Difference between revisions of "Eranon's Stuff he knows"

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Line 21: Line 21:
  
 
==HISTORY==
 
==HISTORY==
????
+
===Elves===
 +
The elves are more like the elder fey than any of the
 +
other fey races of Eredane, both physically and culturally.
 +
They are a slight race, lithe, quick, and agile. They are all
 +
children of nature, and even with their ancient culture and
 +
powerful magic, they still live close to the wilds as part of the
 +
Great Forest. They are a unified people, allied not only to
 +
tribes or family groups but instead to a single royal line that
 +
rules over all of Erethor. The racial devotion to their High
 +
Queen Aradil is akin to worship, and though there is a large
 +
and powerful Council of the Throne, it seldom opposes
 +
Aradil’s will. Despite this greater shared history and culture,
 +
there remain various subraces of elvenkind, each with its own
 +
unique physical traits and ways of life.
 +
 
 +
====Caransil (Wood Elves)====
 +
The elves of central Erethor, the Caransil or wood
 +
elves, are the most widespread and familiar of the woodland
 +
fey. They range from the southern Highhorns, eastward to the
 +
Plains of Eris Aman and the Westlands, and south to the
 +
Aruun Jungle. Their skin is the beautiful brown of ino tree
 +
wood, and their hair tends to be long, shiny, and black. Their
 +
eyes are large and dark, and they are the tallest of the elves.
 +
They wear a variety of clothes, from the dark and mottled
 +
camouflage leathers of a scout’s kit to the sunset brilliance of
 +
a courtier’s elaborate silks.
 +
These elves live in enormous maudrial, or homewood,
 +
trees that have been coaxed to grow in elegant but useful
 +
domestic shapes by age-old spells. The Caransil eat mostly
 +
fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. They supplement their
 +
diets with rabbits and grouse raised in family hutches and
 +
with river fish from the Gamaril and Felthera.
 +
The wood elves are traditionally the artists, philosophers,
 +
and craftsmen of Erethor. They are also the lineage
 +
from which have come the greatest sorcerers and battle
 +
mages of recent times. Their warriors carry longbows and
 +
longswords.
 +
 
 +
====Danisil (Jungle Elves)====
 +
These elves of the southern reaches of Erethor, where
 +
temperate forest gives way to tropical jungle, are small,
 +
slight, and ebony skinned. Historians speculate that they may
 +
be the elven line from which the halflings were born. The
 +
uninitiated consider the Danisil “feral elves,” but their culture
 +
is as sophisticated as that of their cousins. Many of Erethor’s
 +
most powerful druids are of the Danisil lineage.
 +
Their hair is dark and coarse and typically worn in short
 +
dreadlocks. Their eyes are black and so narrow that the
 +
whites barely show. They dress in loose shorts and brightly
 +
painted vests, but when hunting, they wear only layers of
 +
river mud to hide them from both sight and scent. Adults typically
 +
adorn their faces and arms with strangely beautiful patterns
 +
of ritualistic scarring. The scars are said to frighten
 +
away evil spirits.
 +
The Danisil live in boa-bil groves along the many small
 +
rivers of the Aruun Jungle. Their druids enchant vines to form
 +
large slings that suspend their tiny huts high in the jungle
 +
canopy. They live off the fruits of the forest but are also cunning
 +
hunters. They are good fishermen and use fleets of delicate
 +
canoes to fish and hunt along their rivers.
 +
The jungle elves have mastered the use of poison
 +
arrows and have developed several toxic elixirs uniquely
 +
effective against orcs. They also carry wide curved fighting
 +
knives called sepi. Izrador’s invaders learned long ago to fear
 +
these ugly little blades, but have little need to venture into the
 +
dark Aruun; the fell demons of that place fight on Izrador’s
 +
behalf without the dark god having to expend a single soldier.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
==QUOTES, MYTHS, LEGENDS, STORIES, AND BELIEFS==
 +
 
 +
''The destiny of the world is Shadow.'' — Anonymous note penned in the margin of the Academy’s Commentaries
 +
 
 +
 
 +
===The Covenant===
 +
The wars with Izrador spawned many great heroes from all the races. The memory of these champions helps to keep the faith among human insurgents and inspire fey defenders who still battle the Shadow today, and some say the strength they gave in the fight against Izrador persists in the weapons they used. <br> Legend says Elenial, an elven girl whose family was killed in the orc raid on Althorin, killed 27 raiders with a single arrow. Sneaking through the burning remains of the town with only one arrow left in her quiver, she would shoot an unsuspecting warrior, watch him die, and then sneak to the corpse and recover her shaft undamaged. She did this time and again, until the entire orc host huddled together in fear and set to hunting her. It is said she killed their leader with her final shot, just before they cut her down. Still today, elven archers running low on arrows recite her name as they loose their flights, asking her boon in guiding their aim. The quiver of Elenial, should one be able to find it, is rumored to never run out of arrows. <br> Aio the Light Foot survived the razing of his village, but everyone and everything he loved was taken that night. Aio was given as a slave to a wealthy legate who wanted a halfling slave to cook his meals. He played the part, but learned to pick the lock on his collar. He stole a knife from the kitchens and snuck into the sleeping orc camps nearby. By the time he left an hour later, there were nine orcs dead in their bedrolls. Aio’s nightly forays continued for several weeks and word quickly spread of his stealth and prowess. Aio himself was eventually captured and executed, yet his blade has found its way into the hands of captive halflings ever since so that they might enact justice upon their captors.
 +
 
 +
===Born and Bred===
 +
Couthlin wrinkled his nose at the rank smell. The odors of sweat, blood, and less polite bodily fluids wafted up to him as he strolled on the elevated walkway. The commoners milled about below in their usual mindless herd. <br> “Civilized!”  <br> The large canine creature preceding him stopped and looked up at him, cocking his head in confusion. The legate frowned and kept walking, yanking on the chain attached to its collar.  <br> “Stupid beast. No, they are not civilized. I was exclaiming in disbelief. Being facetious. Go back to your sniffing.” The astirax-possessed hound obligingly returned to scenting the air. <br> The legate frowned. It was pathetic that he had to rely on one-way communication with a magic-hunting beast. His skills at dialogue and manipulation would be all but blunted by the time he returned to Theros Obsidia. Asnort from the astirax snapped Couthlin from his thoughts. The canine form was watching a passing figure below, quite intently. Couthlin’s dark eyes.followed as well, noticing a suspicious narrow shape jutting out from beneath the figure’s cloak. Roughly hilt-shaped. “A weapon...magical?” he asked in a hushed tone. The astirax growled in assent. <br> “Then follow,” Couthlin said eagerly, releasing the chain. “Return to me at the temple when you’ve tracked the criminal to his lair.”  <br> The beast slunk into the shadows and trotted after the offending figure...towards its demise, Couthlin hoped. The mage-hunting beast had been witness to too many of Couthlin’s intrigues and coups. The mercenary it now trailed had agreed quickly to his terms: kill the astirax in exchange for the sword the legate had given him. <br> Meanwhile, below, the astirax salivated in anticipation. The scent of magic was heavy in the air...not just from the sword, but from at least a few enchanted crossbow bolts. All of them aimed at the walkway above, where his master walked.  <br> Rather, his former master
 +
 
 +
===The Other Lands of Aryth===
 +
''The peoples of Eredane know little of the lands that lie beyond our seas. Some say the elves of the First Age traveled to all the corners of the world, but even if such legends are true, this lore was almost certainly lost in ages past and was never shared with the wise of other nations. What little we know comes from the records of Dornish and Sarcosan settlers who traveled to Eredane from the eastern continent known as Pelluria in ancient days. Sadly, these records are often little more than folktales and must be held suspect in the light of reason. <br> From fragments of the Histories of the Old Empire, we gather that Pelluria is a land of greater aspect and extension than Eredane, as <br> “a youth shall gray and come to infirmity before crossing the breadth of the Kalif’s dominion.” <br>  Even allowing for the excesses of a culture known for its vanity and embellishment, this suggests a vast continent unconstrained by the great oceans that embrace our land on three sides. Nor is there reason to believe that the “Kalif’s dominion” ever covered all the realms of Pelluria. It is known that the Sarcosan Empire conquered the Dornland river valley in the north. It is believed, however, that the fall of the Old Empire in the Third Age had as much to do with a war against a rival power in the east as with internal decay and the loss of its overseas colonies in the west. <br> The Dorns describe their ancestral home as a land of cold, rugged hills, glacial valleys, and deep, snow-laden forests. In the Sarcosan records, we learn of vast grasslands, endless deserts, and great cities of stone built in the oldest days by the first men of Aryth. The elder races of the fey are unknown in these lands, but the stories speak of stranger peoples that share no blood with the elder fey, of fearsome races that hate all others and feed on the flesh of men. Tales of serpent people and beastmen must be considered little more than fables told for the benefit of wayward children.'' <br> — '''Ilsrid of Highwall''', The Lands of Aryth
 +
 
 +
 
  
  
==MYTHS, LEGENDS, STORIES, AND BELIEFS==
 
????
 
  
  

Revision as of 21:45, 10 July 2007

***EYES ONLY*** This is a specialized "lorebook" of all things that would be immediately available (without skill checks) for the character. Things will be posted as they come up or are asked about. Players other than this character SHOULD NOT read this information.


Players can and SHOULD add to this page the things they KNOW from the stories and events they've been in. Please break it down into the sections noted below - Feel free to add sections as you like.

You may also ask for any information, and based on situation or skill checks that info will/or will not be placed on this page.



PEOPLE

????


PLACES

????


THINGS

????


HISTORY

Elves

The elves are more like the elder fey than any of the other fey races of Eredane, both physically and culturally. They are a slight race, lithe, quick, and agile. They are all children of nature, and even with their ancient culture and powerful magic, they still live close to the wilds as part of the Great Forest. They are a unified people, allied not only to tribes or family groups but instead to a single royal line that rules over all of Erethor. The racial devotion to their High Queen Aradil is akin to worship, and though there is a large and powerful Council of the Throne, it seldom opposes Aradil’s will. Despite this greater shared history and culture, there remain various subraces of elvenkind, each with its own unique physical traits and ways of life.

Caransil (Wood Elves)

The elves of central Erethor, the Caransil or wood elves, are the most widespread and familiar of the woodland fey. They range from the southern Highhorns, eastward to the Plains of Eris Aman and the Westlands, and south to the Aruun Jungle. Their skin is the beautiful brown of ino tree wood, and their hair tends to be long, shiny, and black. Their eyes are large and dark, and they are the tallest of the elves. They wear a variety of clothes, from the dark and mottled camouflage leathers of a scout’s kit to the sunset brilliance of a courtier’s elaborate silks. These elves live in enormous maudrial, or homewood, trees that have been coaxed to grow in elegant but useful domestic shapes by age-old spells. The Caransil eat mostly fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. They supplement their diets with rabbits and grouse raised in family hutches and with river fish from the Gamaril and Felthera. The wood elves are traditionally the artists, philosophers, and craftsmen of Erethor. They are also the lineage from which have come the greatest sorcerers and battle mages of recent times. Their warriors carry longbows and longswords.

Danisil (Jungle Elves)

These elves of the southern reaches of Erethor, where temperate forest gives way to tropical jungle, are small, slight, and ebony skinned. Historians speculate that they may be the elven line from which the halflings were born. The uninitiated consider the Danisil “feral elves,” but their culture is as sophisticated as that of their cousins. Many of Erethor’s most powerful druids are of the Danisil lineage. Their hair is dark and coarse and typically worn in short dreadlocks. Their eyes are black and so narrow that the whites barely show. They dress in loose shorts and brightly painted vests, but when hunting, they wear only layers of river mud to hide them from both sight and scent. Adults typically adorn their faces and arms with strangely beautiful patterns of ritualistic scarring. The scars are said to frighten away evil spirits. The Danisil live in boa-bil groves along the many small rivers of the Aruun Jungle. Their druids enchant vines to form large slings that suspend their tiny huts high in the jungle canopy. They live off the fruits of the forest but are also cunning hunters. They are good fishermen and use fleets of delicate canoes to fish and hunt along their rivers. The jungle elves have mastered the use of poison arrows and have developed several toxic elixirs uniquely effective against orcs. They also carry wide curved fighting knives called sepi. Izrador’s invaders learned long ago to fear these ugly little blades, but have little need to venture into the dark Aruun; the fell demons of that place fight on Izrador’s behalf without the dark god having to expend a single soldier.



QUOTES, MYTHS, LEGENDS, STORIES, AND BELIEFS

The destiny of the world is Shadow. — Anonymous note penned in the margin of the Academy’s Commentaries


The Covenant

The wars with Izrador spawned many great heroes from all the races. The memory of these champions helps to keep the faith among human insurgents and inspire fey defenders who still battle the Shadow today, and some say the strength they gave in the fight against Izrador persists in the weapons they used.
Legend says Elenial, an elven girl whose family was killed in the orc raid on Althorin, killed 27 raiders with a single arrow. Sneaking through the burning remains of the town with only one arrow left in her quiver, she would shoot an unsuspecting warrior, watch him die, and then sneak to the corpse and recover her shaft undamaged. She did this time and again, until the entire orc host huddled together in fear and set to hunting her. It is said she killed their leader with her final shot, just before they cut her down. Still today, elven archers running low on arrows recite her name as they loose their flights, asking her boon in guiding their aim. The quiver of Elenial, should one be able to find it, is rumored to never run out of arrows.
Aio the Light Foot survived the razing of his village, but everyone and everything he loved was taken that night. Aio was given as a slave to a wealthy legate who wanted a halfling slave to cook his meals. He played the part, but learned to pick the lock on his collar. He stole a knife from the kitchens and snuck into the sleeping orc camps nearby. By the time he left an hour later, there were nine orcs dead in their bedrolls. Aio’s nightly forays continued for several weeks and word quickly spread of his stealth and prowess. Aio himself was eventually captured and executed, yet his blade has found its way into the hands of captive halflings ever since so that they might enact justice upon their captors.

Born and Bred

Couthlin wrinkled his nose at the rank smell. The odors of sweat, blood, and less polite bodily fluids wafted up to him as he strolled on the elevated walkway. The commoners milled about below in their usual mindless herd.
“Civilized!”
The large canine creature preceding him stopped and looked up at him, cocking his head in confusion. The legate frowned and kept walking, yanking on the chain attached to its collar.
“Stupid beast. No, they are not civilized. I was exclaiming in disbelief. Being facetious. Go back to your sniffing.” The astirax-possessed hound obligingly returned to scenting the air.
The legate frowned. It was pathetic that he had to rely on one-way communication with a magic-hunting beast. His skills at dialogue and manipulation would be all but blunted by the time he returned to Theros Obsidia. Asnort from the astirax snapped Couthlin from his thoughts. The canine form was watching a passing figure below, quite intently. Couthlin’s dark eyes.followed as well, noticing a suspicious narrow shape jutting out from beneath the figure’s cloak. Roughly hilt-shaped. “A weapon...magical?” he asked in a hushed tone. The astirax growled in assent.
“Then follow,” Couthlin said eagerly, releasing the chain. “Return to me at the temple when you’ve tracked the criminal to his lair.”
The beast slunk into the shadows and trotted after the offending figure...towards its demise, Couthlin hoped. The mage-hunting beast had been witness to too many of Couthlin’s intrigues and coups. The mercenary it now trailed had agreed quickly to his terms: kill the astirax in exchange for the sword the legate had given him.
Meanwhile, below, the astirax salivated in anticipation. The scent of magic was heavy in the air...not just from the sword, but from at least a few enchanted crossbow bolts. All of them aimed at the walkway above, where his master walked.
Rather, his former master

The Other Lands of Aryth

The peoples of Eredane know little of the lands that lie beyond our seas. Some say the elves of the First Age traveled to all the corners of the world, but even if such legends are true, this lore was almost certainly lost in ages past and was never shared with the wise of other nations. What little we know comes from the records of Dornish and Sarcosan settlers who traveled to Eredane from the eastern continent known as Pelluria in ancient days. Sadly, these records are often little more than folktales and must be held suspect in the light of reason.
From fragments of the Histories of the Old Empire, we gather that Pelluria is a land of greater aspect and extension than Eredane, as
“a youth shall gray and come to infirmity before crossing the breadth of the Kalif’s dominion.”
Even allowing for the excesses of a culture known for its vanity and embellishment, this suggests a vast continent unconstrained by the great oceans that embrace our land on three sides. Nor is there reason to believe that the “Kalif’s dominion” ever covered all the realms of Pelluria. It is known that the Sarcosan Empire conquered the Dornland river valley in the north. It is believed, however, that the fall of the Old Empire in the Third Age had as much to do with a war against a rival power in the east as with internal decay and the loss of its overseas colonies in the west.
The Dorns describe their ancestral home as a land of cold, rugged hills, glacial valleys, and deep, snow-laden forests. In the Sarcosan records, we learn of vast grasslands, endless deserts, and great cities of stone built in the oldest days by the first men of Aryth. The elder races of the fey are unknown in these lands, but the stories speak of stranger peoples that share no blood with the elder fey, of fearsome races that hate all others and feed on the flesh of men. Tales of serpent people and beastmen must be considered little more than fables told for the benefit of wayward children.

Ilsrid of Highwall, The Lands of Aryth








PORTAL  |  THE SOUTHIES  |  DURGAZ  |  ERANON  |  ZAL'KAZZIR  |  KYUAD / Bill