merlänya- scars of the past

Prologue - the scars of the past

Long ago there was a land, it was fresh and fertile, it was perfect. It was called merlänya. This land had mountains that touched the sky, rivers that quenched the land and the great forest, which was the beginning and the continuance of all life that dwelt within its borders, and as the sun rose for the first time the elves were awoken into the world. The elves lived in the forest, and so it gave them immortality, and so they made a covenant with nature, they would have immortality in exchange for the allegiance of elf and nature and in so doing they would never take the life of any living creature. So for aeons they never killed a single living creature, only eating fruit that grew from the trees, and through their pact with al life the trees grew to form dwellings for the elves, and so there was peace¦
However, the elves were venturing into the arts of magic, and over countless years they mastered its secrets and tied them to a language so that magic could be practised through words as well as rituals how ever rituals were a lot more powerful, than the incantations and this knowledge was reserved for the highest orders of druid society. Although now the elves would merely say a word and there task would be done, and in so doing the elves started to drain the magic from the world. Having realised the this and the consequences the arch-druids performed a ritual, and hence the elves could only draw magic from their own inner magic. However there were elves who would not agree to this demand and started to siphon dark magics from the void which corrupted them and the world around them.
When the elves were found committing this treason to nature they were exiled and the great forest was divided, these elves where hence named the dark elves due to their unholy actions, and they sought revenge on those who had punished them, and so they waged war on the elves and on a dark night on the border of the forests division an elf was killed, and so by the blood shed by an elf they broke their pact with nature and have been sentenced to mortality. The elf was found lying dead with the sword of the dark elves leader thrusted in his chest, the sword was long and broad and had glowing red runes along the blade. The elves could see that this was a declaration of war. And along the blade there was an elvish inscription which read: 'only the true enemy of the elves can wield this blade'. Regardless the elves did not want it in their land and their greatest warriors tried to remove it, but when they touched it, it was as hot as dragons breath and as heavy as a mountain and any attempt to break it simply disintegrated the craft used to destroy it, And so it stood their for years as a tormenting reminder of the loss of their immortality.
The elves would not stand for such actions, and so the elves prepared for war changing their industry to smithing. There was a great army of ten thousand that was called to patrol the borders of the division and there was a constant stalemate of the two forces where they could look in each others eyes, But everyone knew that if they made a move they would surely die. But on the hottest day of the year, an elf drew his sword and with a clean slash he decapitated his adversary, and so the great battle of the woods took place. The battle took place for hours and the elves did not show any sign of stopping, and were overcoming the evil spells of the dark elves. The elves were winning when suddenly, the dark elven archers released a great volley of a thousand arrows and the elven leader replied by saying 'how glorious it shall be fighting under the shade!'. sadly though after this attack only a few elves survived and they charged at the dark elves with an unthinkable fury and they fought to the very last life, and when the drums of war were finally silenced there was only 50 elves left from the thousands that fought and the elves have now to regain their mighty civilisation but there will be an unending war on the forests division.
The elves tried hard to rebuild their society with such a loss to their population, where as the dark elves spent their times in dark corners of the forest where they tainted the rest of the world. But this existence became to much for some elves, and even some dark elves, and they escaped from the forest to go to the mountains or the rivers and they scattered themselves around the world. With this new life style they changed over the millennia in to several races. They evolved into men, dwarves, orcs, goblins and drarki, also known as beast-men. The humans resided in the north-west of merlänya, living off the land and slowly becoming unaware of the strife of the elves. The dwarves inhabited in the nearby mountains, seeking the riches of mithril, gold and precious gems. The orcs populated the south east at the boot of the island. They lived in the harsh landscapes where the grass was brown like the earth and survived of the blood of their kills. The goblins colonised the north east mountains and in their corners they dwelled and found more evil things than themselves in the dark pits of the mountains.
And the drarki lived in the desert, they were cannibals which feasted off one another and surrounded the oasis's and the rivers. There were no wars or battles for hundreds of years, that was until , when the dark elves sprung an ambush, a dark elf picked up the evil sword¦