The Elves of Axanaira

Elvish history stretches back far before the 800 PA mark at which the tales of humanity abruptly begin (discounting the various deity legends and creation myths many such histories begin with), yet it is little understood, and of little interest, to the scholars of most other races, and only major details tend to work their way into the major history books; this is not helped by the lacking understanding outside of Ullumálos of the appalambë, the carving-based method of recording language that developed following the Melehyár Catastrophe. One detail that has slipped through this veil of ignorance is that of an ancient Melehtári of the elves, Queen Lahtisse, believed to have ruled for three centuries beginning around the year 1600 PA.

With the recent discovery of ships capable of sailing beyond the shallow coasts of Ullumálos, and consequently the diaspora of islands in the Shattered Sea, Lahtisse believed that there must be other lands, as large as the elvish homeland, which could in time become part of the elvish realm for the spiritual and material benefit of all her people, and the world as a whole. To this end, she sent out three arks, which travelled in three separate directions - the first reached and colonised Neldënórë, the second is shrouded in mystery (variously believed to have colonised the Shattered Sea, to have founded the Sunset Kingdoms, reached a land in the far east, sailed off the side of the world, or settled on an island which has since sunk below the ocean), and the last went north, landing on the already frigid shores of Karanoth, which the elves named Axanaira, or the "Void-Law".

The latter ark, peopled by bright-eyed pioneers and opportunists, was shocked to find not a verdant and green land, differing only from their home continent in its unspoiled beauty and unexploited potential, but a great tundra, growing colder and bleaker as it ran endlessly and flatly towards the northern horizon. Supplies were running too low to safely decouple from the snowy land and seek another; the elves attempted to found a settlement and scratch out a living in the greener parts of the new land, to "rule over the void" - after five years, almost all had chosen to return south. Those few that stuck it out became the elves of Axanaira, often called the "snow elves" in modern parlance.

These snow elves continued to eke out a basic survival, founding a number of towns, all small so as to avoid the danger of famine, along the southern coast of Karanoth. They might have continued like that for centuries, maybe millennia, not progressing or expanding much but barely surviving, their only advantage being relative freedom from authoritative elven society, had it not been for the fateful arrival of human refugees from middle Karn. From this point, the story of what happened to the snow elves, or the "elvish kings" as they would be known by their human servants - using human labour, and expanding their control over the more numerous race by co-opting and educating a human elite (who were known as "half-elves", even though interbreeding between these elites and their elvish rulers was rare and taboo), they conquered many hundreds of miles of the snowy subcontinent, built great citadels still lying in disrepair to this day, and successfully waged a 20-year war of independence against the Melehtara of Ullumálos (the high king mainly fought to preserve his authority, as the northern colony was viewed as a basket case and a drain of resources - thus the elves of the homeland made few landings far between, dispatching an army consisting entirely of volunteers which fared poorly against the vast horde of peasant conscripts the snow elves deployed up and down the coast).

Best known is the downfall of the elves of Axainara, or Axan as they named their independent kingdom - after the martyring of Azur, a massive human uprising deposed them from their marble palaces and saw them and their most loyal human subjects massacred or exiled in a paroxysm of violence. Though it is said that some managed to escape back to Ullumálos (although most escape boats were unceremoniously sunk by the elves of Neldënórë, and many that made it ashore were trialled and executed by the regime), others sailed for the isles of the Shattered Sea or, still further, to Revenoth, or others still managed to slip into the lower rungs of human society, burying their elvish identity, the snow elves of Axan were essentially destroyed as a subset of the elvish race during this short period, and are now little more than a dimly remembered oppressor to the humans of the east and a cautionary tale for elves and the other races of the Aurora about the dangers of imperialism.

That is, until very recently, when the term "snow elf" has become increasingly popular from the court circles to the village councils of Fimbria and Nivena - as woes, inflicted by the wars of the empire, the toroch insurrection, famines and plagues, continue to multiply, whispers of a great conspiracy, attributed to servants of the Seers, Letus worshippers, disgruntled toroch elements, and, indeed, surviving houses of snow elves believed to have worked their way back into the upper echelons of human society, continue to multiply to explain the cavalcade of misfortunes. It is unlikely these rumours have any substance to them, especially since the last confirmed sighting of a snow elf was nearly 1200 years ago, but that minor detail is unlikely to still the restless hearts and desperate minds of a suffering human populace, and nobles desperate for a scapegoat. The stage is set for a terrible wave of denouncements, accusations, and witch-hunting, and both smaller elven realms and organisations, and those elves and half-elves that choose to live in human society, have been placed in a position of great peril - though they most likely died out over a millennia ago, it seems that the spectre of the snow elves and their deeds will not cease to haunt Revenoth for many years hence.