Zensuon: Crystal Age

The Only Good Orc is a Dead Orc

Where we see how the elves of Zensuon choose to deal with the orcish threat, and hope they are not royally screwed.

It's not that the elves had no idea what was ongoing in the orc territories, or as they called them, the Old Battlegrounds. For elves to name anything old, it meant it was really, really old. They had some of their best scouts routinely travelling across the plains near Redriver to tell them of the situation. The problem was that sometimes, some of them failed to return. This was of course usually not the orc's doing, but the doing of the pale ones. The elves of Edelos and the Archtree refused to acknowledge that their pale brethren were elves. For what sort of elf helps agitate the earth and bring forth orcs to attack them?

Orcs are omens of war, and war has been long and undying on the plains of Redriver since an ancient age.

So when a report came in from one of the non-dead scouts that war was coming once more, it was up to the new elf king to rise up and lead the army.

"Are you certain you must be at the edge of the earth*, oh glorious one?" The high-druid asked, as a mere courtesy rather than in any attempt to halt the king.

*["Edge of the earth" was an elven expression for risking oneself, after all, for elves to leave the earth would be unheard of.]

"Yes, that shall give back the elven people hope that Edelos has not abandoned them." The Sylvan spoke, radiating with an unnatural light of gold.

Each word was like a song accompanied by a violinist and harper. The difference between the shine of Terra (that is the sun, not the goddess, though some would argue it is the same thing) and the Sylvan was that while Terra radiated upon her people with yellow to orange. It was that wisp of unnatural white and silver to the Sylvan's shine that caused the halls to bloom with impossible light that even wrapped around objects and people. Creating this feeling as if everyone in the new king's presence almost, well, lacked a presence. The mitigation of shadow meant that the definition of what one saw and could see in others was muted, and as elves are known to be long in years, and thus fell into a sort of ritualistic and systematic way of doing things, change was very scary.

At the same time, denying or objecting to a direct messenger of one of Edelos would be equal to contradicting those sacred rituals and ways of thinking. Thus most elves in the new Sylvan king's presence made sure to make meetings with him very brief or try to internally reassure themselves that nothing was different.

After all, what is so bad about having trouble knowing where to step on the way to the throne? Or accidentally walking into the wall? They have been doing these gestures and motions so rigorously for thousands of years that they can do them with their eyes closed. It was mostly the younger elves that had issues with the king, a few hundred years was not enough to get used to anything.

Thankfully, the Sylvan seemed to know all the rituals and gestures of the elven people, so there was little issue with him becoming the new king.

It was in the palace within and near the top of the Archtree that the most ancient of elves lived- the elders. While the younger elves were below, sent out to the area around the Archtree and near its bottom- to guard it.

No one recalled why the tree needed to be guarded, except that it was a decree of the gods. The elves were creatures of such habit that refuting this point would be akin to treason, and thus most of the younger elves lived their lives away from the events of the Archtree in relative peace. That is, if not for the constant war with the pale ones and the orcs.

You see, elves would not often die from age. They would usually find their end from some manner of disease, curse, magic or being stabbed in the neck (or anywhere else, really). And so while the elders gained in years, the other elven population would have a sort of shorter life cycle (shorter compared to the elders, that is). Elves that did not gain the permission to join the Archtree, and lived below it, would eventually be summoned to war, and in war, even if you are the best of warriors, you will eventually die given enough rolls of the dice.