History
From DevroWiki
The creation and history of Devro, as told by Faen, an Ulath sage:
Contents |
Creation
"Ours is a spoken history, handed down from father to son, through over a thousand generations. Man writes his history in books, because his life is so short; he has not the breadth of life that we Ulath possess. Our experience of history is interrupted only by the outside ravages of Nature, and since long before the Fire rained from the sky and scarred the face of Devro, sage had told apprentice this account, and such will be the pattern for many generations to come. Our record begins long ago, before Owl gave birth to the Ulath, before the great lizards ruled us all, before even time as we know it began. We know of this time from what the eldest of the great lizards could remember, and would recount to assembled court with a touch of melancholy. The greatest of the wyrms speak of ages long past; in that time, they say, there was nothing. Nothing existed except Ul, the complete one, the creator of all. Ul knew only loneliness; he longed for something, anything, to accompany him in this nothing. Thus, in his solitude, he looked upon the nothing, took it in his hands, and with tenderness worked the nothing into substance.
"Ul worked the nothing into an orb made of stone, and then set the orb aloft, floating in the nothing. Yet, as any wise man knows, creation creates more than the object created - it also creates the possibility of that object's destruction. Ul, having completed the act of creation, was no longer complete, and no longer alone. The act of Creation created Lu, the mirror of Ul… the destroyer.
"Creation pleased Ul; the presence of the orb, and to a lesser degree Lu, eased the pain of Ul's isolation. This new pleasure quickly soured, however, as Ul became again displeased. To his dismay, the orb was desolate and cold. Creation became obsession; Ul wished to create more - he wished that life would team, cavort, and be fruitful and happy as it bounded across the surface of his orb. Lu, however, the opposite of creation, was not pleased that the orb even hung in the nothing. He was not happy that Ul existed, he was not happy that he existed. Creation, even existence itself, was an affront to the nature roiling within Lu.
"And so was borne war. Brother Ul fought his mirror Lu. Both were equal, both were powerful… and both were destroyed. Brother slew brother, leaving nothing but a hanging cloud of miasma to float around the orb of stone. Such was the way things went for time unmeasured - the lifeless orb surrounded by a cloud of the remnants of both Ul and Lu.
"But then, something changed again. Something happened, and streams of miasma mingled. They changed from separate clouds of creation and destruction into something different and unequal from the original clouds, and this new cloud began to invade the orb. It penetrated deep into the surface of the orb, and completely suffused the orb. This whirling mass then began to change and flourish - the commingled miasma, which we call the Essence, bought life to the orb of stone - Devro. Thus, as we Ulath know, Life is part Creation and Destruction, as is the Essence.
"For many years, lesser creatures ruled the surface of Devro. Such beasts included creeping things, fishes, birds, snakes, lizards, and other lower animals. Nature ruled - the strong preyed on the weak, but in the grand scheme, all possessed equal potential in their niche. Yet, not even these low things were impenetrable to the Essence. Lizards so altered and empowered, or so we believe, became the great flying monstrosities of legend… dragons. Now Nature was no longer equal, and the great lizards ruled the surface of Devro of many, many years, until the Essence had completed its work with other lesser animals and plants, giving birth to the elder races.
"We Ulath were the first; borne are we of the owl, who is wise, possessed of great intellect, and strong of character. The ferret is the Essence-instilled womb from which the Quith did crawl - small, crafty, unassuming, and yet potentially vicious. From the willowy trees of the forest did the Essence form the Elves, and their bodies show this resilience, as they live nearly as long as we do. Lastly, from the very earth itself did the Essence hew the Dwarf, and he is just as short, hardy, and hardheaded as his ancestor. We Ulath ponder whether others rose from the lesser beasts, but if they did, they no longer exist.
The Age of Dragons
"Yet, these were not enough to supplant the great lizards - we four could not overcome the dragons, and fell into slavery. Some faired better than others, mind you; the wiser and longer lived Ulath and Elves were more respected and better treated than the lower, craftier, and more stubborn Quith and Dwarves. We, speaking of the Elves and ourselves, found our labors light and closer to the masters, while the Quith and Dwarves slaved in the pits of the earth, mining for gems and gold to appease the master's desires. Regardless, all chafed under the yoke of the great lizards, but it would take the Others, and the children of the primates to free us all. From the grasslands, from the sparse interior of Devro, which spanned for many miles before the Fire, came the ape who walked upright… Man. His advantages were clear - quick adaptation, rapid reproduction, and understanding that did not correlate with his years. Man quickly learned the secret ways, mostly through trial and error; he learned to forge weapons from bronze, iron, and steel, he learned to tame the beasts of Devro for use as mounts, and he learned to mend his fellow's broken body. He learned to string and fletch bows and arrows, he learned to build and farm. He learned to manipulate both simple arcane energies that our wizards and the great lizards used, and he learned to weave the Essence itself. However, even though Man possessed such potential, it was his ally, the Tulaire, that finally broke the stranglehold of the dragons.
"While men became capable channellers, the Tulaire wielded the Essence like second-nature. They also possessed the mentality for conquest and leadership, and forged the elder races, with the help of their human allies, into an efficient resistance against the dragons, and finally into an army to fight the elder wyrms. The Tulaire's leadership, the sheer numbers of humanity, and the tenacity of all under the alliance finally broke the dragon's control over us all.
"The great lizards withdrew to the high mountains and the low valleys, to the hidden places of Devro, but they did not retaliate. The alliance had spared them - they did not hunt the dragons down, and the dragons knew that our alliance could kill them, as many of their fellows had been killed, if the lizards attacked again. Peace ruled Devro… or perhaps it would be better to say that Nature ruled Devro, as the natural order returned. Elves returned to their forests, Dwarves to their mountains and quarries, and the Quith to their mingling among all. We, however, remained among the humans, who now looked to build villages, farm, and better their lot in life.
The Tulairan Empire
"It would not be without struggles, however. Long distant and removed, Devro was not prepared for some of the denizens of the Nothing who would come to our land and attempt to assert their control on an unassuming people. From the bowels of the Earth came a plague of vermin the size of men - we called them, quite simply, the Slithern. In the jungles and deserts were located bizarre snake-peoples whose very gaze could turn others to stone. Some heretics suggested that these beings naturally evolved as we had, borne of the Essence as we had been. Of course, we met their considerations with naught but scoff, ridicule, shunning - we were civilized, while these creatures were monsters bent on destruction. Other monstrosities followed in those days - large bulls that walked as men, bovines that turned others to stone, and other horrible creatures rarely seen today, thanks to both our prudence and the Fire.
"With these horrors, the Tulaire and the humans redoubled their efforts. Under the direction of the Tulaire, the humans came together into the nations for protection, and thus the Seven Kingdoms of Man were borne. Even the Elves and Dwarves thought this to be an advantageous arrangement, and thus the three Elven Nations and the Dwarven Commonwealth were borne. The Seven Kingdoms and the Commonwealth bound themselves together under the Tulaire, and thus was the Tulaire Empire born. These alliances brought about a new peace, as the nations protected each other, and the monsters found themselves hunted down and destroyed. This was also a time of great advancement, as the Empire discovered new means of mastering the Essence, developing beforehand unfathomable forms of technology - devices that could heal the sick with a touch, or obliterate the enemies of the Empire from afar. Also, this is the days when the Empire discovered the secrets of the kajh, which in and of themselves greatly increased the power of reach of the Empire.
"Perhaps the heretics were right, because now we found Nature's order replaced by politics. The power of these nations grew rapidly as they become increasingly insular and less threatened; after a thousand years, the previous friendship between the races became forgotten, as only the Ulath could remember such a time. Questions of land, title, and suspicions drove race against race, nation against nation, and former friend against friend. Those who suffered the worst were the Ulath and the children of both Elf and Man; we Ulath could remember when all had banded together, and the Half-Elven could not choose between their parentages.
"War saw the human creation of the Bakaran, the perfect warrior. Elven stock, captured by the human nations, became playthings, subjected to the ministrations of the Tulaire weavers. The perfect soldiers, they were unleashed on their erstwhile Elven homeland in droves. However, there were complications - the channellers had not taken into account the ability to control such large numbers of Bakarans, or their creation's lust for blood and combat. The Bakarans would soon turn on their masters, killing everything in sight. And so did all come to fear the power of the Essence… yet the end was not yet come.
The Fire
"In retaliation, the Elves brought together their greatest channellers, and wove the most dangerous magic they could, hoping to destroy their human enemies in one great blow, eradicating Man forever. They nearly succeeded, and in the process almost destroyed us all. From the Nothing, the Elves pulled forth a great rock, which they hurled at the center of the Tulaire Empire. The impact, which we call the Fire, changed the very face of Devro, and nearly destroyed all of Devro. Mountains grew up were plains had been, seas drained, farms drowned, and hearty grasslands died in the heat and their new orientation left them bereft of rain. The worst, however, was the cloud that darkened the sky for many moons; Devro grew cold, and only those who could find shelter against this Long Dark survived.
"The initial impact of the Fire obliterated four of the Seven Kingdoms of Man, and with them almost the entire Dwarven Commonwealth, save those in the deepest holds of the earth farthest from where the Fire impacted. Unfortunately for us Ulath, we chose long ago to make our way among the humans, and thus suffered with them. The Long Dark saw thousands more die from the cold, from starvation, from suicide, and at the hands of their hungry brethren. The consequences of the Elven decision were dire indeed, yet they could not prepare for what would follow in the aftermath.
"The very fabric of Devro had been shattered; so many deaths in such a brief instant proved a source of incredible power, and it tore the nature of Devro in two. Just like our long-dead creator Ul, we now have a dark mirror in which to see our reflection. The Dark Reflection lies just beyond our perception - darker, twisted by the screams of the thousand thousands of souls who died in the Fire, and bears a malevolence that is in the same instant frightening and enticing. Death beckons with an almost undeniable force to the living in the Dark Reflection, and all manner of the Restless wander this forsaken, broken reflection of Devro. Spirits, whose life has ended, so brutally cut short by the Fire, wander there. They take many evil forms, as a reflection of the twisting their brutal deaths had upon their souls.
The Modern Age
"And such has the world remained for the past three thousand years, the damage has not healed. The plains and mountains that once dominated the center of Devro still lie desolate - we call these lands the Great Wastes. Only three of the original Seven Kingdoms of Man remain, nestled in their fertile lands along the eastern seaboard. The Elven Kingdoms remain as they have for many thousands of years, nestled in the forests and jungles of the western seaboard. The Dwarven Commonwealth has regained much of its strength, and now inhabits many of the mountain ranges surrounding the Great Wastes. The Quith, wanderlust still intact, yet travel the width and breadth of Devro. Fortunately for them, the Bakarans, free of their masters, their senses cleared by Fire and fear, have moved to roam the deserts east of the Great Wastes.
"The Fire, the Dark Reflection… both these atrocities, while horrible and unthinkable, have done one proper thing: they have undone some of the damage that the politics and nations and war of a millennium had done to Nature. The intelligent beings live as they should, in their niche, while the beasts of the field and the birds of the air maintain their proper places. All revolve in the cycle of life, death, and renewal… all except we Ulath. Every year there are fewer of us, and soon we will be no more. And when that day comes, our history - all our knowledge and tradition, all we know of the way things were, the way things are, and the way they shall most likely be again - all of this will be lost."
