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The Rise of Nisyrra


Part I - The Ancient Times

As with all things before the adoption of the Cadan calendar, the dates corresponding to the rise of Nisyrra can never be known for certain.  What can be said is that Nisyrra came into being before the Dacadrin invasion, by at least two hundred years by even the most conservative of accounts.  While the Nisyrran kings claim to be the eldest house of power yet remaining upon the earth, long has the first tower of wizards disputed that title to be their own.

Nisyrra came into being during one of history's darkest ages.  It was a time of warfare when no nation was safe from roaming invaders.  Little remains of that time before, destroyed by the centuries of feud and battle which engulfed the continent.  Among those that fought were those of the elven clan Nisyr, the "Chosen Divine" as it meant in their already ancient tongue.  They were fine warriors, fearless in battle and skilled in the ways of magic.  However, they held no home to call their own, and were nomads.

There are no works but those of Nisyrra themselves that tell tale of the making of their kingdom.  It was said that a new king had come to the throne, but he was not an idle elf, and little for wisdom, either.  The king's name was Syril, which means "Guardian" (also can mean 'demi-god' in a different context), and above all else he was a leader and a warrior.  He believed that if his people could find the resolve and focus, they could forge a kingdom impervious to the chaos that had enmeshed the world.

It proved that though Syril was not the wisest of men - the priesthood had warned his people against following him foolishly into battle - he was a talented tactician, and using the strengths of his people that their foes lacked, he destroyed them on the field time and time again.  Every township he conquered was turned into an outpost of Nisyrra, and its people became servants to the elves so that more among their numbers could be called to the defence of their lands.  Many chafed under this slavery, but few had any strength to even resist the gaze of a Nisyrran warrior.

Syril's successes made him arrogant, and this lead to great conflict with the upper nobility of the clan and the priesthood, which saw him as a threat to his own people and urged more caution in the use of their military abroad.  Chief among the opposition was the elder Erine; born a commoner but rising to great power in the ranks of the priesthood, he was an elf of little charisma or skills of war, but great wisdom and tact.  For those who disliked the king, he was a gathering point.

King Syril was displeased with the rift within his people, and he made reform - utilizing his great popularity - in order to remove the power of the priesthood and the nobles.  All military positions were now to be distributed at his discretion, to whomever he should wish.  He chose like minds who were eager to destroy the enemies of the Nisyrran people, but were dangerously reckless in their methods.

The time would come when Syril would be forced to admit his shortcomings.  From the northern realms, fresh from victory against the dwarves, came a force unlike any Nisyrra had ever encountered before.  Dragons are rare creatures.  They take long to reach maturity, and fear of them when they reach such age leads frequently to their extermination as young.  But from the distant reaches of the world came an ancient wyrm which had acquired its fullest size and might, and all were to bow before it.  The creature's name was Graszan, and he was nearing the thousanth year of his life.

It was this enemy that would be the downfall of Syril.  He understood well enough that the dragon must be dealt with decisively, in a single battle, but his methods brought alarm to the priesthood of Nisyrra.  He mobilized their entire legion - down to the last elf - to take the dragon head on.  The forces of Graszan were taken by surprise in a reckless assault, even before the full army had gotten in position, and many of them were destroyed before they could even take arms.

When the dragon came into the battle, the tides turned against the Nisyrrans.  The forests turned to fire and the earth trembled and cracked under the weight of the creature.  Too heavy was an adult dragon to fly, but its wings were themselves weapons, subjugating the wind to the will of the wyrm and casting down even the sure-footed elves.  With leaps and bounds and terrifying speed the dragon overtook the swiftest of the Nisyrrans, and its sheer mass alone carved through their ranks.

No spear nor blade could pierce the dragon's hide, and when it breathed a host was reduced to ashes.  One flick of its tail could send a dozen men flying into the air, and its teeth and claws were razors that would rend any armour.  Understanding now that this foe was beyond the strength of his warriors, Syril ordered his men to retreat back to the heartland, and to regroup. 

However, one small force stayed behind to occupy the dragon, and at their helm was the King Syril.  The finest of his men were unlike the rest of his army; they were armed with weapons of unknown make, and skilled in the mystic arts.  The fires could not burn them, for their spirits were fire itself.  The claws could not strike them, for their wills would not allow it.  The mass of the dragon was no avail, for their resolve withstood it.

But such battles cannot end well, and the strength of those greatest of Nisyrrans was drawn from the knowledge that there would be no tomorrow for them.  Their resolve outlived their faltering bodies, their wills lost upon sheer exhaustion, their bodies burning away from the strength of their spirit.  None can say for how long King Syril and his finest men stood, for the last who survived passed over the horizon as they fought on still against the dragon.  But of the king and those who remained with him, none returned ever to Nisyrra.

The elder Erine was distraught to hear of the king's death, for of all times now he might have listened to reason and counsel, and of all times now his people had need of him.  But as it turned out, Syril had fulfilled his role as guardian of his people, and he provided Erine with enough time to prepare a plan against the dragon.

Taking the young and immature son of the king into a forbidden cave, Erine showed the boy into a ruined necropolis that was the resting place of warriors of a forgotten kingdom.  Here not even the arrogant lords of Nisyrra dared to bury their dead, and only the highest of the priests under the direst of circumstances dared to walk among the halls.  Deeper and deeper into the crypts he took the boy, until at last they came to a room that had been sealed for untold years.

By way of a secret key the priest opened the portal.  Of what was found inside, the King was sworn to never speak, but he returned without Erine.  Never again would he show any the way to the secret place to which he had gone, and only by the guesses of the priests was it known what had happened.

The young boy took a new name, the one known to history, and he called himself the Ariar, the beginning.  He had grown much in a matter of days that had been the journey, and he proved to be a leader of grace, charisma, and intellect.  The dragon came some weeks later, having ascertained the location of the Nisyrran kingdom.  No force had ever caused him so much grief in all his conquests, and never had he lost nearly his entire army before he had forced his foes to withdraw.  Understanding that his men would merely be fodder, the dragon came alone to the brink of Nisyrra where the elves awaited.

There the new king parlayed with the dragon, Graszen, and the two introduced each other.  Ariar spoke in a language that the other elves could not understand, but the dragon had no difficulty conversing.  In the forgotten tongue the two spoke for some time, but at last the dragon roared in a sudden rage and sought to crush the king.  In a swift motion, Ariar stepped back and drew quickly his blade.  For a moment, the battle was illuminated by a searing light, and when that moment had passed.  Ariar stood between the widely stretched claws of the dragon, and between them was a huge gash which frothed with blood, and Ariar held his sword high above his head.  Then the sword crumbled to ash, and Ariar would name it later "the sword of one blow"; a vain replica of an original "divine blade".  It matched the power of the blade, but its make could not withstand its own might, and when used it would turn to ash.  But it was here that Ariar played his trump, and while the dragon was still and stupified, he poured a vial of black liquid into the churning wound.

Moved to fury, Graszen struck again, but Ariar dodged this blow as well, and gave signal for his men to fall back.  Cautious but strong, the dragon lunged away from the king to strike at his armies, as yet unaware of the poison placed within him.  The king simply stood and smiled, who had ordered his men to spread out and withstand the dragon for as long as they could muster, and when the dragon turned back to him with what remained of the host he had slaughtered fleeing, it spoke some strange words, and Ariar returned with a taunt, and the dragon lunged again, but it missed the king which had stepped back.  Graszen eyed the king strangely, not understanding by what sorcerery he could predict the dragon's movements and strike through his hide.  Knowing that he must dispatch either the king or his army with haste, the dragon breathed deeply and sought to incinerate the young king, which still stood alone in the cracked basin where the dragon had pounced several times now.

The sky itself was illuminated orange as the dragon sought to turn the king to ash.  Still breathing furiously, the dragon twisted about and turned all the lands within his sight to fire.  Taking cover, much of the Nisyrran forces survived the wall of flames which engulfed the world around them.  The dragon's eyes pierced through the haze of its making, and sought to see if there was another threat nearby.  It suddenly felt chains being thrown around it, pinning its legs to the ground.  The dragon thrashed and an entire host of men grasping the chains were sent flying, but they were chosen for their unrelenting grasp, and they held on to the chains even as they were tied tighter around the dragon.

The dragon spanned its wings and let loose a hurricane which sent the fires and embers it had made swirling into the air, and its visage became an illuminated nightmare against the dust and flames.  Its roar sent an avalanche down the mountains, and the rage turned its eyes to a glowing red which gave pause to even the fierce warriors of Nisyrra.  Though their blades could not penetrate its skin, they drew closer still and threw more chains across the beast, and it felt weighed by them, and it thrashed and sought to destroy every creature around it, and even as it did so it could not feel the numbness that spread throughout its body.

The struggle went on for an hour, and the sun moved to set and the dragon still raged as the Nisyrrans kicked up dust to hide themselves beneath it.  Many were crushed by the dragon's movements, but their king was still among them, and he bade them to fight.  As the fires cleared and the smoke diminished, the dragon began to see clearly, and it struck against the Nisyrrans, but its movements were slow and uncoordinated.  Graszen began to realize that something was wrong when one leg simply collapsed under his own weight.

Staring at his paw, he saw that even underneath his thick hide his flesh had turned black and was melting away.  At last understanding the king's ploy, the dragon sought to flee, but he felt the weight of an entire mountain was being drawn behind him, and so it was as the many chains that had been cast upon him were bound to boulders.  And by his exertion the dragon tired himself and made the poison spread further still.  Unable to move, the dragon collapsed into the ground, and his breaths became shallow.

So the Nisyrran king once again returned to face the dragon, and this time he drew a different blade.  While the might of Nisyrran made swords was not great enough to pierce the dragon's hide, he knew that he could still cause the dragon great injury in this helpless state.  Too little poison there was to kill such a massive creature at that time, but by his blade, Ariar sliced open the eyes of the dragon and blinded it, and then poured into the sockets of thrashed flesh more of the black liquid.  Graszen's fury was great, and his spirit roared within him, but his body was beyond motion, and he was helpless before the elves which had bested him.  But strangely, Graszen did not die.  Even the wisened, but young, king had left him for dead, but when they returned some weeks later after celebration there was no corpse there.  Some said that in the dragon's entourage was an alchemist who quickly administered a counter-venom, and this was the only explanation that could be found.

Graszen left the lands of the elves, injured both in pride and body beyond repair.  His limbs damaged by the venom would never be as strong as they once were, and his vision was forever a murky black.  Tale of the blind dragon would come south again in later days, but of the fate of Graszen, none could tell for certain.  He bore a curse unto the Nisyrran elves forever, but his strength never returned, while the elves grew and bolstered their own.

Tale of the Nisyrran victory, however, spread like wildfire across the lands, and to the great lord Ariar, many elven chiefs came and pledged their allegiance.  It was at this time that Ariar declared that no longer would the Nisyrrans wander the world.  True to his father's vision, there would be a Nisyrran kingdom, free of the chaos beyond.  They settled just to the west of the lands that would be called Maridacan with the coming of the Dacadrin some centuries later (the Nisyrran texts declare it to be a thousand years, but the wizards hold that this is a gross exaggeration.  By their measure, the dark age began six hundred years before the coming of the Dacadrin, and Nisyrra could only have been founded within a three hundred year window inside of that time span).

Part II - The Expansion

Some centuries had passed since the foundation of Nisyrra.  King Ariar had lived long, but he eventually died leaving behind a time of prosperity and consolidation.  The lands of Nisyrra were among the most secure in the known world, and many of elven and other origin came to seek refuge among them.  Even as it became known that Nisyrran treated human and dwarven kin as little more than slaves, they flocked to the safe havens provided.

Nisyrran society was split into castes, and to each caste fell an important role.  The lowest of these castes were the Naivir, who were made up of all the non-elves who resided within the borders of Nisyrra.  They were not considered citizens and deprived of many freedoms that the elves enjoyed.  They were provided for with housing and food, and their numbers made the vast majority of Nisyrran society.  Among the Naivir, the only elves to be counted were criminals and those who gave shame to the purpose of their caste.  Watching over them was the second lowest caste, the Caivos.  These were tasked with the day-to-day operations of the empire, and were usually those elves with no more talent than what was necessary to follow directions.  The Caivos formed messengers to the upper castes and managers of the lower ones.

The third caste formed a ceiling for most of the 'lesser' elves.  It was called the Terath, and among it were counted the craftsmen of elves which honed their art through countless generations.  They formed the bulk of the elves within the Nisyrran realm, but were defined by their inadequate skill in combat and magic.  Weak as they were, they still were adept and weaving such things into their make, and the Terath had a degree of respect.

The fourth caste was the warrior caste, and was the primary method of escape from the Terath and Caivos for those of less than noble birth.  To warriors were granted all the privileges of the nobility, for they were expected to serve and die for the empire.  The warrior caste was named Duiras, and the greatest among them were given leave to join the highest castes.

The three highest castes were deemed equals, though power often shifted between them.  The priesthood, or 'Massyr' formed a sect outside of the jurisdiction of regular Nisyrran law.  They took elves from all castes except the Naivir into them, but their method of choice seemed illogical and even completely random.  The priesthood weilded a powerful brand of magic, and secret texts and lore, and they shared their secrets with no one.  It is known that only the secret magics of the priests were not stolen in later ages by spies of the wizards.

The Culithe formed the upper nobility, born into positions of power and leadership.  They were expected to fulfill all the roles of figurehead within Nisyrran society.  Like all aristocracies, they thought themselves more necessary than they actually were.  Some of them formed lawmakers, and others were generals, and some scholars and masters of magic, but a great many simply lived in luxury from the wealth they were born into.

The final caste was the royalty.  To be counted among them was to be counted among those in line for the throne.  Entering the royalty only happened through birth - marriage would not bring another into the caste.  Sometimes the royalty would adopt a child and raise it in their house, but it would also not be counted among their caste.  Only being the child of one already of this caste could merit one's entry.

In time, it came to be that Nisyrra's border overflowed with a wealth of people, and the elves became unhappy with the density and sprawl of their wards.  They understood that they must encompass more territory to support these people, or else turn them away or cull them.  Neither appealed to the Nisyrrans, which believed that either of those two would only serve to deteriorate the stability in the surrounding realms.  Under the shadow of Nisyrra, many smaller states had grown, enjoying both freedom and safety.  Yet these places were poor, and their populations were sparse and their fields often empty.  The Nisyrrans believed that the assimilation of these lands into their fold was required to maintain the quality of life both for themselves and their slaves.

In the years, few had dared to tempt the wrath of Nisyrra, and so the full extent of their grown might was not comprehended.  Nisyrra was not the kind of nation to give warning to its neighbours before it acted, it simply did.  One day Nisyrran soldiers simply marched into neighbouring cities and installed magistrates to oversee conversion of the lands to Nisyrran standards.

Enraged at the arrogance of the Nisyrrans, the dwarven lord Hirus turned towards his kin in the east, and they too were displeased.  So they marched against the Nisyrran elves, and were destroyed.  The force of magic used against them was terrifying, and the dwarves quickly comprehended that they were no match for the Nisyrrans.  They fled, but the Nisyrrans followed, declaring these dwarves to be disturbers of the world's peace.

The Nisyrrans were unprepared for the fortifactions of the dwarves, which even in this period were formidable indeed.  But the Nisyrrans were not the kind to be dissauded by walls of stone.  With their magic they carved away the walls bit by bit, and by their sieges they routed out the dwarves from all the lands surrounding their borders.  To the dwarves that surrendered without a fight they would permit to remain as their slaves, but to all others, they showed no mercy.

The Nisyrrans began to consolidate their new territory, but in doing so they encountered a strange power upon their border.  It was another kingdom, no lesser than their own, and it was ruled by humans.  The Nisyrrans knew humans as the trouble-makers of the three races.  They made the bulk of the rampaging armies in the dark ages, and they were the hardest of the slaves to pacify.  These men called themselves the Dacadrin.

Originally, there was much debate among the inner councils as to whether this human empire needed to be pacified.  The wars it had fought were now known to the Nisyrrans, and they had no desire to allow this land of men to grow strong enough to challenge them.  But they became aware the wizarding towers that stood aloof behind the human empire, and they sought to understand the full scale of the power of the human wizards.  Originally, the hawks had thought it would only give them pause, but quickly they came to the conclusions that these wizards were no lesser than the Nisyrrans in the art of magic.  It was enough that given the huge armies of the Dacadrin as fodder Nisyrra could actually lose a war at this time.  Rather than a debate as to the pacification of humanity, the Nisyrrans began to discuss how they could ensure their own survival if it should come to war.

Even as this happened, they began to forge north around the continent's western rim in order to discern if there were other human nations which may cause they difficulty in the future.  They found many, and understood how gravely the elves were outnumbered by humanity in this world.  They needed a way by which to counter this numerical advantage, and knew they could not rely upon their slaves, which they deprived of any arms whatsoever.

To the Nisyrran wizards fell the task of creating warriors without spirit that would march to battle endlessly as fodder for the Nisyrran elite.  They studied the flesh of the living, and they came to understand its making.  From the blood of a Nisyrran warrior, they would cultivate an entire body anew.  However, these forms were without spirit, and their movements were listless and their wills were little.  Warriors they were not, and often they would die for they forgot to eat, only breathing and living because they were forced to.

These were of little use to the Nisyrrans, but a high priest took curiosity in them.  His body was aging, but his mind and spirit were strong.  Using the methods of the wizards, he created a copy of his own body, and then through the magic of the priesthood the moved his spirit from his older form to the new younger body.  His old form fell lifelessly dead, but he arose nearly a century the younger, his mind freed from the forgetfulness of age, his body unwrinkled and strong with newfound youth.

There was disbelief at first when the young elf claimed to be the high priest.  But as he showed the process and returned others to youth, he became honoured among the Nisyrran nobility.  It was believed that the Nisyrrans were now immortal, save in battle, and age could no longer slay them.  While their bodies could be renewed in death, and their minds with them, their spirits would wane in time, and pass inexorably from the world.  Still, their lives were extended by hundreds of years.

But as yet this had no application in battle, and the high council became frustrated that as yet if humanity turned against them they would be powerless to stop them.  The fall of the Dacadrin proved the need for this, as the humans began to turn on one another.  Understanding that should they become a common foe of humanity they would be destroyed, Nisyrra renewed its efforts to find some advantage against attrician.

That method was eventually discovered; a way by which a spirit of a fallen warrior could be withdrawn back to the heartland where it could be reincarnated within a fresh body.  By way of secret preservation, a small piece of flesh was left behind in a shrine, and the spirit attuned to return there if slain, and not to pass to the netherworld.  Thus death in battle was but temporary for a Nisyrran warrior; no injury enough to destroy them outright.  The only threat that could destroy them outright was if the very currents of magic of the world itself were to destroy their spirits, and they laughed that any being could command such powers, not knowing of the coming War of Elders.

Part III - The Darkening Days

The War of Elders changed much of Nisyrran's opinion about humanity.  They were reckless like children, but in times of need focussed and valiant.  To the Nisyrrans, the men of Maridacan were brothers for a short time, and no longer were their borders closed to their comings and goings.  Yet the Nisyrrans kept their secrets, unwilling to allow even the heroic men to have access to the shrines of rebirth which may have also worked to extend their lifespans.  It is said that the only exemption granted was for a half-elf who was among the Immortal Thirteen.

The lives of men came to an end much sooner than those of the Nisyrrans, and the war which had seen so much death was forgotten by their collective memory.  All that remained were stories and tales of the courage of dead men and elves.  The new generation did not understand the significance of the bond shared with the Nisyrrans, and the kindred link between man and elf dissolved to the ages, and whether it shall ever restore itself is unknown.  The elves closed their borders once more, and their numbers stopped wandering abroad in the lands of men. 

For the Nisyrrans, it was only proof that man and elf should not intermingle.  The lives of men were too brief, and their generations passed countless times in the span of but one Nisyrran lifetime.  The sorrows of humanity were forgotten before even the elves could heal from them, and the pain this caused the elvenkin was beyond the comprehension of the short-lived humans.  Despite this, the Nisyrrans could not betray the trust and sacrifice of those who had died beside them, and for the rest of their long lives that generation would watch over humanity, but always from a distance.

Yet even the long life of a Nisyrran is but a short time in the annals of history, and soon enough so too did the war fall from the collective memories of the elves.  To their children did they pass the task to watch over the descendants of humanity, to whom they still bore some semblance of good will, even as the humans returned to petty infighting.  The war and its strife was forgotten to history, and a new generation came to the head of Nisyrra.

This younger group was disinclined to interfere with mankind, more akin to the the generations before the War of Elders.  However, the indentity Nisyrrans felt among their surrounding world had changed somewhat as well.  The Nisyrran philosophy had undergone a shift; no longer were they to be lords of the world, but shepherds to watch over the lesser races.  The dwarves might be trusted with some semblance of lasting peace, but the humans seemed pathologically incapable of it.  No sooner was there order then there were those determined to undermine it and shatter it.

In some circles, it was believed that Nisyrra must assimilated the outlying lands in order to ensure peace and stability in the world.  If neighbouring Maridacan were representative of the rest of the world, it was only evidence of how chaotic men could be.  Yet their attempts to sway the council were in vain, for the king held the ear of the council and he spoke of peace. 

He did not believe it was their place to intefere with the realms of men.  He likened mankind to the wilderness; the wolf hunts the deer, its malice driven by its divine purpose as the hunter.  While Nisyrra might sympathize with the deer, was it their right to interfere with the purpose of the wolf?  Even if they did chain the wolf to save the deer, what would become of it?  Freed from the hunter, the deer would overpopulate and strip the land bare.  It would come to starvation, and by it greater strife than at the hands of the hunter.

The king was succeeded by his daughter, a rare occurrence, but she was highly favoured by the court.  She was a skilled orator and wise and popular.  The strong will of a king had failed to fix the internal problems suffered by the Nisyrran empire, the greatest of which was overpopulation.  Peace and prosperity came at price, and they had not the land to continue to support their people.  Birth quotas had been highly unpopular; the lower castes had decried that the quotas assigned to them were disproportionate to their massive share of the total population, and their application dubious and hardly evenhanded.

The queen laxed the birth quota, but did not remove it.  She understood that one generation without it could spell mass starvation.  Instead, she realized that a long-term change in the culture of the Naivir caste was required.  It formed nearly four out of every five citizens, and it grew voraciously.  Such things could not be achieved within one generation of the short-lived humans that made the bulk of that caste, and she knew that the assimilation of outlying territories was required.  This second expansion made many enemies for Nisyrra, but the queen knew it was a necessary evil.  None-the-less it strengthened the hold of the "divine assimilation" movement in the council, and she was highly critical of them.

The coming of Tharwain into being silenced the proponents of assimilation, much to the queen's pleasure.  Tharwain was peaceful, and powerful.  There was no incentive for Nisyrra to strike at such a neighbour.  Rather, the queen welcomed them as old friends from an elder time.  Yet what disturbed her most was how her emmissary's reported that the king always had a wizard at his ear.  She understood that Tharwain as it was represented little more than a puppet state to serve the wizards.

The queen abdicated from power in her four-hundredth year in favour of her nephew, who was a very popular member of the royal family, although rather young.  He had seen military service, and was regarded among that caste as the best king in many long generations.  He put great funds towards projects to secure Nisyrra's border, particularly with Tharwain.  While peaceful, he deemed it a great threat.  He had been moved - although not consciously - by the divine assimilation covenant.  He believed that mankind was inherently a danger to itself and others, but still felt that Nisyrra should not act unless provoked.

It came eventually that one of major proponents of divine assimilation rose to prominence within the court.  He was a scholarly elf and it was his purpose to tutor the heir to the throne.  Already somewhat receptive to the ideologies, the young prince soon became certain that it was Nisyrran destiny to guard over the world and bring order across it, and to do so by whatever means were necessary.  He felt that the policies of his predecessors had been flawed.  Nisyrra was still crowded despite all new territory, and the birth quotas were too lenient to be effective.

The line of kings continued, and slowly after each passing generation the old way of peaceful vigil was replaced by divine assimilation, and those who believed strongly in it dominated the council and royal family.  Many elves felt threatened by this, particularly the Terath was disturbed.  This caste had relatively little power in Nisyrran society, but comprised a great deal of intellectuals and craftsmen of no small skill.  They could see plainly around them the squalor of the Naivir caste, and the failures of their government to deal with the problem.  New territory alleviated the problem for a short while, but the people would multiply and soon enough the new lands were as crowded as any.  Far away from the secluded gardens and palaces of the nobility, the Terath understood the failures of Nisyrran culture.

The nobility and lower castes were fiercely religeous, but among the higher end of the Terath, a secular following had emerged.  These elves had seen the shortfalls of the Nisyrran culture, and saw as the failures were ignored by those blinded by their ideology.  These people had little power, either over the Terath or the higher castes which controlled the state.  They were the scholars, the engineers, the architects of the empire.  They understood that they had a power that was not properly understood by their superiors, and if the time should come where they must act against divine assimilation, then and only then would they exercise it.

Tharwain began to decay in time.  The world around them had become uncertain again.  The time of pandemonium had left strength only in the dwarves and elves as it came to the end, and the states of men began to fracture.  The men who lived in Tharwain sought to retain their affluent lifestyle, but this came at the cost of others within their lands, for the wealth they sought to draw upon no longer existed.  Corruption and crime became rampant across the kingdom, and slowly the outlying provinces became more and more independant.  The old infighting was returning.  Wars were sporadic, but it was only a matter of time before a permeanent state of chaos consumed the lands.

Of all groups, the king laid blame upon the wizards.  They had a dubious reputation among the elves, but some respect for their interest in stability and peace.  Many among the supporters of divine assimilation believed that when Tharwain was assimilated that the wizards of humanity should be alotted their own caste with jurisdiction within the domain of magic.  Others believed that they were the greatest threat against Nisyrra, and must be purged permeanently.  They thought it was only a matter of time before the wizards found a method to overcome the reincarnation fo their warriors.

The wizards had tried to maintain order, but had found that it would require more direct manipulation than they pleased.  Rather than getting involved in the fighting, they instead removed themselves from it altogether, and acted apathetic.  They believed that the aristocracy was the root of the problem.  They were fat and spoiled and worthless, and they drove everyone else to poverty to serve their own needs.  To support them would achieve nothing in the long-term, and to turn against them would be unwise, so the wizards did nothing.

Yet they were aware of the Nisyrran eyes upon them, and so the wizards sent an emissary, and he was granted audience before the court of Nisyrra.  Rather than entering into the debate, the emissary simply stated the wizard's position.  He spoke that the wizards respected the borders of Nisyrra, and would not allow their lesser brethren to make act against the elves, even though they appeared to have removed their hand entirely.  However, they would not tolerate assimilation of Maridacan into Nisyrra.  "Should Nisyrra violate the realm of men," warned the emissary of the wizards, "then know that we shall bend all our knowledge to your destruction, and even if we should fail, our descendants shall return, stronger than ever before,"

The threat, while it drew the ire of many proud Nisyrrans, was taken quite seriously.  Even the king of that time, who was certain that Tharwain should be assimilated before it fractured into chaos, began to doubt the wisdom of it.  The wizards were masters of guile as well as word and spellcraft.  The elves did not know whether to make of their bold statements a bluff or not.  In its broken state, Tharwain would be little more challenging than the many other states Nisyrra had assimilated in the recent past.  But the wizards - and their influence in organizing Tharwain - were more than enough to change that.

In the end, Nisyrra began to eye up a new power; there were the exiles of Caeluin which had come to the outlying island chains just south of Maridacan.  They were expert mariners, and among them were wizards of no small repute.  Some had been trained by the five towers themselves, but returned to their people in the time of need.  The Nisyrrans became annoyed with these Caeluites, who despite all their warnings continued to venture along their coasts, mapping and exploring.  Nisyrra had no navy, and they understood that in the event of war with Caeluin they would be out of their element.  Moreover, Caeluin could be a potent ally of the other humans in Maridacan.

Believing assimilation of Caeluin while it was young and its numbers few was paramount, the king ordered the construction of a navy.  The Nisyrrans build massive craft that would smash the Caeluin hulls to pieces and carry huge forces across the seas.  It was in this time that Caeluin became bold.  The bounty of the sea was deminished, and they began to attack coastal cities for profit.  Some they traded with, others they raided.

Nisyrra has always held that they were attacked first, although it is no secret that they had long prepared and were committed to that war.  They found that while their craft were larger, the Caeluites were swifter.  Both on land and sea they came with surprise, struck viciously, and were gone.  For each success the Nisyrrans met a failure.  Every time they captured a village, its garrison would be dispatched no sooner had their main force departed.

Understanding that such a war could go on for centuries before the crafty Caeluites were beaten by attrician, Nisyrra prepared to open a second front against the men of Tharwain.  More certain than ever of their main host's strength, they began to assimilate the boundary territory that divided Tharwain and Nisyrra.

I warned you that I went overboard, now didn't I?

I kinda rushed the last bit, so I'm aware it's not as flavourful as the rest of the text.

Very good. I've read the first 2 parts, going to read the 3rd tommorrow

I warned you that I went overboard, now didn't I?

You sure did, the PDF is doubled in page count
But hey, I don't mind...at all

Would you like to update the map with nation borders, known places, etc. anytime soon?

The majority of Nisyrran and dwarven territory is off the map, as is Caeluin.  I may draw up a rough map of a much larger picture of the world.

Ok I read the 3d part. It's indeed not as flavourful as the rest. Some things I noticed:
- more spelling etc. mistakes
- I miss a clear definition of "divine assimilation"

However, it's still good overall

and the eternal question, when do you expect to have part 6?

Yeah, that last part I mostly wrote late at night.  I'm considering rewriting it entirely, not just revising it.

Nisyrra's upper class believes greatly in their own divine purpose, and one of the growing philosophies is that one of those purposes is "divine assimilation", to have the state of Nisyrra engulf all others to ensure peace and and prosperity.  Although proponents of this philosophy now form the bulk of the upper castes, many of the more educated Nisyrrans from the middle castes are quite skeptical of it.

It was a bit confusing, because of the part about the deer and the wolf, the deer eating the world etc.

It's an analogy.  The human populations are comprised of deers and wolves; people who only want to live in peace, and war-like people who destroy that peace (respectively).  However, if wolves are removed from their natural environment, then deer multiply without restriction, and can strip the land bare of plantlife, rendering it barren.  The deer will then come to starvation and even greater hardship than at the mercy of the wolf.

The logic is that if humanity in its entirety is subjugated, it will continue to multiply without the normal checks of warfare or disease, and will lead to a crisis due to unmanageable population explosion.  Nisyrra, which began with a negligable human population, is overflowing with them by this point in history due to the exponential growth of the uncontrolled human population.  Even with heavily enforced birth quotas, the long-term problem does not appear to have a solution.

It's an analogy.  The human populations are comprised of deers and wolves; people who only want to live in peace, and war-like people who destroy that peace (respectively).  However, if wolves are removed from their natural environment, then deer multiply without restriction, and can strip the land bare of plantlife, rendering it barren.  The deer will then come to starvation and even greater hardship than at the mercy of the wolf.

Yes I understood that part (I'm not stupid ), but it's confusing because you described this as being the way it was meant to be ("divine"), with the elves wondering if they should intervene with the wolf's purpose. That and not being completely familiar with the word 'assimilation' made me wonder if "divine assimiliation" was the idea to let the wolf just do what it's purpose is

The Nisyrran Elves, as mentioned, have a caste system.  The three higher castes (nobility, royalty, and priesthood) are extremely religeous, so everything in nature has a divine purpose (as they see it).  They believe that the Nisyrran elves have the divine purpose of bringing order to the world, hence the assimilation of new territories is part of their divine purpose.  Equally, the wolf's intrinsic purpose is to keep the deer's population in check.  As far as the Nisyrrans are concerned, this is also divine, its purpose.  The debate that follows is whether the Nisyrran's purpose to bring order trumps the wolf's purpose to check the deer's population.

It should be noted that the middle caste is not nearly as devout as the upper castes.  They are excluded from many social benefits, and are made to live with the lower castes.  They have a better understanding of the failures of Nisyrran society, and as such have a degree of doubt in the philosophies of the upper castes.  They're not athiests (at least not most), but they're cautious of dogma and avoid blind faith.

In our storyline, those Nisyrrans play a prominent role in breaking the solidarity of what would otherwise be a completely unstoppable faction.

So anyway, you should probably make that bit a little more clear in the story

Fair enough; next one won't be anywhere near as long as this one (when I get around to writing it) anyways.  For the time being, all I can say is that the days are not long enough to get everything I want to do done.

Hey Darvin, how far are you with part VI?

Oh right, part VI 


I've got one of those long days tomorrow with a big empty block in the middle, so I should be able to do it after my lab.  It's already roughly in my head, it's just a matter of sorting out the timeline on paper and committing it to words.

Oh right, part VI 

Hey, you don't have to write it, there's more than enough time yet
but it would be nice of course

I have to buy a new toner, because the last time that I printed it, the lasts page were white

yes, it is an expensive story

Just so you know, I'm in something of a slump right now, and nothing I write is meeting my standards.  Eventually I'll sit down and add something to the mix.

no worries, it's not like we need the story by the end of the week