The Drowad

**The Drowad** are an elven ancestry closely related to the Dryadians. Their history is plagued by tragedy and loss, and Drowads have no country to call their own in the New Age, instead forced to remember better days of past eons.

## **Description**

In many ways, the Drowads resemble Feylorian and Dryads. Their bodies are wiry and athletic, while their faces are chiseled and attractive.

### **Coloration**

The skin of the Drow is dark grey, jet-black or obsidian (with shades of blue).

### **Hair**

Generally, the Drowads keep their hair long, and decorate it with pins and webbing made of precious metals. Drowadian hair could be stark white, pale yellow and, more rarely, silver or copper in color.

### **Beards**

Drowads were incapable of having beards, but some males manage to grow long sideburns or even tufts of wispy hair on the cheek or chin.

### **Eyes**

Drowadian eyes were most often pale shades of blue, grey or silver with other colours being rarer. It is possible to read some information in the eye color of a Drowad. For example, Drowadian eyes redden when they are angry, and turn yellow when they are sick, poisoned, or under some negative magical influence.

## **Lifespan**

The Drowads have the highest lifespan of any humanoid race on Elyria. Provided they do not meet a premature and violent end, they can live until the end of their third century.

### **Aging**

By the time of their final century, they will show signs of advancing aging. This includes hair growing thin and turning silver in males and yellow in females.

## **Cultural/Religious Beliefs**

The Drowadian people once followed the doctrines of the Code of Xiltoara. The most essential phrase of the codex, which is still remembered by most Drowadians and guides the lives of those that choose to accept it is as follows:

"Order will endure all chaos, Serenity will survive all passion and emotion. Ignorance will be forgotten in the light of Knowledge."

It has meant that the mindset of Drowadians was very different to most other cultures. They would find an inner peace that Drowadians of the New Age can only dream of.

## **History**

### **Origins**

According to themselves, the Drowads were created by Sudara, shortly after her own creation by Tanus early on during the Primordial Age. Vurolingian scholars tend to agree, though Drowads are demonized in modern Dryadia by spreading of the claim that they were made by the Betrayer. This helped justify the many crimes committed against the Drowads during the (ruinous) Schism (also called the Cleansure in Dryadia).

The precise origin story of the Drowadian people is a secret that is kept only in the last remaining copy of the Codex of Xiltoara (to which only the Master Chronicler and his few apprentices have access to). Hereby it is one of the most well kept secrets in the entire world.

### **Early Realm**

In either case, they initially resided within the lands of Rómen, located towards the east of modern Dryadia and on the coast of the Varusian ocean. A line of kings and queens ruled the early Drowad realm, under the direct guidance of Sudara.

Shortly before Sudara was forced to forever leave the Pantheon following the Great Betrayal of Lurro, then King Tololin Helvuan was gifted (alongside his Dryadian and Feylorian counterparts) a Blade of Infinity by a mysterious divine entity (most often believed to have been Sudara or Tanus). They had to agree to one condition, to unite the Even peoples and end all conflicts between them. When this was agreed upon, the Triumvirate of Beleg'Bar (great or first home in Drowadian) was founded.

### **Triumvirate of Beleg'Bar**

The region that is now known as Dryadia was once called Beleg'Bar. There Drowadians, Dryadians and Feylorians existed in harmony, under the rule of a triumvirate of Immortal Queens and Kings. The Triumvirate of Beleg'Bar existed throughout the entirety of the tumultous Age of Immortals, Age of Prosperity and Age of Devastation, having survived unlike all other nation states of the time. Until its dissolution, it was the eldest nation on Elyria for nearly four millennia of the continent's history. Beleg'Bar was egalitarian, peaceful and free for most of its history, having been founded on the beliefs and standards of the other civilisations from the Primordial Age.

Drowads remember the Triumvirate with great nostalgia, despite only hearing of it through tales of their ancestors and seeing it in their nightly trance. The solemn attitude of many Drowads can be attributed to this nostalgia.

### **The End of all Beauty**

At the end of the First Age, the southern Laghans united under a Great Khagan and enormous hordes of beasts and barbarians began a swift assault northwards. The Triumvirate chose not to fight, to abandon their cities and retreat deep into the forests of Beleg'Bar, where none could reach them. The Dryadian Queen **Asalre Ashreeh** was vehemently against this decision brought forth by Drowadian King **Tololin Helvuan** and agreed upon by Feylorian Queen **Pilynna Yllaviryn**, but accepted the majority decision as was tradition in the Triumvirate.

Everyone left, abandoning their cities in the hopes they would be passed by and left untouched. Even **Ira Serin**, the most beautiful city on Elyria to ever exist, was left to the barbarians. Months turned into years in the forests of Beleg'Bar, and when the Elves finally returned, they found that everything had been destroyed. They had assumed theft and some destruction, but not utter annihilation of their cities, bridges and farms. Their palaces, temples, gardens. Gone. Razed to the ground, pillaged for everything remotely valuable.

### **The Schism**

This carnage forever changed the attitude of all Elves. Many Feylorian could not bear to see what had happened, and chose to leave the Triumvirate. Some bound themselves even closer to nature and abandoned civilisation, becoming the Elven Forest Spirits that still exist to the modern day, including Queen Pilyanna. Others retreated into the Feywild, forever leaving Elyria.

The Drowadian people were least affected, as their underground parts of the cities were mostly unharmed, but still felt the damage to the cities deeply. King Tololin tried appeasing the furious Queen Asalre to see reason and offered help in repairing the nation, following the guidance of the Codex until the very end. But it was already too late. The Triumvirate had shattered. On public stage in front of thousands of Drowadians and Dryads, the Queen drew her Blade of Infinity and assaulted the King.

This tragic duel of immortal warriors and once close allies, both wielding their Blades of Infinity, lasted for a long time. Their matching, seemingly endless endurance made for one of the most spectacular battles to ever be witnessed. But in a moment that would define the lives of millions, the Queen overpowered the King, kicked him and forced him to drop his Blade. King Tololin accepted his defeat, and asked for Asalre's mercy on the Drowadian people who were not to blame for his decision. But in a fury otherwise unseen in the proud and noble Dryadian people, her Blade of Infinity struck through the heart of King Tololin and instantly consumed his life force, ending the life of one of the last remaining Immortals.

Thus began the Schism, a ploy by Asalre to seize power and enforce a pure and perfect society. As the last remaining member of the Triumvirate, she declared herself the Eternal Queen of the newly named Dryadia. Her charm and wits even allowed her to convince several prominent Drowadian arcanists to support her rule and aid her in hunting down all followers of the Codex, blaming its heresy for the downfall of her cities. What this really meant was a purge of all Drowads, not stopping even at those few individuals who agreed to defect from the Codex. By the time the Drowads realized their doom, it was already too late. A small resistance movement was led and crushed by the Dryadian forces and particulary the Eternal Queen who now wielded two Blades of Infinity.

### **Shards of a People**

Small amounts of Drowads managed to escape persecution and flee, mostly north, into the newly born Vurolingian Empire and its southern neighbors. Only one copy of the Codex is known to have survived the Schism, which has been handed down a line of Master Chroniclers. Its content has been kept mostly secret from the small population of Drowads that survived, including many secrets of the ancient arts of Dunamancy.

In the modern day, Drowads have no nation of their own and reside mostly in the Vurolingian Empire, but share little traditions as a culture. Whilst most Drowadians are told of their heritage, few find ways to fully understand and accept the tragedies of the past.

## **Drowadian Trance**

The Drowadian trance is often plagued by visions of Beleg'Bar, of beautiful lakes, calm and serene, and of forests filled with wildlife that harmonize and live in a peace unseen nowadays. Despite the beauty of the visions, they are often a reason for tears and even despair, because the Drowads are reminded of a much greater time and the horrific suffering their people endured to lose this land.