The Tale of King Arandir

A popular tale that has been spoken for generations often to children at bedtime. The Tale of King Arandir has no author to speak of, though most scholars attribute it to the long lost Eladrin people. The Tale has seen some variation but has remained mostly intact, the following story is the most commonly told one.
There is some that believe it tells of a real time in Osterria's history, but if that is true there is no proof and no historical detailing of anything that could be construed as truth leading to some believing in a grand conspiracy keeping the location a secret from the populations so members of a global elite could keep the wealth of the fabled nation for themselves.

Summary

Long ago before the first man raised a sword to the sky, before the first leaves fell to the first winter and the sea was a untamed beast, there was a great Elven king named Arandir. Arandir was a kind and benevolent king to his people and all of elven kind prospered under his reign. He spread his kingdom to every corner of the land as reigned over everything the sun could touch. He grew so beloved and popular that god Corellon became jealous. See, Corellon was a god of beauty, art and the patron of all elves.
Arandir was a great and powerful leader and because of him, civilization was at its height under his reign. Many elves attributed the success to him, and not the gifts of Corellon even though his worship has not faltered. Corellon, blind in his jealously, erected a large mountain in the middle of Arandir’s kingdom shattering the land and casting a massive shadow over his city. Arandir, who ruled over everything the sun could touch, was seemingly defeated. However, Corellon watched in rage as the gentle kind rounded up all the wealth in his kingdom and melted it down into a great golden mirror that he used to reflect the sun on to his city. Arandir didn’t need wealth to prosper, his kingdom was a people not a castle, not a mountain of gold, but it was the art and beauty of the elves. It was the family and the fey, it was the nature, it was the winds on their faces and the stones under their feet. It was the sun, high in the sky and its warmth. His kingdom was the soul of the elves and therefore the soul of Corellon.
Corellon rejoiced at this revelation and granted the King control of the sun for his piety to the elvish ways. The king allowed the sun to stay high in the sky for many years and under this warmth his people used the new winds and tamed the seas and erected a great temple to Corellon on the new lands.
But this expansion and unnatural favoritism of the elves drew the ire of the other gods who sought to punish Corellon for his mettling with the affairs of mortals. Kord the god of strength and storms, flooded the new lands and turned the seas making it unpassable and sinking Corellon’s temple. Pelor stole the sun from Arandir and threw it to the soutt throwing the kings land into a long dark winter. Tiamet god of greed and dragons rose his kin and they stole the wealth and gold from the lands razing the fields starving his population. Bane, god of conquest gave the elves jealousy and envy making them fight one another for the last resources. Gruumesh god of slaughter stole the elves blood and made an enemy of mortal in his likeness, the foul orcs who were let loose onto the land. Melora, god of nature, took back the lands and swallowed the cities with wilderness.
The gods in their anger began to strike one another down, spilling their divine blood into our seas and lands drowning the last of Arandirs kingdom. As the gods battled above, below Arandir sat alone, having set his family and friends underground to hide from the wrath of the gods. He wept tears of sadness and pity for the lands and people around him, and begged Corellon for mercy.
Corellon came forth to him and embraced Arandir as an equal, telling him that none of this was his fault and they are both being punished. Arandir gray and shadowed of his former self, forgave the elf god as the Raven Queen arrived to take him to her icy palace to live in winter eternally. Corellon begged her to let him take the mortals soul, but alas, it was out of her hands since balance was out of order.
Infurated he screamed to the gods to stop their fighting, but they didn’t listen. His yelling however, awoken Mordin the god of families and creation and Bahamut the god of justice. Together, the rose to the heavens and stopped the gods from fighting. There the enacted a deal, that all would govern the prime material plane, but from their own heavenly kingdoms. And thus they created the outer planes where they rule from this day. With the world left without balance the gods pulled from the earth, man and gave them the willpower to be. They worked in balance with the elves to hold back the orcs and banish them into the wilds. From then on they built their kingdoms in respect of the gods and ensured that no man was higher than the ones that let them be.
But what of Arandir and his kingdom you might ask? Well, legend has it that when the gods stopped fighting they smoothed the earth back out crashing down Corellon’s great mountain and burying Arandir’s great kingdom under the earth to create foundations for the next civilizations that would grow until they were buried and the next kingdoms after that so on and so forth until we arrive at the earth we walk on today.
As for Arandir? Well Correlon was unable to claim his soul, but it is said that he awaits in the Raven Queen's hall, there to comfort passing elves dealing with their mortality.

Historical Basis

There is no historical evidence that Arandir or his elf Kingdom ever existed, even the records of the Elves do not date back that far and if they did it could change creation myths for many of their kind. Archaeological dig sites in some area have found old ruins but those are widely believed to belong to the first men or even Eladrin, as a lot of these sites are found in places of extreme nature.
One interesting fact to point in the story is the creation of the Orcs, which most Orcs do not have thier own history or creation myths, one of the variations of this story is actually told as their creation, but as a whole it seems most Orcs care not where they come from. This mentioning is interesting because as far as anyone can tell as long as there have been elves, there has been mentioning or records of Orcs. This has lead some conspiracy theorist and researchers to believe that this is in fact a truthful telling of facts. However coincidental, this is all conjecture.

Spread

This myth is told world wide and in many languages, it is perhaps one of the most widely told stories.

Variations & Mutation

The Orcs have a variation where they were created in the battles of the elves and rose to eat them, and the elves that exist today are merely excrement from the first Orcs.
In other tellings of the story Arandir is a Queen, there are no other changes to the story.

In Art

There are many paintings depicting the events in the story. None of which are notable works of art due to the subject matter.