This entry is part 16 in the series Orcs & Elves

I’ve got so much campaign prep to get done that if I don’t do it here, I’ll never get it done in time…

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Ooops. While preparing this post I discovered that in my urgency to get content produced that a couple of editorial errors have crept in recently. I’d love to say they were only minor, but that would be too great an understatement.

Errors like having two Chapter 23s, which threw off the chapter count for every other article in the series that was published in April. And copying an old version of the ongoing Elvish Glossary which left out several key terms. And having some of those entries be out of Alphabetical Order (suggesting that I had gotten part way through preparing the last one that was anywhere near complete). These errors have now been corrected, and hopefully won’t have detracted from anyone’s enjoyment of the series. The fact that no-one else seemed to have noticed is a promising start!

A consequence of these errors are that the post URLs will have changed, breaking any bookmarks that people may have made to the affected chapters. And that’s why I’m telling you about it here, even though this article was not directly affected. Mea Culpa. It’s all my fault. I humbly beg forgiveness; but I wanted people to know.

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Chapters 38 and 39 were already in first-draft form when I started the series, because these were adaptions of material already generated for other purposes within the campaign. I’ve made minimal editorial updates, so they may also be of interest to show how my writing style has evolved over the last decade or so. Chapter 37 was outlined as a mixture of detailed notes and simple notes, but has had to be expanded to achieve the standard of a full first-draft. Chapter 40 was nothing more than a line at the end of the existing Chapter 39 and required considerable development to achieve the same standard as the other chapters.

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Chapter 37

Dwarfwar III: Priceless Intelligence

While their investigators sought answers to the pressing question of what could have induced two different populations – the Elves and the Dwarves – to behave in such uncharacteristic ways, the Elves steeled themselves to a purely defensive readiness, and sent out scouts to rescue as many surviving Halflings as might be found. A camp was erected for them deep within the heart of Elvarheim, as secure within the defenses of the Elven Realm as possible. Genocide was a tool and policy acceptable to the Drow; it was not something an Elf would tolerate.

One by one, the investigators crept back to Elvarheim. Most had no insights of value to return, but two brought findings of greater value.

The first had consulted with Dejua Carnassian, perhaps the most intelligent human ever to live, who had no answers to offer, but did proffer a compelling series of deductions: When an opponent does something unexpected and radically at odds with their past nature, it is indicative of a changed circumstance, which brings with it new agendas and priorities. ‘It follows,’ wrote the Sage, ‘that the objectives in any given field of endeavor will also be new and unrelated to the objectives that might be assumed by their opposition, as will their tactics in achieving these objectives.

‘There is also the question of the uncharacteristic nature of the Halfling response, which I consider most singularly indicative. While one change of nature is possible, it is extremely improbable for two such alterations to coincide in time without some direct connection. It follows that whatever caused the change in Dwarvish orientation is almost certainly also responsible for the uncharacteristic Halfling response, which was the pretext and justification for all that ensued. This premeditated action must be considered diagnostic of the character of the responsible party.

‘I conclude that some outside force made a deliberate decision to annihilate Halfling Society. Considering the possible motivations for such an action, there seem to be but four possibilities: first, that the Halflings possessed some strategic value to the responsible party; Second, that the objective was the transfer of wealth from the Dwarven Kingdom to the Human Empire; Third, that the acts of violence were themselves of value to the responsible party; and Fourth, that the ultimate objective was and is the objective that is currently being pursued.

‘The first seems unlikely in the extreme, due to the nature of the Halflings themselves. The second also seems improbable; gaining sufficient control over the Dwarves to persuade them to commit such heinous acts would enable the attainment of this goal with no need for an intermediate slaughter. Thus, we are left with two possible objectives as motivation for the Dwarvish actions. These two alternatives present clear distinctions which may, I think, reliably be used to discern and evaluate tactical options and targets. If the first of the two is correct, the Dwarvish objective will trend towards wholesale slaughter of civilian populations; if the latter, civilians will be ignored unless they stand between the invaders and their ultimate objective. On balance, the tangibility of objective leads me to favor slightly the latter, but not with any confidence.

‘If the destruction of the Halflings was a premeditated act, and the same outside force was responsible for both that act and the change in nature of the Dwarves, further deductions become possible. It follows, for example, that the Cult of Stone must also be attributable to this force; while this deduction would seem of little direct value, it may yield insights when appraised in conjunction with other information. In particular, this should be borne in mind when assessing military options; those facing you across the battlefield are, in all probability, not responsible for their actions, and a victory on the battlefield will not ultimately succeed in ending the threat, which lurks hidden from view. Some alternative stratagem must be identified and put into operation.

‘One must also question the likelyhood of such a change of nature occurring at this precise moment in history. Nothing occurs without a causal factor; it follows that something caused this change of nature. While it may simply be coincidence that the change in nature occurred at the time it did, it is equally likely that some external force was responsible; such a force could be associated with any of the subsequent developments, or with several. The greatest probability, for the same reasons as given earlier, is a connection to a development within your own society that coincided with the commencement of the chain of events in question. Thus, some self-reflection on your parts may yield the nature of the target that I deduce is the tangible objective of these hostilities.

‘Last, consider that these deductions require a concerted and systematic plan that has been underway for the last century. Few races are capable of such single-minded activities; this must also be considered diagnostic as to the responsible party.’

Apon digesting this, the Elves revisited their own conclusion that the Drow were not responsible for the Dwarven actions; it was in the Elvish nature to consider them the first cause of any mishap relating to their race, until it was proven that they were not responsible. Even with the logic of Carnassian undermining part of their reasoning, it still seemed solid, but however like the Drow character the new scheme might appear, the differences were significant, and the Elvish Council resolved that they had to look elsewhere for the culprit.

The Elvish Council had learned the hard way that motives matter in determining how best to combat an enemy, and were not at all convinced that the Dwarves were willing enemies. The sage advice of Carnassian only echoed and reinforced the doubts they already held. Once again, the Dwarves were tools in someone else’s campaign. Until this true enemy could be identified, the Elves could not commit themselves to a strategy; the last thing that they wanted to do was exhaust their strength fighting Dwarves while the real enemy lay unseen, untargeted, and free to take advantage while Elves were distracted. Intelligence was required that would tell the Elves how to take this war to their true enemy, for it beggared the imagination that some outside agency was not at work.

The second investigator had consulted Archprelate Aristophales, the leading human theologian of his era. His response was far more succinct: ‘When a population radically changes behavior, look for a Chaos Power. The Architects of Destruction can corrupt any foolish enough to listen to them, and are masters of Deception. They seek the power to destroy all that exists. Their trademarks are perversion of nature, corruption of authority, and wholesale slaughter and destruction. I am astonished that this pattern was not detected in reference to the Halfling matter earlier.

‘The Chaos Power will have a hidden lair close to the seat of his power. He must be confronted there by Servants Of The Gods. Chaos Powers cannot be destroyed by any power we possess, but can be driven away or even dispersed, at least for a time. Even this requires intervention in person, it cannot be achieved remotely.

‘I would advise further, but I doubt that it would provide any benefit to you; our techniques and modes of faith are too dissimilar.’

This was a troubling suggestion to the Elves. Chaos Powers and Deities were part of the Human Theology, entirely separate to that of the Elves. In the past, they had dismissingly scorned the human faiths as hopelessly flawed, inaccurate, and irrelevant, at least so far as they were concerned. Nature had created Corellan to be her Champion and Servant, and he had created the Elves to be her protectors and guardians, and she had sent forth the Guiding Totem Spirits to instruct and shape those protectors and Guardians. They owed love, and duty, and respect to their ultimate parents; not piety and worship. At best, the petty godlings of the Humans were as one with Corellan, but there was no indication to the Elves that they deserved even that lofty status. They were too insecure, too concerned with the need for reassurance from the followers that they really were worthy of their status, to be truly so ascendant. At worst, from the Elvish perspective, the Chaos Powers were also of Corellan’s stature, but with even less credibility on offer for that position. It seemed more likely to the Elves that the Chaos Powers were wayward spirits of nature, created as assistants and servants of Corellan, as was the Spider-Queen of the Drow; that they had rebelled against that calling; that the Gods their even more wayward children; and that all of them were subordinate to Nature, the all-mother.

Even the names – Gods, Chaos Powers – seemed overblown and pretentious, deliberately foreboding and obsequious. To the Elves, they were Lesiatrame and Thonsutriane, Bright Egos and Dark Egos, self-importance first and substance second.

Humans, seeing themselves as the centre of all existence, likewise placed their Theology as the fundamental truth. They saw the handiwork of Chaos Powers in every shadow. But not even Corellan could so transform the nature of a people; it was Nature herself who had metamorphosed their kin into aquatic form. Whatever had done so was at least, then, her equal – in at least some respects. And too many of the patterns described by the fairly doctrinal ethos of the Archprelate matched the change in behavior of the Dwarves. In laying the blame at the feet of a Chaos Power, this time, they might just be right. And if they were right about that, and the Chaos Powers were therefore at least of equally-divine stature with Nature herself, then the entire foundations of Elvish Theology collapsed, and would need to be rebuilt apon new foundations. Had they been misleading themselves by allowing the Human terms for these beings to color their own perceptions? Given the usual state of affairs between Humans and Elves, that would be irony indeed.

But that was a consideration for pursuit after the immediate crisis had been dealt with. With relief, the Elves turned their attention back to the words of Carnassian, and the implications that something the Elves had done or achieved or changed was the trigger for events. There was only one development that could explain the target of the Dwarves: the Circle Of Harmony itself. For if it is powerful in the possession of a human, epic in the possession of a true Spellweaver, then how much more powerful might it be in the hands of a Chaos Power, feeding deliberate dissonances into it? Powerful enough, perhaps, to destroy existence itself?

Chapter 38

Dwarfwar III: History Redux

Having reluctantly accepted the premise that one or more Chaos Powers lay at the heart of the current emergency, the Elves reviewed recent history and rewrote it based on this new assumption. While it would never be certain how accurate their reconstruction of events was, it was internally consistent and fitted all the known facts; it could not have been too far removed from the truth. This is the tale of that age, as the Elves reconstructed it:

Immediately after the conclusion of the Second Great Dwarfwar a century earlier, an unnamed Chaos Power had recognized the potential of the Black Gems. Whispering in the dark to a naive Kamen Rukozh, the foolish Dwarf was easily convinced that it was the stone roots of the earth itself that was speaking to him. Step by step over the next 50 years, it guided him in the creation of the Cult Of Stone, and member by member, grew that cult by appealing to the ego, vanity, and baser instincts of its audience, until it became the dominant faith amongst the formerly atheistic Dwarves.

The antedivine Power then drove its subjects on a campaign to destroy or enslave all who could recognize the falsehood of its claims, first amongst the Dwarves, then the remaining subterranean populations. Only the Drow, who were both too formidable and irrelevant to the plans of the Chaos Lord, were spared. With its power base secured and its authority absolute, it turned its servants’ attentions to its ultimate objective, the capture of the Circle Of Harmony.

It had began preparations for this campaign from the moment it had gained ascendancy over the Dwarves, by instructing the Dwarven trade representatives to spy out the defenses of Elvarheim. It now began a war of annihilation of the Halflings, manipulating both sides to provide a pretext to permit a buildup of troops on all sides of the Elven Kingdom without arousing undue alarm.

When preparations were complete, a lone survivor was permitted to find a passage to Elvarheim, the further to deceive the Elves and confuse them as to the objective of the war. Were it not for this distraction, the long-lived Children of Corellan would have looked elsewhere for the objective and causes of the conflict, and organized their defenses accordingly, transforming a sure victory into an uncertain one. Further, by “forewarning” the Elves of the coming conflict in this manner, he caused them to took refuge in the tactical positions dictated by their defensive works, leaving safe passages into the Forest heartland exposed. This misleading information ensured that the Elvish defenders would be repeatedly caught out of position.

Much of this tactical acumen was obviously provided by the Dwarves; while capable of intuitive strokes of genius – and madness – Chaos Powers are not known for strategic intellect. The Chaos Lord decreed, and his subjects exercised their abilities to the utmost in crafting plans to achieve the demand of that anarchic tyrant. Nevertheless, even twice removed – once by the layer of Dwarven interpretation and a second time by means of the masquerade it was perpetrating – those directives exhibited the taint of its nature, for everywhere its subjects went, they bestowed chaos and bloodshed, leaving a signature pattern for any with the wit to perceive it.

So successful had been this campaign of violence and deceit that its followers now stood poised apon the brink of total victory; for while the bulk of the Elven population, and the Halfling refugees, were housed within the central heart of the forest, still some distance removed from the invaders, the Spellweavers, and the Circle Of Harmony, were located nearer the outer edge of that domain, far closer to the invaders.

More, those refugees were not what they appeared; they were in fact both bait and trap, a fifth column that had been insinuated through all the Elven Defenses.

Chapter 39

Dwarfwar III: The Desperate Needs Of Survival

Conventional tactics would divide the Elvish forces into three groups: A thin perimeter would protect the forest itself, consisting of a Spellweaver to guard the trees against fire and a soldier to protect the Spellweaver from physical assaults. The bulk of their forces would protect the civilian population, with a small elite guard detailed to defend the Circle Of Harmony. If the speculations were correct, the resulting battle would be an unmitigated disaster; the primary attacking force would head toward the civilian populations along several lines of attack until they were emplaced between the civilians and the Circle, setting fires at the forest edge as they passed. They would then erect defensive breastworks, with the sole purpose of preventing the Elvish defenders from reinforcing the Circle. With such preparations complete, they would separate, with one-third to one-half their number attacking the relatively poorly-manned defenses around the circle. When those defenders were fully engaged, the Halflings could slip between the zones of conflict and claim the prize on behalf of the hidden enemy. Or perhaps the Halflings would remain as spies, only; the attacking force would easily outnumber the defenders around the Circle by ten- or fifteen- to one; and no matter how good each of those ones might be, weight of numbers would eventually result in total victory for the invaders, who needed only to reach the Circle and Sing to it. A single Halfling would do.

It would have to be a Halfling, they realized; while Dwarves have many gifts, one that is denied almost their entire population is the inability to carry any tune beyond the most basic chant. Halflings, on the other hand, were the most musically-gifted race after the Elves, and the occasional rare Halfling approached or even surpassed the vocal capabilities of even an Elvish Master-Bard.

In other words, conventional tactics would inadequately protect everything and the price of denying adequate protection to anything. Their Spellweavers would be distracted and out of position, their defenders spread too thin to be effective, and the enemy placed in a position where he did not have to achieve victory on the battlefield in order to claim victory overall; a stalemate, or even a slow defeat that bought sufficient time, would be enough.

The natural response, also according to conventional tactical wisdom, would be to create civilian enclaves in a ring around the Circle Of Harmony, with safe passages like the spokes of a wheel radiating outward from that centre. These would provide archery corridors and facilitate an onion-skin of defenses; each time one was breached, the defenders could fall back to another, under cover of the retreating archers. This was the essential concept of the human castle. It would result in a protracted siege, which their enemies would eventually win; relative to Elves, Dwarves bred like rabbits. Ten, twenty, even a hundred Dwarves could fall in battle for the loss of a single Elvish defender and it would still be a net victory for the attackers; though the Elves could hope that there was some limit to the number of Dwarves their enemy could control at once. But this failed to take into account the hidden fifth column of Halflings, which would be swept into ever-closer proximity to the enemy’s ultimate objective. Even though logic had exposed that deception, the Elves were unable to forget that these were innocents to whom they had given sanctuary; they could not attack them or even imprison them without becoming, in their own eyes, no better than the Drow. There was enough kinship with the Black Elves to consider the tactic, and enough racial integrity to reject it. Even without the eventual crushing defeat by sheer weight of numbers over a decade or more, traditional siege tactics led inevitably to defeat.

The truth of their situation laid bare by the discerning logic of a Genius and the perceptive monomania of a renowned Theologian, the Elves were forced into enacting a plan of sheer desperation, one which risked the very survival of Elvarheim.

They commenced the construction of several civilian enclaves and one archery corridor, located close by the Halfling Refuge, in case the enemy could spy through their eyes; this would reassure their Dwarven foes and their ultimate controller that the coming battle was to be fought on conventional – losing – lines, and ensure that the Halfling Deception appeared intact. In reality, most of these enclaves were nothing more than traps designed to capture and contain the invading forces. The defenders that were supposed to protect those strongholds would instead be deployed in hidden positions surrounding the Circle Of Harmony, there to make the Elves first, and last, stand in the undeclared war. Most importantly, those defenders would stand between the Circle and the Halfling Refugees, who would be warned off if they approached – and then treated as a hostile force if they continued to approach.

Elvarheim itself was stripped of all but a select few defenders. Half of these exceptions would play the part of the outer defensive ring only to fall back immediately they were observed by the enemy, using the forest itself as a weapon against the invaders even as it burned. The Elvish heartland would be protected, and Elvarheim re-grown, as it had been on previous occasions. The civilians would hide in their homes, without defenders; if the Elves’ tactical assessment was correct, they would be bypassed by the invading forces; if not, well, while it was true that all elves have some ability with bow and blade, the groups of mostly elderly and children would be decimated.

The balance of this select few were to be a desperate band of hand-picked Huyundaltha, the greatest and best amongst their company. Exerting to the maximum their subterfuge ands stealth, augmented by Mithryl and other Constructs of Spellweaving, their mission was to creep through the Dwarven Tunnels into the Holiest Shrine of the Cult Of Stone, where the Elves believed their true enemy had established itself, and to defeat that enemy – at any cost!

But, even as this brave band departed, with the earnest well-wishes of the Council still ringing in their ears, the Council began contemplating an even more desperate and drastic fallback stratagem, the secret of which has been locked in the hearts of the Huyundaltha alone for all the long centuries since that time.

Even experienced travellers can become lost in the Dwarvish Tunnels, as this isometric rendering illustrates…


Chapter 40

Dwarfwar III: The Lair Of Evil

It is fortunate that there was a survivor of that daring raid who returned to the Forest with word of what transpired in tunnels of the Dwarven Realm or, at the very least, this narrative would have been forever incomplete. At worst, the consequences might have been still more catastrophic, as will become evident.

A century of trading caravans through the Dwarven Tunnels had taught the Elves much about underground architecture, but such trade was beneath the Huyundaltha. The expedition leaders had consulted those traders who had dealt with Dwarves regularly, and had the benefits of their previous experiences within the tunnels to guide them, but were nevertheless being guided by – at best – second-hand expertise. Further, those trading endeavors had stayed within the wider, better-trafficked corridors, whereas the intent of this mission was to avoid those corridors whenever they could. The less-used a passage was, the better, provided that it led in the direction they wished to go – or might connect with one that did, eventually.

Of course, there is usually a reason for a tunnel to be disused.

Two were lost in a rock fall when an unstable ceiling collapsed. A Shadowbear mauled another. One drowned while they hid beneath the surface of an underground river waiting for a Dwarven Patrol to pass. Two more fell down a chasm as the group crept across a narrow ledge and the ground shook, cutting themselves free from the group rather than pulling all to their doom, and another was killed by bad air. Hazards, both natural and unnatural, claimed more than half the band while they crept ever closer to their destination. Finally, some thousands of feet beneath the surface, they reached the temple carved out to surround the holiest shrine of the Cult Of Stone, known amongst the Dwarves as the Heart Of Stone.

Standing before them was a door of stone bound with steel bands that had been riveted together, much like many others in the Dwarven Realm, but this one bore the sacred mark of the Cult of Stone. Even without that symbol – a relief of an abstract depiction of a gemstone whose faces were marbled gray stone – they would still have known this was the place; the closer they had come to it, the greater the sense of unease, of disturbance, of something fundamentally wrong had assailed their senses. Indeed, for the last mile of their journey, they had used that sense of wrongness as a beacon, dodging numerous small groups of Dwarves with expressions of utmost adoration apon their features; each member of the band had silently marveled that the Dwarves had not felt it (It was later established that this was a gift of their Huyundaltha training under Corellan).

Carving a structure out of solid rock can do peculiar things to the architecture, because there is no need to create an exterior, only an interior. There was no other way in. The corridor outside was a shaft dug through solid rock. The Temple had no use for windows, as there was no outside through which light could shine. There were undoubtedly air shafts, but these had no need to connect with any accessible tunnel. With no other option, the band arrayed itself to charge through the confined entrance and scatter within, having no idea of how many Dwarves might be within, or what they might find. After a brief count to three – a coordinating tactic learned from Humans – the leader pulled open the door by its great steel handle.

The temple interior managed to be both spartan and opulent at the same time. Rough-hewn pews of stone were magnificently decorated with gold and gems along the ends facing a central aisle. The vaulted and carved ceiling arched almost 60’overhead at its pinnacle. Columns as thick as an elf was tall were spaced at regular intervals down that wide central feature, one every four pews, each shrouded in magnificent white marble laced with shades of pink and blue and gold. Between each column, the floor descended in steps just prior to each pew, forming an semicircular arena in which all could see the ceremonies clearly. Torches in ruby-encrusted brass conches burned at regular intervals along the walls, interrupted twice for huge tapestries of spun gold, silver, and iron, each depicting the same symbol as had been present apon the door. In the centre of the arena was a dais, with a raised podium to one side where the priests could exhort their congregation. At the front of the dais was an altar, half a Dwarf-height tall, covered in a golden cloth, which also spilled over the edge both forward and back, also bearing the woven form of the symbol of the Cult. And, on a golden stand some three feet tall and opulent silken cushion, in the center of the altar, was what – to Dwarven Eyes – would have appeared the model apon which that symbol had been placed. A Magnificent polished midnight-blue-marble gem-shape a full two foot tall, both translucent like the finest stained glass and yet with an incredibly fine-grained marble beneath the surface; from it, every second or two, there issued forth the slow Lub-Dub sounds of a great heart, beating, and with each beat, the gem swelled and then shrunk, as would a beating heart; and from it, too, there came a continuous whispering, just beyond the edge of comprehension, that was nonetheless clearly audible throughout the Temple.

But Elven Sight reveals many truths to which others are blind, and while they could see the seeming of the great gem, the Elvish raiders could also see beyond its lustrous appearance to the reality beneath, and that reality was a thing of Nightmares. Perpetually unstable, changing form even while the previous shaping was still unfolding, the being disguised as a crystal seemed to embody the absolute corruption and defilement of every species of sentient life known to the Elves. The Elves recognized it immediately as an Infelstreta, that which the humans term a Demon, that which presents a different seeming to every race that beholds it – unless it exerts itself to assume a different guise. Only those gifted with Elven sight can perceive all these faces, each within its own separate sub-layer of the reality of the defiled being – so the Band of Huyundaltha now discovered. Finally, it began to stabilize into a gruesome thing that was part spider and part elf.

And then, as though it were arousing from a great torpor, the Band became aware that the Infelstreta was also regarding them closely, and the whispers suddenly coalesced into a thousand voices moaning in whispers, “Who dares gaze apon the true face of Molgoth without his leave in his Realm?”

The unmistakeable emblam of the Cult Of Stone

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The Ongoing Elvish Glossary

  • Alkaith: Curved 14-inch dagger favored as a weapon and general cutting tool by Elvish Spellcasters and some High Elves.
  • Arnost: Simple Speech (Modern “Common”, a human tongue)
  • Arrunquessor: Plains Elves
  • Ayer: Nuthanori word meaning “Squat”. Mont Ayer is the name of one of the two peaks that define the traditional elvish lands.
  • Calquissir: High Elves
  • Comesdhail Osfadara­ Litrithe Congress Of Spellweavers
  • Corellan: The First
  • Drow: “Those Who Dwell Apart” (in Nuthanorl). Added to Ogre by the Drow with the meaning of “Smart”.
  • Ellessarune: The “Shining City” of the Tarquessir, home of the Elvish King and capital of the Elven Lands to this day.
  • Eltrhinast: “Guiding Spirit”
  • Elvarheim: “Blessed Leafy Home”: The Elven Forest, homeland of the Tarquessir and the centre of Elven Power in modern times
  • Gilandthor: “The Gathering”, the formal title of the Elvish Council.
  • Hithainduil: High Elven Language
  • Huyundaltha: “Masters Of The Ondaltha” (literal), “Bladedancers” (colloquial). Formerly Noletinechor, now Guardians Of Elvish Society.
  • Illvayssor: “The Other”, a mythical race
  • Infelstreta: “Demon” in Hithainduil.
  • Isallithin: “The Sundered”, a name applied to Aquatic Elves
  • King: A human title interpreted by Elves as “speaker to others” and defined as such within their language.
  • Lesiatrame: “Bright Ego”, a deprecating term used to describe Human Gods, rendered suspect during the commencement of the third Great Dwarfwar.
  • Magi: A corruption of the Zamiel word “Machus”, which means “of the wise.”
  • Mithryl: the Elvish name of an extremely fragile metal given in trade by the Dwarves to the Elves. The word is imported from Dwarven, who in turn obtained it from the Zamiel Tongue name of the metal, “Mithral”. “Mithryl” means “Moonsilver” in Elven. The word also enjoys popular usage as a metaphor for a treasure found which appeared initially worthless.
  • Mithral: the Drow name for Mithryl. A literal translation from Zamiel is “Shadowsilver”.
  • Mont: Nuthanori word meaning “High Place”. Used human-style in the naming of Mountains.
  • Noletinechor: “Lore Shields”, an elvish historical vocation
  • Nuthanorl: Low Elven Language, Common Elven
  • Ondaltha: A two-weapon combat style based apon Elvish Dance, practiced exclusively by Huyundaltha.
  • Osfadara­ Litrithe Spellweaver, literally ‘Weaver of Harmony’.
  • Sarner: A human abbreviation of the Hithainduil word “Saranariuthenal” which means, literally, “Swift and Wide”. The River Sarner runs through the central valley of Elvarheim.
  • Tarquessir: Forest Elves
  • Thonsutriane: “Dark Egos”, a deprecating term used to describe Chaos Powers, rendered suspect during the commencement of the third Great Dwarfwar.
  • Thuyon: Nuthanori word meaning “Tall Spires”. Mont Thuyon is the name of the taller of the two peaks that define the traditional elvish lands; Modern Elvarheim lies between the foothills of Mont Thuyon and the River Sarner.
  • Verdonne: “Quickbranch”, an artificial race created by Elves to be “The Guardians Of The Forest”.
  • Zamiel: Drow Language

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Next time: With a Demon on the loose and their existence in the balance, how far will the Elves dare to go to achieve victory? Join me for Chapters 40, 41 and 42!

Orcs & Elves Series:
  1. Inventing and Reinventing Races in DnD: An Introduction to the Orcs and Elves series part 1
  2. Inventing and Reinventing Races in DnD: An Introduction to the Orcs and Elves series part 2
  3. Inventing and Reinventing Races in DnD: An Introduction to the Orcs and Elves series part 3
  4. Inventing and Reinventing Races in DnD: An Introduction to the Orcs and Elves series part 4
  5. Inventing and Reinventing Races in DnD: An Introduction to the Orcs and Elves series part 5
  6. On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 1-4
  7. On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 5-10
  8. On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 11-14
  9. On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 15-17
  10. On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 18-20
  11. On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 21-23
  12. On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 24-26
  13. On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 27-28
  14. On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 29-31
  15. On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 32-36
  16. On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 37-40
  17. On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 41-43
  18. On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 44-46
  19. On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 47-51
  20. Inventing and Reinventing Races in DnD: An Orcish Mythology
  21. On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 52-54
  22. On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 55-58
  23. On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 59-62
  24. On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 63-65
  25. On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 66-68
  26. On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 69-70
  27. On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 71-73
  28. Who Is “The Hidden Dragon”? – Behind the curtain of the Orcs and Elves Series
  29. On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapter 74
  30. On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 75-77
  31. On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 78-85


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