While traveling through the elvan realm of Illanthia, I paid particularly close attention to their spiritual practices. The quiet respect elves have for their surroundings is personified in a divine presence which is considered to be the source of all life and growth in elvish lands. The Shining One, as they refer to it, is a genderless being of pure light and vitality who is said to have created the elvan people at the dawn of time and taught them a considerable array of civilized skills.
Ceremonies to the Shining One are usually held at dawn to welcome the sunrise and involve quiet communion with the living world. The Shining One's clergy are known as Emissaries of the Silver Light. It is their duty to seek excellence in all goals and to achieve artistry in the pursuit of those goals, no matter how mundane. Emissaries see to the health of the elvan nation as a whole. The forest is, of course, their first concern, but their efforts extend to all peaceful living beings within its borders.
Elf female
The line between official clergy and layperson is somewhat blurred in elvan society. Many of the Shining One's core teachings are reflected in their everyday living. In general, possibly due to their extended lifespans, elves believe in precision and planning over thoughtless acts of overt force. To them, the living world has its own order and flow and to understand and become part of that flow is to become one with the world. Life is of particular value, never to be taken in cruelty and always to be avenged when it is. While these beliefs coincide with the edicts of the Shining One, it doesn't necessarily mean that all elves consider themselves to be true Emissaries. In fact, only the most devout feel a need to officially join the clergy in the realization of their beliefs.
It is significant to note that the elves of New Illanthia seem to have less of a connection to the Shining One than the citizens of their mother land. This distancing of their beliefs has been attributed to two particular historical events. In the 116th year of the Age of Strife, a secret Illanthian convoy was dispatched by sea for their relatively new colony in the east. Tensions and intermittent battle with the Larocians had been gradually wearing away at morale in New Illanthia, so the Council of Tal Adrel prepared for them a special gift. Their most revered hierophants harvested a seed from the sacred Talad, the elvan tree of life, and prepared it for the eastern territory. It was thought that this Taladius, child of the Talad, would reinvigorate the eastern territory. The convoy never reached New Illanthia and the Talad seed was lost.
The council of Tal Adrel immediately blamed the humans and sent forces into Far Larocia. The king claimed no responsibility but was more than willing to reciprocate with hostility. The elves of New Illanthia became demoralized with the loss of their Talad seed and further so as they were forced to endure the brunt of the Larocian retaliation. Many colony elves began to feel like the Shining One no longer watched over them since they'd left Illanthia. The situation simmered for almost a century while support from Illanthia dwindled and war with the Larocians gained momentum. Tension created a prime opportunity for one of the most infamous elvan outlaws of all time.
In AS 207, a young elvan Emissary of the Silver Light arrived in Tal Edrin and joined the military forces there. Sithern Kaas was a fervent soldier with considerable skill who rose quickly through the ranks. Once promoted to a command position, he proved to have a talent for leadership and tactics as well, although his arrogance marked him as something of a dissident. In a matter of a few short years, he and his company made a name for themselves as a quick, efficient and highly successful force. As Kaas' reputation continued to grow, so too did his following. Willful and disenchanted elves who had previously avoided military service lined up to enroll under his command. He had single-handedly rejuvenated faith in the teachings of the Shining One. In AS 225, Kaas used his celebrity to force Athanial Rainsinger, the council representative in Tal Edrin, to release control of his military forces directly to him. This autonomy allowed him to mobilize his soldiers without the need to consult with military bureaucracy. A month later, he launched the first of a series of daring assaults which reclaimed sixty years of lost territory from the Larocians.
Once the New Illanthian borders had been secured, the council ordered Kaas to stand down, but he refused, boldly continuing to push on into Larocian territory. His goal was not to protect his people anymore. He wanted to destroy the Larocians once and for all. Stunned by his outright defiance, the council stripped him of his rank and publicly denounced him, but there was little else they could do to stop him. They had unwittingly given him all the power he needed to defy them. With two full companies of loyal soldiers and an elite task force of mages at his disposal, Sithern spearheaded toward the Larocian capital of Talus. The Illanthian council hoped that without troop and supply support from New Illanthia, his advancement would slow to a standstill as he pressed further into enemy territory, but Sithern had been shrewdly preparing for this day since he had first come to the east. |
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Early in his career, he had struck a secret alliance with a powerful group of outlaw elvan necromancers, the same elves who later disguised their natures and came to serve as his inner circle in New Illanthia. After Kaas went rogue and the first Larocian settlements fell, the necromancers raised battalions of corpses to swell the ranks of their leader's army. Undead troops needed no rest, nor did they require food or shelter. With each victory, Sithern's army grew and continued to march on Talus with even greater, tireless strength. The human forces were unprepared for such an aggressive advance and could only watch and wait helplessly for the first wave of bloodthirsty troops to hit the walls of their capital. They were simply outmatched.
While the New Illanthian elves bore no love for the Larocians, the sacrilegious actions of one of their own shamed them deeply and they mustered all their resources in an effort to destroy Sithern Kaas. Direct assault was doomed to failure. Kaas was a legendary general who already had command of a good portion of the New Illanthian troops and every soldier that fell on either side would only rise again to serve him as an undead atrocity. They needed to find Kaas' weakness and exploit it.
In the spring of AS 226, as Sithern's forces closed on Talus and its hastily-gathered defenders, Athanial Rainsinger abruptly offered the rogue elf New Illanthia's unconditional surrender. The council knew Kaas would suspect a trap, but hoped he would be unable to pass up the opportunity to add all of New Illanthia and its resources to his malicious crusade. Fortunately, his lust for power overwhelmed caution. Surrounded by his elite guard of necromancers, Sithern left the head of his army and traveled to the capital of Tal Edrin to take control of New Illanthia from Rainsinger. The council representative anxiously awaited Sithern's arrival with a troop of soldiers who hovered nearby in hiding, ready to strike down the heretic the instant he showed himself. As predicted, Kaas had indeed sensed a trap, and his retaliation took the would-be attackers by surprise.
As an Emissary of the Silver Light, Sithern knew of the sleeping grove near the heart of the city where the dead of Tal Edrin were interred. As possibly the most severe violation of his vows, he commanded his necromancers to rip the spirits of these dead elves from their rest and bind them into service. Within moments, instead of having Kaas at their mercy, Rainsinger and his elves were left fighting for their lives against the tortured shades of their very ancestors. But, for once, after years of dealing with Sithern in a professional capacity, Athanial had been equally prepared. As Sithern and his inner circle used the chaos of battle to slip out of the city, they unwittingly stepped into the true trap.
A flawless volley of mithril-tipped arrows streaked out of the darkness and decimated the traitors. Though wounded, Sithern and his remaining cohorts broke desperately for the wilderness. The Hunters of Tal Edrin, highly-trained peacekeepers of the realm, followed close behind. It was their singular goal to hunt down Sithern Kaas and he had finally run out of schemes. Tales tell of how he fought to the last, hatefully cursing his people with every breath until, at last, the Hunters ended his corrupt existence. The place where his lifeblood spilled remains corrupted by necromantic energy to this day and the deadened grove that lies north of Tal Edrin is referred to as Sithern's Scar.
Elf male
Sithern Kaas' death brought about an unspoken cease fire between the humans and elves of the east. War continued just as fervently as ever in the west, but New Illanthia and Larocia proper had just survived a severe common threat together and hostilities between them cooled. For many years afterward, the two engaged in little more than half-hearted border skirmishes and there was even some limited friendly exchange between their cultures. While tensions would rise again in the closing century of the Age of Strife, this grudging respect influenced both regions and may even have set the stage for the first treaties which resulted in the historical Pact of Merriton. The influence of Larocia during these more peaceful years, coupled with Sithern Kaas' betrayal of his people, shifted many elves away from the teachings of the Shining One and gave rise to a renewed interest in pure natural magic that continues to exist strongly in New Illanthia today.
- Kitterwen, Chief Historian of Ignilly University |
