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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Shadow" data-source="post: 1491445" data-attributes="member: 16760">[A Word to the Wise:  Not everything in the following treatise - excerpted and condensed from the work of a famous Hadronese sage - should be taken as wholly reliable.  While all the basic facts are correct, the slant and interpretation of the facts may at times be misleading.  The further from modern Hadron, whether in distance, time, or significance, the more objective he is likely to be.]Peoples and Nations of Occida and SirisaPeoples:Roughly from south to north:Sirinese:  The ancient Sirinese civilization was centered around the great river Sirin, which gave its name to the land, to the people, and to their most beloved god, though their ruling god was Shams, the sun.  Mighty Sirin, ultimate sign of life, death, and rebirth in its annual flooding, dried up over a thousand years ago when the last Son of the Sun (the formal title of the Sirinese God-King), blasphemed against Shams, and the Sirinese culture has never really recovered from the blow.  They have become a nomadic people, inured to and hardened by the Sun's Anvil desert that covers the northern coast of the continent of Sirisa.  (Little is known of Sirisa south of the Anvil.  The jungles are dense and the Sirinese do not explore there, believing the land to be haunted by demons.  It is known that the people there have very dark skins and languages unrelated to any others we know.)While some tribes deep in the desert still follow the old Sirinese faith, most Sirinese have accepted the Light... after a fashion.  A great Prophet ('Pro-phet' was actually his given name, meaning “Bright Eyes”;  it has since become a title) arose among the desert tribes, leading those who would listen along the dry streambed of Sirin down to the coast, which the tribes had previously shunned as accursed.  (It was in the great capital of Siris-Akar on the delta where the curse descended upon the nation.)  There they found a small but thriving Minaean colony, which they promptly conquered and made their own.  The Prophet's visions of an inner light streaming from an inner sun within the heart found resonance with the teachings of the priests of the Light, and he accepted and imposed on his people those doctrines that suited his vision.The Sirinese version of the Light (the theologians call it the "Prophetic Heresy") involves the expectation of successive Prophets who are sent to teach the truth, which the hardened hearts of men constantly distort and corrupt.  St. Phosphoros is accepted as such a Prophet, and a smattering of the other great saints are as well... though it is held that their teachings have not been faithfully transmitted in all respects.  To prevent this from happening to the words of their own Prophet, fantastically elaborate precautions are taken in copying the Writings and in quoting from them.  They believe that if they faithfully transmit the teachings of the Prophet (and those of any other prophets who arise) one day Shams (they retain that name for the God in their language, explaining that their ancestors worshipped him in ignorance of his true nature), their nation will once again become great, and the waters of Sirin will flow.Those teachings emphasize the importance of constant battle against the darkness in the heart, and downplay the importance of the hierarchy.  Indeed, the Sirinese repudiate the offices of Patriarch and Bishop (though they pay respect to such figures when visiting other lands) and consecrate priests for fixed terms of time, choosing them from among the literate men of the community by casting lots.  They use only the Rites of Enlightenment (initiation) and Evensong, referring all else to private prayer.  Their primary liturgy consists of nothing more elaborate than public readings from the Writings.  On the other hand, spiritual gifts of a variety of sorts are fairly common among Sirinese laypeople.A unique Sirinese institution is that of the Seekers.  The Sirinese believe that Prophets may arise among people of any nation, and indeed of every nation, since the God abandons none of his children.  They wish to catalogue and record the words of every Prophet, and so some Sirinese are moved to take the Seeker vow - to travel through the world in search of wisdom among other peoples in strange lands.  Most commonly the Seekers are young men who take a temporary vow for a period of years;  but people of all ages and all walks of life - even women on rare occasions - have been known to take the vow, and some make it a way of life, sealing their vow permanently.  Thus Sirinese can be found far from their homeland, asking questions and seeking hidden knowledge.Physically the Sirinese have dark brown complexions, with straight black hair and dark eyes.  The roles of the sexes are sharply distinguished, though women's roles are not considered inferior, simply different.  The men are expected to lead and protect, the women to advise and nurture.  The wisdom of Sirinese women is a byword in their culture - a common saying is, "The man who ignores his wife is deaf to the Writings."  The sexes are usually segregated - it is considered scandalous for men and women to mingle, much less be alone together (if not married to each other) save under the most tightly controlled circumstances.The Prophet's son, who continued to lead the people, was named "Khalif" ("chieftain"), and this has become the usual Sirinese title of royalty.Sorcerers are feared and despised among the Sirinese.  They are believed to be descended from the jann - capricious desert spirits - and thus dangerous and untrustworthy.  (The desert tribes tend to be more forgiving - the Sons of the Sun were often sorcerers.)  Nonetheless, sorcerers are born frequently among the Sirinese, more so than among any human people known save for the Kells, and they have formed something of a subculture of their own.  Wizardry is little known, and considered a foreign and suspicious art, but is more acceptable - unless there is any summoning of extraplanar beings of any kind, which is believed to be accursed and carries the death penalty.  (Ignorance is no excuse.)  Psionics is quite unknown among the Sirinese, and would probably be confused with sorcery.Minaeans:  Along the southern coast of Occida, and on the islands stretching between Occida and Sirisa, the ancient Minaean culture arose.  Their land being mostly rocky and mountainous, they turned to the sea and became among the greatest mariners and traders in the world.  They have never been politically united save by outside force;  to this day, Minaeans take fierce pride each in their own city.  Though their culture spread throughout the south (and even influenced the Sirinese at their height), this was more by example and diffusion than by conquest.  (Though they claim the great but ill-starred empire-builder Kyrion as their own, in fact he was the son of a Parmedi satrap and a Minaean concubine, though he did dabble extensively in Minaean ways.)The old (wildly polytheistic) Minaean religion has vanished without a trace.  Everyone knows the story of how St. Phosphoros the Light-Bringer, at that time a priest of the pagan god Samos-Photion (a minor sun-deity doubtless imported from the Sirinese), was Enlightened by the Eternal Flame he had tended in his ignorance of its true nature as a relic of the God.  The True Light spread like wildfire throughout Minaea and beyond, and, remarkably, all the little cities of the mountains and islands adhered to it within a few generations.Even before the First Light, though, it must be said, the Minaean religion was in decline.  This was due to the influence of that unique Minaean institution, the philosopher.  Though the usual run of Minaeans are hard-headedly practical and concrete, it became fashionable among the circles of the comfortably rich to speculate on the nature of being and thought.  Logic was invented... and quickly showed up the old myths as being contradictory and irrational.  By the time of St. Phosphoros, few among the ruling classes still believed in the gods save in a highly metaphorical way, and that only to avoid scandalizing their believing neighbors.  Various philosophical schools, and, compensatorily among the lower classes, secretive new mystery religions, were the order of the day.  In some cases these fused in strange, syncretistic combinations - worth mentioning only because some of them have persisted, in highly altered form, to the present day.One of the greatest philosophical schools was that of Agathism, the contemplation of “The Good”.  The Agathists believed that the Divine Principle manifested itself in Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, as such, of which true thoughts, beautiful forms, and virtuous actions were but partial and limited attainments.  They sought to bring all elements of the human person into harmony, to correspond as closely as possible to the perfect Form of the Good.  (Along the way, especially during the time when Minaea was conquered and disarmed by Kyrion, some Agathists developed a curiously potent martial art form.)  There is no denying that the prevalence of Agathist ideas made fertile ground for the Light, nor that the early Theologians borrowed heavily from Agathist concepts and vocabulary to express the faith... but half-truths can be the hardest to discard, and some Agathists clung to their outmoded and incomplete beliefs, and continue to do so to the current day.  Worse yet, some of the Agathist-influenced mystery religions also survive as secret societies throughout the western world.  But worst of all, some Agathists, embittered by repeated conquests and other setbacks - even the success of the Light - twisted their beliefs into the perversely Dark, left-hand path of “Cacothism”, the way of Evil - of Lies, Destruction, and Immorality.  The less said about them, the better!But of course, the best-known achievement of the philosophical schools was psionics - the inner discipline of the mind.  Only the Minaeans, of all peoples, are known to have developed this Art.  Psioncists are held in great respect as wise and enlightened individuals.  Magic, on the other hand, is considered a contemptible Parmedi art, a distortion of the Form of the World.  Sorcerers are rarely born to the Minaeans;  in the early days they were seen as having a “divine madness”, now they are regarded as having madness simply, and are sent to powerful psionicists to be “cured”.  (Leave it to the Protectorate to take things to the next level...)  Wizards, who more deliberately go about attempting to alter the cosmic order, are treated as beneath contempt.Some cities still maintain the uniquely Minaean practice of “democracy” - of letting the mob decide affairs of state.  While this bizarre custom seems not to cripple those cities too badly, it is clearly impractical for any larger political unit.  (Even the Sophists in the Protectorate use it only in a very limited way.)  Other cities practice nearly any mode of government imaginable.Minaeans typically have olive complexions, dark curly hair, and dark eyes.  Their quietly smug assumption of superiority over other cultures is offset by their drily ironical senses of humor and keen curiosity about the customs of others - and indeed, about just about everything else.  It is difficult to generalize about their laws and customs, as they vary from city to city.Parmedians:  The Parmedians are believed to be descended from steppeland horse-nomads who settled down in the Parma gap of the Worldspine Mountains.  Fiercely warlike, they established several successive empires throughout the south in ancient days, most notably that of Kyrion.  They were assisted in this by the fact they were among the first humans to make use of iron, and for long had a higher grade of steel than anyone else.  (It is believed that this was not due to efforts of their own, but from overrunning several dwarven settlements in their early days.)The Parmedians scarcely exist as a distinct people any longer, having long interbred with others.  Their land is still known for its fine horses and for the touchy tempers of its inhabitants, as well as for the unusual hats worn by the men.  Their language survives, though much influenced by Aurelian.  Their curious religion, a mixture of horse-nomad ancestor-spirit and wind-spirit worship with fire-gazing rituals (and ordeals of fire), has largely died out save in remote settlements.  They retain a custom of keeping a bonfire burning in their temples, which has occasionally prompted investigation by the Patriarchs.  Today it is generally recognized that the Parma region has its own acceptable Rite.The main reason for mentioning the Parmedians, other than for historical completeness, is to note that they were the very first to codify magic, though in a crude way.  Holding sorcerers and riddle-lore in high esteem, they had wonder-working "riddle-men" who experimented with and preserved a remarkable array of magical “rules”.  To this day, the Parma region produces many fine mages - both sorcerers and wizards.The Parmedians proper had dark complexions and wavy black hair and beards, which they often braided in elaborate patterns.  Nowadays fair hair and lighter skins are not at all unusual among the Parmese.  Many sages argue that the wandering Terrino people are of fairly pure Parmedian stock - they fit the profile and retain a predilection for horseflesh.  Furthermore, all etymological speculations deriving from wandering "the earth" aside, “Terrin” faintly resembles the Old Parmedian word for “outcast”.  Others reject these arguments as superficial and point to other origins for the Terrino.Aurelians:  There never really was an “Aurelian” people - only an eclectic group of peoples welded together by Aurelius into a nation of single-minded purpose.  “Southern” or “Classical” Aurelians have the olive complexions of the Minaeans, but with straighter hair.  (Aurelius himself was of this stock.)  “Northern” Aurelians betray a more Kelhic strain, with blond and even red hair not uncommon among them.  The Aurelian Republic, and later the Empire, was generally quite free of any kind of discrimination between bloodlines.  Discrimination between cultures was, of course, quite a different matter.Ever since their founder, the Aurelians believed themselves naturally suited to conquer and rule others.  Their hard-headed practicality led them to discard any traditions that kept them from their goal, and to borrow shamelessly whatever worked from other cultures.  Thus they inherited both the philosophical (and psionic) tradition of Minaea and the magical tradition of Parmedia - in part, even before conquering them both.  Lacking the Minaean contempt for practical applications and the Parmedian sense of superstition and obfuscation, they rapidly applied Minaean logic and system to the Parmedian rules of magic... producing the world’s first wizards.It was the wizards, just as much as the discipline of the legions, that made Aurelia unstoppable.  It must be remembered that sorcerers in those days were even more feared and suspected in most lands in those days than today - many of them were isolated and mad.  Most of all, they were few and scattered, and seldom did they attain to useful war-magics.  The disciplined spell-research of the war-wizards made entirely new strategies possible, strategies no other culture within reach was capable of countering effectively.  It took only decades for the Aurelian Empire (the end of the Republic was, in fact, partially precipitated by the social upheaval resulting from the invention of wizardry) to conquer nearly all of Occida, and even those parts of Orienta (east of the Worldspine) where there were people sitting still long enough to be conquered!True, the Empire did try to snuff the True Light periodically for several centuries.  It was seen as a threat, since the Empire’s official “religion” was to honor impartially the “gods” of all its far-flung peoples, while of course the Light taught that the God was the Supreme Creator.  But once Lucius II converted (becoming St. Lucis "of the Light", whence our modern name Lucas), the Imperial Eagles carried the Light with them to every corner of the continent, save of course past the impassable barrier of the Elfwoods.What caused the Empire’s fall?  Sages continue to debate.  But it is generally agreed that, along with all the factors of economics, decadence, self-absorption, and even renewed invasions of the horse-nomads through Parma, the development of subtle mind-affecting magics was much to blame.  Factions developed among the wizards, who attempted to influence Senate and Emperor behind the scenes, manipulating them like puppets.  The prevalence of less-than-savory secret societies and cults - some perhaps even Cacothist in origin - also must be given its due.  It is perhaps inevitable that the heartland of the Empire would turn on itself and tear itself apart, leaving the northern provinces to fend for themselves as the legions were withdrawn.  Few at the time could have foreseen that they would succeed as well as they did in founding the Nova Imperium.Today’s Aurelian “Restored Empire" covers only a small portion of what was once “Classical Aurelia” - the city itself, still admittedly glorious, and some of its environs, the whole scarcely larger than our own beloved Kingdom of Hadron.  Some call it the "Undying Empire" given the suspected nature of its Emperor...Wastelanders:  The Demon War ended with the Darknight Devastation that turned the provinces of Borea, Cellia, New Aurelia, and the bulk of Alaron - in a word, the southern half of the Nova Imperium - into the Waste.  Along with the withering of some of the continent's finest farmlands, the peoples who dwelt there were horribly changed in a variety of creatively disgusting ways.  The most common inhabitants of the Waste have come to be called "goblins" for their less-than-savory dining habits, but they are not by any means the most dangerous or the most vile of the Wastelanders.Some have claimed that the Wastelanders are really extraplanar beings, or even evils from the depths of the earth, rather than transformed humans... but at least in the case of the goblins, this must be regarded as wishful thinking.  The matter has been conclusively proven, but no way is known to restore them.The less said about Wastelander culture and use of magic, the better.  No matter how often you think you've seen the worst, somehow they always manage to top it.  However, one worrisome trend must be mentioned - some groups of goblins seem to have formed a "civilization" of sorts, rather than the viciously barbaric tribal life common to most Wastelanders.  They are actively engaged in sorcerously-directed breeding experiments to produce useful slaves from their own stock and from that of the less intelligent Wastelanders.  This goblin culture could one day pose a serious threat to the entire continent of Occida.The few native-Wastelander mages seem immune somehow to the Flux - the constant random shifting in magical currents that devils all spellcasters who visit.  The good news is that on the rare occasions when they have left the Waste, they have seemed about as confused by "normal" magical currents as outsiders are by the Flux.  It is speculated that it is the Flux that is responsible, of itself, for the bizarre happenings that travellers in the Waste often report.Dwarves:  This stocky, ancient people has long dwelt under stone.  They are very close-mouthed about their origins and history, but we know that the great cities of the Worldspine stretch back at least as far as the early Sirinese dynasties.  The outposts in the Sentinel mountains are much more recent in origin, scarcely going back to the fall of the Republic.  Apparently the move to the Sentinels was the result of some sort of severe split among the dwarves, but whether this was of political, philosophical, religious, or some other origin has never been learned by human sages.  At any rate, the Sentinel dwarves have been far more open to human ideas and human alliances than their Worldspine brethren.  Some have even embraced the Light, though most still follow their ancestral devotion to the Soul-Smith and the Earth-Mother.The so-called "hill dwarves" are descendants of those low-caste dwarves who were relegated to farming aboveground for the Worldspine cities.  (There is some evidence that the Worldspine dwarves occasionally used Kelhic and Thuler thralls for this purpose as well, though they have long since repudiated slavery.)  They have long maintained distantly friendly relations with the peoples of Novalis.  Some sages have speculated that the mysterious people known variously as "forest gnomes", "brownies", and the "small folk" are hill dwarves tainted by contact with Faerie.  This idea, however, is deeply offensive to all dwarves, and is likely to start a fight.  It is known, however, that dwarves do acknowledge the forest gnomes - grudgingly - as being in some sense kin.The dwarves dislike the wild magic of Faerie drawn upon by sorcerers.  They are people of earth and stone, who believe in what they can touch and hold and shape;  not at all given to high-flown mysticism.  (Or say, rather, that their mysticism is more concrete and melded with their craft than most humans can imitate.)  They regard the fluid changes of Faerie which the sorcerer bridges forth to This World as repugnant.  The rules and balance of wizardry are of more appeal to them - indeed, some have argued that the dwarven rune-mages learned much of their art from the Parmedi riddle-men.  (Though this suggestion is yet another sure way to start a fight.)  At any rate, the runes of power are a typically dwarven approach to magic - concrete, predictable, and hard as stone.It is perhaps unfortunate that the dwarves were too distant from the Minaeans to have much contact with them, as their temperaments have much in common.  Few dwarves know anything of psionics or Antiquan philosophy, though they have something of a gnomic wisdom-literature of their own.  Some have speculated that dwarven culture would take to both like ducks to water, though the experiment has not yet been tried.  Likewise, dwarven skill and craft might have balanced the Minaean tendencies toward speculation for its own sake and disdain of practical applications of philosophy.Little more can be said about the dwarves.  They keep largely to themselves, and like it that way.  They did, however, stir themselves to aid the humans and elves in the Demon War, and their valor - and the craft of the rune-mages - was instrumental in the victory.Terrino:  The problem with learning about Terrino origins and culture is not, as with the dwarves, that they are close-mouthed about it.  The problem is that they are entirely too open-mouthed about it!  Extravagant tales will be told, no two the same, to anyone who offers coin or a flagon of mead.  For all we can discover, we already know the truth, and have dismissed it with the myriad of lies it is embedded in.  It is entirely possible that the Terrino themselves do not know the answers, though their blandly smiling countenances have led many investigators to swear they are hiding something.The Terrino are a nomadic people who wander all over Occida, and so their geographical placement in this list is somewhat arbitrary.  They are moderately dark of complexion, with dark hair, brown eyes, and expressively mobile faces.  They travel in caravans of brightly-painted wagons, supporting themselves as tinkers, traders (especially horse traders), entertainers, and, at times, con-artists and thieves.  Different bands do vary in the amount of larceny they practice;  it depends entirely on the attitude and judgment of the band's "king".  (This term for the leader of a Terrino band derives from a common scam of theirs that has passed into legend - to pass off a handsome young man as the mysterious "King of the Terrino".)  Occasionally several bands in the same area will converge on the same spot for a festival - the music and dancing and trading that goes on at these is proverbial.  The language of the Terrino is rarely spoken in front of outsiders, so it is difficult to categorize.  A few words they do use openly, however - it is known, for example, that the term for non-Terrino is "rube".  Nothing is known of their religion, not even if they have one or not, though some individuals do visit temples of the Light they pass with what appears to be sincere piety.Sorcery seems to occur fairly frequently among the Terrino, and the number who will elaborately fake being sorcerers is even larger;  they encourage an air of mystery at all times.  Do not believe any Terrino who claims to be a wizard, though, because all Terrino are illiterate - they seem to have a superstitious fear of writing.While the Terrino certainly do practice some larcenous habits, it is the opinion of this author that they are very often unjustly blamed and used as scapegoats for the crimes of others, and even for objects that have gone missing.  Their lack of connections, perhaps even more than their reputation, makes them easy targets to vent anger upon.  At some times and places the Terrino have even been formally sanctioned and penalized by the law, but the priests of the Light have been instrumental in removing such injustices.  As a result, few Terrino will treat a priest with anything other than an unfailing, and quite touching, respect and deference.The Devastation sundered the Terrino permanently into northern and southern groups, for they almost never sail and quite wisely shun the Waste.  There is a probably a masterwork for some young sage in the study of cultural divergences between these groups, if he can penetrate enough of their culture to discern the divergences to start with.Fholk:  Almost nothing is known of the original inhabitants of the Stepstone Islands;  their culture has been largely destroyed by repeated influxes of invaders, outlaws, and pirates of all stripes.  They called themselves the Fholk.  (The resemblance to the Thulish word "folk" is apparently pure coincidence.)  Their language does not seem to be related to any other;  philological sages have reached the point of tearing their hair at the way Fholko destroys their neat systems of linguistic descent.  The Minaeans record them as a laughing bright-eyed people in sturdy little canoes, reddish of skin and brown of hair, who would trade metal ores and amber to them in exchange for the civilized luxuries of the south.  Nowadays, all that remains of them are a few place-names, some strange customs of Island fishing villagers (some of whom still bear a physical resemblance to the Minaean records of the Fholk), and the preservation of Fholko as the secret curse-language of Island shamans.  That, and the strange Standing Stones they erected on many of the islands.  The present inhabitants tend to regard these with superstitious dread;  their purpose is completely unknown.Kells:  Once the Aurelians consolidated their hold over Antiquus (the name often given to southern Occida) they turned their eyes northward to Novalis, the "newer" lands that later would form the "Nova Imperium".  (Which was thus "new" in more ways than one.)  Those lands were torn by conflicts between the pastoral Kells south of the Elfwoods and the Thuler reavers from the north.  The Thuler carved out many small jarldoms and thaneships in the Kelhic lands, and in most parts the two peoples have by now so thoroughly interbred and mingled their customs as to form new nations entirely.  Still, the pure Kelhic strain can be found especially in backwoods Melendor, and here and there elsewhere.  As well, of course, among the Rover tribes north of the Elfwoods after the Long Retreat.The Kells are a ruddy people, fair of skin and hair.  Red hair is more common among them than among any other people known to us.  No other people has ever been closer to the elves than they, who dwelt at the eaves of the Elfwoods.  (Though only their bravest dared to enter.)  And, as already mentioned, no other (human) nation produces so many sorcerers.  It is commonly accepted, in fact, that most Kells have at least a few drops of elven blood.The Kelhic druids bear such a resemblance to the Parmedi riddle-men that careers have been built and lost in the attempt to show some connection between them.  But if there is one, it is distant enough that none can now reconstruct it;  certainly there are no historical, cultural, racial, or linguistic links of any solidity.  They share the riddler's delight in cryptic obfuscation, in hidden lore, in omens, and in contempt for the written word.  But their craft is subtler, in some ways softer - more given to healing, harmony and preservation than to arbitrary rearrangements of the elements.  At any rate, among the best of them - the infamous Dark Druids are another matter.  Some believe they were influenced by Cacothist exiles...The Kelhic religion is unique.  While they had a typically polytheistic tangle of gods and priesthoods like other peoples, these were seen as simply different faces, different aspects, of the Otherworld (Faerie) as filtered through This World.  The druids were those who dealt with the Otherworld directly;  thus they were highly respected and not a little feared.  The Kells are more open than any other people, even the Aurelians, to the gods of others - the more facets of Faerie to embrace, the better, in their view.  Some Inquirers have questioned the sincerity and completeness of the embracing of the Light by mostly-Kelhic villagers to this day - it is suspected that many may have welcomed the God as simply another god, and happily combined our Rites syncretistically with their own.  Certainly many superstitious peasant-customs are clearly derived from old Kelhic practices, though seldom so overtly as to warrant grave concern from the Church.When the Aurelians pressed northward into Novalis, the ancient conflict between Kell and Thuler was thrown into sharp focus.  Rival tribes sold each other out to the invaders, and many Kells welcomed Aurelian conquest of Thuler jarldoms... though it quickly became apparent that the new masters were not much kinder than the old.  But when the Aurelians began clearing land and pressing toward the Elfwoods, many Kells could take no more and began to fight back.  The Aurelians responded with vicious retaliation as was their wont;  wizard-fire burned the druid groves wherever possible, and it was possible more often than not.Thus began the Long Retreat before the legions, a mostly-hopeless guerrilla movement that was constantly pushed ever northward, until those Kells who would not give in found themselves pressed up against the very Elfwoods.  There followed the Kin-Sundering of long memory and many sad songs;  some elected to brave the Elfwoods, the heart of Faerie in This World, while others resolved to fight to the very end.Which group made the better choice is largely a matter of taste.  The Rovers straggled north out of the Elfwoods after many eldritch wanderings;  many never emerged at all.  Those that did were strangely changed...  more childlike, closer to bird and beast than any others of the human race,  they formed the tribes of Kelhic savages that still Rove in the north.  The Standers were largely slaughtered by the advancing legions;  they were down to their last twenty men (their names still lovingly recorded in song), when the Aurelians finally overreached.  They set iron to the Elf-Trees, and sent wizard-fire into Deep Faerie, and the elves responded at last in force.A third of Aurelia's finest died that day;  and a third more wandered hopelessly mad, giving rise to the legends of the Wandering Wits - those strangely wise madmen, soldiers, and minstrels.  The remaining third was decimated upon returning for losing their eagles.  (Some have speculated that the elves turned the captured eagle standards into a potent charm against invasion from the south - certainly none of the eagles was ever recovered.)  Meanwhile the Twenty Who Stood sealed the Pact of Friendship with the elves at the Meeting Stone, and the nation of Melendor was founded.  Aurelia threw its legions at Melendor repeatedly, and occasionally conquered parts of it... but never for long.  Eventually, ever practical, they built Hadron's Wall and did their best to forget about the other side.Elves:  If there was ever a time at which the Elfwoods did not stand, or when they were not haunted by the Otherworld, no human history records it.  Faerie and This World overlap there as they do nowhere else - though some have speculated that the distant reaches of the Anvil desert in Sirisa may have similar outbreaks, giving rise to the jann.Who are the elves?  Are they humans permanently changed by the wild magic of Faerie?  Are they natives of the Otherworld who have chosen - or been forced - to dwell on the fringes of This?  Or, as one bizarre theory runs, are humans themselves "elves" who have been forced out of the Elfwoods and forced to conform themselves to the more solid rules of This World?  None now can say.  They are ancient, and their languages subtle and complex beyond any others we know.  All of them, in one degree or another, are sorcerers.  Rather, perhaps it would be better to say that they are sorcery itself given flesh and blood.They seldom leave the eaves of their beloved forest.  When they do, parted from the fluid nature of their realm, they are little more powerful than human sorcerers.  It is known that many of them find the presence of human disharmony with the environment actually painful, a sort of pollution and uncleanness;  doubtless this accounts for the periodic Exodus of elves to the Uttermost West, for Deep Faerie seems to be forbidden to them.  (It is speculated that one of the motives for the formation of Melendor on the elves' part was to minimize this "pollution" near their own borders.  And the Rovers likewise on their northern frontier.)The elves reckon descent both in the male and female lines, and form elaborate overlapping kin-groups based on both lines.  The Queen of the Elves and the King of the Elves come from entirely different kin-groups and are in fact forbidden to marry.  According to legend, the King is a wanderer and a seeker and a warrior-bard, a defender of the people, while the Queen is the day-to-day ruler and a mother to her people.The elves find wizardry to be vastly amusing, "a set of instructions on how to breathe".  They cannot seem to agree on whether the Light is equally amusing, or dangerous, or painful, or rather romantic in a provincial sort of way.  This vexes the theologians to no end.  At any rate, the elves seem to have no gods as the human mind understands such things.  They treat natural objects as dear friends and comrades - some of them more powerful than they, some less, but all worthy of notice, praise, and song.  Their own word for themselves means, in fact, "the Singers", and they see their role in the cosmic order as to give voice to the songs of praise which to all things are due.  A large part of the problem they have with humans, in fact, is that they have not been able to decide what sort of song is necessary for us.  "To weave harmony from human discord will require the heart of an oak, the mind of the sea, the eye of the sun, and the voice of the wind," they say.  (The sea, always in motion and never the same, is regarded by elves as "thinking" constantly.)Elves can interbreed with humans, and some do so with a will.  Humans with varying degrees of elf-blood (which are quite common in Melendor and among the Rovers) tend to share some of the strengths of both species.  They are often powerful sorcerers, and more attuned to the natural world than most.  But they are sturdier than their elven ancestors and lack their sensitivity to human ways of life;  they often travel widely, seeking for they know not what, perhaps a place to be at home.A few bands of elves, for reasons known only to themselves, have taken up residence in other forests throughout Occida and perhaps elsewhere.  None of these have the eldritch might of the Elfwoods, but all are less than safe for the unwary to enter.Thuler:  As mentioned, the Thuler were in origin reavers from the northern shores of the New Sea, speaking their own guttural language of Thulish.  They are as fair as the Kells, but larger and hairier.  Competent sailors and energetic warriors, they would raid the Kells and occasionally set up their own petty little jarldoms.  Their barbarous descendants in Thule still follow that way of life, though even they have had to band together to protect themselves from the depredations of the Stepstone pirates;  nowadays there is a Hoch-Jarl, a High King, who is selected from among the thanes.  The Hoch-Jarl actually sends and receives embassies to and from the kingdoms and duchies of Novalis, and so there is hope for peace from the north for the first time in many a long year... it is only a pity that it is at the expense of peace in the west and south.But the Thuler south of the Elfwoods have long since become fully part of Novalian civilization.  In fact, a large fraction of noble families (those not directly Aurelian in origin) are of Thuler blood, and a still larger fraction of the mercantile classes are.  Generalizing broadly, one could say that Thuler burghers make up the majority of Novalian townsmen, and Kelhic farmers the majority of Novalian peasantry.  But really this sort of generalization is futile, a matter only of degree and emphasis;  both peoples have thoroughly mingled by now, and both with the Aurelian strains that settled here.The tribes in Thule still maintain the practice of their gloomy religion of Wyrd (predestined fate) and the gods who preside impersonally over it.  But the Hoch-jarls have legalized the preaching of the Light, which is gaining a foothold on those far-northern shores.  Perhaps it is the practice of Wyrd, remembered latently, which is responsible for the fact that so many Predestinationist heresiarchs in Novalis have been Thuler in origin.  The Inquirers are keeping a careful eye on the missions in Thule.The Thuler have always regarded the elves, and above all the Elfwoods, with superstitious dread.  They in fact have a series of propitiatory rituals to fend off ill from the "Bright People".  This dread tends to rub off onto the wilder Rover tribes, but the more settled bands are considered fair game for raiding and enthralling.  (Thule does not share the Novalian distaste for slavery, though this is slowly changing as more embrace the Light.)Sorcerers are considered "elf-touched" and are shunned.  Wizards and psionicists, on the few occasions that they meet any, are considered to be merely variants of sorcerers.  On the other hand, they seem to have learned the runes from dwarves in the Northern Sentinels.  Thuler rune-mages - the only humans to have mastered this dwarven art - are considered much more acceptable than other users of magic, though still uncanny.</blockquote>

Verification