A Brief Introduction To A Dying Culture

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*You come across a book perhaps in the wood elven tavern or even by the fountain*

" The Dark Oak Elves

A once great empire and culture of wood elves, now lost to assimilation. These elves were known to be far darker than normal wood elves, often referring to other wood elves as pale skinned fakes, with always black hair. They valued family and honor (the two are connected) as well as the natural forces.

The natural forces

To understand the dark oak elves rules of honor, you must understand how they view the world.

According to dark oak elven belief, the world is all connected to higher beings who in turn serve one supreme being. Which was interpreted to mean that families must follow the same example.

The Family

The family is set up with the two heads, who were viewed as one, then the eldest or most honorable members then everyone else.

It was the goal of every single member, no matter the rank, worked for the betterment of the family. To dishonor your family often meant death or exile.

The head of the house worked to ensure that the family respects the higher beings and the supreme being. They also settled disputes between or within lower ranks and created house laws as they saw fit.

The most honorable or eldest, often called the Laalueh'nuit, ensured that lower members obeyed house rules (they varied from house and to house) or the care of them.

The lowest either held no power or were completely unrelated to the family and just served under them. I will talk more of the former later.

The Mu

The mu or mudang resembled priest in these societies. They also may have been druids,the reason I say this is because there were multiple accounts of mu interpreting the whispers of trees and appeasing dangerous beast.

The mu often served as advisors and healers to houses of power or worked alone. Working to ensure that the heads themselves followed the teachings of the supreme being, but no matter their affiliation all mu healed and put nature first.

Marriage

Marriage is regarded as most sacred and unbreakable ceremony, a joining of two to create one. This theology is explained by the "joining of the supreme being"*. To divorce was to literally commit suicide and to be a widow meant that the joined body simply had a prolonged existence. There was no such thing as marriage.

The Political structure.

The Dark Oak elves followed the same government of humans, with of course a few differences.

When a strong family defeated another, the rest of the members could either take the last name of the stronger family or die. There was an exception to this when the great house AnninGelia took power and broke the will of families or outright annihilated them, but he let the subjugated families keep their name.

The rule of AnninGelia

This house was infamous for its cunning and ruthless head as well as their success in joining all of the dark oak elves.

As mentioned above, AninnaGelia would let houses keep their name when subjugated. Along with this uncommon exception, the heads gave the lowest ranks a name, which also meant power, if one of the heads caught wind of their exceptional work. My own family received their name when a common soldier, my ancestor, managed to stop and expose a traitorous house that was subjugated by AnninGelia.

The lowest ranks

A more common name for this rank are the borrowers because they "borrowed" the last name of the family they served.

The borrowers were generally farmers, artisans, and soldiers. They were generally insignificant but if they served an honorable house, they two were cared for.

Assimilation

The original point in which dark oak elves split from other elves is unknown and is only explained by myths that involve a great demon*.

Sometime, probably around Mid Aegis, the dark oak elven empire was found. From the persepctive of the current head of AnninGelia, therefor the perspective of all, the Malinorian elves were complacent and the defintion of achikr.The culture would have been more well known today if the dark oak elves hand't been so hostile and attacked the more technologically advanced elves, a situation similar to that of snowelves.

Thankfully the Malinorian elves were wise and actually sparred the race of potential genocide by convincing the druidic order to march with them into the heart of the dark oak elven empire whilst the druids flaunted their abilities, there were several accounts of houses bowing before the druids and swearing allegiance to the High Price of Malinor on the spot.

Sadly the stigma between dark oak elves and malinorian elves lasted and many dark oak elven familes died out after a few generations. Those who "converted" to Malinorian viewed often intermarried with dark elves.

*"joining of the supreme being"- possible reference to the relationship between Cernnunos and Cerridwen.

*Great Demon- possibly the name for a group of dark oak elves hated and was the reason for them breaking off"

[Heero 4092]

Moved to the Archive. It shall be sorted into the appropriate category shortly.