• Tales of Eldrynn

I – The Fall of Tellaris

The ancient secrets of the world of Eldrynn shall remain forever so. The scrolls they were scribed upon rest in the library of Tamrodis at the bottom of the Northern Ocean, sunk with the rest of the great city of legend, Tellaris. Even lost scrolls and ancient disasters cannot silence the voices of the ages though, they still pass their tales down from fire to fire, from father to son. They tell of the Goddess Erinwë, and of the Velkuns, the first beings she granted life to. Remaining in the lands of Darhantis, these beings were true giants. On a whim, an individual was capable of destroying a town, collectively, they could take down a civilization. They tell of the Erkadians, the gentle blue hued beings of Erkadia, who lived in isolation and fear of the Velkuns, never daring to cross the Scar of Sinisfel that separated the two races. And they tell of the Valadians, whom we now know as humans, spread across the myriad Kingdoms of the west. They lived a self centered existence, only caring of the constant wars over the invisible and ever changing borders of their lands. Three such diverse races could only coexist in isolation for so long, and when the passing of time brought them together, a legend was born. This is that tale…

II – Circle of Ajirah

Even the goddess Erinwë wasn’t without fault, though benevolent and giving, she was also a vain and jealous goddess, and she needed to be loved and worshiped. Only the Erkadians offered her what she felt was her due praise though, and built temples in her honor, spoke of her with reverence and grace. The other two races took the life given to them for granted, and spent their days in their own self absorbed affairs. Erinwë chose to reward the adoration of her beloved Erkadians, and from a divine crystal raised from the heart of Eldrynn itself, she carved the Circle of Ajirah, a massive blue crystal ring which when given the goddesses divine blessing, bestowed upon her chosen ones eternal life. Immortality changes people, for they don’t think of themselves as people anymore, but as gods. The instinctual fear that had crippled the Erkadians for so long vanished, and they sought out what they felt was the divine province for the gods they had become, and after effortlessly crossing the Scar of Sinisfel, they systematically enslaved the mighty Velkuns. The blessing of immortality must come with vanity to all beings, for the Erkadians soon had the Velkuns building mighty palaces and great temples to celebrate their greatness and glory. But immortality does not alone make one a god, and the jealous rage that burned in Erinwë forced her to show the Erkadians just that. She swiftly destroyed the Circle of Ajirah, and with a wave of her blessed hand, took away what she had given. Drained and disappointed with all aspects of her creation, she turned in on herself in self contemplation of her doings, leaving the Eldrynn and its inhabitants to their own fates….

III – Bloodcrown

The Erkadian’s biggest mistake though was that they didn’t slaughter the Velkuns outright. Once they recognized the Erkadian’s mortality had returned, they lashed out with a fury unbeknownst to the lands of Eldrynn before. In a fortnight, they took back their own land of Darhantis, and just as swiftly swept through the Erkadian kingdom. The mighty Velkun leader Crowndorl’s rage was pure and hot though, he had no ambitions of stopping till his people’s status was secure as the dominant race on the planet. With no goddess to keep them in check, they went after the Valadian kingdoms as well, but the Valadians had been at the game of war for countless generations, they were more than prepared for the attack. Turning their own rage and aggressiveness against them, the Valadians wore the Velkun forces down, thinned them out, and pushed them out of the Valadian kingdoms. The kingdoms, led by Kanthor Fleovarn and finally united against a common foe, took down the mighty Crowndorl, letting their rage play out in an agonizing death that lasted for days. Leaderless, the Velkuns scattered, as the now dominant and always hostile Valadians gave chase. They took back their lands, took over the Erkadian lands, and hunted the Velkuns down to the very last one, a mere child of a giant named Feneryl. With no ability to stand up to Fleovarn’s forces, the boy-giant ran for his life, and made it over Sinisfel where he collapsed in exhaustion, only to die of exposure to the harsh Northern winter. Slowly the giant’s body was covered with the falling snow, the Valadians leaving the Mound of the Giant there as a reminder to all of their might and wrath. But the Valadians are warriors at heart, creatures of habit. Eagles fly, fish swim, Valadians fight, and so they continued to do so. With no common foes left in sight, they resumed their petty battles over borders and lands…

IV – The Relentless Shapes of Destruction

Though the Goddess Erinwë had abandoned the world, her soul still embodied it, and it was ravaged by the surmounting violence and death. But it was the death of Feneryl that was the final push, sending waves of torment through the gossamer threads that binded the life of Eldrynn all the way to the northernmost part of Nimrothar, deep down to the dungeons of Angur-Banôd where Haunthir, the only remnant of the old world Velkuns and the father to the now dead race, inhaled Feneryl’s last breath. The sickness it brought upon him, dark and soulless, was all that was needed to pass the final judgment. Unsheathing his sword Faenraggyl, the Firechild, he set out to the southern valley of Magul-Cùr where he would let the mighty sword fulfill its destiny and awaken the dragons of old, the Sylverynn. As Haunthir held the mighty Firechild above his head and spoke the forbidden words, the quakes of the Tanæron underworld rose to the surface, and the faces of the eleven mountains that surrounded the valley sheared off, releasing the eleven Sylverynn: Agrilor, Balmorag, Harkoon, Maëlgrim, Nalgor, Sharongrarg, Skorgrim, Soldor, Umrod, Valruùs, and Wurlag. The synchronous beating of their massive wings sent storms of warning throughout the lands of Eldrynn, a warning that after countless millenniums of slumber, the Sylverynn had arosen…

V – Towers of Taralorn

In the midst of all the warring and bloodshed, the Valadians held onto a precious secret. There was still an Erkadian left of immortal breed, Thelanys. When all the other Erkadians let their egos run rampant and imposed their wills upon the lands around them, Thelanys stayed quiet in the old temples, spending her days in worship of Erinwë, and so Erinwë let her keep the gift of everlasting life when she stripped it away from her fellows. She was blessed unlike all others, the chosen one, and her alone held the power to bring the world to peace. Though she hid for centuries, the Valadians couldn’t tolerate an immortal walking the lands of Eldrynn, their fear was too great. After much searching, they found Thelanys in the old temples of the deserted lands and imprisoned her in the Towers of Taralorn. She was constantly shifted by King Valindar, her secret location known only to a select few, including his son, Prince Draevorn, who was slowly falling in love with her. He begged for her release, stressing her unique roll that had to be played out, but the King was adamant, and Draevorn respected his father’s wishes. The unleashing of the Sylverynn changed all of that. The dragons devastated the lands unchallenged, mere humans weren’t fit for the task. Draevorn realized the only hope lay in Thelanys, that only she could awaken the last Velkun who lay dormant under the aeons of earth and snow. He again begged his father,”I must take Thelanys to Darhantis, and awaken the last Velkun. He is our only chance against those beasts!”, but the king’s fears of a living Velkun roaming the lands was too great. Then the mighty dragon Skorgrim swept down on the Towers, laying waste to centuries of Valadian history in moments. The King and his men could only watch and die, they were utterly powerless against the beast. Draevorn, seeing the hopelessness in staying and fighting, freed Thelanys from the burning towers. Together they ran to the east, to Darhantis, on a quest to save all the people of Eldrynn…

VI – Angvarion’s Pride

Upon reaching Darhantis, and the Mount of the Giant, Thelanys and Draevorn set out to revive the fallen Feneryl. But a life cost a life, Thelanys knew this. To defeat Angvarion, the death spirit, there had to be a sacrifice, and Thelanys released her immortal spirit into her blade, giving up her eternal life force. As Angvarion’s colorless black form whisped out of the fallen Velkun’s body, it howled a toneless thunder as it set to defend the fallen form, for in Feneryl’s slain body laid the spirit of all Velkuns that died before him. His death was Angvarion’s pride. The dark spirit knew it was impervious to mortal weapons, and attacked unabashed, it’s confidence though turned out to be its weakness. With the subtlest of slashes, Thelanys’ blade grabbed hold of the colorless mist of Angvarion, and with an unearthly screech, the death spirit was sent to the depths of the underworld. Feneryl, freed of the death sickness that had possessed him for years, slowly rose from his tomb in an avalanche of earth and snow. His gratitude overcame his memories of the ravages the Valadians laid upon his people so long ago, and upon hearing the devastation that the Sylverynn had brought to the lands, Feneryl agreed to make their battle his own. With the lands of Eldrynn falling fast to the Sylverynn, the last Velkun raced with Draevorn and Thelanys in tow, off to what was left of Erkadia, where the Valadians hand dug in to make their final stand against the ravages of Haunthir and the eleven demon lizards at his command. Time for the people and lands of Eldrynn was running out fast…

VII – Ravages of the Sylverynn

As Draevorn and Thelanys journeyed to revive Feneryl, Haunthir’s wrath went unchecked, and with his way of his wrath went the Sylverynn in his control. As long as he held the Faenraggyl, the eleven dragons did his bidding, and his sole desire was the utter destruction of all the lands of Eldrynn. Dravenfell was promptly crushed by Balmorag. Khalûndar and Omaresh laid waste to the Lormandìr. After taking down the Towers of Taralorn and its surrounding city, Skorgrim effortlessly burned the surrounding forest to ashes, the dark smoke blanketing the lands with only a sense of doom. The survivors of Brismark, Valadia, and Taralorn fled to the Erkadian capital where King Keldrith and his forces were battling the mighty Sarieldùr, but the battle seemed lost as the terrible lizard’s breath was disintegrating all armor and shields and vaporizing all the flesh off the soldiers, leaving only a field of skeletons in its wake. This didn’t go unnoticed by the King, and he ordered men to retrieve the strewn bones of the dead to craft armor and shields from. Crying “Let the remnants of the dead save us!!!”, they charged once again on Sarieldùr. With a mighty blast, he laid down a wave of fire as of yet unseen by the King’s men, but the dead men’s gift of their bones withstood the blast, and the men continued to charge. Engaging the beast from all fronts, they attacked with fury. Though the sacred armor held against the fire, it did nothing for the barbed tail and razor sharp talons of the beast. Men were swatted, men were crushed, men were slashed and slayed, but their relentlessness paid off in the end, and the mighty Sarieldùr was brought down to the ground. Haunthir could only watch in fury as the King climbed on top of the beast and drove his blade home into Sarieldùr’s heart…

VIII – A Black Knight’s Demise

On the moment of Sarieldùr’s death, the lands split open as an earthquake of epic proportions tore through the land, it was the savage effects of Haunthir’s fully unleashed wrath. The King valiantly stood his ground against the god-giant, but his sacred bone armor was no match for Haunthir’s immense fury. With one resounding crash, Haunthir crushed Keldrith, the crunching of the bones his only death knell. Draevorn and Thelanys arrived with the young giant Feneryl just in time to see the King’s gruesome demise, and Feneryl roared an unearthly howl as he charged Haunthir, his mighty sword in hand. He held his ground against the old lord for a brief time, but Haunthir was too strong, too mighty, and soon fell Feneryl as well. Seeing his last real foe dead, Haunthir climbed upon the youngster’s dead form, and screamed to the sky. But Thelanys’ sacrifice of her immortality gave Feneryl his own everlasting life. He awoke from his brief death, and grabbing his sword, he impaled Haunthir’s celebrating form, bringing him to his own, and total, demise. As the Firechild sword fell from Haunthir’s hand, it shrank from it’s giant size, having no master to wield it. The young Draevorn took up Faenraggyl, and with it took his prophesied role as the Dragonir, dragons ruler of Eldrynn.

IX – Dragonir Rise

With his newfound power, he ordered the Sylverynn to stop the ravaging of the lands, and with the sage counsel of Thelanys, had them help in rebuilding the myriad lands of the three kingdoms. Once the lands were back, the remaining Sylverynn were ordered back to the valleys of Tanæron, where they laid themselves into the mountains for what was hoped to be an eternal sleep. Feneryl returned to his homeland, and as the last of his people, he embraced the other two races of the lands, and welcomed them to populate the deserted Velkun kingdom. Draevorn and Thelanys married, and created a bloodline that would endure for generations, the Firechild being passed from Dragonir to Dragonir, setting a tradition for the ages as security against another Sylverynn rise. The two races meshed, they blended, they became one, and they finally established peace across the lands. The war of the Sylverynn ended all wars, the threat of the Sylverynn alone was enough to secure the peace for aeons to come. The Goddess Erinwë was pleased, but her vanity remained, she would eventually need her worshipers again, someday…

Vivien Lalu (story, characters, places), R.J. Dunn (good english writing)