The Story of the Fey

Before there was an conception of time and space there were simply primal forces of creation and destruction called the Astrogon. When the Keeper arrived in the chaos that predated the universe he looked on at what he beheld with disgust and contempt, believing that only his mind and his order could create harmony and beauty.
The Astrogon were drawn to the nimbus of the Keeper’s light, and as they knelt before him he created Celestium using their energy and power. They believed that he had created a utopia to rule over with the Astrogon at his side, but in reality the Keeper intended to trap them all. He created a second realm, Damnation, which he threw the Astrogon into; only one of the primal beings evaded this fate, the trickster Onikyass, who hid as the Keeper’s shadow for many eons to come.
When the Keeper created Celestium, he also brought seven beings into creation called the Athervannir and an army of creators and smiths called the Lotharvannir. The Keeper believed that he was the only power with the ability to order the universe or to create new life, but this delusion was shattered when, at the very edges of the Celestial Realm, new beings, the Tralanvannir, or Graces, emerged as a result of the energy of the Athervannir.
The Keeper, shocked at this arrival of new life, deceived the Tralanvannir and claimed that it was he who created them. He began to enjoy their adulation, but when some learned that the Keeper had deceived them and their world was a lie, he sent his infiltrators, the Shuravai, to murder dissenting voices. When the Graces who had suspicions of the Keeper learned that their brethren had been killed at his orders, civil war in Celestium loomed.

The Devourer War

It was only the arrival in the Celestial Realm of a primal force of destruction called the Devourer, that threatened to destroy not only the Keeper but also the inhabitants of Damnation (who had become beings known as Legion). The rebel Graces, led by a great celestial warrior called Thaladican, declared a truce with the Keeper as both sides prepared to fight the great force of destruction. During the war the Keeper discovered that his crafters, the Lotharvannir had, in secret created their own realm called Elkarad. They created many new forms of life in this world and despite the growing fear and mistrust they felt towards their master, they believed their precious world to be safe from him.
They were mistaken, however, and when he learned of Elkarad during the Devourer War, he saw an opportunity to defeat the Devourer and to punish the Lotharvannir. He drew the Devourer away from Celestium and fought the beast with his loyal Graces in the skies above Elkarad, weakening the Devourer before the final battle against it in Damnation (for more on the outcome of the Devourer War, read The Book of the Graces). The poison and destruction from the great battle rained down on Elkarad, transforming it into a toxic wasteland. The Keeper took Olbrathan, the fatally injured lord of the Lotharvannir and placed him on a great stone chair as he slowly died, whispering to him that he was now ‘the Grey King, of a Grey Kingdom,’ knowing that his disloyal master craftsman would see the destruction of all he held dear before he finally expired.
The Keeper sent emissaries to Damnation to form an alliance with the arch enemies of Celestium, and on the black plains of Locaris, the final battle was fought. The Keeper was gravely wounded by the Devourer, but during the battle his servants the Lotharvannir completed a new reality that the Keeper had prepared as a trap for the Devourer. This new dimension, full of new stars and nebula absorbed the power of the Devourer into every particle and atom, appearing to neutralise its chaos forever.
The Lotharvannir ensured that they never completed the Devourer’s prison exactly to the Keeper’s orders, ensuring that there would always be hidden weaknesses across the fabric of its reality. They did this, knowing that the Keeper would never be able to enter the prison realm, as its weave would not be strong enough to withstand his energy. The Keeper, if he entered the Devourer’s prison would destroy its invisible walls and free the only being at that stage capable of his destruction. What even they could not predict was that the meeting of the Devourer’s chaos and the Keeper’s order would produce life across the dimension, transforming it into the Mortal Realm.
The creation of the Mortal Realm was the beginnings of a period of time which is unrecorded in any human history in Aestis. This period was called the Hidden Age, and it is here that the story of the the Thaladic Graces continues and the Fey begins.

The Thaladics and the Hidden Age

Before the Keeper finally cast the Devourer into his prison, he had promised the rebel Graces that he would listen to their protests and give them justice once the war was over. Following the final victory of the Keeper and his armies, a doorway from the plain of Locaris to the Celestial Realm opened and the Keeper’s loyal servants, the Phalanx Graces crossed through. By the time the Thaladics realised they had been betrayed, it was too late. The doorway closed and the Thaladics realised that the Keeper had done a deal with the Legion of Damnation to murder his enemies.
In return, the Legion would be given special access to the Mortal Realm and the Grey Kingdom and that secret ‘stairways’ across the dimensions would be permitted; the Keeper ordered the Athervannir to avert their gaze from the Legion’s nefarious activities. Most of the Thaladics were slain on the fields of Locaris, others were taken captive and brutally tortured, and others still made deals with the Legion and became Dark Graces.
Thaladican himself fell under a seething mass of the Oeloke, the shock troops of Damnation. His fate is unknown and the survivors of Locaris were never able to locate his remains, leaving hope amongst some of them that he survived. The Grace Y’Vestan, was used as a burning torch high above the citadel Orog Ka-Rul, his agonising screams piercing the dark of Damnation for thousands of years, and the light from his eternally burning form shining across the dark waters of the realm for many hundreds of miles.
A small few Thaladics learned that there were paths out of Damnation to the Mortal Realm and took a long a perilous journey to freedom. They were helped by clues left behind by the Lotharvannir and discovered that the Mortal Realm would act as partial haven from the Keeper. The Graces scattered across the new worlds of the Mortal Realm, but some of their number found a world they called Yaran, or ‘Sanctuary’, a world that would later be known by the Vannic peoples as Hermia.
What the Thaladics did not know was that the Mortal Realm pulsed with extraordinary energies that resulted from the capturing and channelling of the Devourer’s essence. As they walked across the cold, barren world they sensed change beneath their feet as the core of the planet warmed and the crust of the planet began to shake and shift. They saw the first mountains rise, the first rains fall and the first life take root.
Many could not endure the emptiness of Yaran and build great chambers deep beneath the earth where they lay in a sleep of the eons, hoping to re-awaken when life teemed across the world in all its variety and diversity. The Thaladics who chose to remain awakened grew attuned to the Mortal Realm and to the world of Yaran, seeing the birth of its two moons and every sunrise and sunset since the planet’s earliest days.
They also learned that the Lotharvannir had left them one final gift, the gift of song. The great engineers of the Mortal Realm had hidden within the weave of reality a song that the Mortal Realm itself could sing, a song that only the keenest of ears could be attuned to. When the Thaladics learned the song it transformed them into beings called the Syadthe, creatures of immense power who left their corporeal Grace forms and became part of the magic weave of the universe itself. This was part of the Lotharvannir’s plan, as the role of the Syadthe was to welcome to the world the Fey.

The Syadthe and the Fey

When the Lotharvannir understood what kind of prison the Keeper had wanted them to create, they understood that the dimension in question could not fail to produce life. The question for the Lotharvannir was what form that life would take. Some of the great crafters demanded that the new universe create life in their image, but Ekyres, brother of Orius, the leader of the Lotharvannir believed that it was not for their kind to recreate the same mistakes that the Keeper had and try to be gods themselves.
Instead, they accepted that the new universe was a living being in its own right and could produce life without their interference. When the Thaladics became the Syadthe, they entered the magical weave itself and it was there, in their own pocket reality called Hyamasus, that they saw the arrival from the mists of the first Fey.

They recognised that these beings, both fair and beast like, were the spontaneous products of the universe that they dwelt in, just as the first Tralanvannir had been many eons ago in the Celestial Realm. Determined not to repeat the Keeper’s mistakes, the Syadthe embraced the new life that had emerged and told them the full truth of their creation. They Syadthe cautioned the Fey that they were not gods and should not be worshipped, instead telling the first lords of the Fey that the Syadthe were simply wise friends who were old in the ways of the world already.

The Kingdoms of the Fey

When the time came, the doors of the Kingdom of Hyamasus were thrown open and the Fey were told by the Syadthe that their home would be the world of Yaran, and the Fey saw the beauty of the world and were in awe at its seeming perfection. Each of the Fey had a deep attachment to all things that grew, that lived and to the wind and the waves, the earth and sky.
Not all Fey were alike, the most powerful and mighty of their kind the Hariedthe, established themselves as the kings and queens of the Fey people, and initially were guided by the Syadthe to build realms of power and incomparable beauty. Whilst the Hariedthe’s ethereal helpers insisted that they not be worshipped, they also cautioned the new royalty of the Fey to act and think with humility and not to become seduced by the majesty and grandeur of their thrones and crowns; this message was more easily heard by some of the rulers of the Fey than others.
The Hariedthe kings and queens relied upon a court of Fey beings of immense power, the Taredthe, whose natural affinity with the living world was so strong that they became the spirits of great mountains, canyons, glaciers and deserts. If the Hariedthe were the great decision makers of the Fey, the Taredthe were the memory of their people. The Taredthe were gifted with the wisdom and knowledge that came from the timelessness of the mountains and the oceans. Fey kings and queens trusted the Taredthe to rule the vast expanses of their realms, but were not always prepared to listen to their counsel.
Beneath the Taredthe were many thousands of Oriedthe, the spirit Fey of the streams, rocks, meadows and treetops. These Fey would shift between corporeal and spirit form, and were powerfully attached to glades, pools, moor and woodland. They knew all the beasts, birds, lizards and fish that made their homes in the fiefdom of the Oriedthe, and some of the more powerful of their kind’s physical bodies comprised the landscape that they protected.
The Syanedthe, beast like Fey who would often resemble foxes, boars, cranes, snakes, great cats and elk were close friends and allies with the Oriedthe. Both pledged allegiance to Hariedthe rulers.
The Neruscanedthe and the Cariedthe formed the bottom tiers of the hierarchy of Fey. The Neruscanedthe were descendents of the Oriedthe, but unlike their more spirit form ancestors, they were corporeal Fey, gifted with immense strength, skill and the ability to leap, climb and run, but without the powers of the Oriedthe they were often treated with indifference and condescension by their masters. The Cariedthe were the smallest of the Fey and in human legends referred to as Faerie folk.

The First Age of the Fey

From the dawn of the Fey to their twilight there were five great realms, known as the Oonaliedh which stretched from the lands of Ty’Zan to the continent of Aestis. The first and greatest of these was the seafaring realm of Tydas, where the Syadthe first welcomed the awoken Hariedthe kings and queens to the world at the foot of the great mountain of Hyelas. Throughout the three ages of the Fey, Tydas would remain the most powerful and prosperous of the Fey kingdoms, but over time its rulers began to see themselves as separate from the lands across the sea to the south (in what is now known as Aestis, but was first called Melechare by the Fey).

The first and mightiest kings of the Fey was Thyuscaphe, who was able to commune directly with the Syadthe, who urged him to guide the rest of the Fey to be cautious, especially when it came to the use of magic. Thyuscaphe’s laws tightly controlled the use of magic amongst the Fey, though even he could not appreciate the scale of the threat that the Fey folk faced.
Their knowledge of the Keeper was scant, even though the greatest sages and philosophers amongst their kind wondered and theorised about the nature of the world they had inherited and attempted to commune with the Syadthe for answers about how the world came into being. There were many Fey who assumed that the Syadthe were the creators of all things and it was only when the Fey discovered the tomb of Nyarbarran, one of Olbrathan’s most trusted servants, that they truly understood who had created the Mortal Realm. Thyuscaphe met with the lords of the Tydan Fey at the remote tower of Zuland where he found solace on the shores of Hydrathan Bay in northern Tydas. Here, the Ultimatum of Zuland was given to Thyuscaphe, in which the other tribes of the Tydan Fey demanded the Syadthe give them answers about their origins.

Haaronathe’s Betrayal

It was here that the true story of the Keeper was disclosed and the Fey learned about his capacity to be their most deadly enemy. The Syadthe also appeared before the lords of the Tydan Fey and gained their agreement that they would only use magic in the direst of circumstances.
The Syadthe were already too late in warning the Tydan Fey, because one amongst their number, the architect Haaronathe believed that the Syadthe were mistaken and thought that the Keeper could be negotiated with. He aimed to present himself to the Keeper as the legitimate ruler of the Fey, and then to overthrow Thyuscaphe and to control his people and present them to the Keeper as his loyal servants.
He believed that the Keeper would rejoice in acquiring a loyal people to venerate him, but he fundamentally misunderstood the nature of the creator of all things. He summoned the Shuravai, who swiftly recognised his vanity and folly and the potential this offered. The Keeper quickly became aware of the extent to which life had developed in the Mortal Realm and resolved to wage a war of annihilation against it. The Keeper learned how the Lotharvannir had created their ‘song’ and placed it in the heart of the Mortal Realm; he knew that it had to be obliterated or seized as it was a challenge to the Keeper and his power.

At the Ultimatum of Zuland, Thyuscaphe’s brothers Nenescare and Orascade and their sister Araneniel loved him as their sibling and king but demanded the right at the great hall of the Fey to travel beyond the lands of Tydas to the continent to the south. Whilst they despised the traitor Haaronathe, they had also been unwittingly influenced by him and wished to establish their own realms that were free from the control of their lord and master. Thyuscaphe refused their demands as he suspected that they had been influenced by Haroonathe and didn’t trust that they wouldn’t build cities so grand and majestic using the power of the song that they would attract the attention of the Shuravai. He was unaware that the Keeper’s eye was now fixed upon Tydas and that war was upon the Fey whether he wished it or not.
Eventually the three siblings fled from their brother’s control as his need to protect his people led him to become more and more tyrannical. They first established a kingdom on the southern coast of Tydas called Namoriel, where, over the course of a century, the colonisation of the southern continent was planned. The Syadthe wept at the strife that had befallen their children and their lament became a new and powerful part of the Feysong. T
hyuscaphe’s own fleet set to sea in order to destroy the armada assembled by his siblings but in the final moment, where their defeat was at hand he decided to stay his hand and allow them to leave, his love for them eventually overcoming his desire to keep the Fey safe from the Keeper. When the Shuravai revealed to their master that the Fey were building new realms, his plans for war escalated and the first target for his war would be the new Fey Kingdom of Asturan, but in order to plan for a war in which he could not directly intervene, the Keeper had to exercise patience.

The Council of the Four Kingdoms at Skor Baradh

Between Tydas and the new lands the Fey hoped to settle in was the small island of Skor Baradh, where it was agreed that four realms would be established and four rulers would emerge. Nenescare became the king of the new realm of Magogh, which lay along the southern shores of what is now the Greater Arc Sea. His lands stretched from east of the present day Harenis to west of Skaris, and ran southwards to the foothills of the Arching Mountains. Orascade travelled with his people southwards to establish the lands of Elieash in the forests that are now the dark realm of the Skaarvald. To his north was the fiefdom of his sister Araneniel, whose kingdom of Asturan (present day Veska) would be attacked first by the Keeper’s armies. Nenescare’s daughter Neniel finally established the kingdom of Yeshurah in the lands that are now present day Mordikhaan.

The Folly of Araneniel

When Araneniel stood in the vast plains of Asturan with her kin, the hurt and anger she felt towards her proud, arrogant brother Thyuscaphe burned within her. She cursed his timidity and believed that she and her followers could created the greatest of all the Fey kingdoms in the new lands they had claimed as their own. She was already well versed by the Syadthe in the power of the song and knew that it could be bonded into physical things, an act prohibited by her brother, who knew that any object imbued with power could act as a beacon to the enemy.
Araneniel set about creating powerful defences around her realm, great stones that burned with ancient Fey words that commanded enemies to keep out of her realm. Araneniel’s great smiths and craftsmen dug great monoliths of stone deep from the roots of the mountains, but as they tunnelled deep they discovered a vast chamber that had stood empty since the earliest days of the earth. In it they found many long, ornate stone caskets, where the ancient Thaladic Graces slumbered. Araneniel chose to wake the Graces, and when word travelled to Tydas, Thyuscaphe crossed the ocean with his armies, knowing that the waking of the Graces meant that war would soon be upon them. One of the Graces who woke from his slumber, Y’Dradan became the closest of confidantes to Araneniel and fell deeply in love with her.

The Tower of Fire

The Keeper’s wrath on learning that the Thaladics had survived and had evaded his purge was terrible. He transformed himself into a colossus of flame and hate known as the Yogondath. In this form he exhausted himself by creating a flaming conduit into the Mortal Realm, through which a great army of the Shuravai passed into the southern lands of the continent (where the present day Vire is found).

The Phalanx Grace general Y’Sheruvan led this great horde and amongst their number were many of the Shuravai. At the head of this mighty army rode Haaronathe and his brothers who had for over a century hidden in the dark shadows of the mountains from their kin. It was his aim to kill Thyuscaphe and his siblings in order to place himself as the lord of the Fey loyal to the Keeper. He learned too late that the Keeper had no intention of allowing any of the Fey to survive, and that a war of annihilation was being waged against his people.
The darkest fears of Thyuscaphe were realised when, on the horizon he saw what looked like a slender burning thread connecting the heavens and the earth. From the south a vast, burning black cloud announced the arrival of the enemy and when Thyuscaphe and his siblings marched to meet it, along with the Thaladic Graces they gave battle on the lands which later were named the Kheyun Marshes, but which were known to the Fey as the Ladreida, or ‘waterlands’. It was here that the Jaraki marched to meet the Fey and pledge their allegience to Thyuscaphe in his fight against the Keeper. The blood of Fey, Jaraki and Grace alike was spilled and soaked into the earth there and at the very moment Thyuscaphe and his armies faced destruction Neniel, the daughter of Nenescare and her loyal knight and love Raganwe led a charge of the Fey against Y’Sheruvan.
The great master of the song, Aspharyx, raised his staff and summoned a great wave to rise from the coast which crashed across the marshes, devastating the enemy. Araneniel fought Y’Sheruvan and slew him, but in her moment of triumph was herself cut down by a poisoned Shuravai arrow. On seeing the dealth of their general, the Phalanx Graces retreated, occupying fortresses in the mountains of the south and awaiting the orders of the Keeper. The death and Araneniel marked the end of the first age of the Fey. The second age would be one of terrible devastation.

The Second Age of the Fey

The Marshal of the Night

The Phalanx Graces and the Shuravai waited for the Keeper to speak to them, locked away in the dark cavernous fortress of Nolok-Atai at the very southern end of the Arching Mountains. When the Keeper finally spoke unto them they were driven half mad by the wrath in his shaking voice and the Graces Y’Tran-A-Khul and Y’Kantu vowed to protect one another against him should the Keeper decide that the Phalanx had failed him irredeemably.
The armies of Thyuscaphe and his brothers discovered the hiding place of the Phalanx and surrounded the mountain redoubt, but before the misery that the Keeper had visited on the world of Yaran could be eradicated forever, a new threat emerged. The Keeper realised that he lacked a sufficiently ruthless and monstrous leader amongst the Phalanx or the Shuravai. Instead, he visited the dark realm of Damnation once more with Y’Tran-A-Khul, who he suspected of disloyal thoughts and wished to keep her by his side.
At the very edges of Damnation the Keeper stepped into the swirling maelstrom of cloud and lightning and spoke with a vast and terrible being there. What was said was unknown to Y’Tran, but the Keeper emerged from the clouds with a figure of pure shadow, which slowly coalesced into a terrifying physical form. A great armoured warrior with cold dead eyes which announced itself as the Marshal of the Night.
Y’Tran recoiled in horror as she looked upon the leader of the Keeper’s army in the Mortal Realm and her new master. The Marshal was quickly embraced by the Shuravai as the answer to their problems and he brought with him hideous fell creatures from the abyss to reinforce the devastated army of the Phalanx. Some of those Graces who had been most loyal to the Keeper switched sides when they learned about his latest betrayal and others simply fled, but were tracked down by the Shuravai.

The Devastation of the Fey Kingdoms

For several hundred years the Marshal waged perpetual war against the Fey Kingdoms, devastating each of them except for Elieash and Tydan. The Fey of Asturan, Yeshura and Magogh fled the devastation of their lands and some of the refugees from Yeshurah established Anagol (Gol).
For centuries on end, the Marshal of the Night unleashed his wrath upon the Fey Kingdoms, plunging them into an era of unyielding turmoil and devastation. No corner of the realms was spared from the relentless onslaught of his armies, and the lands of Asturan, Yeshura, and Magogh were particularly ravaged by the horrors of war. The Fey, faced with the grim reality of their homelands being reduced to ruins, were forced to abandon their ancestral territories and seek refuge wherever they could.
In the midst of this chaos, a group of displaced Fey, weary and desperate, came together to establish a new city that would serve as a sanctuary amid the desolation. Thus, Anagol, known by some as Gol, emerged as a beacon of hope amidst the darkened landscape. It became a haven for those seeking solace, a place where the Fey could gather their strength, rebuild their shattered lives, and forge a future in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.
However, even within the relative safety of Anagol, the constant threat of the Marshal's armies loomed over the Fey like a shadow. The city became a bastion of resistance, a symbol of defiance against the encroaching darkness. Its walls stood tall, fortified by the determination of its inhabitants, who refused to bow to the overwhelming power of their merciless adversary.
Every day within Anagol was a struggle for survival. The Fey community worked tirelessly to fortify their defenses, employing their ingenuity and resourcefulness to create ingenious traps, intricate barriers, and secret hideaways. They honed their combat skills, training rigorously to become formidable warriors, ready to protect their newfound haven at all costs. It was a constant battle, not only against the forces of the Marshal but also against despair and the ever-present fear of losing everything they held dear.
Within the walls of Anagol, hope mingled with the scent of determination. The Fey knew that their very existence hung in the balance, that the survival of their people relied upon their resilience and unity. They drew strength from one another, finding solace in the shared struggle and the bonds forged in the crucible of adversity.
As the years wore on, Anagol became a testament to the indomitable spirit of the Fey. It stood as a testament to their unwavering resolve, a testament to the belief that even in the darkest of times, the light of hope could still flicker and ignite the flames of resistance.
The Marshal's war had taken a heavy toll on the Fey Kingdoms, tearing apart families, shattering dreams, and leaving behind a trail of sorrow and loss. Yet, within the walls of Anagol, the Fey remained resolute. They refused to succumb to despair, vowing to reclaim their lands, restore their shattered realms, and drive back the forces of darkness that sought to extinguish their very essence.
In the midst of the turmoil, whispers of a new dawn began to circulate among the Fey. A glimmer of hope emerged, carried by the winds of resilience and whispered through the hearts of those who refused to yield. It was a promise of a future where the Marshal's grip would loosen, where the Fey could rise from the ashes and reclaim their rightful place in the Mortal Realm.

Neniel's Discovery

Neniel became convinced that the discovering the origin of the Marshal of the Night was the key to its defeat. The Lotharvannir Orius took pity on her, knowing precisely where the Keeper has acquired such a brutal servant. He gave Neniel a Tyrus, one of the great seeing rings of the Lotharvannir. This was a powerful item, one which only a celestial being had any chance of fully controlling.
Orius explained this to Neniel, but she decided that anything could and should be risked in the battle against her people's tormentor. The ring showed her the origins of the Marshal of the Night, she looked deep into Damnation and look upon the face of the being that created it as a gift for the Keeper. That creature she came to know by one name, the Haunter. Neniel was driven to madness for a century after looking into the eyes of the most ancient of evils and was only finally returned to sanity by her lover, Raganwe.
When the Marshal of the Night learned about Neniel’s discovery he threw his armies at Anagol to destroy her, but the arrival of the fleet of Tydan saved the city. The Phalanx invaders took the fight all the way to the Arching Mountains where the Marshal was surrounded and his armies defeated and only the timely intervention of rogue Sentinels staved off the Fey from finally defeating him. These great beings, once servants of Damophereon: Lord of the Athervannir, had now found service at the hands of the Keeper and had been warped by his fire.

High Elieash and King's Anagol

The remnants of the Five Fey Kingdoms were reorganised into two realms, one in the north, King's Anagol or Trayanagol as it was better known in the language of the Fey and High Elieash, the forest realm of the Skaarvald, which was ruled by Nothoril, one of the most ancient of the Hariedthe, whose whereabouts for many thousands of years had been unknown. He returned as Neniel hoped to lead a combined army of north and south to finally destroy the Marshal, which she led with the Saasku general Zauru. At the battle of Sukares, the Marshal was finally destroyed by Neniel's spear, which had been crafted for her by Orius, who still felt deep guilt at giving her one of the seeing rings.

The destruction of Tydas

Upon seeing the defeat of the Marshal of the Night, the Keeper, gripped by both desperation and rage vowed to enter the fight personally. The Phalanx beseeched their master not to enter the Mortal Realm, knowing as they did that the Lotharvannir had not built into its delicate fabric the power and stability to withstand the intervention of a god. Nonetheless, the Keeper choose the lands of Tydas as the site of his entry into the Mortal Realm, telling the Phalanx that if he destroyed the Five Dimensions in their entirety he would simply build new realities that were truly worthy of him. He was unable to manifest in any form other than that of the Emphyrus, a white star of terrible light, and appeared in the skies over Tydas causing devastation to the lands below. Fey cities crumbled and collapsed, fires raged and terrible burning plagues killed entire generations of the Fey. Reality was too weak to hold the Empyrus and the Keeper was torn from reality itself and vanished from the Five Dimensions for centuries, only to return in secret to Celestium, greatly weakened.
The Keeper's destruction of Tydas and his arrival in the Mortal Realm triggered a further fragmenting of reality and beings from other dimensions, never before seen in the Mortal Realm emerged to terrorise the Fey. Beasts like Gorins and Zsulgs stalked the land and burrowed into the earth, and the remnants of the Marshal's Armies crossed the land is raiding bands. The aftermath of the wars with the Keeper were as bloody and chaotic as the actual conflict itself.

The Deceiver Eratheon

Towards the end of the Second Age of the Fey, a new and charismatic diplomat and advisor to the Fey rulers, who became particularly close to Norothil emerged and rose to prominence. Eratheon of Kelkesac became, over centuries, one of the most trusted advisors and political figures.
Not all were convinced by Eratheon, Neniel's two children Kyrade and Kyralith began to suspect that the charismatic figure was a servant of the Keeper and they concluded that he must be the restored spirit of the Marshal, having taken flesh form once more.
In a bid to sideline this negotiator and diplomat, the twins used the power of the song to create powerful seeing places, hidden across the land. These were designed to enable key members of the Fey nobility to communicate with one another without Eratheon being involved. A number of other Fey rulers began to have suspicions about Eratheon and were slowly introduced into the new power of the seeing places. The twins were using a magic that they were ill prepared to wield and that they had little understanding of. Neither realised its scope for corruption, but Eratheon was fully aware of how valuable these devices could be. He knew that he couid achieve what the Marshal of the Night had never been able to, the full defeat of the Fey.
He tracked the twins and killed Kyralith. A horrified Kyrade fled and went into hiding, fearing that Eratheon would torture her for knowledge as to how to make the seeing places work. Instead Eratheon lay in wait for Fey nobles who arrived to use the seeing places, and extracted everything he needed to know from them using subterfuge and pain. Eratheon, who had spent years attempting to trick the Fey kingdoms into war against one another now used the seeing places to achieve exactly that.
A civil war erupted between the northern and southern kingdoms, but as the battles raged Kyrade finally emerged and was discovered by her mother, who was still grieving the loss of her son Kyralith. Learning of the treachery of Eratheon, Neniel trapped and killed the deceiver, just as the remnants of the Marshal of the Night's army had started to reform itself.

The Third Age Of The Fey

Approximately one hundred thousand years ago, a newly risen Eratheon was drawn to the lands to the south of the present day Arching Mountains. There he discovered a new creature, living in small tribes of hunter gatherers. This creature had emerged from the edges of the Olorian delta and some of the Jaraki had interacted with it through trade, but it seemed to have a natural propensity for expansion and war. These creatures Eratheon called the Hunnai (High Fey speak for 'devouring flame'), but they became better known as Humans.
Gradually Eratheon and the Phalanx Graces who served him began to recognise the potential that human beings had to advance the Keeper's goals. They seemed to be more malleable than any other of the peoples of Yaran, and they were rapid learners too.
Eratheon became humanity's teacher and slowly introduced the ideas to them that would coalesce into the early Aruhvian faith, guiding them to worship the Keeper as their creator and protector, whilst trapping one another in the prison of ideas that religon created for them. Not all humans complied and in the explosion of philosophical ideas that emerged in the early millennia of humanity, countless other belief systems rose and fell. The Shuravai worked secretly amongst humans to undermine and destroy competing philosophies.
Eratheon created another prison for humanity to exist it, the prison of empire. As human kingdoms emerged the supressed one another (none had the power to challenge the Fey), and with empire came systems of debt, slavery and the power of money. It was from these origins that the Tyatic, Thydic and Lotarine empires emerged, all of which were eventually replaced by the Vannic Empire. Eratheon knew that his education of the humanity in the ways of suppression and power would have a long term impact on the Fey, who, for all their mistakes and their grandeur had never been completely decieved by him. He also knew that there were those within they Fey realms itself who could be tempted to turn on their own people.

The Corruption of Nothoril

Nothoril, the lord of the Elieash, had never enjoyed the unconditional support of his peers in the way that Neniel or her predecessors had. Nothoril, who was Hyadthe, always felt that he was an outsider, removed from the inner circle of power and influence of the Fey rulers. He was a fierce defender of his realm and a powerful and wise ruler, but also at times vengeful, suspicious and bitter. He was perfect for Eratheon's schemes.
Eratheon created a hidden, secret realm beneath Elieash, a place that was wild and dark and that echoed the inner bitterness of Nothoril. This was known simply as 'The Briar', and Eratheon instructed Nothoril to keep its existence a secret. The Briar brought to Nothoril immense power, but as he exercised it he began to fall into Eratheon's trap. Slowly Nothoril became transformed and began to merged with the briar until he was subsumed into it completely. Only when it was too late did the Fey of Elieash, led by Ty'aran, the most loyal knight of Nothoril realise what had happened. Rising against the Fey, the lord of the Briar, once known as Nothoril led a war to subjugate the realm. Despite an army from Anagol sent to help their kin, half the kingdom fell and was ruled by a new master, The Thorn King.
The remaining Fey, desperate for sanctuary and fearing that the rest of their realm would be over run turned to the subterranean acquatic people, the Oriads (the children of Orius), with whom they had a long and bitter history. The Oriads turned their back on the Fey barring the doors deep into the earth in their hour of need. Elieash fell to the Thorn King, and bands of human settlers entered the forest, seizing what remained from a greatly weakened Fey. Those refugees from the fall of Elieash fled northwards to Anagol. What remained of their home became known as the Skaarvald, or the 'Lost Forest'.

The Keeper and the Song

The Keeper, realising that he was close to breaking the power of the Fey and eliminating one obstacle in his destruction of the Thaladic Graces, returned to the Haunter for one final request. The Keeper, now badly weakened through his many actions and struggles since the Devourer War, relied on the Haunter far more than he wished to and was blind to the evil creature's designs. The Keeper knew that if he could capture the energy of the Song that the Lotharvannir had weaved into the world and concentrate it in his own hands, the Fey and the Syadthe, and any other creature that was born of the Song would be weakened or would vanish from the world. The Haunter obliged with the Keeper's wishes, having sown the idea in the Keeper's thought in the first place. The Ozgoz, a band of Infernal smiths, bred from captured and corrupted Graces toiled for centuries to created the Sorokan Crown, a circlet so powerful it could drain entire dimensions of magical energy. Using the crown, the final destruction of the Fey began. As magic was drained from the Fey, their remaining realms and their last holdout, Anagol, fell to humanity.
The Fey, robbed of their power saw that their days were numbered and also that of their comrades, the Jaraki, and other non human beings. Fey sages and the remaining leaders of their people knew that there was one chance for survival; to find the ancient chambers of the Thaladics deep beneath the earth. The Syadthe, now fading away, used what remained of their power to hide the Fey and the Jaraki and others from the Oriads as they made their way underground. The Oriads, sensing that a new dark age on the surface was beginning, sealed their cities miles beneath the earth in great dark lakes and vowed never to interact with the surface world. The surviving Fey and their allies eventually found sanctuary in the great halls of the Thaladics and the final magic of the Syadthe left them to slumber in the long Feysleep.
His work done, Eratheon returned to the great mists at the edge of Damnation and was reabsorbed into the great mass of corruption that was his master, though the Haunter detected in Eratheon's heart that he longed to be free. The Keeper, finally triumphant, lifted his mind from Yaran (now renamed Hermia by humans), and assumed that the remaining Thaladics were now dead and gone.
A handful of the Fey lingered in the Skaarvald, fighting to keep small enclaves free of the power of the Thorn King, and gradually, over the centuries they interacted with humans (particularly the brave souls who had settled along the edge of the Skaarvald). Some of these interactions resulted in offspring and a small number of Half Fey, restless lonely souls, were born and wandered across the lands their ancestors had once ruled, longing for home.