The Harvest Moon Consortium

[Winterhawk99]

Elder Fey’ri

Introduction:

The elder fey’ri were a race I created myself to play on the NWN sever in Anchorome in 2005. Since that time, I have developed them on Harvest Moon Consortium within character stories, tutorials on playing them and finally within my Children of Hell novel series.

This is an article about the race itself who the elder fey’ri are as a people. A lot of the background noise from before and during the crown wars in regard to elves is not canon but does not necessarily veer away from canon enough that I need to explain it all. It’s just a note to say I invented most of this using a very basic background history of the elves of ancient times and it may not be perfectly canon.

[Winterhawk99]

History:

Birth of a race in ancient times.

In Ancient times Dragons controlled all the realms of Toril. The elves immigrated from fey and spread. Eventually a war broke out between the two. The god Correllon gave 5 dragon orbs to the elves to fight the dragons of the world. They defeated the Dragons eventually and spread out, creating vast kingdoms of their own.

After the defeat of the dragons Tiamat, the goddess of evil dragons and ruler of Avernus decided it was time to pay the elves back. She looked for a way to corrupt the elves and found one goddess that could be. It was Correllon’s own Consort Araushunne.

Tiamat waited several centuries to hatch her plan. She approached the goddess at a time when the goddess was despairing over the influence of non-elves on elven culture. The gods of humans and other races were actively encroaching upon elven lands. She wanted to see a world where elves ruled without dissent. Tiamat came to the goddess with a proposal. She wanted 1,000 of the goddess’s Ilythiir so she could mate them with her 5 strongest generals. In return she would train and give the offspring back to Araushunee to create a new royal guard force that could not be outmatched. Reluctantly Araushunee accepted the deal after some time had passed.

Tiamat took those 1,000 males, enslaved them to her 5 greatest Abishai generals. Nish, Kamar, Sator, Thaydra, and Yuki. The five generals had many children. A new race (The Elder Fey’ri) was born. The abishai trained these children in a secret martial discipline called, The way of the sword. And when they were ready Tiamat and her 5 generals presented the children to Araushunne’s court. Thus, the elder fey’ri became the elven goddess’s personal elite guard force.

For centuries the elder fey’ri guarded Araushunee and her kingdom meanwhile the elder fey’ri and their various traditions and culture slowly corrupted the goddess herself. Eventually the crown wars broke out, and the Ilythiir nations became imperiled in war. Eventually Araushunee herself saw the corruption the elder fey’ri’s influence was having on her court and herself. She saw that their very culture, and new traditions had started to take root within her court. She conferred with her generals and one dark night she hatched a plan to wipe the race out. However, the elder fey’ri were warned. Fighting broke out in the palace and the capital city of the Ilythiir. Many elder fey’ri died that day fighting to get their families out of the city, but many more escaped and settled in remote places all around Toril in small village size groups.

[Winterhawk99]

The Scattering:

During this dysphoria phase of their civilization, they broke off and founded villages all over the planet of Toril. These were places where there were few to no humans or elves and game was plentiful. For centuries they grew separately. Many learned to herd cattle, pigs, goats, even birds or start fish farms. The isolated populations started having healthy growth.

The people of the elder fey’ri during this time started to worship other dragon gods. Gods like Lendys the dragon god of Justice and Null the dragon god of death. A few even took Bahamut as their patron god. In one small place, far in the east, an elder fey’ri village started to trade with the local humans. Now, humans at that time were not so civilized. They moved about in small tribes of hunter-gatherers or created very small villagers. This tribe taught the humans first to herd then as familiarity grew between the two people the elder fey’ri village started to teach the humans the secret way of the sword. They did not teach the humans everything. That would put the elder fey’ri and humans on equal footing. However, they taught the humans enough to make a foundation to practice and eventually use the techniques of the way. Those humans were the ancestors of the people of Wa, and Kozakura.

Eventually Tiamat found out about what the elder fey’ri were doing on Toril. They had fallen by the wayside of her worship, and one group was even teaching the secret martial arts she created just for them. Tiamat gathered scores of evil dragons. She polymorphed them to look like good dragons and they descended upon the village that dared to teach humans her secret methods. Very few of that village escaped punishment. Most were killed in the attack but a few survived. Most of those were children that had not started the training of the way.

After Tiamat destroyed that village, she gathered all the elder fey’ri up over the next few centuries and brought them to Avernus. There she explained to them that ultimately, they did achieve their purpose. They had generations before helped to corrupt Araushunee. She betrayed the elven pantheon and was thrown down into the abyss. Thus, she was giving them heaven as a reward. That heaven was Avernus.

She set them down on the edge of her personal territory in hell. There they built a great city. They multiplied in great numbers. It became their golden age.

[Winterhawk99]

The golden age:

The elder fey’ri found themselves in Avernus ruled by Tiamat. They were now with their abishai ancestors. The worship of other dragons fell in decline until only she remained. They now had with them her servants, their own ancestors, the abishai. The abishai now continued to teach them culture, and survival in the first layer of hell.

Here they thrived and grew to a population of over ten million. Their great city grew to 20 square miles. The mothers of their nation came back and built their grand circles to protect their children. The elder fey’ri built great trade routes throughout hell to buy and sell merchandise with other mortal civilizations and baatezu there. All seemed well within their scope. Tiamat herself became pleased with the result because now she had a loyal following on the edge of her territory that she could depend upon if Avernus was ever attacked. Eventually that very thing became true. It was a time when the elder fey’ri became as diverse as any other civilization with its merchants, artists, peasants and ruling classes, however that too changed with a horrific event after several thousand years.

That event was the first incursion of the demons into hell which started the blood wars.

[Winterhawk99]

The blood wars:

The first salvo of the blood wars was devastating. Millions of demons broke into Avernus and began to destroy the plane. Whole civilizations were consumed. Their main target was of course Tiamat’s own lands and the pit that opened to the 2nd layer called Dis to which an aspect of the lady of conquest (Tiamat) guarded. The elder fey’ri prepared carefully for the invasion. They called upon the Abishai to help them. There in the city they stopped the demons’ advances and then pushed them back into the abyss. The elder fey’ri had won but not without great cost. Their city was completely destroyed and over half their numbers were lying dead on the battlefield. Thaydra and Kamar sacrificed themselves in the battle. The people vowed that it would never happen again.

The people moved across the Styx slightly deeper within Tiamat’s lands about 20 miles. They rebuilt their cities but this time they did it with an eye on defense of this new home. At first, they built a central hub and then surrounded it with five greater cities each for one of their mothers of nations with the Styx winding around ½ of the outer wall. The elder fey’ri once again began to prosper but that was about to change. Their leaders decided on a new course of action. Magic did not save them. The way of the sword did. They had decided that to live in hell they needed to breed so that they would become perfect warriors. Those considered weak were culled. Sorcery and wizardry started to decline. By the time Zariel took over the elder fey’ri had no more sorcerers and very few wizards.

Zariel began to impose new taxes to fight the blood wars. These new taxes involved manpower to fight the constant incursions of demons into Avernus. For thousands of years the elder fey’ri held their population steady under her rule though they were constantly becoming more warlike and ever seeking to enhance their roles as a people of war and bloodshed. But even well-disciplined and long-lived people eventually forget the past. New traditions arose to fight the challenges living in Hell. New answers became needed. Old traditions and culture were forgotten. The great circles of the old city became dormant. The people, after over 10,000 years, had forgotten their past. They could not even remember the names of the elder fey’ri heroes they had built statues to. The archives were left to mostly ruins.

Bel then usurped Zariel. He demanded larger taxes in the form of men and women to fight the blood wars. The elder fey’ri, once a proud nation of 10 million then of 5 million began to decline until a point where it only numbered a little more than a ¼ million.

This takes us to the First book of my saga Children of Hell Desperation. The elder fey'ri civilization is declining rapidly now. They number only a fraction of their strength and others are taking notice. With the collapse of their civilization pending, their archives fallen into ruin, and much of their ancient history forgotten they are desperate for an answer to correct the decline before they go extinct.

[Winterhawk99]

The Five nations:

Before I get into government the first thing I want to go over is the Five Nations. If you remember that the race itself started with 5 mother Abishai and their Ilythiir slaves. Each nation traces their ancestry back through the females. That is because each female elder fey’ri will only produce children with their same color scales. And that is why they're divided into five maternal nations descended from five ancient mothers.

Nish: A female general Red Abishai. Her daughters only produce elder fey’ri with red scales
Kamar: A Blue Abishai General. Her daughters only produce elder fey’ri with blue scales
Sator: A Green Abishai General. Her daughters only produce elder fey’ri with green scales
Thaydra: A Black Abishai General. Her daughters only produce elder fey’ri with black scales
Yuki. A White Abishai General. Her daughters only produce elder fey’ri with white scales.

Thus, the elder fey’ri easily break down (as a whole) into 5 nations, each with a different scale color because elder fey’ri do not have skin they are a scaled people like their ancestor Abishai.

Surnames are traced back to the original male slave but are traced back again maternally. So, what does that mean?

General Thaydra took Titusmore Hener: They produced 5 black scaled elder fey’ri children. 3 females and 2 males. Ammothrawen, Eowyn, Helyn, Braum, Henry. They are all black scaled.

Ammothrawen marries a yuki male by the name James Snowflake: all their children are first (Name) Hener of house Thaydrak.

Ewyn marries a Sator by the name of john Greenleaf: All their children are (Name) Hener of house Thaydrak

But if Braum marries Amy Firedrake of house Nish Mai the children’s names become (Name) Firedrake of house Nish Mai.

Because nation, scale color, surname, and house all pass through the maternal line, family names never cross between nations. All Heners are Thaydrak. All Greenleafs are Sator. All Firedrakes are Nish Mai.