Tokfir

'I have seen the Bolat Kuiyin with my two own eyes, Gul Ana be merciful. They had eyes that glowed red like the angriest spirit in the sky. One I saw. He stood with a mane of black, curling, twisting smoke, like the tendrils of that which lurks beyond the Great Light. In his hand like a whirlwind was an arc of hellfire, glinting back at me with the fury of a thousand Ka. When the demon saw me, he stood, glaring. Where should his arm been, instead was a branch, like our blessed Aspen yet black and sullied. He drew a hellish sigil in the air and out the branch came brimstone and ash, raining down upon me like a curse. Never in my years have I run so fleet, so fast, so full of fear from such fury of fire. The Bolat Kuiyin come on great bellowing beasts that fly over the blue depths, with flapping wings too many to count. The beasts carry the demons within their bellies, and they regurgitate fire and soot as they fly through the deep.'- Dini Malenava, Priestess of Yel Ana.
Tokfir, also known as the Isle of Angels, was a tiny and heavily forested island in the Sword Coast Straits. Geographically part of the South Vortic Islands, it was never colonised by The Vortic Mercatorium due to its Writ of Ereibo and Tartari, at least until 1519.
The island was solely inhabited by about 40,000 magical wood elves, for thousands of years, some of whom had celestial lineage. The inhabitants all called themselves the Aspen. Those with celestial blood were also known as the Chosen. Their language was Periş, a Celestial derivative.
The island was heavily forested, and its only city was on the south coast forest upon a lake, a city called Yuldiz. The island was fruitful in its... well, fruit, and there were few dangerous creatures. Lots of White Aspen trees grew over the island.
The island was ruled by the Faith of Heaven, a church committed to the worship of celestials - in specific, the Solar Angel Gul Ana, the Lunar Angel Yel Ana and the Stellar Angel Qa Ana, their triptych pantheon.
The greatest of their buildings was the Palace of the Sun, Moon and Star, a large wooden palace with a very tall tower made from a single White Aspen tree, where the Dini (Priests) of the Faith lived, and the three Arzdini (High Priestesses) of the Sun, Moon and Star - Gul Arzdini, Yel Arzdini and Ka Arzdini. Only Chosen were allowed to be Dini.
The Aspen were all vegetarian. They made their homes from the White Aspen wood, decorated with gold thread woven from flax and other plants. They were incredibly devout, almost scarily, believed in unsettlingly homogenous peace, tradition, timelessness and selflessness, and had no concept of money, nor any experience of metal, gunpowder, or seafaring. The Aspen were terrified of the sea, seeing it in similar regard to the night sky. They had no concept of time save for 'sun time' and 'star time', and no such thing as a calendar.
They experienced a terrible plague that killed tens of thousands in the year 1320, caused when an omen came in the form of two South Vortic explorer ships, the Ereibo and Tartarei. The Aspen sacrificed them to the gods by throwing them in a volcano, and they were happy, since the plague ended. The two explorer ships never returned obviously, and rotted on the coast. This prompted the Mercatorium's Writ to stay off the isle for two centuries.
Starting in spring 1519, the Aspen were troubled by the advent of the 'demons' that they called the Bolat Kuiyin on their land. In truth, the demons were the Vortic Mercatorium's lumber expeditions. The West Marchers found the ships, met the Aspen, and talked with the 'demons', passing on information and returning with fatter pockets. 
 
In Eleasis 1519, the Mercatorium had cleared the forest up to Yuldiz, and they waged war against the Aspen. This resulted in some burnt forest and few Vortic casualties, but the Aspen were mostly, tragically killed by the new up-and-coming evil empire. 
By the end of 1520, the Mercatorium had entirely deforested the now-empty island and begun open-cast mining for the iron that lay beneath. 
Category:Places