Lynn's Self-Deception

Hill remembered that Corellon hadn't even planned to build a temple in this city.

He skimmed several letters and found that they were merely sounding him out, asking whether he needed help.

Nothing would come of them unless he asked for help first.

Still, he suspected those probing hands would be snatched back soon enough.

Especially once they saw how the Church of Dawn and the "Terrasil Elves" got along like brothers.

Lathander had always been approachable and often visited the royal courts of Elven empires. Many Elven nobles regarded him as a brother they would live and die for.

So plenty of the Elven Gods' followers had taken part in Lathander's plan to make himself Supreme God.

After all, Toril was a world where multiple faiths coexisted. Lynn, for instance, was a Priest of Milil, but he also worshiped Corellon and another Elven God.

Milil didn't mind.

Otherwise, two Elven empires would never have perished together. Their populations had numbered in the tens of millions, perhaps even a hundred million.

Why else had the Elven Gods simply swallowed it instead of going after Lathander?

Those Elves had joined in of their own accord.

By then, the Elves had grown so ambitious they wanted to establish an independent pantheon. If Lathander bore sixty percent of the blame, the Elven rulers and nobles who wanted to become Gods bore the other forty.

Of course, fate had slapped them hard in return.

The Elves' population had plummeted. That was why they had declined to the point where they couldn't even deal with Demons.

At the time, the Elven Gods had been lucky just to preserve their own divine power.

Those who relied chiefly on faith had been too preoccupied to help anyone else. Only Corellon's quick response, opening a new path for