The Elven Courts

*"They are like a branch aflame from the summers heat, a corpse frosting over as winter draws close and the muttered curse of a brother betrayed. They are not like men in any way for man is a complex soul, made of warring thoughts and hopes. The Elves, for all their elegance, are simple, lost only in their pointless obsessions."*

## History

The Elven Courts are an ancient collective, older even than the Dwarves and Orcs who inhabited this land long before Mankind arrived. For time immemorial, the Elves of Tir'na'nÔg have told their tales of ancient heroes and fell villains and even they no longer recall a time when they could be considered young. Best estimates have their race beginning somewhere around 0001.1A

Long ago, when Amerlyn was largely dominated by forests farther than the eye could see, the Elves lived under a vast kingdom that dominated the continent. Under the wise rule of the King of Winter and the Queen of Summer, the Elves brought peace and solemnity to Amerlyn and where darker forces rose in strength, their legions of Knights were swift to respond. It was a time of legend and myth where warriors of heroic story fought beasts of fell form. Thellion Wyrm-Slayer, Oriel Long-Strider and Mordred the Black were just some of the great heroes of the time and with these legends at their side, none could match the fury of the Elves.

But where the light is strong, the darkness is greater still for death has ever been an ally to evil. A strange force north of the mountains had begun to emerge. Strange, ghastly creatures wielding blades of blackest steel that cut through armour and flesh alike. The Elves, for the first time, were facing a foe that was as deadly a them. Fortunately they did not fight alone for in recent years, Dwarves and Orcs had emerged upon Amerlyn, the recent Conjunction dragging them from their Homeworld and into this land. The three Races joined together as the years went by and bolstered by the warcraft of the Orcs and the fell blades of the Dwarves, the Elder Races began to push this foe back.

It was during the final battle of this bitter war that the Elves were rent asunder. As armies larger than the eye could see clashed, the Prince of the Elven Courts, Galahar Spring-Born, met against the terrible foe who to this day is named only The End Of It All by the Fae-Folk. The two clashed and sparks filled the air but to no avail, the Elven Prince fell and so ended the unity of the Elf Realm.

The battle was won however and deep beneath the mountains of the new Dwarf Holds, the Elves constructed 5 Pillars of great strength that would contain the fell creatures that had threatened them so. With the war over, the Elves returned but their hearts were broken by the loss of their beloved Prince and when the King and Queen died of heartbreak, the two Courts fell apart into a bitter rivalry. As their Kingdom fell apart and the great cities were reduced to ruin, an Elven Prince of the Winter Court named Malekith stepped forward to claim the throne, tired of the constant bickering and despairing of the now ruined Elven Realm. Many veterans of the war joined him but both the Winter Court and the Summer Court threw his claim aside, declaring his bloodline unfit as only those of the Royal Line could take the throne.

To great surprise, Malekith turned to war and the Elves fell upon themselves in a brutal conflict that saw their already shrinking land decline further, until only the forests that they dwelt in could be called theirs. The war was bitter as only a war between brothers could be but eventually Malekith was defeated and captured. The magnitude of his crime was so great that he an his followers were exiled, their souls barred from both the Elven Courts and from the Fae-Wild, preventing those that died from being reborn once again. And so they left, heading to the woods of Aleneth as the Exiled Court and there they now dwell.