1. The Beginning

2. Eronoa

3. Ormathad

4. Niveriku

5. Miig'Jaiach

6. Paelywa

Ormathad
Part 1
1200 - 1800

1. Agriculture and Gelwid, the Human City
1200 – 1300

On a lark, some of the faeries of Saevlid, on Wethepahn’s as yet unnamed south-eastern peninsula, taught the naked and wild humans language and the use and production of stone and wood tools for hunting, carpentry, and food preparation. Knowledge of cultivating certain plants was passed to humans by the faeries as well, most notably grapevines and the attendant knowledge of winemaking. But it was human ingenuity that conceived of using large, empty sections of land to orchestrate and support the growth of edible plant life in massive quantities. At roughly the same time, humans began domesticating aurochs, mouflon, goats, pigs, pheasants and horses, a species that had already had some dealings with the faeries.

The climate was ideal for farming, as the winters were mild and without snow, and the summers pleasant. There were no Lakguene in the area, and few dangerous animals. By 1300, a system of farms spread across the lands north of Wevik Forest, producing ample quantities of wheat, barley, sorghum, millet, and rice.

The art of baking was also conceived of by humans. Pixies often enjoyed assisting humans in simple chores if they were rewarded with small breads or cakes. Nymphs also often tempted human men into the woods to couple with them, and were flattered by gifts of baked goods. Almost no half-faeries were conceived, though.

Population rapidly swelled to around 100,000 humans, from around 10,000 in 1200. The first human city, Gelwid, emerged in roughly the centre of the human occupied land as a nexus of trade and information. It was in Gelwid that elves most regularly visited, amusing themselves by performing songs or plays for the humans, giving them a variety of material gifts, or teaching the more intelligent humans new arts or skills. It was in imitation of faerie fashion that some humans began wearing clothes, and faeries gave humans knowledge of dyes and cloth weaving, though most faeries themselves went without clothing. Among humans, the practice of bartering quickly moved beyond livestock and produce, and included clothing and faerie treasures.

In emulation of the faeries’ free sexuality, prostitution was accepted among humans. A complex of buildings by Mielsus Lake in Gelwid was a grand brothel named Dioswei after a naiad attached to the lake. Dioswei herself would often couple with the brothel customers. However, despite the sexual freedom enjoyed by human society at the time, monogamy was the universal marriage convention, while no convention except pursuit of pleasure seemed to exist among the faeries.

Humans were rarely permitted to enter Saevlid, though. Animals had had such a catastrophic effect on faerie life that faeries were nervous about becoming too intimate with this particular extraordinary, unpredictable animal.

2. The Fae’ret and Raelyri
(Approximately) 1450 – 1496

As human population grew to 600,000 in 1400, and the scope of human knowledge and complacency with it, there was also an increasing resentment and even outright hostility towards the faeries. The faeries had told the humans about Eronoa and about how the world and its inhabitants came into being and a majority of the humans were dissatisfied with the tale’s bleak simplicity and suspected that the story was merely a kind of cruel joke. This perception exacerbated the jealousy many humans were beginning to feel regarding faerie immortality, health, and beauty.

By the 1450s, there was a group of humans known as the Fae’ret who, operating primarily in secrecy, would kidnap, kill, and often devour faeries. They came to believe that by torturing and eating faeries in careful rituals the consciousness of a devout Fae’ret would live on eternally in a supernatural paradise.

Naturally, relations between humans and faeries became strained after the emergence of the Fae’ret. Most humans, though, even if they resented the faeries, did not wish to contribute to an atmosphere of hostility and would rather leave well enough alone.

It seemed to the faeries that the Fae’ret were a threat to their existence unlike any they had before witnessed. It was the first group of humans to unite under the motive to control others for an idea--a system alien to the faeries, which made the Fae’ret even more frightening. Fortunately for those interested in peaceful relations, another religion was conceived in Gelwid in 1496.

There were by then four human cities; Lonisdae, Tefuvet, Jelum, and Gelwid, though Gelwid was by far the largest. It was also the city with the best relations with the faeries, and the city with the fewest Fae’ret. In this atmosphere, a group of four men and two women conceived of the new religion. One of the men, Sethwil Dobten, had recently moved to the city from Lonisdae, where Fae’ret influence was at its highest. He found his new Gelwid friends sympathised with the disgust he felt for the Fae’ret. Dobton had come to Gelwid as a trader, but through poor negotiating skills had managed to unload his wares at such a significant loss as to make a return to Lonisdae impossible. It was in a state of utter estrangement from the workings of civilised society that he met his new friends.

They routinely met in the home of Otorthi Hagim, a painter of some success, though human paintings were popularly deemed far inferior to those produced by faeries. The rest of the group were misfits—teenagers with no particular designs on traditional occupations. Pletath Retid was a young man with a great gift for speaking but little interest in practical matters. Sakyf Dond was a writer of unpopular stories and not very talkative—woodblock printing was one of the last gifts of the elves and fiction had fallen greatly out of vogue. Successfully traded volumes were limited almost entirely to fantastic and beautiful faerie scrolls.

Wisli Hagim, Otorthi’s wife and another member of the group, was a prostitute who was possessed of a remarkable faculty for logic and organisation. The other female member of the group was Yilidi Elea, who was a serving girl and dancer at a local tavern.

The group came up with a set of rules and guidelines for all humankind to follow, augmented both by true stories of the faeries assisting humans and also by more fantastical tales of a god who created the world and promised eternal reward for those who refrained from harming others, particularly faeries.

A book was written, the Raewond, mostly by Dond, though the outlines of most of the stories were developed by the whole group and were influenced by faerie tales. The Raewond was the centrepiece of the religion that came to be known as Raelyri. Followers of Raelyri came to be known as Raelyreen.

3. Content of the Raewond

The gods of Raelyri consisted of a male, leader god named Rostan and his three consort goddesses; Molyi, the mother, Everi, the ghost, and Limn, the daughter. Molyi was a sort of caretaker, fostering the growth of all living things toward beauty and success. Everi enforced Rostan’s laws and Limn was a mischief maker who tested humans. Limn was the daughter of Rostan and Everi while the faeries were the offspring of Rostan and Molyi.

Faerie beauty was cited as proof of their divine parentage as the beauty of the faeries surpassed most humans and was left untarnished by age. Faerie beauty was purported to extend to the minds of faeries, and faerie thought was deemed finer than human thought.

The faerie fondness for eroticism was referred to by the Raewond as an example to be followed. Humans should not have sex merely to reproduce and the Raewond also spoke approvingly of prostitution.

Molyi had given birth to the world, the plants, and animals, after conceiving them from Rostan’s seed. Rostan and Molyi coupled again to conceive, this time the faeries, which were to be the greatest expression of Rostan’s will and a reflection of the most beautiful aspects of Molyi’s heart. The gods delighted in seeing the faeries happily roam the world, and they delighted in seeing the creations of the faeries.

However, conflicts arose between the faeries and the animals, which often had superior physical strength, though never superior intellect. Faeries worried about how they might honour the gods in this circumstance, and so Everi took it upon herself to make sure no animal could kill a faerie unless it was that faerie’s time to be taken to heaven. Everi also assisted the elves by giving them knowledge of mathematics, magic, and architecture so that they might better protect their realms.

Molyi wanted to give something to the faeries, too, and to glory in the beauty of their hearts. So she coupled with many of them over the course of five years, the product of which was the human race, formed in Molyi’s womb with faerie seed.

At first humans were like happy, unpredictable children for whom the faeries need do nothing more than love and dote upon. However, it became apparent that, along with unpredictability, in the human heart there was the capacity for terrible things. Human lust, vanity, and greed could overwhelm the human mind and drive them to horrible acts, unconscionable to faeries, such as murder and rape.

So Everi came and addressed the humans and told them that there were three sins that would invoke the wrath of the gods and damn a mortal to eternal suffering;

1. To harm a faerie.
2. To harm a human.
3. Allowing a human or faerie to be harmed.

It was decided that humans could not dwell in the same realms as the faeries, as they might mar the perfection of those realms, and needed to form their own towns and cities. Often, it was noticed, the desire to sin existed in the human heart and somehow went without expression, so Rostan and Everi conceived Limn, who was charged with the task of working mischief on humans in order to draw out the wicked and illuminate the just. This was a task Limn took to with much delight.

Although it implied that Rostan coupled with Limn several times, the Raewond nonetheless prohibited incest, though it was not listed as a sin.

4. Human Magic and the Propagation of Raelyri
1500 – 1600

In the months following the creation of Raelyri, any of the citizens of Gelwid who knew there was no truth to it generally said nothing as most could see the utility of the religion and gladly told its stories to their children.

The authors of Raelyri, popularly known as the Raelyri Troupe, made many effective presentations, utilising their diverse talents, to promote their religion. They were aided in this by the illusory magic of Green Belly, the Hagims’ domestic pixie. Many of the plays the Troupe put on were designed to entertain while enforcing Raelyri values, though many of the characters created for the plays became important Raelyri figures.

The plays grew to be so popular that other troupes formed, and soon it was difficult to distinguish canon plays from those created by others, until the line was obliterated altogether. Even elves produced Raelyri plays. That the plays seemed to incense Fae’ret sympathisers made them even more popular as many people were happy to have found an instrument with which to voice their disdain for that disruptive aspect of society.

The Raelyri gods and demigods were adopted by many as patron deities. Prostitutes kept idols of Molyi in their places of business, and Molyi came increasingly to be seen as a goddess of sexuality. Farmers also paid tribute to her as the mother of the world. Everi, meanwhile, was connected to carpenters and millers, and any other endeavour that required the imposition of new order on nature.

The human population had increased to 2 million by 1500 and had expanded beyond Wevik Forest. The cities Koldouf and Boroud were established east of the forest while Weturn was created to the south. Boroud and Weturn were both cities that grew from fishing villages, while Koldouf was another nexus for trade, art, and faerie meetings.

In 1557, a nymph named Finicha disguised herself as a human and infiltrated a Fae’ret chapter in Koldouf. She participated, with three human men, in the ritualistic rape, murder, and devouring of a gnome man named Orpeg Dokle. Finicha inadvertently enhanced the ritual with her own magic and magical energy from the deceased gnome spread across the world like a noxious cloud, invisible to humans, but felt by faeries everywhere, though the cause of the phenomenon was not perceived or guessed.

One of the humans who had participated in the ritual, a man named Hormin Telrit, also noticed this energy and found that he could tap into it. Finicha, who was Telrit’s lover, began to instruct him in the ways of spellcasting. She left him shortly afterwards, though, because she found something inexplicably disgusting about his magic.

Hormin developed words and ritualistic uses of objects to assist in channelling the dark energy. He taught these techniques to others, who developed further techniques and spells. Hormin had left the Fae’ret after he’d realised Finicha was a nymph. His love for her consumed him so utterly that when she lost interest in him, he killed himself without ever passing on his knowledge of the origin of human magic. Finicha told four faeries, but for the most part, the origins of human magic remain unknown to this day. All faeries, though, including Lakguene, find something inexplicably foul and unclean about human magic. Some describe it as an impression of rot, others as a shadow falling over their minds.

The persons to whom Telrit taught magic technique were not Fae’ret and magic was never exclusive to that group. It wasn’t until the mid 1570s that human magic became common knowledge to society, but afterwards, uses were found for it in most human occupations. Up until this point, human buildings had consisted of stone masonry walls with thatched roofs, but soon humans began to employ magic to shape stone and wood into the more elegantly formed sorts of structures that the few humans who’d been permitted into Saevlid had reported seeing. Carpenter mages, as they were called, were thence employed to shape building components for more traditional carpenters to work with. A carpenter mage was rarely a carpenter as well, as to practice effective magic a human needed to be physically and psychologically devoted to it. Most human magic-users even forsook sex and marriage.

The foul quality that faeries perceived in human magic only appeared to be present when a human was in the act of casting a spell and products of human magic were not usually afflicted. So magically formed works of human art interested many faeries a great deal, and many eagerly traded for them.

In the 1590s, humans began using their magic in Raelyri plays, though almost never with faerie participation as most faeries would not work near human magic for such long periods of time. Those that tried found that they quickly became nauseous and weak.

The fundamental nature of human magic was noticeably different in other ways as well. Human spells seemed to have a number of unintended side effects. Illusory characters or even monsters created for the stage had a tendency to remind individual audience members of people they knew, often dead people, rivals, or former lovers. Some people even saw themselves. Usually, no two people saw the same aberrations in the magical constructs, and these aberrations did not always manifest.

5. Iron and the Alene Enesi Murder
1600 – 1623

As of 1600, the population had increased to 4 million. Farms and villages spread further south as well as north to lands beyond Vindon Forest. In the early part of the century, the cities Iseri and Toteis were established on the southern tip of the peninsula, and Inotied and Leodo were established in the north.

Animosity continued to grow between the Fae’ret and the general population, though conflict rarely became worse than drunken brawls. Faeries were difficult to capture, so sacrifices were infrequent and usually went unobserved, since faeries were known to voluntarily disappear for long periods of time.

The Fae’ret spread corrupted stories of the creation of the world and told how the “faerie goddess”, Eronoa, was motivated by vanity and lust to destroy the immortal human soul. Some elves attempted to correct the impressions people were getting from the Fae’ret, though most faeries considered it wise to avoid mentioning Eronoa all together. This, unfortunately, seemed a guilty evasion to many and helped to swell Fae’ret ranks, though the main draw was still jealousy over faerie immortality. Many wondered why the same pixie should live on a farm for generations while its patron humans died, one after another, or why nymphs should retain beauty and sexual pleasure for centuries while humans lost both after a few decades.

The highest concentration of Fae’ret was still in Lonisdae. A few caves in the north-western Ithorsh Mountains, roughly thirty miles from Lonisdae, served as a secret Fae’ret headquarters. Most of the faerie sacrifices were conducted there and it was also in the Ithorsh Mountains that the Fae’ret discovered, and were the first humans to smelt, iron ore. The Fae’ret elders realised that metal could have a variety of applications, though the first use the Fae’ret made of it was for weaponry; spear tips and arrowheads.

The value of iron increased considerably for the Fae’ret when an iron tipped spear was used on a captured elf. The material seemed to burn the elf’s flesh on contact, and further experimentation showed that no force needed to be put behind the metal to inflict injury. Flesh at first reddened, then blackened and peeled away, producing a noticeable odour. The pain quickly rendered a faerie insensible and, within in an hour, the subject was dead.

Up until then, the Fae’ret had only managed to capture gnomes and elves. Their most coveted targets were nymphs, who, more than any other faerie, seemed to flaunt the advantages they had over humans. However, nymphs were incredibly fast and capable of moving through solid objects, so nymphs had thus far eluded capture. Attempts were also thwarted when Fae’ret members were seduced by their intended victim, which usually resulted in that Fae’ret’s defection. Although the group was commanded by a coterie of elderly men and women motivated by a philosophy, most of the Fae’ret were young, sexually frustrated men.

In 1623, during the harvest festival on the outskirts of Lonisdae, a Fae’ret young man named Modgel Fened allowed a nymph named Alene Enesi to lead him away from a gathering of humans and faeries. As she attempted to make love to him, he pressed a lump of iron to her flesh, rendering her unconscious as he held her down. He and several cohorts raped, killed, and mutilated Enesi. The next day, in the centre of Lonisdae on a marble pedestal in Yilnos Square, her body was found, torn to pieces. Her red entrails were smeared across the white stone. On a scroll found shoved into her vagina, Fened or one of his accomplices had written, “Animal.”

Public backlash was immediate and extreme. Fae’ret sympathisers remained quiet while posses of young Raelyreen men gathered and began systematically hunting Fae’ret and executing them in squares and main streets of the cities, eventually in every human city as word spread. Faeries readily assisted—elves joined the Raelyreen posses and sylphs raged through the air, creating a terrible, howling din, until they found Fae’ret and broke their bodies against stones or tossed them miles into the air, allowing them to fall to their deaths. Faeries and human mages assaulted the dreams and minds of Fae’ret.

Faeries had of course done harm to Fae’ret before Enesi’s murder, but had been hesitant to make themselves look as awful as the Fae’ret made them out to be. Now the last restraint was gone, as the vast majority of human sentiment was firmly against the Fae’ret. So 1623 also became known as the year of the Fae’ret Purge, in which the leaders of the Fae’ret and most of its members were killed. The Fae’ret lived on in small, secretive numbers over the next few centuries, but the cult eventually disappeared entirely.

6. Metal
1623 – 1800

Hundreds of humans and thirty-seven elves raided the Fae’ret bases in the Ithorsh Mountains. When the bloomeries and mines were found, most of the raiders were for destroying everything. It was the elven contingent that dissented; the ever inquisitive minds of the elves wanted to learn more about this resource.

Over the next century, elves and humans worked together to refine smelting techniques and iron, copper, and tin were put to work in human construction and farming. Iron was the only metal found to have an adverse effect on faeries, but the other metals were not found in sufficient quantities to abjure the use of iron all together. By 1800, steel products were already being produced, and there was a tradition of jewellery made from silver and gold, especially by elves and gnomes.

The human population was now at 17 million, extending to the edge of Urefit Forest. In the northern region, the cities of Bolud, Degudis, and Medidum were established in the early 1700s. Competition for resources and treasure was becoming fiercer, and hot-blooded young men became bandits, often in the employ of competing merchants. By this time, lumps of silver and gold had become the most reliable commodities for barter.

Part 2
1848 - 1909

1. Creation of Ormathad
1848 – 1909

In 1848, a man named Chari Odid became head of a committee in Gelwid designed to implement trading regulations among the various cities. Odid was the first to conceive of a national guard under command of the Gelwid committee to ensure better security for travelling merchants. The local guards of the peninsula’s cities were strained and becoming easier to bribe as threats from bandits were compounded by unscrupulous merchants who sabotaged competitors. Supplying local guards with bribes of alcohol, silver, or gold, the corrupt merchants would ensure the vulnerability of their competitors on the roads. Odid, in command of Gelwid’s unparalleled resources, supplied these things and more to his new national guard, and he also employed the guards to enforce the country’s first official currency. Taxes collected from the merchants bolstered Odid’s and Gelwid’s wealth, increasing security as well as trade efficiency, cementing Odid’s popularity and position as ruler.

In 1856, Odid named the country Ormathad after the Ormath, a life giving tree described in the Raewond.

To command and administrate the national guard, the now King Chari established an order of elite warriors called knights, later known as the Knights of the Rope to distinguish them from other knighthood orders. Before Chari died in 1901, he bequeathed his throne to Sir Wilbid Murgid, captain of the knights. Forever after, rule of Ormathad passed to prominent Rope Knights, though not always captains.

King Wilbid, in 1909, granted three other knights the title of duke in order to facilitate more effective rule of Ormathad’s swiftly swelling population. The lines of ducal succession were always hereditary. Ormathad was divided into three provinces, named for the new dukes who controlled them; Oann in the north, for Duke Frang Oann, Aisud in the centre of the kingdom, for Duke Eiddek Aisud, and Skicut in the south, for Duke Palb Skicut.

2. The First Raelyri Church

Chari Odid, a devout Raelyreen, passed a law requiring observance of Raelyri rituals and beliefs in the hopes of teaching the people, especially children, to learn to respect ways of effecting peace and justice. He also established an institution, which he called the Raelyri Church, to provide instruction and guidance to the citizenry about Raelyri.

The hierarchy of the Raelyri clergy placed the usretess as the highest spiritual authority. The usretess in orthodox Raelyri was always a woman. The word “usretess” came from a story in the Raewond wherein Everi coupled with several human women in a beautiful garden called the usret. So the usretess was considered the consort of Everi.

After the usretess, there were two bishops for each province who oversaw many churches, to which there was assigned many priestesses. Men could become priests or bishops, but women were far more common. Women had long been seen as closer to faeries than men and were therefore considered spiritually superior.

The first usretess was chosen by Chari Odid. She was a friend of his in Gelwid at the time of his ascendancy. Her name was Senta Ifmeno. Afterwards, usretesses were always appointed by the current king from among the eligible bishops, known as cardinals.

Throughout the late 1800s, two cathedrals were constructed for each province, with Nesmel’s Cathedral in Gelwid being the home of the usretess. There were also churches or chapels constructed for every village and town. The Church also became responsible for instructing children in mathematics, written and spoken language, and in other matters practical for life, so Raelyri churches were usually combined with schools.

3. The University of Human Magic

By the time King Chari took power, magic-users had become vital components of society. Every village had a resident magic-user, and carpenter mages travelled the land, to wherever their skills were required. Carpenter mages, in particular, interested Chari. He wanted their magic to enhance the grandeur of the Raelyri cathedrals as well as his own palace in Gelwid, to be called Odid Palace. The University of Human Magic in Gelwid was established in 1851 primarily to this end, but it would also serve as a general academy of magic-users.

Peledis Wethel, a human engineer who had visited Saevlid during a tryst with an elf maiden, commissioned mages from the university in 1867 to assist in building water and sewage systems similar to those he’d seen in the faerie city. The resulting improvement in sanitation improved public health noticeably over the next few centuries, and Gelwid’s sewage and water systems were emulated throughout the kingdom.

King Wilbid recognised in mages the potential to augment the effectiveness of the knighthood and, in1910, he enlisted mages specialising in destructive and enchanting magics into an order called the Wizards of the Rope. Rope Wizards were assigned to assist knights and dukes as part of their retinues. The retroactive appellation of “Rope Knight” was applied to Ormathad’s original order of knights in reference to the Rope Wizards, in contrast to the later Fire Knights, who did not keep mages in their retinues.

4. The Ormatheen Calendar

The creation of the Ormatheen calendar was ordered by King Chari. He designated several holidays, most of them related to Raelyri.

The people already celebrated the days after harvest and the days surrounding winter solstice, but Chari decided to attach Raelyreen significance to these holidays. Fourteen days of celebration after the harvest were to be referred to as Athusret, in reference to Everi’s orgy with the human women in Usret. On the first day of Athusret, the usretess presided over a torch lighting ceremony with a gathering of her cardinals.

Winter solstice, the five days before it and the six days after, were Lefaemet, and the celebrations during this period were to commemorate the gifts given to humans by the faeries. Domestic faeries during this period often delighted in giving gifts to humans, especially to human children.

Part 3
1968 - 2316

1. Lakguene and Ormathad
1968

The first Lakguene seen by Ormatheen humans was a dark elf who charged a village on Oann’s northern border, killing twelve civilians and five guards before the other guards managed to kill it. This was in 1968.

Ormathad became easier to defend in 1989, when Ormathad established contact with the faeries of Tenlea, in the Urefit Forest which marked the northernmost border of Oann province and the Ormathad kingdom.

The Tenlea faeries warned of the Lakguene lands further north and of the dangers in striking out in any other direction. Information regarding conditions elsewhere in the world had previously reached Saevlid by seedling, insect, and bird couriers, but such methods of communication were confined to an abstract form difficult to translate into Saevlidik, the language of the Saevlid faeries and the only language of the humans. Direct contact with the Tenlea faeries gave humans the first concrete idea as to the nature of lands beyond Ormathad.

Oann troops encountered Lakguene on a few other occasions, not only on the border, but also during journeys to and from Tenlea, when convoys would occasionally be ambushed. Over time, the combat skills of Oann soldiers increased significantly, and a warrior culture began to emerge in Oann society. Soldiers began to take an increasing amount of pride in killing Lakguene, and even the local clergy began to see confession for killing the Lakguene as merely an archaic formality. The Oann were the first to refine metal weapon making, and the first steel swords were crafted by the Oann.

A serious complication was introduced for Raelyri when humans became aware of the existence of the Lakguene. The Lakguene were clearly faeries, yet killing them often seemed necessary for survival. Most humans, particularly in the Oann province, considered Lakguene an aberration and their omission from the Raewond simply a vagary of religion. Some believed they were the offspring of Limn, and consequently they were known among some human communities as the Limneen.

Orthodox Raelyreen, particularly in the south, refused to regard the Lakguene as anything less than faeries. They did not condemn the killing of Lakguene in self defence, but urged anyone who did to confess their sin at a church or to a faerie and beg for forgiveness. The usretess at the time, Yelmi Torim, in 2110 issued a decree strongly discouraging traffic between Ormathad and Tenlea, unless it was at the behest of a faerie. It was thought that human excursions onto the continent were needless provocations of the Lakguene, and the usretess interpreted the Lakguene attacks as a sign from the gods that humans were not meant to venture beyond the peninsula.

This attitude created a great deal of tension between Oann and the rest of Ormathad, especially since the country’s population now exceeded 100 million, and Oann was the most crowded province.

2. Oann and the Knights of the Fire
2119

A Knight of the Rope named Sir Tolvit Serku, stationed in Oann, made the controversial move of removing himself and his retinue from the ranks of the Rope Knights to form Oann’s own Knights of the Fire in 2119.

The high value placed on martial prowess in Oann society, and the strained relations with the southern provinces, saw a decrease of Oanneen interest in art, particularly faerie art, which was the most sophisticated art in circulation. Knowledge of anything unrelated to battle or basic survival was not considered valuable, though produce was increasingly imported from the southern provinces as farmers grew scarce in Oann. There was also a disinterest in magic, and there were few mages in Oann.

Faeries of both Saevlid and Tenlea began to dislike the Oann soldiers, and the necessity of their escorts for journeys between the two faerie communities became increasingly uncomfortable. Tensions reached a head when, in 2125, the elf maidens Somera Falif, Twelowa Merkei, and her sister Wenfei Merkei, were raped and beaten by their own escort en route to Tenlea. The escort had included one Knight of the Fire, Sir Hoddek Goldit, and his retinue of twenty footmen.

The Knights of the Fire denied the charges that the elf maidens brought against them. The faeries were forced to accept this, as the only other option was open war with Oann and, presumably, all of Ormathad, and the combined might of Saevlid and Tenlea was no match for Oann, even without the rest of the human nation. But elf traffic between Saevlid and Tenlea ceased altogether after this.

In 2126, vengeful Saevlid sylphs replaced the newborn son of Duke Reyuk Oann with a changeling who grew to be Duke Kouzusi Oann. By 2163, using magic and cunning, Duke Kouzusi managed to fundamentally change the codes of conduct and creed of the Fire Knights. He instituted a number of strange, compulsory rituals to mark certain days of the year and to obtain ranks and titles. For example, in a ritual known as “Boy Skinning,” squires wishing to achieve knighthood were required to dance through the city streets wearing only vines of ivy wrapped about themselves. Resulting skin rashes were referred to as “Knight’s Fire”.

The Duke of Oann was granted the right to sodomise any knight or squire at any time or place. It was the duty of all knights to sodomise their squires at least once during the weekend. Otherwise, the Knights of the Fire were bound to celibacy, on pain of castration, a punishment that was meted out personally by the duke, if he so wished (and he often did).

3. The Giveridim Exodus
2165

The Fire Knights adopted a form of Everi worship in 2165 called Giveridim (“Gi” being the word for fire in Saevlidik. “Giveridim” means “Belief in Everi’s fire”). According to Giveridim, a knight’s sword and a knight’s penis were the property of Everi. A knight’s penis was seen as a symbol for his sword and, as a knight’s sword was exclusively for carrying out Everi’s will, his penis was seen as an extension of her essence.

The Raelyri Church denounced Giveridim as heresy and even the less orthodox Raelyri clergy of Oann would not embrace Giveridim. But the Oann clergy did not openly oppose Giveridim, either, for by now Oann was truly ruled by the Knights of the Fire. The citizenry lived in fear of them and many migrated south to Aisud. But most of the populace, after generations of wilful ignorance and exclusive worship of martial power, knew nothing beyond the rule of the Fire Knights. The fact that Giveridim somehow took hold in only a few decades only enhanced the dread it inspired.

Oann’s pride in its ability to kill Lakguene increased as well, and hunting Lakguene became one of the few ways in which the Fire Knights could channel their repressed and confused emotions. It was speculated that a nation of Lakguene existed north of Tenlea and talk amongst the Oann began to spread that it was the will of Everi and the destiny of the Oann people to conquer that nation.

So in 2174, roughly ninety-two percent of Oann’s population, around 50 million, left and never returned. The people prepared for over a year and King Welket Giston, the ruler of Ormathad at the time, could only watch as by now the Oann army was far more powerful than the armies of the other two provinces combined. The departure of the people of Oann is referred to as the Giveridim Exodus.

4. The Fall of Ormathad
2174 – 2316

There was an enormous food surplus in Ormathad in the following years. Farmlands were almost entirely relegated to south-western Aisud and northern Skicut, and these farmers were forced to burn thirty percent of their harvest and were stricken by the sudden financial void.

The eventual complete desertion of Oann’s cities brought the attention of wandering Lakguene, who began attacking northern Aisud in the early 2200s. For about ten years, the Knights of the Rope, their ranks augmented by mages from the Gelwid University of Human Magic, held Oann’s northern border, but they were at last forced to retreat to Aisud, lacking the phenomenal might of the Fire Knights and the former Oann army.

The humans managed to hold Ormathad for nearly a hundred years after that, with some assistance from Saevlid faeries, but the northern border was slowly eroded.

In 2316, a massive army from the Lakguene country of Miig’Jaiach to the west, under the command of a succubus named Chei’zise Yeinur, invaded what remained of Ormathad and conquered it in just under a fortnight. Human mages had by now achieved incredible power, but their talents for illusion and manipulation of the dead were far better suited to subterfuge and guerrilla tactics, not open war. Some humans took refuge in Saevlid, the borders of which the Lakguene army knew better than to attempt to penetrate. But ninety-eight percent of the people of Ormathad were killed or enslaved.

The last king of Ormathad, King Gilnim Rosmet, was devoured by an ogre. The last Ormatheen usretess, Aneise Beilen, was raped and murdered by a troll. Most of the great structures of Ormathad were razed, but Nesmel’s Cathedral survived mostly intact, due to its extraordinarily sturdy design, as did Odid Palace, and much of the University of Human Magic.

Hundreds of years after the fall of Ormathad, some humans emerged from Saevlid and established humble communities, but the kingdom was gone.

4. Niveriku