Drawing journal

Duel in the caged cart

Let’s go back to Ketzyell. Even tough nobility was forbidden to elves, certain positions of status weren’t. The inquisitorial forces were one. For an elf to rise trough the inquisition, it was needed a certain ruthlessness and determination. And even tough Ketzyell was one of the most sucesfull elves on that departament, that only took her so far as the field missions.

Now she had to deal with a half-elven accused of trashing a tavern, along with a dwarf. Those half-breeds and their human blood…

But, en route to meet the prisoner, she found an add sight, a paladin and a gnome talking friendly, looking like they have gone trough the woods. The paladin quckly aborded her, asking for directions, and about the state of the capital, that he hadn’t visited in months.

They were interrupted. The silence spell had stopped and both Timmy and Alister decided to make as much scandal as they could. The inkeeper then got into the cart to confront the noisy thief. That was what Alister wanted.

He took his hidden blade and tried to stab him, but the inkeeper quickly evaded the stab and extracted a sivlery dagger who went into Alister’s flesh without trouble.

And to make matters worse, charging into the chaos, a dwarf and an elf on their mounts. The dwarf quickly jumped into the cart along with the ram and the small carriage had a royal battle inside, everyone hitting everyone.

That’s when the inquistor and the paladin caught attention of everything there and rushed to see what the hell was happening.

The Human Empire of Order

With no elven royalty and the capital destroyed, the empire faced its certain end. It was the end of the age of the elves. And the beggining of the age of man…

It was with great joy than it wasreceived the announce of the marraige of Herial. During the war he rose trough the templar ranks and attained the title of  General Magister, the most prestigous military rank. After the end of the war he married Princess Luveria, the survival heir after the deaths of Ruvelia and Oyn during the elven war.

With no elven royalty, and with the barbarian tribes leaving (arguing that they made alliegance to the elven king, no another human.) Herial took swift action to restore the imperial power, with the help of the priests of Krita.

He reformed the templar knights, under the name of Paladins, with him as the Grand Maestre of paladins. The inquisitors became a repressive force, coercing the other nobles into joining the reformed Empire. Humans don’t live as long as elves, so Herial hurried up to rebuild his base of power.

As for Ramiel, the last reports of him were dissapearing on Yod during the rain of fire. Quickly the Church accused him of summoning the fires on his mad quest for power, but he was never seen again.

Herial intentionally never had sons with Luveria. He instead took a concubine harem and procreated sons and daugthers, the ancestors of most of the Dukes of this day. The barbarians took hold of the northern lands, and in seven centuries no human army could reconquer them.

Dwarves had a major splitting in their clans following the fall of Yod. They still recognized the authority of the now human Emperor, but they remained secluded on their mountain strongholds. The gnomes scattered and lived as nomads, and stopped paying tribute to the Human emperor, but still living on his lands.

Only a halfling duchy remained, the rest of the land dividing on six human duchys. The power went from an equal distribution to become completely human centric. Herial passed two controversial laws, the first banning elves to be nobility “so this bloodshed born from the madness of age will never repeat again”.

The second one was creating the Magical Academy and forbidding anyone to teach magic without a permit. Thus, effectively controling the arcane users and their training. As a consequence, mages became weaker and a lot of arcane knowledge was lost.

Herial died around 80, long after his wife died assasinated. On the later days of his life he supervised the construction of a new capital, Uttom, and forbade anyone to enter Yod, now a dead city, constantly under magical earthquakes and now the den of evil creatures.

The elven war and the desolation of Yod

To make matters worse, Omdolië fell severely ill shortly after the birth of Oyn. The elven dukes were pressured to make a choice. Queen Ruveliel had gathered enough support from the human leaders. Something frowned upon by the dukes who supported Luveria (the elven Duke Golarion, second uncle of the princess leading them) who tought the matter of sucession should stay between the elves.

The situation came to a climax when Luveria was kidnapped. The accusations flew back and fort and the treath of an armed conflict was inminent.

Until a human called Herial rescued her. This lone hero coming out of nowhere quickly gained acclamation. He claimed to be a orphan, but never revealed where he was taught how to fight, but he surely had a mastery of the sword beyond of a novice warrior. For his bravery, Herial was honored to become a Templar Knight of Krita.

The empire was still on the verge of war, despite the rescue of the princess. The straw that started it was the death of the elven high priest Almarion, the culprit a human of noble house, called Ramiel.

The issue became spiky soon since the house Arban, from which Ramiel hailed, was a supporter of the queen. Soon the house called Ramiel had been disowned years ago, precisely for conspiring against the queen. And accusing Duke Golarion to plant him to kill the priest.

It was the needed pretext. War raged. Elf killed elf, and the lords were killed. Some in battle, some assasinated, but soon both sides started losing their main leaders. Only Golarion and Iskal remained, and with them the war couldn’t end.

Ramiel was hailed as an enemy of mankind, a disgrace to the human race. The High Priest of Krita created an special force to deal with him: the Inquisitors. Ruthless on their pursuit, they proved to be an strong arm for the human armies and soon the church got unexpected influence, earning the trust of elven nobility.

It all dawned on the Battle of Yod, when the armies of Iskal laid siege to the Golarion stronghold in Yod. The whole city was under attack and death was everywhere.

And then the fire came.

No historian can explain what it was. Maybe it was a powerful spell that went out of hand and killed enemies and allies. Maybe the magical nexus in Yod was damaged and the arcane energy turned against the city.

But the records were consistent. Walls of fire fell on the city and the towers collapsed. The whole city was destroyed, and hundreds of thousands died. The elven dukes among them.

King Omdolië and the fall of the Elven Empire.

120 years after the founding of Yod, King Elrohir gave the throne to his son Omdolië, and abandoned this world according to the elven law. Omdolië was young -he was born some years after Yod’s founding- and had just married to the young (80) Queen Ruvelial, niece of Duke Feändril. The brother of Omdolië, Almarion, started his clerical training as a priest of Ao around that time.

When most historians talk about the glorious elven empire, they refer to Omdolië’s reign. Elrohir was a master tactician and he fared fairly well as diplomatic. But most of the organization of the kingdom fell on different hands, and progress were made slowly. Under Omdolië, the elven empire knew almost three centuries of prosperity and a fair ruling.

But a cloud troubled King Omdolië. He had no sons. Ruvelial had two little boys who died shortly after birth. For decades, the council of dukes asked the king to take a concubine in order to have an heir, and the king refused since he loved the queen deeply. Until it was suggested for him to adopt an orphan girl of noble blood: Liveria, the youngest (50) grandaugther of Lord Finarlan, the rival prince of Elrohir back on the ages of legend.

The vote went trough despite the objections of the new Duke Iskal, son of Fëandril and cousin of the queen. He argued about being a signal of disrespect to the queen and to his family. He had very little support since the King was around 350 and soon he had to leave a capable heir.

More than four decades after, the unthinkable happened, the Queen gave birth to a child, prince Oyn vas Omdolië. And the Dukes were in turmoil. This child had the right to throne? By blood he should, but Liveria was the older child, in a sense.

The ramifications were worse. If Oyn was appointed as heir, a regent would have to rule for the first 100 years of his life. Oyn would be only five when his father had to abdicate, and so the Queen would have to rule for forty years. But then?

Iskal, the cousin of the Queen. She would surely appoint him as guardian. Even if she had rejected the suggestion on the first place, Iskal could rule trough her as the power behind the throne.

Iskal, known on some places of the empire as the Silver Ogre. Known for his ruthlessness and cruelty. There were even rumors of Oyn being the son of Iskal rather than the king, that he impreganted his own cousin to take over the elven throne.

King Elrohir and the rise of the Elven Empire.

It took half of a century for Elrohir, the first elven king, to consolidate the Empire. It was born with no blodshed, but trough strict diplomacy. Elrohir started an ambitious project to create a powerful capital city: Yod.

The first hundred years of the Empire were spent on creating the masterpiece of architecture art and magic prowress in the world. A Magical nexus made city. Gardens grew on its thousands of streets, housing half a million habitants from all races.

Back on the days of the elven king, the empire had a five distribution rule. Five elven dukes, three human dukes and two great shamans from the barbarian tribes, making them five. Five dwarven clanlords, five halfling thains and five gnomish mayors. Among the twenty five lords, you got the three archimages for the humans, halflings, gnomes and the dwarven high priest of Moradin. And finally, King Elrohir, Chief archimage, bishop of Yod of the Ao priesthood.

Elves worshipped Ao, a god of chaos and magic. Ao preached about freedom and acceptance. Dwarves worshipped Moradin, a legendary dwarven hero from the age of myths, who went trough ascention long ago. Gnomes and halflings worshipped a vast array of minor deities. Humans were mostly involved on the cult to ancestors and nature, and druidic traditions were strong. But half of the human population worshipped the Church of the Light of Krita. A goddess of order and justice who has been said gave the magical artifacts to the Twelve Warriors.

Magic was taught with a master/apprentice mechanic. Gifted youngsters were sent to magic workshops to learn under powerful wizards. And to be able to become a magic teacher you had to create an Magister Incantatio. A spell designed by you good enough to get your master’s approval. A century after the institution of this rule, Yod became filled with masters of the arcane arts.