Elven Hegemony

*"We bestowed upon them the gifts of culture and organized society. We protected them from that which most endangered them - themselves. We gave them a life free and happy beyond any they could have imagined before us. For that, we asked nothing but that they respect the boundaries of the forests which give life to us all. And how were we repaid? Bloodshed, and betrayal..." - Ambiosus, Elven Historian*

The **Elven Hegemony** was a period of Eulanan history in which Elves held dominion over most of the continent. The period ended with the Human Wars of Independence.

### Timeline

78 MA - The first post-Orcish Wars conquests of human settlements by the First Elven Empire begin, initiating an extended period of expansionism known as the **Elven Hegemony**.

251 MA - The First Elven Empire organizes a scholarly circle of magic research to support the wars against the human kingdoms.

363 MA - The last major human settlements in modern-day Sertorio formally submit to the overlordship of the First Elven Empire.

~1100 MA - The autonomy of human regions under increasingly lax Elven overlordship and the development of human sedentary society begins to result in what would become long-lasting feudal institutions and structures.

1563 MA - The last Emperor of the First Elven Empire is assassinated by Elven radicals. While the resulting civil war is comparatively brief, significant expanses of Elven territories are lost to newly sovereign Elven kingdoms and never recovered. This is considered the end of the Elven Golden Age.

1650 MA - The formal establishment of the Holy Human Empire, uniting several long-standing resistance groups, aristocratic families, and monied interests which had engaged in sustained hostilities against their Elven overlords since the rise of the Second Elven Empire. The beginning of the Human Wars of Independence.

1719 MA - The War of the Alliance ignites between an alliance of human states and the Second Elven Empire over a revived expansionist policy against weaker human polities. Most of the war-weary breakaway Elven kingdoms remain neutral.

1723 MA - The final peace treaty of the War of the Alliance is signed with the Second Elven Empire (and co-belligerents), formally establishing the multiethnic Steppe Commonwealth and ending the Human Wars of Independence on the 72nd of Spring, 1723 MA. In the treaty, the Elven Emperor formally renounces all claims to human settlements and lands. This is also considered the end of the era of **Elven Hegemony**.

### Elven Subjects

Subjects of the Elven Empire had several demands made of them, though the exact nature and procedures involved with these demands varied throughout the years. Most enduring and reliable were the demand that they give tribute to their Elven overlords ('The Right of Adornment'), that they neither settle nor disrupt any land without the permission of their Elven overlords ('The Right of Natural Alienation'), and that they give deference to any Elven official, no matter how low, in the resolution of their conflicts ('The Right of Universal Magistracy').

The second was the most common point of contention between Elves and their subjects, as the Elves regarded both hunting and clearcutting to be violations of this stricture. As subject populations grew, they would inevitably begin to starve, and, in a Malthusian trap, then subsequently suffer a sharp drop. The refusal of the Elven Empire to allow their subjects to expand their farmlands into fertile forested regions or hunt the wild animals within for food was a core cause of the eventual Human Wars of Independence.

Because of the limited land allowed for agricultural pursuits, human cities could not sustain themselves without a steady supply of Elven food from elsewhere in the Empire. While Hegemony-era human cities rarely exceeded the size of Elven Caers, unlike in the modern day, it was necessary for the inhabitants and vassal rulers of these cities to demonstrate exceptional fealty to their Elven overlords to obtain their sustenance. Elven currency was not well-developed at the time, and it was generally considered that humans had little to offer the enlightened and advanced Elven race in any case. As such, the food was delivered in exchange for public and collective displays of loyalty to the Elven noble house which claimed nominal suzerainity over the city. Such rituals often included the singing of paens to Elven generosity and benevolence, the demand that all inhabitants of the town be present and kneel as the food was presented to the vassal ruler, and the ritual burnt offering of human goods in honor of the Elven Empire.

### Internal Politics

The Hegemony became increasingly controversial amongst the Elves after the turn of the 2nd millennium MA, with both radicals and reformists within the Empire calling for change. The reformists, known as the Lugentors, believed that there was a burden of rule the Elves must take up in developing the cultures of 'lesser' races to bring them in conformity with Elven morals and norms. The radicals, known as the Dryadics (sometimes spelled 'Dryatics'), believed that after having reduced the other races to thralls, they should be furthered culled to make room for new woodland to consecrate, and that all remaining members of the 'lesser' races should be housed as slaves, not allowed to continue their existence in independent settlements. The moderates, or Imperial Loyalists, held most of the power, and believed that the current state of subjugation, in which the 'lesser' races gave tribute, displayed their lack of ability to threaten the Elven race, and were kept away (sometimes by force) from existing woodlands was sufficient.

This came to a head with the assassination of Emperor Toutatix IV by a group of Dryadics who believed his policy of 'benevolent neglect' was unacceptably strengthening the Elven Empire's human vassals. The assassination resulted in a brief civil war in which the Dryadics were defeated and discredited, and the dissolution of the First Elven Empire from the subsequent unrest. Even so, after the Human Wars of Independence, some modern Elven radicals look back and say that fault did not lie with the Dryadics for causing the First Elven Empire to fall, but to the moderates and reformists for preferring to war with their own over accepting the simple reality that the 'lesser' races cannot be trusted...