Moriaclar elves
The account below is told by Vesstan Heithana, scholar of Silfûrhëim
The Moriaclar elves were a now lost culture of the Second Age elves that were well known in West Colassia (though at the time it was 'Western Colassia' because the two Colassias were one then). Their homelands overlaps with the northern portion of modern Kantoc.
The Moriaclar were said to be an Air dominant ethnic group of elves due to the fact that their homelands were relatively far north and their lifestyles were frequently nomadic or at least semi-nomadic.
The Moriaclar were said to be the greatest horsemen of their era and were experts of mounted warfare. Their homeland had a lot of monsters and the Moriaclar were often skilled monster hunters. They even managed to tame and ride some monsters to supplement their horse cavalry.
They raided other nearby elven nations and were generally successful, before their enemies became more organized. Few elf nation's warriors could match the Moriaclar warriors in one -on-one combat, but the Moriaclar were not especially populous, so if an organized nation was able to bring their numbers to bear, they were able to reliably defeat the Moriaclar in battle.
After being on the losing side of multiple wars, the Moriaclar switched their tactics from staging raids on their more sedentary neighbors to hiring themselves out as mercenaries to their more sedentary neighbors, especially the Kingdom of Disteria, who by most accounts was the mightiest nation at the end of the Second Age. This arguably led to the Moriaclar being more wealthy than they were at the height of their raiding and pillaging days.
Their homelands were fairly far up north, so they were among the first group of elves to lose their homeland after the onset of the Second Unmaking though being great horse riders and far flung mercenaries, it's unlikely the initial attack on their home got everyone. There are records of Moriaclar warriors fighting as part of the grand coalition of the famous heroine, Lensa Vaxidor that helped destroy the Demon Lord known as the Harbinger who was conveniently the very same Demon Lord who devastated their homeland.
After the destruction of The Harbinger, the word 'Moriaclar' cannot be found in any known written records. This is where I am forced to speculate.
Personally, I do not believe the Moriaclar were wiped out to the last man, but I do not believe many survived. After the destruction of The Harbinger, most elf nations were in shambles and the majority of elves were living in nomadic bands of refugees of mixed ethnic heritage. Given that the Moriaclar were great warriors who were used to nomadic life styles and knew how to live off of the land, they would be a great asset to any band of refugees.
As we all know, but seldom admit, the elves we now think of as wood elves, grey elves, and dark elves do not represent pure blood lines, but our ancestors were the haggard survivors many nations interbreeding with each other and forging new cultures essentially from the ground up.
I believe the ancient Moriaclar were too decimated to make much of a cultural impact on the elf communities they assimilated into. I am making an educated guess, but I believe roughly half of the Moriaclar survivors merged with the wood elves of of Codenya (given how they were geographically close to Codenya) and the other half merged with the dark elves of Kahdisteria (given how politically interwoven the Moriaclar were with the ancient Disterians).
The ancient Moriaclar did not like the sea, so it is unlikely that any of them would have assimilated into the grey elves, but stranger things have happened.
The modern taiga elves are air dominant highly nomadic subculture of wood elves with a strong horse riding tradition, but I do not persoanally believe that they are direct heirs of the Moriaclar given how radically different their spirtual and political practices are.
I do believe that since the first demon invaders of the Second Unmaking specifically targeted mortals and rarely bothered targeting beasts that a lot of the Moriaclar's fine horses became wild and that the modern Kantoca humans are all unknowingly riding the descendants of the Moriaclar's ancient steeds.
Culture
Culture and cultural heritage
We do not know much about the ancient Moriarclar's cultural practices because most surviing historical records mentioning them were written by the Moriarclar's rivals.
The Moriaclar were respected as great horse breeders, great riders, and great warriors but they were frequently viewed as primitive barbarians compared to true civilized elves.
I don't believe this was truly fair as many grey elves and dark elves unfairly view wood elves as backwards today (even though we thrashed them both solidly when they tried to invade us long ago).
They must have had some culture.
Almost every written record hinted that they were savage barbarians. A smaller number of records mentioned them as godless heathens. Most human horse riding cultures view Korus in high regard, given that Korus was the god of horses, but it seems the Moriarclar did not, and the Second Age Stewards were offended enough by "The Moriarclar impulse to dominate nature instead of work with it." That said I haven't run across any written records of other religious groups griping about the Moriarclar.
One or two references speculated that the Moriarclar collaberated with the Fair Folk, were secretly dominated by warlocks, and it was with fae magic that they were able to tame and command their pet monsters though those accounts seemed credible.
I made up the name "Moriaclar" as a derivative from the Mongolian word for "horse" which is pronounced as "mori".
I created the Moriaclar because I wanted an excuse for an epic Scarnoctis dungeon crawl. I assure you it is a complete coincidence that I'm sending the PCs into "the Mines of Moriaclar" since the Moriaclar ruins in question are a long lost city and not an excavation with the intent of obtaining minerals, but "Mines of Moriaclar" rolls off the tongue better "Treasure Hunting Excavation in a Lost City of Moriaclar.
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Encompassed species
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