and the farms.  Longman knew what was coming and though he was wounded by his lieutenant thinking him a coward, he had all the lands within a day’s ride emptied and send south across the bench, and then he followed with what was left of man.  The Elves were fast.  Not a single person had made the three day walk by the time the First of the Leafwinders appeared and the fighting retreat began in earnest. After only half a day, he ordered all the remaining men to stand and fight and sell their lives hard and there he fell before sunset, and some say it was Tearbringer itself that slew him, and whether he was the last to die or the first it doesn’t matter, for the treachery of the Elves, the will of their god Malfator and the broken hearts of those brave men of the King at hearing that help would not come from the South, poisoned them against all life and now they wake and walk the bench and in fury and rage extinguish ALL life that dares walk where they could not.

Some lived, most of those families that were driven before Deal and the last of the Men of the North, but many of the rest died in valleys and hills and behind stones, in cellars and of those dead, most still lay buried only by leaves and time.

If that had been the last of it, there may have been a kind of forgetting that occurs in the wound death makes in long memory, but it is yearly that the Emissaries come down from the peaks and kill, claiming heirlooms of their nation from when it peopled these lands in the ancient past.  Many tombs of their people lay in the Northern Province and not a few of their kings and great men lay buried here still.  The Tomb of Varith can be visited with just half a days ride west of the Kings City, and their great Monarch Oovardiis, now a demigod by definition of power alone, still haunts the lands, as the Nehi was once his Gardens, and the Quarry his old keep from the living days.  Ess is where the Elvin Hero Bell broke Akua’s Tooth almost 3 thousand years ago, it is always been the home of Suel or the Green Man, and three houses of elves still live in the province, the House of Walislitis, the House of Irion and the House of Highunder. 

Carmen Walisliti is a feared swordswoman and human retainer of the Family as well as wife of Rian Walisliti the third son of Rule.  She is feared more than hated and will kill anyone who profanes her family name. 

Mokk Irion is probably the Only elf that is tolerated if not seen as a Non-elf, by the people near Bricking.  His House is generous, strong and one of the three Lords or three Crowns of Bricking, in that his House, Lord Brahdies and the Gold Witch of Cryoon all live near to and protect the city like it was their own.

Baril Highunder House fought the Elves alongside the Leahdists.  His has given his ancestral home to the King and it alone is still staffed by the Guard and the Sages Guild and has a Cleave or Wardens who operate in the province from Highunder Towers. His Daughter Carr is half Elvin and married Turny Browns, a Man, and runs a Winery in Bricking with him and their children.  Their family are well loved.

So while there may be exceptions to the rule, the environment is not favorable to them and time usually discourages trust or proves it misplaced.

Elves will fetch a price one tenth that of a human and half that of a Kord.  Some will buy elves in the markets just to kill them on the spot so as not to have to look at them or have them breathing our air.  The Only true benefit of an Elvin slave is that they are Docile. 

There is no position in the Kingdom on slavery.  If you had the money or the reputation and we were not in the isolated Northern Province and there was not a War to decide the future of the existence of the Light in the World raging and devouring what was left of human kind, you could go the sages guild to have them judge a slave and they would see their past and how they became a slave and either approve the ownership or free the slave.  This has saved many brothers, sons, daughters, sisters from the yoke of slavery. 

The Leafwinders are Holy warriors from the Nation of Westfolden, like the Vistilry of Ingveroon only they are superior fighters and are unmatched in their application of stealth and subterfuge.  They are loners and with the exception of the Incursion war, or, the Great War as it is called in the North, they are always encountered alone.  They wear no armor and usually are painted black or dark green.  They wield the Holy weapons of the Lost age before the Light and they move so fast that some believe they can teleport.  They are unmatched in combat.  The Warden Yule told a story of being struck 7 times with a staff for each time he managed to land a blow with his sword.  He said when he missed his second strike he drove his sword into the earth and offered the Leafwinder his life as it was clear to him the Elf could have taken it whenever he wanted.  When he opened his eyes the elf was gone.  Do not be deceived. Yule was no slouch.  Before the King recruited him, he was one of the most successful dragon hunters in the Northern Province.  At the time he met the Leafwinder he was a Hart in a Cleave though travelling alone to get word to the snow fort Whitecrawl of the sighting of a Great Blue Dragon in the area.  It was Akua that Yule had seen, newly returned after 2000 years and the fight took place before Akua closed the bench and started sinking ships and burning nearby forts.  Yule later died fighting Akua on the road along with 20 other men, all of them Heros’

The Emissaries are elite fighters of the elves and could best be related to the Lords who serve the King with their Name.  They are political figures in their land as well and some have been known to command armies.  Most Emissaries are Invokers now as well as swordsman, though during the Great War before the rise of the Invoker Amy, they were merely Martial Masters.  The last sighting of an Emissary was in the winter last when Adventurers helped them breach a vault in the Quarry.  They were looking for a Phylactry and had reason to believe that a few of the Adventureres were close and wanted to press the discovery and aid them and of course, make it worth their while.  That was the fabled Blue Concubines Hoard and the silver from the vault is still makes its rounds in taverns.  A painting of her feet, taken from the Vault hangs at Witchminister.  The sorceress Ladry Arutra wears the Blue Concubines Dagger around her waist.  She was one of the adventurers to breach to room with the Emissaries.  She can be found at the fights with her men.  The most impressive take from the Vault besides the Phylactry was Agoro the White Bull; a minotaur, still alive, an albino, capable of spell craft and strong beyond reasonable comparison.  He was the Eunuch Oovardiis empowered to protect his concubine.  He now drinks at the Hayman’s Wake where he has fallen in love with a young cleaning girl.  He speaks several languages including an accented common.

High Elves are mostly from the White plains and have hated the Gray Elves for longer than the Humans have been here.  Called High Elves by the First men, they are the escaped slaves of the Gray Elves.  They are only slightly taller than men and most are Half Elvin.  The First Kings; Ptolemy, John, Vicar, Omrod, Galas, Vidu Gavia, Bohemond and Tancred, Only Ptolemy sailed beyond Shiboa and landed in the isles far west of the coast.  Of the thirteen city states that grew from his ships and his loins, four have survived the uprising.  When Ptolemy landed, he was met by the High Elves on the shore and in moments knew is flight from home in need had brought him to these people whom he loved and were themselves in need.  800 years later, the Houses of the Plaines or the Great Elvin Houses and the Ptolegian Princes mingled their blood and their culture and knowledge and now, The Ptolegian peoples are all human and Elvin though some pure blood remains.

When the current turns in the winter and the sea flows north, ships from the Ptolegies arrive with aid and trade.  Some make it as far north as the Northern Province but the numbers have dropped greatly since the war.  When the sun turns back in the spring and the world ocean falls back down the coast towards Kias, Danikans sail from Lydia, Price and Tarsus with aid and goods.  Though strictly sailors they will sometimes have Elf crews.  The captains know enough to keep them on board when they make landfall in the NP.

Elves are connected to the Fey.  For that reason Elves have a stat called Affinity.  It can go from 1-100 and generally starts at a 1.  This number is used for determining how and when an elf can interact with the Fey and what the outcome will be.

For instance, a 1 means that an elf has a better chance than a human at spotting faeries, of Fey creatures.  it does not give them a good chance at convincing them to help.  An elf with a 20 will be able to converse with the fey, and some Fey will actually seek out the elf.  At this point the Elf will probably have the chance of gaining a Fey Familiar.  At 50 points of Affinity, an Elf can summon Fey Creatures, impose on a Dryad, Curse someone, and lift a curse.  At 75 points of Fey, an Elf is considered to be a powerful Fey Creature themselves and their opinion matters, they command a score of Fey creatures and can easily be healed in unspoiled wilderness.  at 100 point in Affinity, an elf draws Fey Creatures to them wherever they are and become somewhat legendary in the world.

A character gains Affinity through role playing and acting in the best interest of the Fey.