AVELORN ALLEGIANCE
- Words: At What Price Power
- In Elvish, “Värä aané maan ëllúvé” (VAHR-ah ANH-ay Mahn El-LOO-vay)
- Colors: Gold (Yellow) and Green
- Symbol: Anchor
- Patron: None
- Cultural Majority: Gael’Dar
- Leader: Admiral Ilbryn
- Seat: Avelorn
- Pronounced: AH-vell-orrn
Avelorn is an Allegiance born out of the religious war that split the Gael’Dar nation of Seridane in two. The founders of this Allegiance fled the new god of their former homeland and founded a settlement, and folk flocked to their banner under that promise of safety.
- Avelorn are survivors, sailors and treasure hunters.
- They believe that religion should not interfere in matters of state.
- They hunt out the secrets of the past to better the future.
- They build ships to carry their goods and secrets across the waves.
- They fight for the future by learning from the mistakes of the past.
In 146 AR, Avelorn’s capital is the city of Avelorn; they also control the fortress of Nyrenthyr. Many other nearby settlements and resources are unclaimed by any Allegiance.
AVELORN HISTORY
- In 111 AR, several Gael’Dar Heroes performed a ritual which resulted in the creation of a newborn deity in the Otherworld
- As a result of this ritual, the 4 ancient and venerated beings known as the Ancestors were killed, their life force and power used to fuel the ritual of ascendance
- A Maelstrom ripped through the Otherworld, strengthening the Veil between worlds
- Within weeks of this ritual, the same Gael’Dar who performed the ritual assumed positions of power within half the major houses in Seridane
- Full-scale war erupted almost immediately between the two halves of the Gael’Dar nation–
- On one side, those elves who supported the political coup and the new god who supported them
- On the other, those elves who resented the unasked-for murder of their entire religious and cultural heritage, and a forced political takeover to support it
- The war raged for over 3 years, with thousands of Gael’Dar slain on both sides.
- In 115 AR, Clan Caledonii abandoned the Cambrian highlands for the North, relocating the shattered remnants of their people to the north and taking the knee to that branch of the Clan.
- In spring 116 AR, an assault by loyalist forces upon the capitol resulted in the destruction of a large portion of the capital.
- The loyalists named themselves Faithless, in reference to their denial of the new “Elvenar” pantheon
- While the Crystal Throne was spirited away, the comatose Prince-Regent Feravain died as a casualty of the collateral damage.
- The Seridane Alliance forces struck back in vengeance, cornering the Faithless forces at the battle known later as the Crimson Leaves. Hundreds of Faithless soldiers held the line against the Alliance, allowing the majority of the Faithless forces to escape in stolen ships.
- The refugee fleet became lost in a spring hurricane. When the storm passed, the elven fleet was hopelessly off course with damaged ships in the trackless western ocean.
- After a week spent floating and lost, emergency supplies running out, a Bo’Jar Khemri flotilla rescued the stranded Gael’Dar and sent them back eastward with supplies and repairs enough to make it to land.
- These Khemri couldn’t pronounce the proper names or titles of the Gael’Dar, but mashed the syllables up as best they could. They called the stranded elves “As’Vellarni,” combining elven and Khemri words for a combined translation of “Wanders the Heart.”
- This pidgin nomenclature stuck, the refugee elves laid down the title of “Faithless” and took the name Avelorn for themselves.
- The flotilla limped their way back to Brittanis and discovered they had made landfall in a mostly-depopulated area– the peninsula of Cambria that Clan Caledonii had recently evacuated.
- In 117 AR, a year after the Avelorn founded their colony, a delegation from the Seridane Alliance approached the gates of their settlement under a request for hospitality.
- The Emissary from the Alliance told the Avelorn that their new god had made its demands clear when the refugees were lost in the hurricane: war between elves was forbidden. The Avelorn could come home to Seridane.
- The Avelorn unanimously refused to return, but accepted the truce.
- In the 5 years since the truce, the Avelorn elves made a home for themselves in the highlands of Cambria and have prospered enough to control most of the northern peninsula and the islands nearby. They form a hard line against the Khraal and waste creatures, but carry the cultural scars of the war they fled to this day.
- The horrors of the Red Death allowed Avelorn to solidify their holdings. Despite losses of their human members, outside pressure on Avelorn was largely eliminated during the plague years, and since the majority population of Avelorn is nonhuman, the disease itself did not destroy the population in the way it did human-held lands.
- By 130 AR, Avelorn was a power in its own right, no longer a fledgeling but looking outside the first settlement at expansion.
- In 140 AR, a Gael’Dar by the name of Ilbryn, veteran of the civil war against Seridane, takes the title of Admiral and overall command of Avelorn’s forces and lands. Ilbryn is a seasoned ship captain and well-liked among all the folk of the city.
- Several nearby villages immediately take the knee, and Avelorn’s influence spreads in the west.
- Under Ilbryn’s leadership, the Avelorn fleet becomes focused into military and trading vessels, and regular ship-borne excursions to known ruins are common.
- Rare lore, trade goods, and lost knowledge begins streaming back to Avelorn, borne home by treasure hunters and carried away for sale by Avelarni traders.
- The Avelorn who leave their lands have a well earned reputation as treasure hunters and staunch opponents of the political machinations of religion.
- The elves of Avelorn have made a cultural habit of seeking out the ancient ruins of the highlands and plundering their secrets for rare materials, tools, recipes from the ruins and tombs which the Giants, Aquilonians, Brynn, and Tiberians all left behind.
- All of the Avelorn acknowledge the power of the gods of the Otherworld, but only a small fraction hold faith in them personally. Those who do are scrupulous about keeping their faith out of the politics of their people. Many actively oppose the interference of the Pantheons on the nations of Brittanis.
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