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Saii

History of the lands: final edit

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It should be made clear that at no point did the Gods personally intervene in the fighting. Mortos, Selain and Unolas were constantly aware of the superiority of the greater Gods, while Aluwen, Gaia and Glydoc refused to use their powers for fear of ruining the lands themselves with the conflict. An uneasy divine truce was to prevail throughout the war because of this.

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Hey Saii, stillreading this. Just curious, are you still editing, or are you just posting the finished story in bits and pieces.

 

Anyway, thanks, and keep up the good work.

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Still editing, but not as thoroughly in the last few posts (I've had alot on). Ta for mentioning though, I have been getting a bit sloppy.

 

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The Dwarves too were neutral in the beginning, having no God to spur them to fight and a natural isolationist streak inherited from Dvar. This left the Satyrs, Minotaurs, Centaur and Elves fighting an unforgiving horde of Orcs, Ogres and Orchans.

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The two continents swiftly divided. Woodland realms were transformed into fortresses of root and branch, while shambling Minotaur cities gained hastily erected walls and fortifications. The Orchans meanwhile took charge over their slower, more vicious Orc cousins, making their home in the great halls of the underworld, barricading the entrances against any incursion and abandoning their towns and cities.

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The situation was more dire than it seemed for the supporters of Aluwen, for within their ranks lay a horde of spies and subverters built by Selain in his years of preparation. As the war began, Selain's knowledge of troop movements, supply lines and fortifications proved irresistible.

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The Second Continent fell within months into his hands under the force of pinpoint attacks by the Orchans and abortive counterstrikes by the untrained and poorly led Aluwenists, with only a courageous last stand by a force of Minotaur warriors holding the docks long enough for the rest of the army to flee.

 

At this time a stroke of luck came their way, for they were not immediately pursued. Legends speak of a freak storm that wiped out the Orchan fleet in its dock, forcing Selain to wait for several weeks while repairs were made. Whether this is true or not, what is certain is the small Centaur populace of Portland spend one day of every year celebrating the sea.

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The First Continent proved a far greater challenge for Unloas, leading an uprising there in Selain's absence. Deprived of the bulk of Selain's armed forces, and with most of the population made up of his enemies, he had few resources to raise insurrection.

 

Though he had some influence through Selain's network of informers and slaves, Unolas had nowhere near enough troops to take advantage of this, and his efforts to force a quick victory failed when an attack on the port to Isla Prima faltered against massive opposition.

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Nevertheless, Unolas made the best of a bad situation. Through his patient tuition of a select group of Orchan Warlocks in the ways of magic, progress was made, and as the last cities of the Second Continent fell into Selain's hands, Unolas achieved a stalemate. His forces held the North West, the Aluwenists the South East. The Humans, who remained neutral, formed a barrier to both sides in the centre of the conflict.

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Imagine having to read all this in one go...I suppose most people wouldn't even start. I know I wouldn't.

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Yeah grum's pretty much summed it up, I did post the whole story at once on an earlier thread but basically there's a huge difference between writing a short story for a book, which people can relax and read wherever, and something on the internet, which is better cut down into easily digestible pieces.

 

The war shouldn't conflict with Tumaros' one. His is specifically set on the Grubani Penninsula and could have occurred at any time, likely to be long before mine (especially given the outcome).

 

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The deadlock lasted for a month, with Pine Town in particular suffering greatly from a lack of food, until an unexpected twist at the beleaguered outpost changed the course of the war. On the last day of autumn a fleet loomed large on the horizon, with patched and broken vessels limping slowly towards the coast.

 

The starving inhabitants of the town at first feared that Unolas had mustered a great fleet to attack their weak coastal defences, until suddenly Gaia's flag was hoisted, fluttering brightly at the masts of every ship. With a great fanfare and a horde of supplies the remains of the Second Continent's Aluwenist army had arrived.

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I was reffering to the events at the valley of the dwarfs. You wrote that the dwarfs didn't participate in the war here ... but there they had no choice to fight. And that's at the beggining of the war.

 

But maybe they took place on different times, like WW1 and WW2? ... Help me, I'm confused :P

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Oh I getcha. The Mynadar story would most likely have taken place after my history finishes, especially as Mortos is imprisoned throughout the period I'm writing about.

 

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The Orchan forces guarding Pine Town, led by Unolas himself, were caught completely unaware. Selain's spies had no way of communicating a decision made by Gaia while at sea to change destination and swing around to the North. It was a massacre.

 

Thousands of well-rested Satyrs and Elves swept through the main gates, smashing into the unprepared enemy camp full of Orcs and Ogres, lounging around just a mile away. So fast was the rush that Unolas himself was caught out, causing a complete rout in his forces as they saw his Headquarters overrun. Immortal, yet shocked beyond reason, Unolas fled in terror, leaving his tomes of magic behind and his Orchan students to be slaughtered.

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The capture of Unolas' books of magical learning proved as important as the victory itself, for within them lay 300 years of translated instruction on the magical arts, open now for Elves and Satyrs to learn - and learn they did. Gaia helped members of both races to become adept in using powerful essences, creating over the following weeks a small cadre of Wizards taught to the most dangerous standards.

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While this teaching went on, the armies of the Second Continent marched South, breaking the enemy flank further with every passing day until finally Unolas ordered a full retreat to prepared Orcish defences at Portland, awaiting the advent of Selain and reinforcements.

It would be weeks before Selain's arrival, and over this time the training of the Wizards was completed, but three other happenings would contribute to the outcome of the war while this lull continued.

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First was Minos' 'Purge of the Undesired', a massive spyhunt which ripped through the ranks of the army, exposing traitors at the highest levels.

 

Second was a discovery made by interrogators that the hold of Selain over his minions was based on a drug his men had grown dependent on, the ingredients of which were known to him alone. Repeated tests proved this to be true of not only his spies, but of the Orchan peoples as whole, whose water Selain had tarnished until, Male, Female and child they became addicted. Without continuous supplies of the drug, Selain could not guarantee the loyalty of his men.

 

Third, and most important of all, was the coming of Glilin.

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A Dwarf in the truest sense, Glilin excelled at craftsmanship in a way not seen since Dvar himself walked above, and had for most of his life ignored the world outside his workshop.

 

His weapons were world renowned, his tools were to be found nowhere else, and his jewellery was made in such exquisitely fine ways that friends would fight to hold it. Yet as he reached the nadir of his life, Glilin began to notice the inferior quality of the metals his brokers could find for him, and he turned his gaze outwards to the world beyond in anger.

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Glilin looked upon the war, and found the cause of this inferior metal to be Orchan work. Controlling the Second Continent, they owned the ore mines where the best iron was to be found, yet cared little for the process of extracting or smelting it properly. The result was cheap, brittle metal that was simply not usable in his high craft. Glilin decided that this was a cause the Dwarves should fight for, and used his immense influence within the Dwarven community to call a gathering on the subject.

 

Glilin talked long into the night at this meeting, shouting down agents of Selain who attempted to silence him, and to the surprise of all, including himself, found there to be a huge sympathy for his cause. All the Dwarves had suffered from a lack of usable materials, and a motion was swiftly passed to join the Aluwenists in their struggle.

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Within days a flood of high quality ordinance moved from the Northern Valleys to the armouries of Gaia and Minos. These were closely followed by legions of highly disciplined Dwarves outfitted in heavy armour, carrying near-unbreakable weapons and headed by Glilin himself.

 

They reached the front lines in time to swing the outcome of the war's deciding battle, at the gates of Portland. The momentous day is described in greater detail in the story of Folis and Salia, but suffice to say here that Selain's army was beaten - though not broken. Both sides agreed on an end to the war, which seemed to have ended as a draw, neither side being confident enough to resume hostilities.

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Part 6: The aftermath, Glilin's elevation and the Great Agreement.

 

Now we come at last to the changing of the lands; to the decimation of the races. We come to the withdrawal of the Gods, the creation of the Eternals, the coming of the Wraith. This story is still being written, for it is ours and that of our fathers. I write only two score years after the event, and I remember it well - the aftermath.

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Warriors from every race lay dead on the battlefield, heroes and cowards alike. Of a myriad of different peoples who had populated the continents, uncounted numbers were no more. In the very hall where war had inadvertently begun, now empty apart from the Gods themselves, an argument began to rage over the terms of peace.

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NB// All references to Minotaurs from now on have been replaced by Dreagoni (Cos Ent has had to drop em :)). Earlier references have been left as is cos otherwise I have to re edit about 30 posts, but have been changed on the master copy.

 

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Mortos, freed at last from his underworld prison by the other Gods to mollify Selain and Unolas, began by essaying a critique of the world. For long hours he charged that the discovery of magic and mass destruction wreaked by Selain's war had irrevocably ruined the lands themselves and nothing would ever be same - thus ruining the point of making it.

Against the wishes of Selain and Unolas, he called for the destruction of the Lands, on the grounds they had become an abomination for not just him, but in the eyes of his fellow Gods.

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Although there was some desultory nodding from Unolas, the others rejected his argument as absurd. Aluwen pointed out that the mutation of those original ideas was more in tune with their goal to understand creation than a simple world following them mindlessly could ever be.

 

They accepted however that Mortos made one valid point. The Gods had been unable to keep any kind of order over their lands, and as Selain and Unolas proved, the supposedly inferior mortals were more than capable of challenging their rule. With Centau gone, awash in his own madness, there was no-one to argue the case of chaos, and a consensus grew that they needed order.

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