Elves and Orcs

Before the old man arrived, he hadn't thought much about it, merely clinging to the notion that even if he couldn't exact revenge, he would at least make things unpleasant for the Arcane Brotherhood. But Solam's words just now had awakened him; why had he truly come? To seek revenge? No, the old man swore he absolutely had no such thought. He knew how powerful the Arcane Brotherhood was, and dragging Kramsh into this was purely harming him. So, what was he here for?

He pondered for a long time and finally understood: it was loneliness. In this world, he didn't have many friends left; most had perished in that catastrophe. The only friend he could still confide in was Kramsh. Although their philosophies differed greatly, it didn't stop him from regarding Kramsh as a friend in the depths of his heart.

Kramsh had once warned him that if he continued to act so recklessly and unscrupulously, he would surely regret it. Back then, he was young and hadn't taken those words to heart. But looking back now, wasn't it true? He had always acted without mercy, and he had committed many evils. Wasn't his current plight just retribution?

Now, he had no family or friends left, save for this old friend who had constantly argued with him and warned him. It seemed fate still favored him; at least it had left him one friend, sparing him from dying in solitude.

In truth, Arando's thoughts were not unique. No matter what, humans are social animals; no one can bear to be alone forever.

After Arando figured this out, his entire being seemed to loosen up, and the gloom on his face dissipated significantly. While he wouldn't abandon his hatred, at least he no longer railed against heaven or blamed others, nor did he despise his fate. Fate hadn't been too bad to him; at least in his most painful and desperate hour, it had left him a friend. He now understood the meaning of the totem Kramsh had left him when they parted ways—it was to let him know that, no matter what, Kramsh still considered him a friend.

Solam watched the old man's face shift from gloomy to smiling, and finally to a look of relief, which was quite bizarre. Did this old man injure his brain when he was hurt earlier? Why is he acting so erratic? He had been fine just a moment ago, so why had he inexplicably fallen into deep thought? Solam suspected he might have said something wrong to trigger the old man, yet he felt he hadn't said anything at all.

"Hmph, I came to find your grandfather simply because I wanted to see my old friend before I die, so I wouldn't leave any regrets behind." Seeing Solam staring at him strangely, the old man immediately realized he had been lost in thought for too long.

Damn, that attitude toward life is truly unconventional. To be so old and still travel across mountains to visit an old friend for a chat—Solam felt a bit of admiration for the old man. One had to realize that coming to Avalon from the outside wasn't as simple as a trip to the countryside. He had learned of the hardships of the Spine of the World when he was an infant; although he hadn't walked it himself, he could feel it while held in the arms of his father's comrade-in-arms.

"What about you? I remember that old geezer Kramsh looked down on elves. His bizarre aesthetic sense caused quite a few jokes when we were adventuring together. How did he allow his grandson to be a Beast Elf?" The old man clearly didn't intend to talk about himself anymore and hurriedly changed the subject.

Solam sensed the old man's intent, but he didn't mind. If someone didn't want to talk, he wasn't going to force them. After all, the old man before him could still be considered his elder.

"My grandfather would have liked to forbid it, but I was sent to Avalon as soon as I was born. My old man was already dead by then, so even if he wanted to interfere, he couldn't," Solam said nonchalantly. To be honest, he didn't really care about his own background. It was already like this; could he change it? Or what? It was fine as it was, so he just let it be.

Truth be told, in the Faerun Continent, where lineage and birth were highly valued, Arando was seeing someone so indifferent to their own origins for the first time.

"And your mother?"

"She seems to have died too. Rumor has it she perished together with an enemy in a fierce battle."

"So, your parents were in a normal relationship?"

"What else could it be?"

"..."

The old man was truly speechless regarding this family. An orc had actually fallen in love with an elf and even produced a child. If this were known outside, out of a hundred people, a hundred and twenty wouldn't believe it.

"Why do you think this is so rare, old man? Although I know orcs and elves are mortal enemies, even so, there are always those who break through social prejudices to unite."

"Heh, it seems Kramsh's knowledge is as poor as ever. Since we have nothing to do, let me give you a lesson." The old man scooped a bowl of soup from the pot with a wooden ladle, took a sip, and began to explain some common knowledge to Solam.

At the very beginning, there was no such race as elves in this world. They arrived in this world through magic a very, very long time ago. Legend has it that in that era, dragons ruled the skies and giants ruled the earth. After the elves arrived, they began to overthrow the rule of those ancient overlords. Back then, the elves used magic that people today cannot imagine to tear the continent apart and used Mythals to enslave the dragons until the number of dragons in this world plummeted. At that time, the dwarves who emerged from the depths of the mountains also used their forging techniques to defeat the giants, overthrowing the giants' rule over the earth.

Afterward, the elves and dwarves erupted into a struggle for world hegemony. In the end, the dwarves were defeated and retreated into the mountains. From then on, the relationship between dwarves and elves was just that—not exactly mortal enemies, but they couldn't stand the sight of each other.

The elves gained dominion over the world. At that time, humans were no different from wild beasts, living in a completely primitive, cave-dwelling state.

The elves of that era were a standard "death-seeking" race, and a typical military dictatorship. They began to enslave other races on the continent, but that wasn't enough; they opened gates to other worlds to enslave races from there as well. Orcs were also brought in as slaves by the elves during this time.

But the elves never expected that orcs were not like the other races of Faerun at the time—they were not submissive. The orcs of that era were wild and untamable. Once their numbers grew, they began a long resistance. During the era of elven rule, the elven armies spent the vast majority of their time suppressing orc rebellions.

Yet the elves still weren't satisfied and continued to court disaster. Just as the orc rebellions were intensifying and other enslaved races were beginning to stir, the elves actually started to split. Would you believe it? But these death-seeking scumbags really did it. They divided into five regimes: Aryvandaar, Illefarn, Ilythiir, Keltormir, Miyeritar, and Shantel Othreier.

Although these five regimes did a good job of suppressing the orc rebellions for a time after their establishment, the talent of the elves at that time was infinite self-destruction. In the time that followed, these regimes started fighting each other due to political ideologies, territory, or even some inexplicable issues...

And the fighting became increasingly intense. In the end, the continent, which had already been blasted once by them, was blasted again. This time it was even worse, directly shattering the original continent into several pieces. The current Faerun Continent is the masterpiece of this war. (The continent itself would like to say it was truly cursed.)

The war between them was called the Crown Wars. It was also during this period that the elven gods officially stepped onto the stage of history. Later, the final Crown War erupted between Aryvandaar and Miyeritar.

At that time, all the elven gods hoped that one elven regime could end the thousands of years of mutual slaughter, so they chose to support Aryvandaar. Originally, things were going smoothly; Aryvandaar would unify the world, and the elves would continue to rule.

However, it seemed the elven style of courting disaster was contagious to the elven gods. The Queen of the elven gods at the time, the Goddess of Chaos and Fate—Araushnee—somehow had a falling out with the Chief God of the elves, Corellon Larethian, and then rebelled with her children, turning to support Miyeritar. This caused the war to become unprecedentedly tragic. Gods from both sides and ordinary elves joined the slaughter. In the end, the Goddess Araushnee and Miyeritar were defeated, and several of the goddess's children were killed. Perhaps the hatred of failure and the pain of losing her children caused Goddess Araushnee to become completely insane. She fell completely, becoming the current Spider Queen Lolth. Most of the survivors of Miyeritar also refused to surrender, instead following the Spider Queen Lolth into the Underdark with deep-seated hatred. They became the Drow. Both they and their deity harbored unspeakable hatred for the surface elves, and they were always prepared to take revenge on their cousins.

Although the long-divided elves were finally unified, both sides had slaughtered each other so brutally that by the time the elves came to their senses, another pantheon had already risen: the Orc Pantheon.

The elves began to attempt to suppress the orcs again, but by this time, the elves were already exhausted, and the elven gods were also severely weakened after just experiencing the rebellion of their Queen.

At this time, the Chief God of the orcs, Gruumsh, had also grown up and did not fear the elven Chief God Corellon at all. Thus, a great war broke out between the two sides. During this, the elven Chief God Corellon and the orc Chief God Gruumsh together sired the Ityak-Ortheel—a giant mushroom with three massive, thick legs and countless tentacles... Heaven knows what it went through to grow into such a state.

However, this monster was quite powerful. Neither magic nor divine spells could completely kill it. The elven gods thought of many ways, but this thing would still run over to the elven territories to wreak havoc every so often.