The History of Avlis - Volume II

• Published by the Academy of Mortal Magic, an Entity of Andrinor's Trust. Information within this book may not be used without the permission of the High Mage Council of Avlis*

VOLUME 2 - The First Wars among the Mortal Races, Revised Edition

• • • The Demonspawn Wars (300 years to 225 years BAoP) ***

Details of the first war to face the mortal races can be pieced together from only fragmented stories and myths recorded by the peoples of M¡¦Chek and Deglos. A name that recurs in these tales is Kimonicticus, a designation given to the demon that destroyed the Negerai. In these tales, while the gods destroyed the other tanar¡¦ri, for reasons unknown, they only subdued Kimonicticus, and drove the creature into the vast web of volcanic tunnels called the Underdark to clear the surface world for their own new races. While the children of the Nine Gods prospered on or near the surface, Gorethar and Mikon set some of their new followers to watch over the demonic being.

Far estranged from their kinsmen, the dwarves and Romini became resentful in the deep places, and over time came to revere Kimonicticus as their new lord. Under Kimonicticus, the humans and dwarves developed a culture based on the demonic principles of the Abyss, taking for themselves the names vasharan and kharakuro, respectively. Through nearly two centuries of demon worship and interbreeding with tanar'ri, the vasharan and kharakuro followers of Kimonicticus gained power. The fate of these lost children of Mikon and Gorethar might have remained unknown to the rest of the Avlis if not for the fact that their demonic ruler sought again to influence the surface world. At the height of Kimonicticus¡¦ power, roughly three centuries before the Age of Peace, the demon's forces launched a two-pronged attack toward the surface. The fiend¡¦s army swarmed through the tunnels of southern Galdos (currently Deglos) where it bordered T'Nanshi, killing the dwarves of that region. The loss of further territory and lives in Galdos was prevented only through the clever tactics of the legendary dwarven hero, Fegall. In the southern lands of M¡¦Chek, the vasharan boiled to the surface in a second assault, ruthlessly slaughtering all who opposed them and laying claim to great swaths of land. For seventy-five years, the fighting in the southern lands raged, finally requiring the united intervention of minions of Gorethar and Mikon to drive Kimonicticus¡¦ vasharan and kharakuro back into the deep places.

The vasharan and kharakuro undoubtedly survive in the Underdark to this day. Rumors filter up of wars between the demonic factions deep below continuing through the centuries, just as wars have been waged on the lands above. So far, we are left only with tales of battles between tanar¡¦ri lords raised by Kimonicticus from the Abyss and strange malevolent creatures alien to our world. Perhaps some day the millennia of history that have passed beneath our feet will take its place in among our known history of Avlis.

• • • The Fairy War (200 years to 100 years BAoP) ***

The history of the Fairy War has long been told by the clergy of the two gods who created the fey of our world: O'Ma and Titania. The two churches disagree on the rightness of each side's acts, but both agree on the factual events that precipitated the war.

When O'Ma was choosing a race to call his own, he consulted with the goddess Titania. In her own domain beyond the confines of the mortal realms, Titania had made a race with hearts of simple goodness, the fairies. O'Ma saw that these were the sort of people that were true to his views, and so, with some guidance from Titania, O'Ma created the first fairy races of Avlis. In the beginning, there were many kinds of fairies, including the dryads of the oak trees, the nixies of the sea, and the sylphs of the air. But they were all of a kin in that they were children created by O'Ma, and in most ways, they were very similar to those fairies of Titania's far-off domain. However, Titania's fey are unlike many other races in their modes of reproduction. Many of the Titanian fey races comprise a single gender, and must use other races to reproduce. O'Ma perceived this dependence on other races for procreation as a potential weakness, and amended his own creations to be of both genders, and to reproduce in a way more akin to the other races coming to populate Avlis.

Titania perceived this gender alteration as a perversion of her own children. Further, the resulting fecundity of the O'Ma fairies made them a potentially unbalancing force on Avlis, at least to Titania's view. In secret, Titania countered O'Ma's fairies by giving some of her own children the ability to travel to the mortal world, seeding the lands with what she perceived as true fairies. At some point the two races came upon each other, and their first contacts were peaceful, for fairykind are benevolent creatures. But as the other mortal races of Avlis spread and made contact with the fairies, another trait of the O'Ma fairies became apparent: their ability to mate with humans and elves, creating half-fey. This was too great of an affront to Titania. In anger, the Fairy Goddess commanded her children to purge the world of O'Ma's "imperfect" creations and their half-fey children. The Titanian fairies heeded the call, and so began the Fairy War.

The Fairy War has been described as almost comical, but tragic and deadly. Throughout the lands, and especially the forests, the fey fought each other, weaving enchantments and illusions to bewilder, enthrall and outright slay their enemies, and calling on the woodland creatures to clash in battle on behalf of the fairies. The clergy of the fairykind say that even Titania and O'Ma battled each other in the realms beyond, with the raining of their blood spawning the woodland god Skern and the races of centaurs and satyrs.

The fighting left its imprint across Avlis. Countless fairies were slain, as well as the animals of the wilds and many other races caught up in the battles, especially the elves who shared the forests with the fey. The orderly dracon particularly reviled the chaos of the fairy magic. In Toran Shaarda, the holy order of Justicars was formed to hedge the fairies from their land. The dracon of the great plains further north united with neighboring human settlers for mutual protection under the human Overseer, Tomil Kurath, marking the start of what would eventually become the Kurathene Republic. Far to the south, the humans of M'Chek, with help from dwarves of Galdos, built the city of Mikona, providing a refuge from the battles to the north. Finally, in the east, the Fairy War was felt in the woodlands of the orcish nation Dobrekon.

By Hilde Meyldur