Vide'Cormeum
The sacred tomb of Vide'Cormeum is the final resting place of the Elysium Knight and Uncrowned King, Lord Ellemex. This gravesite once rest upon the isle of Rivannelle and was attended by a holistic order of monks who in times of yore were known as the Speakers of the White Moss. The isle of Rivannelle was chosen as the final resting place of Lord Ellemex for it was here, beneath the shining light of Goldsummer, that he scribed the Iskar Astartes, founding the twelve Pillars of Knighthood and the Dawn Realm of Iskandar.
For this reason the isle and the tomb are also known as: The Cradle of Light.
Purpose / Function
The tomb of Ellemex was a sacred site to the Iskar Astartes. It represented the heart of the Dawn Realm. A place of solemn reflection and observance of all that Iskandar has strived to achieve in the world of Orr. The monastery that adjoined its grave was often a place of respite that the paragons of the twelve houses of Iskandar's Knighthood visited during trials and tribulation. It was also a place of pilgrimage for the people of Iskandar, as the isle was considered holy even before Ellemex was entombed here. Beneath the monastery, within the grave itself, lies the Trial of Virtues. Few beyond the attendants of the tomb have ever been tested by the gauntlet, but its purpose is recorded as a means to select candidates of the Iskar Astartes to lead the Dawn Realm should the nation ever fall into peril such as those faced by the Elysium Knights when they claimed the lands of Iskandar.
Lord Ellemex (193AR - 472AR)
In the time of Ellemex, the mages of Dalair had only just begun to unravel of the secrets and mysteries of arcana that were left behind in the wake of Rizion's sudden appearance and departure from the world of Orr. These sorcerers were some of the most powerful mages that have ever walked the world whom had never seen their power stripped or stifled until Ellemex had risen as a judge. Such attempts to quarter their pursuit of power would prove, in the end, to be Ellemex's undoing.
The Time of the Broken Wand
Perhaps spurred by Ellemex's proclamations, in the year 364 AR the mages of the Magisterium attempted to elevate Rizion to Godhood, and in the process unshackle themselves from the decrees and laws that had been writ to contain their ambitions for power. Reverence for Rizion as a messianic figure to the world of Orr had grown in those centuries to an nearly unanimous fervor as Dalair became ever more decadent and powerful under the guidance of the Magisterium. Ellemex struck down these proposals with his gavel in the Courts of High Sorcery and in doing so sparked a bitter conflict.
The common peoples of Dalair, the serfs and servants of the Elder Realm whom served the Magisterium, had seen with their own eyes how power had begun to twist and corrupt their lords. Their children had been stripped of will and body in the conscription of the Eldar, and the fear that as a Godhead, Rizion's ascendancy would further promote the Magisterium mages' selfish pursuits of power at any cost begat a bloody rebellion that nearly destroyed the Elder Realm.
This era became known as the time of the Broken Wand, and lasted for nearly a decade. The conclusion of this first great conflict in the history of Orr saw Ellemex and many thousands of his supporters driven into exile to the western frontiers beyond the bulwark of mountains that sheltered Dalair. The Magisterium intended for that defeat and exodus of their enemies to be the end of Ellemex and those who followed him, but unbeknownst to even their portents and scrying of the future, the Endless had writ a greater destiny.
Lord Ellemex (193AR - 472AR)
Born in the lands of Dalair after the founding of the Magisterium, Valliruun Ellemex was a graduate of the Circle of Nine and earned his robes in the school of Divination before joining the Council of High Sorcery in Xathrus. Rising from a simple advisory role to a judge of the Magisterium, Ellemex garnered many enemies among his fellow mages as he crafted laws to abolish the practices of diabolism and the darker summoning rituals of the schools of Necromancy and Conjuration that called upon the powers of similar, twisted Outsiders.
It was Ellemex's fear that such disturbances to the beings of the Outer Planes would draw the attention of even greater, more fearsome things that loomed in the beyond, and that the mages of Dalair were not yet tempered enough to abstain from the temptations of these creatures.
The Time of the Broken Wand
Perhaps spurred by Ellemex's proclamations, in the year 364 AR the mages of the Magisterium attempted to elevate Rizion to Godhood, and in the process unshackle themselves from the decrees and laws that had been writ to contain their ambitions for power. Reverence for Rizion as a messianic figure to the world of Orr had grown in those centuries to an nearly unanimous fervor as Dalair became ever more decadent and powerful under the guidance of the Magisterium. Ellemex struck down these proposals with his gavel in the Courts of High Sorcery and in doing so sparked a bitter conflict.
The common peoples of Dalair, the serfs and servants of the Elder Realm whom served the Magisterium, had seen with their own eyes how power had begun to twist and corrupt their lords. Their children had been stripped of will and body in the conscription of the Eldar, and the fear that as a Godhead, Rizion's ascendancy would further promote the Magisterium mages' selfish pursuits of power at any cost begat a bloody rebellion that nearly destroyed the Elder Realm.
This era became known as the time of the Broken Wand, and lasted for nearly a decade. The conclusion of this first great conflict in the history of Orr saw Ellemex and many thousands of his supporters driven into exile to the western frontiers beyond the bulwark of mountains that sheltered Dalair. The Magisterium intended for that defeat and exodus of their enemies to be the end of Ellemex and those who followed him, but unbeknownst to even their portents and scrying of the future, the Endless had writ a greater destiny.
Knights of Elysium
Upon the peaks of the western bulwark Ellemex burned his robes and contemplated the fate of the Men and Mer that he now lead to the unknown lands beyond the Elder Realm. It is said that Ellemex prayed upon the steeples of the mountains for seven days, refusing food or water, and that on the eighth day received word from above. The Canticles of Light speak of a flash of platinum in the clouds and a roaring voice that belonged to the sky itself and shook the earth. A flame of blue fire washed over the mountaintop and when it passed, Ellemex descended and chose eleven men and women from among his followers to become Knights of Elysium.
The Knights and their army arrived in the broken lands to find it swathed in the powers of darkness. Hordes of monsters and abominations made lair among the scrawling valleys and the dark, fearsome woodlands that stretched to the western coasts. The very bellows of the earth itself were hives of monstrous civilization remnant from the time of the Catacylsm. To gain this land as their home, Ellemex and the Knights of Elysium began the first of crusades.
The Canticles of Light do not speak of their exact deeds, nor all who suffered and died in the claiming of the Dawn Realm, but it does speak of a battle with a Primal Evil and its herald that commanded the armies of darkness that the Elysium Knights defeated. In the last moments of that crusade, during the final battle in the region that would later become known as Fallcrest, it is said that the blue fire returned once more from the sky to aid the Elysium Knights, and when its glow had diminished, the land was won.
The Uncrowned King and the Iskar Astartes
In the year 471 AR the Knights of Elysium gathered at the sacred isle of Vide'Cormeum and with the aid of his companions, Lord Ellemex scribed the Iskar Astartes. A rule of law and order that would safeguard the realm. With this he raised the twelve pillars of Knighthood that would serve and protect the new nation of Iskandar, established the governance of the kingdoms and their fiefdoms, the ascensions and transference of the realm's power, and the checks and balances that would ensure their keeping through the long centuries.
Unto these virtues must the Iskar Astartes strive to sustain: Valor, Justice, Mercy, Humility, and Sacrifice.
To be a Knight of Elysium means choosing the difficult path; that which places him or her between the innocent and harm. The Knight must abstain from temptations in his pursuit of law and justice. Worldly pleasures, those which benefit only oneself, weakens his spirit and resolve in the times of trial. A Knight must possess a heart compelled by compassion, one that understands the suffrage of the world and is able to grant mercy even when none is deserved. If his purpose is true, and conviction immovable, the Knight is able to stride naked through the flames of hell. The Iskar Astartes must give earnestly all that they possess to their cause and their oaths.
So beloved was Lord Ellemex by his fellow Knights and the peoples of this fresh nation that it is no wonder that after the Iskar Astartes was writ a call of affirmation swept through the land and it was unanimously decided that Valliruun Ellemex would be crowned the first king of Iskandar. The coronation was to be held upon the Feast Day of Kassandir in the following year, and the ardor of the coming celebration rang through the Dawn Realm with such clarion that even beyond the bulwark of mountains that separated Iskandar and the lands of Dalair the Magisterium heard its cry.
Having existed as the sole nation in the world of Orr until that time and with the knowledge that their new opponent in the west would be lead by a judge they had exiled, the Magisterium schemed to wound Iskandar. From the lands of Dalair assassins were sent and on the day of Ellemex's corronation, his life was brought to end before a crown could be placed upon his brow, an act that the Iskar Astartes and the Dawn Realm would never forgive.
The Uncrowned King and the Iskar Astartes
In the year 471 AR the Knights of Elysium gathered at the sacred isle of Vide'Cormeum and with the aid of his companions, Lord Ellemex scribed the Iskar Astartes. A rule of law and order that would safeguard the realm. With this he raised the twelve pillars of Knighthood that would serve and protect the new nation of Iskandar, established the governance of the kingdoms and their fiefdoms, the ascensions and transference of the realm's power, and the checks and balances that would ensure their keeping through the long centuries.
Unto these virtues must the Iskar Astartes strive to sustain: Valor, Justice, Mercy, Humility, and Sacrifice.
To be a Knight of Elysium means choosing the difficult path; that which places him or her between the innocent and harm. The Knight must abstain from temptations in his pursuit of law and justice. Worldly pleasures, those which benefit only oneself, weakens his spirit and resolve in the times of trial. A Knight must possess a heart compelled by compassion, one that understands the suffrage of the world and is able to grant mercy even when none is deserved. If his purpose is true, and conviction immovable, the Knight is able to stride naked through the flames of hell. The Iskar Astartes must give earnestly all that they possess to their cause and their oaths.
So beloved was Lord Ellemex by his fellow Knights and the peoples of this fresh nation that it is no wonder that after the Iskar Astartes was writ a call of affirmation swept through the land and it was unanimously decided that Valliruun Ellemex would be crowned the first king of Iskandar. The coronation was to be held upon the Feast Day of Kassandir in the following year, and the ardor of the coming celebration rang through the Dawn Realm with such clarion that even beyond the bulwark of mountains that separated Iskandar and the lands of Dalair the Magisterium heard its cry.
Having existed as the sole nation in the world of Orr until that time and with the knowledge that their new opponent in the west would be lead by a judge they had exiled, the Magisterium schemed to wound Iskandar. From the lands of Dalair assassins were sent and on the day of Ellemex's corronation, his life was brought to end before a crown could be placed upon his brow, an act that the Iskar Astartes and the Dawn Realm would never forgive.
To be a Knight of Elysium means choosing the difficult path; that which places him or her between the innocent and harm. The Knight must abstain from temptations in his pursuit of law and justice. Worldly pleasures, those which benefit only oneself, weakens his spirit and resolve in the times of trial. A Knight must possess a heart compelled by compassion, one that understands the suffrage of the world and is able to grant mercy even when none is deserved. If his purpose is true, and conviction immovable, the Knight is able to stride naked through the flames of hell. The Iskar Astartes must give earnestly all that they possess to their cause and their oaths.
History
The island of Rivennelle was once a holy site belonging to the Druidic Circles that have long inhabited the Dawn Realm even before it was won by the Elysium Knights. These circles, when gathered, referred to themselves as the Speakers of the White Moss, and even after the Knights of Elysium won their nation of Iskandar continued to gather upon the isle of Rivennelle as its protectors and caretakers. Their name is derived from the plant of the same namesake which grows exclusively upon the island. It is said that when the flowers that bloom from the moss are prepared in a specific concoction known only to those orders of Druids and used as a component of one of their hidden rites, one can gaze and perhaps even walk through the veil of time. Perhaps this is indeed why the island became a gravesite for the Knights of Elysium, for those crypts that the moss overgrows are said to provide a similar power, allowing the dead to gaze into the future of the realm and see the fate of the land they fought so valiantly to obtain.
When Ellemex was assassinated upon the island on the day of his coronation it was the Druids who offered their sacred land to the Knights of Elysium as his burial ground. Eventually their task of caretaking would require the building of Vide'Cormeum, the monastery, as more knights were laid to rest upon the island and the people of Iskandar began to journey there in pilgrimage. For millennia Vide'Cormeum was a place of temperance and solemn reflection, a holy ground that had known the shed of blood only once, but in the year 5139 AR that time of peace was broken.
The vizier of King Aerumund's court in Aarunsurlye assaulted the isle of Rivennelle in the dark of night. Unprepared for such an attack the Speakers of the White Moss were slain and the island was fouled by dark magic. Into the crypt of Ellemex the vizier strode, raising the ghosts of the ancient Knights of Elysium to defend the monastery as the Iskar Astartes arrived to apprehend him. To what gain or purpose the Vizier had in mind the annals of history cannot say, but in the last hours of that fateful day whatever spell was wrought caused the island to sink into the sea and the tomb of Ellemex, The Cradle of Light, was lost.
RUINED STRUCTURE
6139 AR
6139 AR
Alternative Names
The Cradle of Light
Type
Tomb
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