Alfar

The Eastern Peoples

Written by David_Ulph

Civilization and Culture

History

Before the First Age when the mortals of Terralba unshackled their destinies from the Gods, there were two main and distinct "species" of mortals. In the western lands of Elgerlia and Sanaros there were the Dwarfash, who are known by the Third Age as Humans, Korgs and "Barbarians". In the far east however, in a mysterious land never discovered by the Great Western Empire, were the Alfar.

Originally, there were Losalfar and Dokkalfar - or "Light Elves" and "Dark Elves" - who worshipped a dualist faith of the two primordial dragons, Los and Dok. There were many civilisations and cultures around the Losalf and Dokkalf, each having their own faiths and deities, and so one Dragon Lord - with the support of the two dragons - united all the known lands and religions they came across, forming the Terralban Pantheon and learning about all the Gods descended from the Great Hag.

However, the sages of the Dragon Cult all told the same story. Despite assimilating all known cultures, the Terralban Pantheon was still incomplete; Gods such as Thodir and Wapierz were missing as well as the Great Hag herself, who had birthed the dragons and thus all Gods from her warts. It was then that the Dragon Emperor at the time, Lord Dragor, received a prophetic dream of lands and peoples he did not recognise far west of his own continent. And so, the Dragon Crusade was formed to claim these lands as one holy Pantheon.

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Lord Dragor, with the two dragons in tow, led the unified naval might of the Losalfar and Dokkalfar fleets for years until this new land was discovered. Then, the Losalfar detachment would set their sights on Elgerlia and set about conquering the South-Eastern region of the continent known as Elgerlor. The Dokkalfar claimed to Lord Dragor that they would enact the same holy conquest on Sanaros but this would ultimately never happen; instead they would sail back as soon as the opportunity arose to cut the Losalfar in this alien continent and take the Dragon Throne for themselves with an armada being set up on the lands known by the Third Age as Ogrinos (Where the GWE only managed to map the very western coastlines).

Oblivious to this, the Losalfar under Lord Dragor came under their own internal disagreements. In his dreams, he had not seen any lands further west of Elgerlia - only storms and death - but his admirals in their zealous hubris disagreed. They would carry on west, claiming the Faar Isles and slowly losing numbers with every unsuccessful expedition west. Things became worse as supplies from their homeland stopped coming through due to the Dokkalfar armada at Ogrinos. Eventually, the Losalfar - the last of their peoples - were trapped on the Faar Isles where, to this day, is the only place one can find the culture of the ancient dragon lands and Losalfar Conclaves.

Lord Dragor, now known as Thorolf Dragor by his loyalists (The name of their God of Death's hunting hound) struck north into the lands known as Mylrondia, cutting into the Dwarfash cultures that lived in the colder climates that would come to be known as Korgs. Their conquest of this mineral and gemstone rich region was brutally successful, setting up their own Conclaves in this region. The Crusade almost reached as far west as Skìrah, but for unknown reasons the dragon Los had to leave Thorolf's side and return to Aelfspace, the heavenly realm of the Gods. As soon as the great Dragon of Light left the holy warrior, Thorolf collapsed in a sharp fever.

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It was the curse of Dragon Emperors that they shared the draconic blood of the dragon Los and without her everlasting presence, they would ultimately die through implosion. Determined, Thorolf would not allow his Crusade to end so abruptly, he would bathe in the riches of this land he was colonising and see the true might of the full Terralban Pantheon. And so, he struck a deal with the Dragon of Darkness, Dokk, and the God of Witchcraft, Marquash. Upon sharing draconic blood with Dokk instead of Los, he would corrupt his soul but live an everlasting life. He did not care for his people at this point and in his desperation for immortality, cursed himself and his Losalfar loyalists.

While Thorolf collapsed into coma, the Conclaves of Mylrondia warped and changed, their skin and eyes turning as red as the blood-sand shores of their mystical homeland. They became thinner and smaller, bones snapping into place every morning. Their hair turned a charred black and eyes sunk into their skulls. They had become Bludalfar, or "Blood Elves", who are still natives of Mylrondia throughout the Ages of Man. Thorolf was laid to rest in a crypt of splendour until thousands of years later when the Golden King, Vortigern of Sadaprax, conquered the region and revived the holy warrior, turning him into his lieutenant.

It was under the Golden King that the Bludalfar truly suffered as his magics experimented on them. Thorolf, however, murdered in the Golden King's name, building the Imperial Citadel and under his liege formed the royal House Dragorlan (or Son of Dragor).