Siorai

*Siorai* is the true name for what man call "Elves", otherworldy beings not even native to Tara. They have had a profound influence on the planet, enthralling whole civilizations and deliberately shaping the future to fit their desires. In their long history many factions have broken off from the elves' main culture, finding their own path in the world. Regardless of what they may be - savage Kindred, decadent Courtiers, or wandering Caravanserai - the elves remain a force to be reckoned with.

## History

### Before the Rift

*Siorai* come from a wholly different plane than Tara, a dimension beyond the Rift. Only the oldest elves remember this place and even they can only recall the barest impressions after so many years. It is a surreal space out of time, existing simultaneously at the dawn and death of creation. No stars burn in its skies. Seas of dust cover the land, stirred by wind no stronger than a breath. Nothing lives. Nothing grows. The Siorai have outlived all such things.

But here magic is also the raw stuff of reality itself. The Siorai driven nearly insane by eons of loneliness, sang into being an entity they called *Antaon*. But they soon regretted this newborn god. They foresaw the future's infinite number of possibilities, but all they could see now was their own extinction. Fear, a feeling they had nearly forgotten, drove them to try and kill Antaon in its first moments of life, and at first they thought themselves successful. But they soon realized they had only wounded it terribly; fragments of Antaon had scattered to the winds, fleeing through time and space into new dimensions, desperate to escape. Afraid of what should happen if it ever regained its strength the Siorai devised a means of survival. They created new gods and murdered them, their deaths opening Rifts in the fabric of reality through which they could send agents to track down and destroy Antaon's fragments. Tara was the first of these planes, however, the agents sent there strayed from their purpose and chose to remain.

The only thing that does change is the Rift. Through it the Siorai caught glimpses of another world; blue and green, light and warm, teeming with life. These visions troubled them and so a handful were sent through the Rift. They reported (via scrying) that it was a hostile world, savage and primordial with few signs of civilization and empty of magic. Perhaps most troubling was that the journey had left them stranded; vulnerable and alone on an alien shore the best they could describe Tara was, quite literally, a *deathworld.* Death was a concept that had grown foreign to the Siorai, who'd known only immortality. Knowing that they could not escape it drove them mad.

They also noted that they could feel the energies the Rift was leaking out into this world; the raw stuff of their own home plane. It did not take a genius to deduce that, given time, eventually Neverwhere would collapse into this new world.

### First Steps in a New World

The handful of Siorai who'd come to Tara arrived in the world's South Pole, which they named *Vaalbara*. Despite being a frozen, arctic wasteland to them it was practically a jungle! Exploration brought contact with the Fauns and Chiron, who had forseen the coming of the Rift and made preparations to contain it. The Chiron found the Siorai repulsive; foreign, unnatural beings not even made of the same *matter*. Most of their people had already fled the continent well in advance but a small number remained behind as a vengeful rearguard. Almost immediately the Siorai, weak and disoriented, found themselves under attack almost as soon as they left the Rift. The Centaurs were dispatched, though they killed a few of the elves, and what followed was a brief battle between the Siorai and the fauns. The fauns, exhausted after trying to contain the Rift, yielded and were enslaved, surrendering themselves to the Siorai's leader.

This perplexed the Siorai, for there were no hierarchies among them, only unspoken agreement. Nuada Argetlam (so named because he had lost a hand in battle to a Centaur, and had it replaced with living silver by the Fauns; the name was given to him by the Fauns) broke with eons of unspoken tradition and stepped forward, accepting their surrender. Thus the Fauns are said to have coronated the first Elvish king; they pledged themselves to him alone, and in return he gave them his protection.

### The First Argetlam

Nuada Argetlam thus became the more-or-less official leader of the Siorai stranded on Tara. Feeling the same physical pain he turned to the Fauns for help, who had ingratiated themselves as his court's advisers. Chief among the fauns was Porewit, who convinced them to follow the land bridge the Centauri had raised. This journey took them to Land's End, which was covered in the green gloom of the Oldgrowth forest.

The first child to be born was a girl named Mab; the Siorai treasured her like a Queen. He decided to take them back to Vaalbara, before the land bridge vanished. Many chose to remain behind and tend to the Root, becoming the ancestors of the "Kindred" elves.

### Rise of the Young Court

Mab was the first elvish child born on Tara and her people treasured her like a queen. As she matured many elves, mostly youths gathered around her, seeing in her both a leader and an icon. These elves had all been born in Tara and had no memory of Neverwhere-beyond-the-Rift. Young and restless they left Vaalbara and eventually came to Yavanna, enthralling it and established themselves as the "Summer Court".

Although she'd taken other lovers Mab always held a girlish admiration for Nuada Argetlam and was his favorite companion, bearing him only sons. As the mother of his dynasty and god-queen of Yavanna she wielded considerable power, but always deferred to her King.

When the Summer Court fought back against the Tiberians invading Yavanna it dragged Argetlam into the war, obliged as he was to aid his kith and kin.

### The Wailing War

Nuada went straight for the Tiberians' heart, the ancient city of Numitor. This drew Princeps away from Yavanna, but he arrived too late to make any difference. In their first battle the massed ranks of Tiberium's core legions - 100 thousand men - gathered to defend their city. Despite having been notified by the elves Warlocks that they were well past "Formal War", and being given their choice of battlefield, the Tiberians did little to fortify their city, confident that the elves were no match for them. Yet, in their first battle, the Battle of Red Tides, they were slain almost to a man. Hardly a tenth escaped to man the walls; for their part the elves were content to wait out the siege, time meaning little to them. The people were put out of the city, and though they were not harmed nor did the elves offer any kind of aid, letting them starve.

Princeps rallied what was left of the Ecumene's scattered Legions and distant allies, but there remained little hope that he could break through the elves' lines. That was until the Winter Court reached out to him. Practically a secret society among the elves, Winter named itself in opposition to Summer and the Argetlams, believing they had steered a course that would doom their people. Though few in number they could infiltrate the elves unseen and, when the two armies met, they turned on their own kin. Nuada nearly slew Princeps in the battle but a Courtier named Kell saved his life, crippling the Alder-Ri who, with a single word, ended the war and surrendered.

### Kin Strife

While the Tiberians reckoned the Wailing War ended with Argetlam's surrender at Red Ground for the elves this was but the first chapter in the vicious fighting to come. Tiberium's pyyrhic victory at the Battle of Red Ground humiliated the elves. Under mysterious circumstances all of Argetlam's sons and heirs had also perished in the fighting, even those who had been posted far from the frontlines. For this Mab never forgave him, her affection for the immortal king souring into contempt.

Mab manipulated Nuada into retreating from court life while she established herself as the elves' unspoken Queen, believing she alone could steer a course that would save her people. But the Winter Court stood in her way. At first their war was small; matters between the two Courts were settled by duels beween Warlocks, but eventually Winter dispensed with the rituals of "Formal War", making conventional attacks (the equivalent of a war crime among elves). Whole generations perished as the fighting slowly escalated for nearly 1000 years.

Hoping to win over the Kindred as allies both Courts actually ended up in a three-way war over Land's End, fighting the wood elves as often as each other. Summer started a breeding program to boost their flagging numbers as more elves abandoned the fighting, sick with blood guilt and knowing that the war would ultimately come down to sheer attrition. The end result of their efforts were the orcs; generations of elves bred to be supersoldiers, these greenskinned brutes bore little resemblance to their kin, but they nevertheless tipped the balance of the war in Summer's favor.

It was only when Winter had been utterly exhausted that the war was considered over, but the damage had already been done. The Root of the World had been poisoned, though neither side was sure who was responsible. Vaalbara was totally depopulated, many of its elves fleeing for Yavanna or becoming wandering Caravanserai. The Orcs became a Jannissary-like class among the Summer Court, exerting considerable influence within Yavanna. Only the Winter Court still lingered in Vaalbara's polar reaches, content knowing that they had played their part and averted disaster.

### Today

Today the elves are a scattered people, struggling to find closure or even meaning after so many years of bloodshed and seeing their best intentions sour. Many live in ignorance of the past, thinking it ancient history. But for those who have lived through it their burdens never grow any lighter, their memories do not fade, and the loss of a friend is as fresh tomorrow as it was two thousand years ago. They will carry the weight of all that history forever.

Some have observed that the Rift is behaving strangely (more so than usual), disgorging more and more magical energy into Tara. This is causing Vaalbara to become a very strange place indeed. Some suspect that the rest of their race, those who still dwell beyond the Rift, will arrive soon and in great numbers as the end draws nigh for the home plane. But none dare sail too close, for few ever return.

## Notes

 The Natural Order

A popular belief among the Summer Court is that all life can (and should) be ordered into a hierarchy, with elves at the top because only they live long enough to make (and see through) long term actions and consequences. While there might be some truth to this philosophy it founds horrifying expressions throughout history; the blood castes of Yavanna oppress over 100 million people and have left the Summer Court inbred and the Orcs are basically the fantasy equivalent of abused pitbulls. The Winter Court rejects this notion, believing only in the struggle against entropy.

Uncanny Valley - Because the elves are alien to Tara they can be misconstrued as insanely cruel even if they don't realize it; for instance their have been cases where they've hunted people for sport (Kindred), demanded human sacrifices (again Kindred), designed an obscene eugenics program and blood caste hierarchy and possessed an insatiable desire to control life in a "natural order" (Summer Court), and enslaved/imprisoned a whole race (Alder-Ri). Some races think they fall into "Uncanny Valley" territory; Centaurs and domesticated animals are instinctively repulsed by them, even humans are a little creeped out by full-blooded elves, and the Fauns have plotted their total destruction for millennia while posing as loyal servants and advisors.

Alder-Ri - means Elder King, although Argetlam or "Silverhand" is the common title. Nuada crowned himself the first and only Alder-Ri, at the suggestion of the Pan. This was of course, a deception on their part, persuading him to break with eons of unspoken tradition. He wore a massive crown of antlers when coronated by the Pan, a crown of flowers when presiding over Summer, and woven thorns during Winter. After his death the title has never been claimed.