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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 4965247" data-attributes="member: 99">Mialain and the rest of the party got a good deal of information from the worshipers of Melora.  Once the Eladrin women got over the initial awe over being in the presence of the High Priestess, they spoke extensively about the history of their people and the current situation with Selerian.When the Mist Cataclysm had begun to unfold they had simply been Elves, the same as Mialain.  But their grandparents and great-grandparents had taken a different path and fled to the Feywild rather than await what seemed certain destruction.  They were led by a being they called The Aspect of Corellon who established them in camps further east of where Skyreach now stood.  They met the Gnomes who mostly lived in the hills further west and they established a peace.  They had less friendly relations with the Firbolg who guarded their lands jealously and there was considerable warfare between them in the early days.  Skyreach became the westernmost bastion of the Elven empire and, because of the concentration of military troops there, the capital.The Elves thrived in the Feywild but it also changed them.  Infused with its mystical properties since conception, their children were different, and the first generation of Eladrin were born.  One by one their elven parents died, taking the firsthand accounts of the Mist which had engulfed their original home with them.  The Eladrin continued to build their empire in relative peace with only occasional skirmishes with the Firbolg.Then, some 40 years ago, the Mist found them.  They first got word of it from the tribes of Gnomes to the west.  They began to recall the tales of its power to corrupt and warp those it touched that had been passed down from their elders.  They soon located the Gate through which the Mist was entering their world but they were powerless to close it without assistance from the other side.  Nobody who entered the Gate ever completed the ritual from their side and none ever returned either.It soon became apparent that they needed aid from the Mist World if the gate was to be closed.  They located another Gate and managed to open that pathway across planes to arrive near the homeland of their ancestors.  But the reception they got from the Elves of Enmurinon was frosty at best.  The Elves regarded the Eladrin as cowards who had fled rather than face the catastrophe.  Sensing that they would get little aid from the Elves, the Eladrin used their winged ships to travel the world in search of aid.They found it in the Arcanon Confederacy.  This magocracy knew more about portals than anyone else who had survived the cataclysm and they agreed to try and help the Eladrin.  The first step was the opening of a large portal between their capital in Dherimin and the Eladrin city of Skyreach.  This astounded the Eladrin and they felt sure that the Arcanon Confederacy mages would soon have the Mist portal sealed.  In exchange the Confederacy requested the aid of the Eladrin in the form of some of their winged ships to help guard against the Sky Pirates of Zulhura in the western part of their lands.  This the Eladrin gladly did.However since that time precious little progress had been made in sealing the Mist Gate.  The Arcanon Confederacy cited the fact that, prior to the Cataclysm there were hundreds if not thousands of portals scattered all over the world and any one of them could be letting the Mist into the Feywild.  They had to research ancient texts about these gates and then attempt to scry upon them individually to locate the problem.  In frustration further expeditions were sent through the Mist Gate but none of those returned either.  The last was sent more than ten years ago.Meanwhile the lands west of Skyreach became inundated by the Mist.  The Gnomes and Firbolg suffered worst, losing their homelands and retreating to hilltops, many of which had been swamped under the Mist.  Many of the Gnomes saw no other option but to abandon their homes and request shelter in the Eladrin lands.  This they did but resources were becoming scarce there too with some of the lowland fields falling below the Mist and the Gnomes were considered by many Eladrin to be an unwelcome burden.  They became second-class citizens and have been employed primarily in menial, dirty tasks that the Eladrin don't wish to engage in.  The repair and maintenance of the Warforged was a good example of this sort of dangerous work.Skyreach itself was changed.  Fearing the coming of the Mist, the Eladrin who dwelled on the ground moved up into the trees or left to find homes further east.  The nature resonance that caused the trees to reach such heights there also caused the undergrowth to grow fast, thick and tall.  Now the ground beneath the city, engulfed in what was called "The Bramble", was completely impassable except for the warren of tunnels maintained by criminals or disaffected Gnomes.It was here in these tunnels that Selerian had found a place to hide himself and his followers.  He had crossed over through the Enmurninon Fey Gate that the Eladrin originally used to meet the Elves thirty years ago.  Melora had sent him a vision that he was needed to rescue the Eladrin.  Thus inspired he came to the Feywild and quickly found himself branded as a heretic.  The Eladrin had long since become monotheistic, worshiping only Corellon, whose avatar had led them to safety from the Mist.  The established church wanted no talk of the mythical Melora clouding the minds of the people at this time of crisis.But there were some who adopted Selerian's vision.  His followers, The Faithful of Melora (or sometimes The Sisterhood as they were overwhelmingly female), rallied around him, hid him from the Church of Corellon and spirited him away to Skyreach.  Here his link with nature and Melora seemed strongest and they battled the Church of Corellon for the hearts and minds of the Eladrin people.  But several weeks ago the Priests of Corellon moved in force upon one of their hideouts and captured Selerian.  One rescue attempt by the Sisters failed, costing the lives of two of their number.Praying for guidance, they were assured by Melora that help was on the way.  They had nearly given up hope when they were approached by Tinker Cobble in the dark hours of the morning, telling them that an Elf with the Mark of Melora was being brought to the city.  Fearing that Mialain would be imprisoned alongside her brother, they knew that they must intercept the Gnomes and bring her into hiding.The question now was how would the party go about rescuing Selerian...</blockquote>

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