Orcs and Elves (II)

So even after the Year of Dark Boiling, when every race on the continent was embroiled in conflict and the human race—the dominant power of the time—had been severely weakened, with civilization even regressing, the Elves still weren't strong enough to reclaim their place at the top of the continent.

The Elves hated the Orcs with a passion. Even though many Orcs had abandoned their Chaotic Evil ways and embraced Kampas, the God of War, some more radical Elves still chanted the slogan, "Orcs must die!" Only a few Elves who had more contact with the outside world could take a more level-headed view of the Orcs. But that only meant they wouldn't draw their swords on sight. As for treating them kindly, they wouldn't even dream of it.

As for falling in love, that was even more out of the question. In this world, the arrogance of Dragons and Elves was notorious. Elves looked down on every other race. They thought humans were greedy and short-lived; Dwarves were stubborn, crude little stumps; Halflings were too casual, too fond of pranks, and all too prone to petty theft; and Gnomes were greedy, had wild imaginations, and were always coming up with nonsensical inventions. Besides, both those races were little stumps, too. As for Orcs...

In the eyes of Elves, Orcs had no redeeming qualities. They were hot-tempered, crude, greedy, and, to top it all off, damn ugly. Elves were the very definition of an appearance-obsessed crowd. They liked refined, beautiful faces, so across the entire continent, only humans could pair with Elves. It was rare for other races to do so, but it did happen. Orcs, though...

To be honest, on the continent as it stood, even Beast Elves were the result of Orcs capturing Elves and forcing themselves on them. And even if a child was born, most Orcs would kill the half-breeds. Orcs were already xenophobic, and they could hardly tolerate the blood of their mortal enemies. If one or two did have a change of heart, they would only exile the half-breeds and leave them to fend for themselves. So even if a Beast Elf managed to grow up, they were generally consumed by hatred—in short, they were classic antisocial personalities.

So the Beast Elves who were still alive were either madmen who wanted to destroy the world or devil-worshipping cultists. They were almost always hunted down. The Elves were the most ruthless of all, killing every Beast Elf they came across. Most Beast Elves were ugly, too. Maybe it was because they were born of humiliation and hatred. Few looked as decent as Solam. If Solam hadn't told Arando himself that he was a Beast Elf, Arando wouldn't have believed him.

This was the first time Solam had heard that his own origins could be so dramatic. His no-good father seemed to have done all right for himself—he'd actually managed to seduce a girl from the beauty-obsessed crowd. His skills with women must have been impressive, too. Still, a Casanova among a bunch of honest, simple Orcs was pretty bizarre.

Old Arando seemed to have gone too long without anyone to talk to. Now that he'd finally met the grandson of an old friend, he was eager to chat, and told Solam all sorts of things about the outside world—its history and culture, for example. Solam gained a much clearer picture of the world beyond.

After the Year of Dark Boiling, the continent's political landscape changed dramatically. Many nations that had flourished for thousands of years were swept into the river of history by the catastrophe. The Silvermoon Federation, for example, was a nation founded by Alustriel Silverhand—Mystra's daughter and Chosen, also known as the Lady of Hope. It was destroyed in the disaster, and Alustriel herself perished. Silverymoon was completely destroyed as well.

In fact, nearly all of the Goddess of Magic's Chosen were killed or wounded in the catastrophe. The only one left alive was the Storm Queen, one of the Seven Sisters of the North—Laeral Silverhand, also known as Alustriel Silverhand. After the disaster had subsided, this powerful witch and Chosen led the remnants of the old Silvermoon Federation to rebuild the Kingdom of Silverymoon atop the ruins of Silverymoon. Even today, the beautiful and powerful lady was still alive and well.

There was plenty of gossip about the Seven Sisters of the North. Many records claimed that they were all daughters of Mystra, the Goddess of Magic, though who their father—or fathers—were remained a mystery. Most of the Seven Sisters had been raised by the Goddess of Magic's First Chosen and lover, Elminster, the Shadow Archmage.

That old wizard was the model gentleman for men like us. Not only had he been involved with Mystra, the Goddess of Magic, but after raising her daughters, he'd bedded them one by one, if you know what I mean. He'd raised them from little girls and then made them his lovers. And one thing worth mentioning: the old man had been at least a thousand years old when he took them in. That old rascal certainly knew how to have fun. After the girls grew up, they all had careers of their own, and some even got married. You could only say they were pretty open-minded. After being raised by their stepfather, they'd apparently suffered no ill effects and had grown up perfectly healthy.

You could only say that the Goddess of Magic had set a fine example as a mother and a deity. Her promiscuity and amorous nature were as famous across the multiverse as her divine portfolio. Mystra had many lovers, and she was easily drawn to talented spellcasters. Most of her lovers were legendary wizards. But her fickleness also brought her a lot of trouble. She changed her affections quickly, until one of her lovers, Samaster, finally couldn't stand her infidelity. After proposing to her three times and being rejected each time, he turned love into hatred, became a Lich, and founded the Cult of the Dragon to oppose the Goddess of Magic. He played a major part in wiping out her Chosen. Samaster eventually vanished after he and Elminster, the Shadow Archmage, killed each other, but some still believed that the gifted Lich hadn't perished and was merely hiding in the shadows.

In modern times, whether because so many of her Chosen and lovers had died or because she had died once herself—she went down during the Time of Troubles, then came back to life—this goddess had become more restrained in that regard. At least, there'd been no reports of anyone becoming her lover in the past several thousand years. I forgot to mention that the Storm Queen, Laeral Silverhand, was the only female Chosen who hadn't been raised by the old lecher Elminster. The witch herself disapproved of the licentious ways of Elminster and the Goddess of Magic.

Over the past several thousand years, many nations had vanished and many others had risen. That was the business of mortals, and it was only natural over such a long period. The greatest change had actually been the succession of the gods. First, the once-powerful nature pantheon collapsed. Its former chief deity, the Father of Oaks, Silvanus, perished while repairing the world after it had been damaged by the Orc gods, demons, and devils. The once-mighty nature pantheon then fell apart, and many nature deities either perished or joined the forces of good.

The Triad of old—the God of Justice, Tyr; the God of Valor, Torm; and the God of Suffering, Ilmater—also suffered heavy losses in the catastrophe. Tyr had even died once. He was brought back to life only because Valtrie Polien, the High Priest of the God of Justice, willingly sacrificed himself. Otherwise, Tyr would have been done for. Torm had the worst of it: he died outright. His followers tried several times to bring him back, but other evil gods thwarted them, and in the end he truly remained dead. Ilmater, the God of Suffering, came through unscathed. In fact, his teachings spread widely during the catastrophe, and his influence grew instead of waning.

Later, Lathander, the God of Dawn from the nature pantheon, switched sides and joined the forces of Order. He took over some of Torm's divine portfolio and became the Lord of Radiance. Perhaps Good really had been on the verge of being overwhelmed by Evil after the Year of Dark Boiling. The current Triad—Tyr, the God of Justice (Greater Deity); Ilmater, the God of Suffering (Intermediate Deity); and Lathander, the Lord of Radiance (Greater Deity)—was actually stronger than before.

The greatest beneficiaries of the Year of Dark Boiling, the evil gods, also underwent major changes. The once-fractured Dead Three reunited after the catastrophe. Bane, the former leader of the Dead Three and God of Tyranny, used Fingers of Jergal, the artifact once used by the Dead Three to divide their divine portfolios, to launch a grand scheme that directly brought two new gods into being: the God of Fear, Sel (Intermediate Deity), and the God of Cruelty, Hextor (Intermediate Deity). They also inherited part of the God of Slaughter's portfolio. They were still young gods—for a deity, a few thousand years was nothing—but given time, they would surely grow stronger.

But Bane's plan was well laid. He'd created two new evil gods to continue fighting the gods of Good. What he hadn't expected was that his scheme would somehow come to the attention of Shar, the Lady of Night and the divine realm's troublemaker for ten thousand years, and Cyric, the greatest self-saboteur in history and the Prince of Lies. With those two busybodies stirring things up, the whole affair ended in catastrophe: a great war in which eighty percent of all intelligent beings took part. Bane's later schemes became impossible to carry out, and the newly reunited Dead Three were forced to fight on the front lines.

They had to fight the other gods before they were ready, and it left them gravely wounded. They had no choice but to lie low during what should have been their time to rise. Otherwise, the Dead Three might truly have overwhelmed the Triad, instead of being suppressed by them as they were now. The catastrophe also unintentionally created a new evil god: Malar, God of the Wilds and former God of the Hunt. He rose to prominence during the catastrophe, acquiring the portfolios of the wilds, strength, madness, survival, and destruction, and becoming a Greater Deity. He also made one of his offspring a god: Balu, the Mad God and God of Rage, a Lesser Deity whose portfolios included rage, stupidity, savagery, madness, and evil beasts.

Both gods were extremely Chaotic, and they hated civilization. In the wilderness, they were worshipped by giants (the lesser kind), Ogres, Gnolls, and other monsters. Their main source of worshippers was the Orcs who had yet to abandon their Chaotic ways.