The Senthyrian Elves

The Senthyrian Elves and Corellon's Bargain (2500-2000)
Phadria long ago was a unified land. In the beginning as with many of the virgin grounds of Caelos the gods made it their mission to create their new home; to truly make it theirs. What made Phadria special were its 4 Rivers, which met in the heart of the continent. These Rivers were named after the 4 founding houses of Phadrus: • Occidensa (West to East) • Oriensa (East to West) • Austerensa (South to North) • Boreansa (North to South)
Some 2500 years ago the gods, Melora, Kord, Lolth and Corellon made their home in these lands. Corellon took to the west, Lolth to the North, Melora to the East, and Kord to the South. For 500 years there was peace, there was hope, life and love in the land of four rivers. It was to this place that Corellon brought his affectionate followers, the Eternal Elves, his Eladrin from his home of The Feywilds. He wanted them to embrace the beauty and difficulty of what it meant to make something of their own, and after having spent millennia in The Feywilds, he thought it time for them to make this wish a reality. Lolth being Corellon’s closest friend and lover, asked if she could take some of his children and have them do the same in the north, and of course he obliged her, trusting her intentions to be pure. This was the last decision Corellon made in the mortal realms that would reflect such love or desire to cooperate, as it nearly became his undoing.
Now, Kord and Melora had brought their own followers, Half-Elves, Dwarves, Humans and the like. In what would become Acoria, the mistress of the sea began her work. Building fjords and dams where they would help the local wildlife, aiding in the missions and work of Silvanus' followers as well, her aim was to build a world where nature would be respected and loved as opposed to being dominant or oppressed. The Oriensa family of Elves were very fond of the families who made it their work to protect and cultivate these lands in a sustainable and caring fashion.
As time had passed in this 1st Age, Corellon took to notice Melora's care and desire to love these eastern lands, and so he offered her a bargain, if she would accept it. That, if she would protect all of his children from natural disasters hailing from the ocean (tsunamis, hurricanes, etc.), then he would grant her the Oriensa people in part, and thereby a portion of the great empire that would be Phadria someday. She didn't take long to ponder this bargain, and asked for one small addendum to this bargain; she would take half of the royal family and lead them onto the oceans of Caelos, to gain both dominion and responsibility of the great unknown that lay before them here. Though Corellon wasn't particularly excited to send some of his chosen into the tumultuous danger that was the ocean, he trusted Melora to keep her word and knew her intentions were pure for his children. And so it was that the next pair of twins that were born to the Oriensa family, one was gifted to Melora and he would become the patriarch of this new family, the Senthyrian Elves.
The first of this new people was Kellistar Senthyrie and his charge from Melora was simple; guide his family and chosen people in understanding and learning the ways of the oceans and their waters. This began a centuries long endeavor to learn how to build and sustain themselves upon the waves, as well as learning what foes they would face with Melora at their backs. The time eventually came for Melora and the others to leave when Lolth had committed her betrayal, and with that great event she bid her adopted chosen farewell and with her final blessing she sent them westward toward the center of Caelos. South of where The Glistening Isles would eventually be founded, Kellistar took his family and people and founded the first Senthyrian Kingdom of Chyrsos'ethyr, or in common, The Golden Serpent. The bidding words of Melora to her people:

A great Empire you are destined to be and so fear not the Leviathans, for you shall be that which they fear from the depths; the serpent lurking beneath the waves, watching and waiting. Be wary of Umberlee and her brood, for they seek only to devour and destroy. Do well and do not lose heart.

Phadria, the Empire of 4 rivers (2000-1000)
For the next 900 years, the battles between the factions of Phadria waged on, The Twilight Union building black fortresses across the sea and sending incursions both above ground and underground at their foes, The Sangquinas Corellas, the 4 royal families of Phadrus. As every one of these attempts was buffeted, a member of the Blood Court (The Twilight Union’s governing body) Sylvis Xiltria created a group that focused less on fighting and more on infiltration. Though initially rebuffed as a coward and weakling, an aspect of Lolth was in attendance and made herself known. The aspect claimed Sylvis as her new mortal form and in this new body, she reaffirmed Sylvis’ initial ideas as she reminded them of how she had nearly overthrown her previous lover in the ancient days. Thus began the downfall of the Empire of 4 rivers. Through years of infighting caused by the deception and trickery of the Moré Kambâ (Black Hand in Undercommon), the 4 families found themselves having a tremendous amount of division about how to rule this empire of theirs:
• The Occidensa moved to the west annexing their lands, and eventually becoming what is today The Zosin Alliance (1397). • The Oriensa (1362) moved east annexing their lands and becoming the Kingdom of Acoria themselves. • The Austernesa (1348) took their people moving southwest and founding the Kingdom of Aestrux. • The peoples of Kord that still live mostly in these lands moved to the southern peninsula of Phadria and founded several city-states, governing by rule of The Council of Three, or the three leaders of the three city-states (1321).
During this period, the next 4 Kingdoms were built; Opsianos'ethyr, Smaragdes'ethyr, Levantes'ethyr, and Asime'ethyr. When Acoria had split off in 1362, there were a small number of the Oriensa family who sought out the Senthyrie and asked to join their then ancient bretheren. This group was responsible for Asime'ethyr and given its very close position to Acoria required some negotiation and strict bartering agreements as to not cause any issues over the local resources in the area around the Vermeil.
The 2nd Age was a prosperous time for the Senthyrie people, but there were some times of great strife. During the building of Opsianos'ethyr in particular there were a great many disputes with the Twilight Union. Given the relationship the Senthyrians had with the other families of Phadria (being of the Oriensa bloodline) this always gave the Drow leadership reason to suspect them of foul play and in 1537 they were proven correct. In a supposed trading mission, a Senthyrian vessel was allowed entrance into the Twilight Union capital, Zirq-Al'Anor. One of these supposed traders slipped away once through the customs and enacted their attempted assassination plot of The Prime Aspect. The plot was shockingly close to successful, but the agent was stopped just short of their goal. This sparked the beginning of the Union's beginnings as a naval power, as recently they were only concerned with the defense of Auron as opposed to looking past its borders. The next 40 years were a bloody battle between the Senthyrie people and the Twilight Navy. Though the Union was initially outmatched for the first 5 years, they were more centralized and had access to a vast supply of timber and eventually made up for their lack of skill and experience with numbers. In 1526, the Twilight Union sent a fleet of 73 Warships having broken through the eastern seawall of The Gilded Road, and surrounded Opsianos'ethyr; the occupation began. The kingdom became a vassal state for the next 29 years and was only ended due to the birth of the next heir to Obsidian throne, as it were. Pressured by the combined power of the Senthyrian Navy and with no interest on either side to have thousands die, a treaty was proposed. The terms were that a prominent daughter of The Prime Aspect would marry the sitting prince of Opsianos'ethyr. Much to the horror of all of Phadria, this union ended the war and began the end of war between the Senthyrie people and their Drow cousins, which has lasted to this day.
In the later years after the split had occurred between Phadria a long-time enemy of the Senthyrian Elves and their northern friends in The Glistening Isles, began to execute a plan that was almost a century in the making; Corsiva had delcared war on the free waters of Caelos. The next 70 years (~1390-1320) were a wretched time to be a trader and a glorious time to be a pirate. It was said that the worst pirate in Aedana would have owned a castle in western Phadria. This is likely hyperbole to some extent, but there is some truth in these stories. For every 10,000 gold shipped from the Glistening Isles, only about 12,500 returned for that given haul, in sharp contrast to the normal 20,000-25,000 returns. It was said that the Corsivans were of course more numerous, but more than that they had a sort of weapon at their command in those times; The Blackfin Dreadnought. It wasn't until the Vicren of Hennora and the Admiral of Chrysos'ethyr had sailed out together with their combined fleets that the whole affair came to an end. A sad day for both Chrysos'ethyr and Hennora as neither the Admiral or the Vicren returned from their battle, though their forces were apparently victorious as the threat of the Blackfin Dreadnought was seemingly ended from that day onward.
In the last years of the 2nd Age, a council had been called originating from Opsianos'ethyr (The Obsidian Call, 1010). In attendance were all the most powerful and notable among Senthyrian society, and although this was one of the largest gatherings of its kind amongst the Senthyrie nobility, records of what were discussed or why it was called were kept secret. The only thing that is sure to have resulted from this meeting is the creation of The Vesparum (or Those of the Night/Evening in Common). This became a group of powerful, secretive almost exclusively female mages whose members would be stationed within each kingdom and advise the King or Queen accordingly in all matters arcane. Ever since that time, the Vesparum's shadow has grown ever longer and more powerful alongside that of the Senthyrian Elves themselves.
Iashix, the land of blood and honey (1000-500)
It was during these years of dissonance between the Sanguinas Corellas that a new political player on the scene came up out of their own land seeking glory and riches of which they new nothing. These peoples were savage, powerful and driven by fury the likes of which even surprised the followers of Kord. Woefully, overmatched, the forces of Phadria were beset upon by creatures that were known as Dragonborn, Half-Dragons, Dracotaur (CC), Orcs, Goblins, Trolls and all manor of nasty beasts. All those years ago it seems that Demogorgon had slipped through the aether to find his way to Iashix. While the other gods toiled away in Phadria he had begun his mad machinations and experiments on this massive island, away from the purview of prying eyes. Having no remorse or real care for the tortured beings he created, he left when there was a great shift in the Blood War as the Arch Devils made their move on his territory in his absence. These beasts, twisted physically and mentally, established a brutal culture of “The Strongest survive and the weak serve”, a tenet they all seemed to understand as if by their very nature. About the time that The Twilight Union and the Blood Court had begun their strategic disassembling of the great Phadrian houses, the more innovative of these creatures had began building boats that could go across the rough seas to the west. It was upon one of these expeditions that a group of followers of Melora were slaughtered along the eastern coasts, known now as The Sullenhelm Wildlands.
In the first year of the war things were exceptionally quiet for every race, except those of the Senthyrian people. It was all over in just one day according to surviving documentation. The kingdom of Asime'ethyr was located about 350 miles eastward of Acoria, just off the golden shores of their prosperous cousins. The first vessel was apparently spotted at first light, with the perturbations felt in the water first, a few miles away. Large beasts, moving unnaturally beneath the waves caused some concern and so they sent out their early scouting vessels to see who could be making this much "noise" under the surface. Those scouts had time to send one message in the time they had before they were destroyed:

They're coming; there are so many of them, so much blood. Evacuate the King and Queen. Run.

Minutes after the message was received by the outer perimeter, the navy began to scramble their vessels and form a blockade around the city unsure of what this great threat could be hurtling toward them. It was another 15 minutes before they saw it; a wave of red and black upon the horizon, the sun rising behind them. Thousands and thousands of vessels filling the eastern sea. When it was clear that there would be no victory this day, King Illirel deigned it cowardly and against their original command from Melora to flee even in the sight of overwhelming odds; he sent his wife and their children out and stayed to fight until the bitter end, in the hope that some of the vessels could flee and get enough of a head start to make it to the main land and warn the others. Queen Saelin took her children and the Seneschal Munditia teleported them to Chyrsos'ethyr warning of the death that was coming. If not for the placement and sacrifice of Asime'ethyr the war against the Vogall Dominion may not have been one that was eventually won by the combined forces of Phadria. Today in every Senythyrian city there is a statue that still stands in Illirel's honor, and one stands in Acoria as well to commemorate the King who gave up everything for his people.
Reconstitution and Repair (500-Present)
After the end of the war with the Vogall Dominion, it was time to recover. Both Smaragdes'ethyr and Lavantes'ethyr were running very dry on resources given their continual support of the Phadrian land forces against the threat of the Dominion with Opsianos'ethyr and Chyrsos'ethyr burning through their own resources quickly as well. This brought an opportunity to both Aedana and Corsiva to again make use of a distraction across the world to fatten their chests and pick away at the enemy lines that still remained in a defensive perimeter. It was with this time that Corsiva took to sending some agents across the borders of each allied faction they could given the great disturbances and lack of security on the western front. For the next hundred or so years (500 - ~400) there was a great amount of money and effort spent in rooting out these Corsivan Seekers as they were called. Using insidious charming and illusion magic, Corsivan Seekers were truly experts at infiltration and wormed their way into many aspects of every major society, aside from Sacer'asim or Kerismattia where they were even more extreme than the Corsivan's themselves in some cases.
This coupled with some well timed invasion plans of the Kerismattians allowed the incident of the Alabaster Isle (215). After the sacking of Arginstone had been accomplished by the Kerismattian military, they sent a group of prospectors to the large island southeast of Arginstone and mostly untouched by Oscosia. Just a few decades prior the Oscosian Empire had finally gotten to building up a base camp along the western side of the island. With the Senthyrian navy of Chrysos'ethyr pulling forces away from the western flanks, the Corsivan navy moved in and established their own base of operations. To this day this has been a hotly contested and bloody piece of land that no single military wants to commit serious resources to at the risk of opening up different parts of their native flanks, though Corsiva and Aedana are happier with this arrangement as it allows them to continuously pillage both the Kerismattians and Oscosians to their pleasure. Emissaries often go out from Oscosia to The Glistening Isles and then Chrysos'ethyr but the humans have yet to bring a compelling offer that would warrant the "Golden Serpent" wielding their full naval might in their aid.