The Naizorai Exodus

**The Naizorai Exodus** – *A lovingly written tome in a singular voice describing the events leading to the Exodus of the Naizorai Elves South during the peak of the great war. Lavishly illustrated and rife with references to elven custom and elaborate descriptions of every element of Nazorai culture, it’s clear this book held great cultural value as a last link to a lost era. A summary of the historical events described within:*

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> The Naizorai elves ruled the sylvan highlands of Northeast Mantea for centuries. The triumvirate of noble families, the Saevarai, the Rynassai and the Waldarai, witnessed the rise and fall of generations of humans in the region. The turmoil of mortal races surrounding the majestic Naizorai Wood barely stirred the leaves of the majestic forests where the elves ruled a harmonious golden age that spanned to the era before the Adamashad.
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> But in the spring of 81 AN, the scales of history began to tip. For decades, the royal houses of Leddig Slatte grew fat on the lucrative trade in metals and ore from the Dwarven clans of the Dorwines. As so often the case with humans, the taste of wealth and power only fed the flames of their desire. As the years progressed, the trade routes to the south became more tightly controlled, and more aggressively taxed. In 81 AN, when the first caravans to brave the thawing winter of that year reached the capital city of Laerenholm, King Barov Von Drovis ordered the entirety of the kingdom’s supply to be held in the royal treasuries. His secret embargo was intended reduce the flow of goods south to a trickle to increase the demand from Ra’Ontia to the south, inflating prices for his own traders.
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> Von Drovis’ hubris peaked at a critical time. Ra’Onitia’s own fortunes in the previous year had been dealt a critical blow as their mines in Ra’Montosa fell to mysterious raiders from the underdark.  Desperate for much needed supply lines to re-open from the northern mountains with the spring thaw, the southern kingdom was at the mercy of their greedy neighbors to the North. But as the months dragged on the Leddig Slatte crown launched a propaganda campaign that the Dorwine mines suffered heavy losses from Drow insurgents over the winter resulting in shortfalls in ore and metals across the northlands. Von Drovis released only the smallest shipments of goods from their storehouses while exacting steep profits from all trade with Ra’Onitia.
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> The lies of the House Von Drovis would likely have driven Ra’Onitia into a financial collapse were it not for a band of Barovian Minstrels known as Nabenback. Notorious bawdy performers that concealed weak songwriting behind stage bravado, the group staged performances across Leddig Slatte in Therentor and Eyre, enjoying a long run in Laerenholm, where their purses grew fat on the commissions of the Leddig nobility whose questionable taste levels indulged the Nabenback performers. As the Bavorian Ballad says “what fortunes slip betwixt the cup and the lips”, their performance halls where wine flowed like water was the undoing of the Von Drovis plot. Exactly who let the minstrels into the storehouses overflowing with Dorwine Iron has been lost to history. But as the Barovian wagons rolled south to their first dates in Ra’Onitia, they carried with them just enough proof of the deception that created the stranglehold on the southern empire.
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> Shortly thereafter, The Horselords of Ra’Okensor rode north and open hostilities began. Had the Naizorai intervened then, a great tragedy could have been avoided. But as in conflicts before, the great elven houses closed their doors to their human neighbors the wards protecting their homelands were re-established, and to human eyes, the Naizorai had disappeared. The outposts that guarded the roads through the great forest were shuttered as the Elven Triumvirate turned their attentions inward to wait out what they thought was another trivial human conflict.
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> But this was no trivial human war. Hostilities raged for over 50 years with each side claiming small gains against the other as the body count continued to climb. The borders of the two countries expanded and contracted around the Naizorai Wood following the flow of armies. Twice the Naizorai broke their silence and sent emissaries in attempt to broker an accord to end the violence.  But even the long view of history offered by Elven wisdom was not enough to tame the raging tempers of the rival kingdoms.
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> It was in Rhaan of 136, as the cold Dorwine winds carried the sting of the approaching winter when the fate of the Naizorai forever changed. Prince Oladon of House Saeverai had long kept a secret. His forbidden affair with his beloved Duke K'yobal Illuan, a Drow from the dark elf tribes of the Dorwine underdark, was closely guarded to prevent scandal from tearing through the noble family. The two always met away from prying eyes in the hills outside Anhkilda where Oladon kept a retreat. But one cold night a wave of scandal whispered through the royal courts as K'yobal Illuan arrived demanding audience with Prince Oladon. Illuan revealed that in recent months, the onyx halls of the drow had received visitors. Two elven wizards named Neferon and Uralath presented themselves to the Drow High Court as representatives of The Fangs of the Veil. Negotiations with the Drow Queen commenced behind closed doors, but immediately following the departure of these Fang Wizards, the Drow began mobilizing for war. Whispered through the onyx halls of the Drow, they would wait for a sending from the Fangs of the Veil when Malach and Eyre reached a rare apogee in the nights sky and they would descend upon the armies of Leddig Slatte. They were to decimate the human strong holds while the Fangs unleashed an unholy horde to tear through the heart of the great plains clearing the stain of humans from the land.
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> The Naizorai triumvirate was torn. Moral outrage over Prince Oladon’s affair with a child of Lloth threatened to eclipse the dire warning Duke Illuan had risked his life to deliver. As the great houses debated their response, Roc Riders returned from Laerenholm. The Von Drovis Royal Family had departed the capital and rode to the east rumored to meet their son Bannoch in Barovia to wait out the end of the great war. Elven Diviners rushed to the scrying pool at the center of the Naizorai Capital and confirmed the rumors. A royal caravan travelled through the cold night, towards a shadow in Barovia that rippled the weave defying the power of the elven seers. By dawn reports confirmed that the dark wizards of the Fangs of the Veil had been spotted in Leddig Slatte war camps. The three ruling families came to the same conclusion. It was time to leave their homeland.
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> Hasty preparations were made. Every woodland being, and every great bird of the sky was called to the Naizorai Elves. Elves young and old were packed up, carrying what they could of the collected centuries of elven tradition. The greater storehouses of Elven history were sealed away into the earth and trees under the most powerful wards that could be crafted. All three houses left the Naizora Wood within two nights. The greatest fey migration the Northlands had ever seen was underway. Yet across Ra’Onitia human eyes, clouded by blood and rage, barely took notice. The fey slipped quietly south into the waiting arms of a sleeping giant.
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> The exodus continued south to the city of Bahvold at the outskirts of Hatterwol. It was here that the elven leaders first met the Priests of Lugh. It seemed concern and worry had taken root in the southern Caliphate, their seers had sensed arcane disturbance to the North but were unable to discern the nature of the threat. They rallied in Bahvold, the most Northern city of their kingdom to debate their next steps. Outside the walls of Bahvold, the elven Triumvirate reached a conflict of their own. The House Waldarai urged the triumvirate to partner with the Caliphate and rally forces to ride back north to reclaim their homelands. The Saeverai vacillated, they saw little value in the worlds of men, but feeling exposed away from their family lands, sought to find a foothold of safety to begin to rebuild. The Rynassai broke ranks completely. Their faith in humanity completely gone, they wanted nothing to do with the Caliphate, and breaking from their Naizorai brethren they abruptly left. Venturing deep into the nearby jungles vowing to gather their strength away from the corrupting pressures of humanity before reclaiming their fallen homelands to the North.
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> The Naizorai Triumvirate had been dissolved. Their futures untethered, the three tribes set out upon different strands of fate. The Waldarai with Saeverai reluctantly in tow entered Bahvold and convened with the Caliphate Priests confirming and corroborating the omens from their gods, the Elves catalyzed the forces of light to ride North scattering the armies of the dead and the Fangs of the Veil. While their more recalcitrant brethren the Rynassai disappeared into the jungles.
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See also:

Atalantë Parasai

Tuktalla Rynassai