Decline of the Monadnock Symposium
Disbandment
1137
1165
The gradual decline of the Monadnock Symposium thanks to tensions brought on by the western elves. Due to a combination of racial complexities, refusal to relocate the location of the meetings, and refusal to allow aid for those who could not arrive, the organization would fall into obscurity.
After the symposium stood for so long, tensions with its western attendants would drive the organization to fracture into several small and ineffectual fringe groups. After proving effective for over a century, what caused the group to fall? Historians list several factors.
Western Conflict
With the Monadnock Symposium being located so far to the East, conflict would arise when the western attendants were refused their request to revote upon its designated location. In their eyes, the location served as a greater barrier for citizens of Urale than any other group, even the rare J'barri attendants. The southern elves would stay silent in this conflict, pushing tensions even further. Once again, representatives of the Kingdom of Urale would feel alienated from their cousins, as had occurred during the nations founding, but the apprehension of the other kingdoms was hardly unfounded. Those under the banner of Urale had been cast in a poor light after the forceful removal of dark elves from their lands. The immigration resulting from their exodus would prove problematic for the other kingdoms, which proved worse if a western and dark elf met at the symposium. The racial conflicts rose tensions and stood in the way of the debates, made worse when a westerner known as "Uvirin Sulaey" proposed subjects such as selective breeding, re education, and segregation as topics of discussion. Claiming that the topics were crucial to history and validated by their royal roots to Ulitol Feneyl, Uvirin was shocked when the topic was both rejected and his acceptance in the guild was discontinued. His rejection by the guild was ironically declared as discrimination by the westerners, who would mostly discontinue their attendance as well.Development of Fringe Ideologies
While the attendants from Urale brought plenty of extreme ideas to the table, it would be attendants from Ghei Wyl who did the most damage to the symposium. Their preferred subjects of discussion never truly aligned with the others, thanks to their extreme traditionalist routes in the elvish pantheon. While those in the west knew when it was time to take their ideas elsewhere, these traditional elves refused to live and let live, constantly returning to the events, even after being banned. To make matters worse, those who regulated attendance would eventually drop their apprehension towards bans, snowballing the list of banned individuals evey year. Eventually, any who disagreed with core pieces of eastern elvish culture were removed, even when those invidivuals were from Anomae itself, creating plenty of tension back home. Banned individuals were known to continue their search for discourse, harvesting alienated individuals into their own fringe groups. Many of these organizations served as the fractured guilds that would remain after the fall of the symposium, the most well known of which was the Ourithanur Collective.Growing Desire for Written Discourse
The century of the symposium had been dominated by the desire for spoken discourse. After Ettermiddag, this seemed reasonable. So many records had been destroyed and only the mortal mind existed to recount lost history, making the mind of an elf feel superior to any other sources available. However, as time went on and fears regarding the dark age fell to distant memory, so too did subject matter in the symposium. The greatest minds began to reach their older ages, hoping that future generations would be able to learn of the great discussion held by the symposium. Truly, mortality had once again gone from something appreciated to something that need to be held off. Adding to this matter, J'barri attendance was on the rise, but there were no formal rules as to how they were required to engage with the symposium. As a result, they would record the discussions (and remember them far longer). While most of the small debates from the past century had been forgotten, one wax transcript in Kala grew in popularity all across the scholarly circles of Poueir, reinforcing the need for written script. As time went on, formal research also become a prominent focus in debates. The scientific process became highly valued (also contributing to the removal of traditionalist members), and those methods required rigorous recording. This concept was written about by the politically moderate "Surcelae Vherelae," who would later be sought out by the Ourithanur Collective for his rigorous scientific mind.Ultimately, the symposium fell due to conflict that it had been lucky to avoid in prior years. The next centuries would be painted in the formation of smaller political groups, religious ideologies, guilds, towns, and governments. Serving as a celebration of invdividualism (perhaps akin to what the J'barri experienced prior to the The Mountainfold ), it would eventually culminate in the desire for unity, after an extremely popular document was published by one "Useliya Irithae" which is now known as "What it Means to be Human." The paper in question, which discussed the elves fall from unity and collaboration, would serve as the kindling for a return to elvish collectivism.