A Telling of the History

Over two-hundred years ago the Elven Nation of Edilar was divided by two powerful political movements, the Dark Wood and the Norben Brotherhood. Both sought peace for Edilar and her children, but they were at odds on how to achieve this peace.

The Dark Wood's formation was brought about by the systematic destruction of the majority of Lunar Trees found in the Central Plains of Tuth. Goblin hordes from Ruch burnt down the last few remaining Trees, and members of the Elven Nation adopted the name Dark Wood to memoralize the loss. The Dark Wood followers held true to the belief that isolationism was the only way to obtain peace. By withdrawing all contact with the Confederation, Edilar would have a chance to gain strength and know peace. This line of thinking was bolstered by history, where in the past, Edilar had closed her borders for over 500 years and benefited from it. The majority of Edilar supported the ideals of the Dark Wood.

A small percentage of Edilar's people, though, felt that the Closures brought on by the Dark Wood only made the Confederation Realms distrust and hate the Edilar. Many High Elves and some Noble Houses found on Norben Island soon openly protested the Dark Wood, and they united under the moniker of The Norben Brotherhood. They felt that by openly intermingling with the various cultures of the Confederation an understanding would be reached. This would build the foundation for peace, through communal cooperation and a sense of brotherhood.

Unfortunately, history took a grim turn for Edilar in late 726 when Speaker Eldo, Elven Ambassador to the Confederation, was assasinated. The Norben Brotherhood's most vocal supporter was lost, and this gave more power to the Dark Wood. Soon afterwards, King Kirjah Barden met an untimely death. His uncle, Morlan Barden, succeeded him as King of Edilar. This new King agreed with the Dark Wood beliefs, and soon announced that Edilar would forfeit its seat on the Confederation Council, and closed her borders once again.

As Edilar once again shut herself off from the other Realms, King Barden issued strict edicts concerning the closings of the borders. This was followed by traders being asked to leave Edilar. All transient Elves that resided outside of Edilar were commanded to return at once, or forever renounce all ties to Edilar. The Norben Brotherhood believed that King Barden had overstepped his bounds, and many felt the death of Kirjah Barden was suspicious. They disagreed with the new King and did not heed his direction. A political struggle ensued for months as elves began to take sides. As tensions rose, a low scale civil war erupted in Edilar, pitting the Dark Wood against the low numbers of the Norben Brotherhood. Soon, all of Edilar had taken sides and elf fought and killed elf.

Soon, though, some followers of the Dark Wood also began to suspect the actions of King Morlan Barden. They wanted nothing but peace for Edilar, but this new King had only brought destitution, despair and death to Edilar. All elves then dropped all political ties, and joined together to try to survive the Blood King. Out of this Civil War, with the destruction of the Norben Brotherhood, a common voice was raised, and this gave way to the birth of the Scions of Edilar.

The Scions of Edilar was formed in mid 727. At the behest of both the High and Common Elf population, former guild-master of the Norben Brotherhood, Kral Elkrane, was elected New Speaker of Edilar. As a sign of open support for this new movement, J'ran Elkrane of the Dark Wood aided Kral to power. Together, both former foes once again embraced each other, as the true siblings that they were, in the hopes of overthrowing King Morlan Barden from Power.

When the elves finally realized that their civil war had become a Horde invasion, they began to fight back a lot better. But, Yorktown and Magmaville fell very quickly to internal assaults. The elves had no experience fighting the Deep Magi and Aboleths, and the Deep Magi had centuries of experience in fighting elvenkind. Elven mages found themselves being stabbed by their allies who were under Deep Magi sway. Elven forces fought Aboleth illusions while hordes of kobolds swept over them. Beholders took down pockets of elven mages without much trouble at all. The menial forces of those that opposed Barden stood little chance of freeing their homeland. Had it not been for a group calling themselves the Fellowship of the Hawk all would have been lost. In 729, the Fellowship of the Hawk, with the instruction of Kaldinsky, ventured to the Deep Dark to find the mysterious Deep Elves. While Nightwolf and others battled the minions of the Blood King, the Fellowship was successful and emerged with the Deep Elves to destroy the invaders of Edilar. Responding to some ancient Prophecy that called upon them to climb to the sky-lit lands and purge a terrible force of invaders, the Deep Elves pushed the Blood Kings army into the sea.

After the death of King Barden and the liberation of Edilar, Kral Elkrane began researching a way to keep Lunar Trees from vanishing and dying. He spent all of his time in a tower, pouring his life energy and magical research into a Lunar Tree cutting. During one of his sessions of spellbinding he was accosted by an unknown group. Although it is unsure what transpired between the group and Kral, the High Elf passed away soon after the altercation. Any hope for the dying Lunar Trees and dying High Elves passed away with Kral.

As if in direct correlation to the destruction on its shores, Norben Island began to deteriorate. The great loss of the Lunar trees and their foundation of roots that once kept Norben Island strong and vibrant caused the land itself to crumble inward and begin to be covered by the waters of Blood lake. After months of work by elves to shore up and cleanse the island in hopes of saving it, they finally had to give up as the island itself seemed to be dying and crumbling in to the lower earth levels, now exposed and left without the strength of the Lunar trees to heal. The once great Norben Island is now no more than submerged ridges and sandy shoals in the center of the large lake. Only the northern most part of the island, the one time highest part which faced the land of Ruch with cliffs dotted with caves, is still above water. But even this long stretch of earth has little to offer but a place to rest for sailors on the lake. The animal life has died out and the plants no longer grow lush. No fresh water is to be found there. It is due to this that the main Conclave of the guild will be located in Navelorn.