Atharen, A Fantasy Roleplay Forum

Posted: **Wed Jul 17, 2019 8:28 pm**

"We were once supreme... though that was so long ago. Now, we are premier only in our hunger, and in our filth.” - Gratiana Sil'Elan, Lady of Veranor

A Huntsman's Prey

Introduction
It was said to be a whisper upon a crone's lips that first brought the Elves to Sil-Elaine. A story of shimmering leaves that reflected the truth of those before them, of silver colors that painted their palette upon the world around them. A place of destiny, of augurs both mystical and divine. Sil-Elaine was a land of legends to the Elves, and then not long after it was their second home: the kin to their homeland, a place as ingrained into their cultural identity as the white-spired cities to the west. Veranor, the first city dedicated to one of the old Elven Gods, became a place of pilgrimage and piety to the millions of their kin who freely wandered Mornoth at this time.

And as things initially appeared, Sil-Elaine became a land of destiny after all. It was the place the Elves were forcefully expelled to after the collapse of Silor and the genocide of their kind, it was the birth of Sil'norai identity after the loss of the Ald'norai name, and it is now the place the Silver Elves are confined to after the Sundering's decimation that has wrought disaster on all they had that remained. Sil-Elaine is a beautiful, tragic land, with trees that sing old Elven hymns still wailing their songs, yet surrounded by ruined cities that once held tens of millions of those who planted them.

The font of the Silver Elves, Sil-Elaine is as tragic as they, but still with an otherworldly glamour that can only be seen as reflective to the haughty Elves who maintain their regal pride even as, into history, they recede.

History
Sil-Elaine (“Crown of Elaine” in Eldhan) was first settled by the Ald'norai - the ancestors of the Sil'norai - at around the fifth century of the Second Age. The city of Veranor was founded not long after, devoted to the Elven God Veratelle, though it only truly grew to significance much later. In fact, for the first thousand years, Sil-Elaine was largely a rural backwater in comparison to the western realms of Mornoth, a place known mostly for religious ceremonies and exotic marshland animals. The Nobility of Ald'norai society would come every so often to gawk at the sheer wildness of the realm; the overgrowth, of trees so large they could be seen towering from the city streets, a humming escaping breathily from their bark.

The realm quickly became associated with the divine, who seemed to prefer residing in Sil-Elaine, compelling the elite of Silor to visit Veranor in order to receive their audience. Slowly, the most pious of Elves came to the realm in order to fulfill what they believed to be their purpose, and over time the land began to develop at a marginal albeit productive pace. One that was quickly accelerated near the end of the Third Age, as Queen Riala Elaine - who the realm was named after - succumbed to death at the hands of Wraedan, along with all of her many courtiers and generals who defied death so arrogantly. This came at the moment of a slave revolt led by an ambitious human mage, Kaitos of Ectahl, which quickly resulted in the collapse and overwhelm of the Kingdom of Silor, of which Sil-Elaine was a part.

The humans, who had been brutalized by the Ald'norai for over a thousand years, brutalized their former masters in turn. A great genocide of the Ald'norai began, during which time the Elves fractured into three races due to their shame, beliefs and irreconcilable differences. While the Hytori and Dratori wandered west in search of a new home, the Sil'norai were drawn like sheep to the only one remaining to them, being forcefully relocated to Sil-Elaine. Of course, nearly fifty million Elves could not successfully make the journey and find bountiful resources awaiting them. Whether immediately by the sword, or by starvation, exposure or disease, by the end of the Third Age only ten percent of the historic Ald'norai populace remained. The remaining few million who survived the journey filled the corridors of the Elainian Darklands, and quickly they were repurposed by the new Clockwork Empire as a backbone of economic and military might.

And so the next thousand years followed. At the beginning of the Fourth Age, several decisions were made for Sil-Elaine that would affect its future, albeit in many positive ways. The royal family of the old Queen, House Sil'Elan, would be allowed to retain its position on the throne - but as a vassal monarchy to the Emperor, Kaitos. Though the man had allowed for the immense cruelty to the Sil'norai people to occur, he had no particular spite towards Elves and in fact had based many of his skills and beliefs on their own methods. As a result, the Sil'norai were granted a permanent position at his court in Daigos Kaitel, they were allowed a standing military for their own defense, and were given fair distribution of funds for industrial projects. Sil-Elaine quickly became highly developed, a prosperous section of the Empire that - while sneered at by the Elf-loathing commoners - was regarded as a bountiful and productive realm by the Nobility.

Of course, things were far from perfect. During this period in history, the Sil'norai seemed to draw further away from their old Gods, who despised humans and raged bitterly at the state of their domain. The Sil'norai had largely become complacent and obedient, and with a concerted effort to minimize knowledge of their genocide and forced relocation, they had little context of history with which they could relate. While the Sil'norai continued to grow more and more integrated into Clockwork culture, the Elven Gods encroached violently upon surrounding provinces, and were hunted in turn.

These scandalous events consumed much of the political capital of House Sil'Elan, and the court could feel a sense of trepidation looming. Near the end of the Fourth Age, Veratelle came to the King of the Darklands and told him of an ominous force brewing in the capital, propelled by the growing madness of their immortal Emperor. The Endir attempted to reason with him, but was swiftly rejected as he did not believe her. Instead, he beseeched the Elven Gods to stand down and return to their home in order to continue the Sil'norai's growth and prosperity. She did, and as did the rest, and without such intervention the Emperor drew near to what he sought.

When the masses finally rose against him, the Sil'norai were not among them. They remained complacent in Sil-Elaine, knowing they could not survive another genocide, another forced migration. They believed they would rise from the ashes of the Clockwork Empire as they had been before its zenith, though instead as the Sundering came they were utterly destroyed.

And so launches the beginning of the Fifth Age in Elainian history. The Sundering came when least expected, to a realm pacified by fear. So near to the epicenter, nearly all of Northern Sil-Elaine was destroyed, and the remainder was razed and polluted with noxious magical waste. The Elves became nearer to extinction than they did at the peak of their culling, being reduced to a small fraction of the population they had before. City walls collapsed and were subsequently flooded with arcane grime, inflicting horrific maladies on the populace. Spires flung onto the streets and buildings shook into rubble from the horrific tremors. Monsters from the Mists flooded in, slaughtering the prey who had no infrastructure to safeguard them. Virtually only those living in Veranor and the cities south of it survived the initial impact, with many cities declining shortly after due to starvation and illnesses transmitted by the influx of ether.

During this time, however, a new 'race' of sorts was born in the Elainian Darklands: the Dranoch, a species marred by grotesque hunger and an inherent sense of superiority. Its progenitors became so willingly, keen upon surviving the Sundering, with their transition into the species protecting them from mortal frailty. This group of founders was known as the Court of Dusk, a collective that had been conspiring to elevate themselves for some time. With the political hierarchy largely dead or draped in mania, the Court was easily able to cull their former aristocratic rivals and they took to ruling the province immediately. Even today, they are remembered for bringing stability at a time of chaos and strife, with many believing the Court of Dusk saved the Sil'norai race.

Of course, their megalomania and irrepressible need to further their evolution and the growth of their invasive species quickly limited their appreciation among the masses, but by then it no longer mattered. The Court had woven their progeny into every facet of Elainian society, and had set things in motion to secure their power. Magical colleges were disbanded, their members hunted and fed upon, technology was confiscated and limited to Court needs... all forms of expression counter to the political order were snuffed out, violently. At the time, these actions seemingly had reasonable justification. Magic had destroyed their world, blighted their land and drawn their once proud people to the brink. Technology was the symbol of the Clockwork Empire, which had failed them. Many people in Sil-Elaine turned a blind eye to these actions, and as a result the potential for opposition to the Dranoch lessened each passing year.

Eventually, their number of progeny outgrew the mages and dissidents on which they could feed, and so the Sil'norai became prey to the voracious hunger of their Lords. Near the close of the Fifth Age, most of the Court of Dusk had ascended to the seemingly final phase in their evolution, becoming Huntsmen; Dranoch so powerful they rivaled legends of the Elven heroes of old, only with no 'heroes' to contest them.

But time has passed, and now after more than a century of the Sixth Age, rebellion stirs in the Darklands and has already taken great shape. With a Huntsman already slain, their invincibility has been challenged, though many fear the cost it may require to unseat them . . . a destruction once again of their kind.

Posted: **Mon Jul 22, 2019 5:03 pm**

The Jailor, Aldrin

The Core

Technology
While technological evolution was once a core fundamental to Elainian society, technology in the realm has seen a sharp decline since the emergence of the Dranoch as the primary body of the fallen realm. As technology provides a danger to sorcerers and may prove fatal to the Dranoch, seeking utter dominion, it has been since regulated to the point of nothingness and any true technological marvels are held solely by the authority of the Court of Dusk.

Society
xx

Factions
There are three major factions that define Veranor, and Sil-Elaine as a whole. There is the Court of Dusk, wip.

After them is their opposition - and an immense threat to the stability of the realm. These individuals, rogues far removed from the total purview of the Courtiers of Dusk, are the Black Remedy, led by the ‘Jailor’ Aldrin. As a man whose child was slain by a ravenous, newborn Dranoch, Aldrin has dedicated his life to expunging their scourge from the face of Sil-Elaine. While not a totally uncommon story, what separates Aldrin from the other revolutionaries is a particular branding unique to he and his most loyal allies.

The ability to repress the soul of another to lock away their ability to act as sustenance for the Dranoch, depriving Veranor’s gluttonous masters of their font of power and longevity. Even though only Huntsmen require souls to sustain themselves, even lesser Dranoch seem to grow ill and deprived from feeding on the Famished, for reasons that can only be theorized.

As more and more of Sil-Elaine’s inhabitants are branded by Aldrin, the Court of Dusk continues to winnow - but so too do the people of the realm. In order to make a ‘Famished’, as they are called, the repression of the entity’s soul must be intricate and deeply inlaid. As a result, the branded individual becomes largely mute in emotion and often in words. They become more frail and easily shepherded to the cause of whoever first awakens them upon depriving them of full access to their soul.

As such, the Famished are not often made by choice. While they have grown significantly in past decades, since the rise of Aldrin as a contender for control of the realm, they have typically been selected through the spontaneous invasion of one’s home only to brand them as such - or the removal of them from the public as they roam the city’s quiet streets. While many support Aldrin despite this, believing the Dranoch to be a source of suffering to be eliminated at any cost - many too fear him and have oft begged their hungry Lords to protect them, often in exchange for fragments of their soul.

Interestingly, Aldrin does not appear to be Famished himself, as he claims to become one would strip him of the ability to brand others. As such he is but a simple man at the head of a vast legion of loyal followers, with the best among them being offered the gift of branding and other tools necessary to drive back the Dranoch to the dark.

The final group is spawned, some would say, from the chaos of both warring factions… and this group has no true, formal name, though they are called the Adh Nuaihm by most - or 'the Lost Freedom' in Silvain. They are most often Famished who have lost their ability to feel at home within their own forms, who feel a deep longing for something that cannot be sated. Though they were once a small group of forlorn individuals who came together to seek refuge in familiar suffering, this underground of Famished has since grown into a revolutionary movement to find meaning in life so clouded by exploitation and abuse.

They are, in many ways, a wildcard that is ever-growing -- and may one day serve as either the antidote to Elainian society, or another cog in one of the two wheels that may overturn it entirely.

Posted: **Mon Jul 22, 2019 5:04 pm**

The Citadel Gallows of the Black Remedy

The Roots

Culture

Marriage
Marriage and love are very important in Elainian society. Due to a dormant magic-borne illness from the Sundering, even present generations of Sil'norai find it difficult to conceive and will often miscarriage. For this reason they are known to be dedicated to multi-century long marriages in order to both celebrate companionship and to foster the proper environment for raising young, when they ever do come, and as a result divorce is nearly unheard of.

Due to the unfortunate restraints on Sil'norai reproduction, when a woman or man is found to be fertile they will often be asked to reproduce even outside of marriage. Whether this is performed artificially or through sexual contact is left to the pairing in question. Regardless, they remain with their spouse and will typically determine at some point whether the child will be theirs or a belonging of the other party. This is typically determined by wealth.

As a result of this, marriage in Sil-Elaine is not based on reproductive capabilities. Gender and sex therefore play little role and Sil'norai marriages tend to be based purely on affection, a rarity among most societies.

Wip on the ceremony and titles and how it works within society

Posted: **Mon Jul 22, 2019 5:04 pm**

Gratiana, Lady of Veranor and Courtier of Dusk

The Structure

Governance
Governance in Sil-Elaine is complicated, especially beyond the borders of Veranor. In Veranor, the city's administration is a straightforward affair: Gratiana serves as the province's supreme authority, and beneath her is the Carmine Scourge, the elite military officials that maintain order in the capital. Veranor is, in general, almost untouched by Aldrin's revolution due to the sheer centralization of Dranoch power within the area. Aside from the Carmine Scourge there are the Royal Guard of House Sil'Elan, a large and well-respected order committed to maintaining 'peace' in the capital. The level of military might focused in the area makes large-scale operations by the Remedy impossible, and so Veranor remains an insulated bubble of hegemonic control, reminiscent of Sil-Elaine before Aldrin rose to prominence.

Outside of the capital, a different reality plays out. The Realm of Sil-Elaine is divided into six regions: Veranor, Ard Mora, the Ashen Mooring, Feloran, Morian and the Barge. Ard Mora, the Ashen Mooring and Morian have - for the last several years - all been simultaneously gripped in intense, war-like combat, the revolution truly taking root in those regions. Thus, while there are areas in those provinces that remain fully managed by their respective Courtiers, large swathes of said provinces are utterly controlled by the Black Remedy.

xx

Religion

Military

Laws

Posted: **Mon Jul 22, 2019 5:09 pm**

Veranor

The Land

Climate and Agriculture
Given Sil-Elaine’s equatorial placement and its low-lying nearness to moist and murky terrains, the realm is known to be hot and humid in the summer months, almost unbearably so at the apex of Searing. However, Frost, Glade and Ash tend to be merciful and are generally seen as bountiful seasons of warm glow and perfect temperature. Overall, Sil-Elaine’s temperatures are not truly severe, though much about the land beyond this has undoubtedly been touched by the Sundering.

The majority of the nation is steeped in the magical waste of that event, pumped into the life-blood of the earth. A vast number of the realm’s trees have been altered to appear as reflective, ornate and silver, though on closer inspection one will find that many of these trees have long since died and are almost like crystallized shells. This same silver, reflective glean has embedded onto rock-faces, has littered ponds with glassy fragments and has even blended into the soil. The ‘Darklands’ are ironically vibrant, with gnarled mirrors stretched across the Sil'norai home.

With the Sundering devastating the region, life — both animal and plant — tends to find it difficult to survive, and people often note the lonely and barren feeling of the realm outside the cities. There are disturbingly few creatures roaming the wild, and those that do tend to be dangerous and mutated, with intense resistances to magic and other forms of harm. With little to prey on, Sil'norai have become their staple meal — but with the Dranoch’s territoriality, even the majority of these beasts have simply gone extinct through starvation.

On the interior, the Darklands tend to be coated in forestry, still surrounded in thicket. The center of the realm is largely flat and barren, with jagged land formations and large, polluted lakes forming from deep lowland trenches. The coast is almost entirely swamp and is completely uninhabitable, with violent magical storms perpetually besieging the bay. With such inhospitable conditions, agriculture is nearly impossible to perform normally, leading Elainians to invest in underground terraces constructed during the Clockwork Age. While all of these places have been polluted by magic over time, their deep demotion into the ground has protected them from many of the most adverse effects of magical radiation.

Still, there are not enough of these to comfortably sustain the Sil'norai populace, and some have even been lost to negligence and exposure to more dangerous pollution. The diversity of these crops have also decreased over time, with many of them being genetic clones vulnerable to bacteria and plague. Outside of Ectahl, Sil-Elaine was the most impacted by the Sundering, and this reveals itself in the sickness evident in every aspect of the land. While — as mentioned before — there are haunting beauties such as trees that sing old Elven hymns, these apparitions of the past only seem to bring notice to the barren hollow they once so contradictingly described.

Realm

Posted: **Mon Jul 22, 2019 5:11 pm**

Dranoch Botchlings

The Metrics

Economy

Demographics
Total Population: 4,500,000

Veranor City: 1,200,000
Elainian Darklands: 3,300,000

While the total population of Sil-Elaine is over seventy five percent Sil'norai, this group is divided between three different groups that have vastly distinct differences within the landscape of the realm.

Of all Sil'norai, only half a percent are Dranoch. Then, around eighty percent are standard Lord Elves with traditional characteristics of their race. The remaining twenty percent are the Famished, who tend to appear emotionless and passive. They are also generally more gaunt than other Sil'Norai due to the recession of many of their desires - including that of sustenance. Thus, their name.

The Famished display very marginal independence, generally following the will of whoever wishes to guide them. For this reason - fairly ironically - the Famished are incredibly easy to exploit and while they may not feed the Dranoch’s hunger for souls, they often fall into servitude of the hungry Lords regardless.

Interestingly, it is said by some in the Kingdom of Lorien that the Famished are innately similar to the Hollows, and may be the answer to the age-old question of Hollow sentience. There are even allegations of Lorien world mages abducting Famished in order to test some of their more crude hypothesis.

As a side-note, the most significant minority at nearly fifteen five percent of the realm's population are the Hyr'Norai, with a sub-sect of them having returned to the Darklands after the Elven schism. Another ten percent are Vethcairn Druskai, those who have integrated into the realm, typically having been captured as slaves by the Dranoch and eventually filtered through society.

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