**It was covered in symbols which they could not make heads or tails of, if they were in fact symbols at all.**
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Sing lustily and with good courage.
Be aware of singing as if you were half dead,
or half asleep:
but lift your voice with strength.
Be no more afraid of your voice now,
nor more ashamed of its being heard,
than when you sang the songs of Satan.
**A number of the symbols on the paper were featured on the walls, but all out of order, none of them in a coherent pattern.**
Librarian - "He had many interests, none of which we particularly understood; he was particularly fond of the old Elvish religion, before the worship of the Council took over. There are many ancient texts in these archives, and people often get strange ideas from them."
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Sing lustily and with good courage.
Be aware of singing as if you were half dead,
or half asleep:
but lift your voice with strength.
Be no more afraid of your voice now,
nor more ashamed of its being heard,
than when you sang the songs of Satan.
Librarian - "I don't know if you could say they really meet anywhere, except occasionally at the Teach. They're usually the keep-to-themselves type."
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Sing lustily and with good courage.
Be aware of singing as if you were half dead,
or half asleep:
but lift your voice with strength.
Be no more afraid of your voice now,
nor more ashamed of its being heard,
than when you sang the songs of Satan.
**A cloaked young girl in a slightly ripped dress and.. bracers.. frantically rushes into the library. She catches her breath before approaching the librarian**
Arl - "I was one of the ones that entered the portals. The ancient gods are free."
**The librarian gave her a strange, uncomprehending look, pointing toward a sign that read "Be Quiet".**
Librarian - "...lovely, good for you. What do you need from me?"
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Sing lustily and with good courage.
Be aware of singing as if you were half dead,
or half asleep:
but lift your voice with strength.
Be no more afraid of your voice now,
nor more ashamed of its being heard,
than when you sang the songs of Satan.
Librarian - "Bound? What? Whatever. I don't know what it is with people lately and those damn old superstitions, someone gets an idea in their head that they're 'cool' and it all goes downhill..."
**He vanished into the stacks, and emerged a few minutes later with a handful of books.**
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Sing lustily and with good courage.
Be aware of singing as if you were half dead,
or half asleep:
but lift your voice with strength.
Be no more afraid of your voice now,
nor more ashamed of its being heard,
than when you sang the songs of Satan.
**The girl pours over the books, carefully reading through them in search of any useful information on what she had just helped unleash. How had the old days been? Why were they imprisoned? Etc.**
The Edge of Memory
Of the time before the Edge of Memory, nothing can be said with any certainty. It is possible that in some ancient archives of the elves there exist records and remnants of the time beyond the Edge, but if such records still exist they have eluded the patient efforts of ten generations of scholars. Of course, in ancient times an elf's possessions were sent with him to the afterlife--and this was as true for ledgers and journals as it was for jewelry and clothing. Thus the records of the elvish culture of the undocumented past were likely buried with the men and women who lived it, lost in the intervening millennia to the slow process of decay.
When our records begin, several centuries after the commonly accepted date of the Edge of Memory, our picture is still fragmentary, for from this period there are only the scantest fragments and palimpsests. The reason for this scarcity of knowledge is unclear. Even by this early period it is clear that the ancient preference for grave goods had ceased to be observed, rendering the usual hypothesis for our lack of knowledge untenable. As a result, certain scholars have suggested that this obscurity might be deliberate, part of a systematic attempt by later generations to obscure the practices of the early elves. However, there is no evidence for a widespread culling of the archives, and this hypothesis is not credited by the majority of scholars.
[...]
Nevertheless, it is clear from what remains that elves in this period lived much as they did until the rise of the Kingdoms, making their lives in scattered villages throughout the woods, worshipping their ancient deities in relative peace.
The Rise of the Council
Note: It must be emphasized that all information contained in this section is culled either from oral tradition or from the paltry remains of ancient manuscripts. The interpretation of this information remains controversial, and so should not be taken as strictly reliable.
At this time, when elvish territory covered most of the land between the Alogeans and the Lutharins, seismic changes in the structure of society began to take place. It appears from what we know that the elves, who had previously been organized purely on the basis of individual villages, came increasingly under the domain of larger tribal and regional groupings. These groups, referred to today as "kingdoms" though the term is a misnomer, were typically led by a single village which held the place of honor and most of the power. In time, as these groupings became stronger and more coherent, they began to come into conflict with one another, skirmishing over land, hunting grounds, and the control of border villages.
At the same time, threats from outside the elvish world began to increase in frequency and magnitude. To the south, raids from the Garr tribes grew fiercer and more common, leading at times to the destruction of entire villages. Likewise, from the north came raids and, at times, outright invasions from the Oscarans. And from the west came rumors of the rise of a new race, one which would play an increasingly large role in the world of the elves: men. The deep divisions in elvish society threatened not only to tear them apart, but to cripple their response to these outside threats. So it came about that in -2119, at the Council of Brotha, the various kingdoms made an agreement: to choose representatives, one from each kingdom, to form a single Council to which each would be subordinated. This arrangement provided for a unified response and numerous other benefits, and over the years grew to be widely accepted.
The period of the Council's rule lasted for 987 years, during which the elvish tribes experienced unprecedented prosperity and growth. It is difficult to determine exactly what the method for choosing representatives to the council would have been. Traditional sources are unanimous in claiming that the four original council members remained throughout its entire history, but this is extremely unlikely: not only is a thousand years far beyond the expected lifespan even of an elf, but the names of the four members correspond exactly to the traditional kingdoms which formed the council. Still, these names are worth mention, as they are well-known to every elf in the Greevan Woods: Sorscha the Magnificent, Fionn the Cold, Rhionna Feared-by-Death, and Mischa the Laughing Lord.
During this period, perhaps the most important cultural change was the decline and final collapse of the traditional Elvish religion, which had centered around the Four Divines. What role the Council played in this decline remains unclear, but some sources, particularly among the conservative Dark Elves, claim that the Council undertook a systematic campaign to eradicate belief in the old gods in favor of a broad system of ancestor worship. The extent to which this is true cannot be determined, but it is not inconsistent with what is known about the Council's beliefs and policies.
Finally, in the year -1132, the Council came to an end with what is traditionally believed to be their ascension to divinity. It is said that their children and proteges witnessed this mystical event, and after performing five days of rituals proclaimed the miracle to the world. While this cannot be strictly confirmed, it is a central point of subsequent elvish religion, and there is no strong reason to doubt it, either.**
Sing lustily and with good courage.
Be aware of singing as if you were half dead,
or half asleep:
but lift your voice with strength.
Be no more afraid of your voice now,
nor more ashamed of its being heard,
than when you sang the songs of Satan.
**Arl jots down her findings, notes key figures and dates, outlines a few hypothesis-es, and puts the pile of books away. Well, puts them where one is supposed to put books they are done with. The lack of any mention of deific tyranny makes her feel better.. but would part of tearing down their old religion include downplaying the role the old deities played in history? What if the purge of ancient knowledge really did happen? What if *yawn* she.. maybe this can wait until morning. Or is it already morning? Wait a few hours anyway.
The tired (and somewhat hungry) girl decides to go back to the... oh! When did the Kindir split from the elves again? Yeah, she'll look that up! Just gonna close her eyes for a few moments first.**
Arl - "Zzzzzz"
----
**Sometime later the girl awakens, acquires some basic information on the Kindir, and leaves the library.**
**It was covered in symbols which they could not make heads or tails of, if they were in fact symbols at all.**
Be aware of singing as if you were half dead,
or half asleep:
but lift your voice with strength.
Be no more afraid of your voice now,
nor more ashamed of its being heard,
than when you sang the songs of Satan.
Jamie- "What was he working on before he left?"
Behold, the power of :symu:!
Ask Me About:
The Epic World
You'll Be Glad You Did
Not That There's Anything Wrong With That
Librarian - "He had many interests, none of which we particularly understood; he was particularly fond of the old Elvish religion, before the worship of the Council took over. There are many ancient texts in these archives, and people often get strange ideas from them."
Be aware of singing as if you were half dead,
or half asleep:
but lift your voice with strength.
Be no more afraid of your voice now,
nor more ashamed of its being heard,
than when you sang the songs of Satan.
Behold, the power of :symu:!
Ask Me About:
The Epic World
You'll Be Glad You Did
Not That There's Anything Wrong With That
Be aware of singing as if you were half dead,
or half asleep:
but lift your voice with strength.
Be no more afraid of your voice now,
nor more ashamed of its being heard,
than when you sang the songs of Satan.
Arl - "I was one of the ones that entered the portals. The ancient gods are free."
Nervada - 98% fat free, high in fiber.
Eizen - Collected
Yack - Walking
Miko Wydberg
Tanya
Librarian - "...lovely, good for you. What do you need from me?"
Be aware of singing as if you were half dead,
or half asleep:
but lift your voice with strength.
Be no more afraid of your voice now,
nor more ashamed of its being heard,
than when you sang the songs of Satan.
Arl - "...ok. Fine. Do you have any books that talk about how things were before they were bound in the first place?"
Nervada - 98% fat free, high in fiber.
Eizen - Collected
Yack - Walking
Miko Wydberg
Tanya
**He vanished into the stacks, and emerged a few minutes later with a handful of books.**
Be aware of singing as if you were half dead,
or half asleep:
but lift your voice with strength.
Be no more afraid of your voice now,
nor more ashamed of its being heard,
than when you sang the songs of Satan.
**The girl pours over the books, carefully reading through them in search of any useful information on what she had just helped unleash. How had the old days been? Why were they imprisoned? Etc.**
Nervada - 98% fat free, high in fiber.
Eizen - Collected
Yack - Walking
Miko Wydberg
Tanya
The Edge of Memory
Of the time before the Edge of Memory, nothing can be said with any certainty. It is possible that in some ancient archives of the elves there exist records and remnants of the time beyond the Edge, but if such records still exist they have eluded the patient efforts of ten generations of scholars. Of course, in ancient times an elf's possessions were sent with him to the afterlife--and this was as true for ledgers and journals as it was for jewelry and clothing. Thus the records of the elvish culture of the undocumented past were likely buried with the men and women who lived it, lost in the intervening millennia to the slow process of decay.
When our records begin, several centuries after the commonly accepted date of the Edge of Memory, our picture is still fragmentary, for from this period there are only the scantest fragments and palimpsests. The reason for this scarcity of knowledge is unclear. Even by this early period it is clear that the ancient preference for grave goods had ceased to be observed, rendering the usual hypothesis for our lack of knowledge untenable. As a result, certain scholars have suggested that this obscurity might be deliberate, part of a systematic attempt by later generations to obscure the practices of the early elves. However, there is no evidence for a widespread culling of the archives, and this hypothesis is not credited by the majority of scholars.
[...]
Nevertheless, it is clear from what remains that elves in this period lived much as they did until the rise of the Kingdoms, making their lives in scattered villages throughout the woods, worshipping their ancient deities in relative peace.
The Rise of the Council
Note: It must be emphasized that all information contained in this section is culled either from oral tradition or from the paltry remains of ancient manuscripts. The interpretation of this information remains controversial, and so should not be taken as strictly reliable.
At this time, when elvish territory covered most of the land between the Alogeans and the Lutharins, seismic changes in the structure of society began to take place. It appears from what we know that the elves, who had previously been organized purely on the basis of individual villages, came increasingly under the domain of larger tribal and regional groupings. These groups, referred to today as "kingdoms" though the term is a misnomer, were typically led by a single village which held the place of honor and most of the power. In time, as these groupings became stronger and more coherent, they began to come into conflict with one another, skirmishing over land, hunting grounds, and the control of border villages.
At the same time, threats from outside the elvish world began to increase in frequency and magnitude. To the south, raids from the Garr tribes grew fiercer and more common, leading at times to the destruction of entire villages. Likewise, from the north came raids and, at times, outright invasions from the Oscarans. And from the west came rumors of the rise of a new race, one which would play an increasingly large role in the world of the elves: men. The deep divisions in elvish society threatened not only to tear them apart, but to cripple their response to these outside threats. So it came about that in -2119, at the Council of Brotha, the various kingdoms made an agreement: to choose representatives, one from each kingdom, to form a single Council to which each would be subordinated. This arrangement provided for a unified response and numerous other benefits, and over the years grew to be widely accepted.
The period of the Council's rule lasted for 987 years, during which the elvish tribes experienced unprecedented prosperity and growth. It is difficult to determine exactly what the method for choosing representatives to the council would have been. Traditional sources are unanimous in claiming that the four original council members remained throughout its entire history, but this is extremely unlikely: not only is a thousand years far beyond the expected lifespan even of an elf, but the names of the four members correspond exactly to the traditional kingdoms which formed the council. Still, these names are worth mention, as they are well-known to every elf in the Greevan Woods: Sorscha the Magnificent, Fionn the Cold, Rhionna Feared-by-Death, and Mischa the Laughing Lord.
During this period, perhaps the most important cultural change was the decline and final collapse of the traditional Elvish religion, which had centered around the Four Divines. What role the Council played in this decline remains unclear, but some sources, particularly among the conservative Dark Elves, claim that the Council undertook a systematic campaign to eradicate belief in the old gods in favor of a broad system of ancestor worship. The extent to which this is true cannot be determined, but it is not inconsistent with what is known about the Council's beliefs and policies.
Finally, in the year -1132, the Council came to an end with what is traditionally believed to be their ascension to divinity. It is said that their children and proteges witnessed this mystical event, and after performing five days of rituals proclaimed the miracle to the world. While this cannot be strictly confirmed, it is a central point of subsequent elvish religion, and there is no strong reason to doubt it, either.**
Be aware of singing as if you were half dead,
or half asleep:
but lift your voice with strength.
Be no more afraid of your voice now,
nor more ashamed of its being heard,
than when you sang the songs of Satan.
The tired (and somewhat hungry) girl decides to go back to the... oh! When did the Kindir split from the elves again? Yeah, she'll look that up! Just gonna close her eyes for a few moments first.**
Arl - "Zzzzzz"
----
**Sometime later the girl awakens, acquires some basic information on the Kindir, and leaves the library.**
Nervada - 98% fat free, high in fiber.
Eizen - Collected
Yack - Walking
Miko Wydberg
Tanya