Campaign guide plight of the tuatha (1) 44

Chapter Three: Lore of Aeliode upkeep of this shrine, creatures which will build up the unstained portions so that her blood made be contained.’ Volsung then reached down to touch the top shroud, then reached down through layer after layer of shroud till he found some of the soil that had been placed between shrouds Then he did pull this handful of soil back through the layers of shrouds and as he did so bits of fire, air and water stuck to his hands Little by little he shaped the earth into his servants As he shaped them he worked little bits of air, fire, and water into their forms ‘Earth, I awaken you,’ spoke Volsung, ‘aid me’! His servants awoke to find themselves on a rocky shore with sea-spray in the air and the tide threatening to wash over them They began to panic when a voice thundered from the sky above ‘I am your creator, Volsung You have been made in order to bring the land from the sea Through me you shall cause the land to grow and flourish Where you walk mountains shall rise; where you live the earth shall touch the sky,’ the voice thundered “You shall make a land to hold back the ocean and hold up the sky!” And so it was that where his creations strode, stones gathered and the land lifted Where they lived stones gathered into boulders, and boulders to hills, and hills to great peaks The people looked up to the sky and cried, “Volsung, Father of All, we shall as you ask, we shall create a land worthy of you.We shall hold back the ocean, we shall hold up the sky, we shall craft as you command.” It was then that Onhr came upon the body of Tulhesa, Volsung, and the creations of Volsung When Onhr saw the body of Tulhesa he let forth a cry of rage, as Tulhesa was his only ally He raged for the death of Tulhesa, and he raged for the manner in which it occurred He raged since he was not told, and he raged that others made her memorial And he raged from the audacity that the gods had defiled her by creating beings that trod upon her as they worked, profaning the dead god Onhr spoke to the gods thus, ‘I not have the power to destroy that which you have wrought, but I will not let your creations demean the Great Serpent.’ He dipped his hand in the blood of the great beast and brought the dripping ichor to his face, smearing the redness upon his skin Then he turned his bloody and seething visage towards Volsung ‘Your pitiful creations not belong near one as great as Tulhesa They bring not but more destruction upon her They deceive all of creation into believing that she is a land and not a god As they are deceivers and destroyers I shall call your scions Dwarves and I shall not have them live I shall purify her of your creations, tear apart her tattered shrouds, and build a true glory to hold her bones!’ Onhr roared The rage of Onhr then fell upon the land The god’s creations began to fight and quarrel They divided up the land amongst themselves and began slaughtering each other Some Dwarves dug deep into the land they created making their homes in the earth as they built They spoke to their god Volsung for guidance But some Dwarves felt the call of the seas During their creation more than their share of water had been used and it sung in their veins They grew and became twisted They built ships and began to travel on the ocean they were supposed to hold back And when they tried to speak to their god Volsung, the only voice they heard in reply was that of Balar And so it passed that Dwarves and Fomoire came to inhabit the Mortal Plane, forever to war with the other The Dark Trail Almost 22,000 years ago the elves moved to their current location in the Godspine Mountains of the Eastern Empire Before this the elves lived in large numbers in the Western Empire and where almost the only humanoids who made the Wilderness and the lands of the Western empire home The elves were a very proud race and delved deep into their magical nature becoming such powerful forces that they would change the face of the land in order to suit their needs Legends have it that their power became so great it rivaled that of the gods, and in their pride they began to indulge in the darker parts of their souls Having done so they gave birth to Balar and his fomorian children The elves paid no heed to the warning signs which these twisted children gave The fomoire began to take on aspects of animals, but in ways that were a twisted mockery of nature The fomoire began to eat and crave the flesh of the elves and the lands which the fomorians claimed became dead and blighted The fomoire and their god Balar hunted the elves almost into extinction and the wars between the elves and fomoire were long and fierce killing much of the life of the land The few remaining elves withdrew into their places of power and hid, weaving powerful spells that made the fomoire blind to them But the magic was only so powerful, 43