Ynys Arai

In the early years of the 1st century, Ynys Arai was a picturesque Valmeric city state, one of many resisting the onslaught of the rising Holmgardian Empire.
Ynys Arai was known for intricate cedar architecture and delicate limestone towers, which seemed to rise from the surrounding evergreen forest like its namesake: the northern white swan. Its king, Gorlois Icemane, ruled over the surrounding taiga, confident in his ability to hold against the human barbarians. He had reason for such confidence, for in decades past, he had married his firstborn daughter to the Prince of Talorne, a mighty realm of the Lumeric Eldar.
And so, as the legions of Holm Graelingard advanced, King Gorlois called on his Eldar allies, sure that their combined forces would easily drive out the barbarian upstarts.
But when Gorlois called on the realm of Talorne for aid, he received the following answer: "My son was foolish to marry your meek daughter, and your realm is as weak as your impure blood. You and your enemies are equal in our eyes, only worthy of grovelling in the mud."
King Gorlois never recovered. Faced with the loss of both his alliance and daughter, he withdrew into the towers of Ynys Arai, allowing his generals to persecute a hopeless war on their own. In less than a year, Holm's army had driven back the loose Valmeric warbands, and quickly laid siege to Gorlois' palace.
As the northerners burned the town, and the screams of slaughtered elves filled the air, Gorlois finally emerged from his stupor. Cursing both the distant Luminai and the human invaders, he summoned a soulstorm that engulfed the town. Thousands of elves and humans died, and Ynys Arai became a haunted ruin even as its hinterlands were absorbed by the nascent Holmgardian Empire. Locals to this day whisper that the spirit of Gorlois haunts the ruins of his palace, cursing elf and human alike for their treachery.

RUINED SETTLEMENT
1st century HR

Alternative Name(s)

Swan Hill

Type

City

Population

30,000, 80% of which was rural

Inhabitant Demonym

Arainian