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OOC Prelude

Hello everyone,

For once I have gotten off of my bum and done a thing; I’ve written some lore for LoTC ancient history (Not super ancient history but pre-Aegis), specifically for the Elves.

My goal is to use this lore as the foundation for Events; Specifically both event builds, and eventlines. Keeping in mind the goal that this lore will be revealed in roleplay through events and IC discoveries, I have not posted all of the lore here. The LM team can privately contact me for the full documentation of the lore, some of which is still being worked on, and is currently at about 15 pages lore and 3 pages OOC.

 

However, I am enemy #1 of “secret” lore, and so I am posting this lore on the forums so that players have a method of voicing their opinions/concerns. This will include a general lore overview and information on a few of the main aspects of this culture (though not full details and not all the info as that shall be discovered IC). First though, some (a lot of) OOC Information.

 

Spoiler

 

Lore Intentions/Goals - I believe it is important that all lore, especially ancient lore and history, has a clearly defined intention set forth by the lore writer. Honesty is important in setting forth these intentions, as is considering the impact/benefit the lore writer’s roleplay characters might gain from the lore being accepted, as this clearly would have some impact on the writer’s intent.

 

This lore was written initially to fill a void and answer a question, though the intent changed once I really got started. The question I asked myself was, “What is it that Elven History, lore, and roleplay lacks?”

The Elves lack ancient history as a whole; The Wood Elves lack history for their subrace’s founding, though supposedly (according to the wiki) they are just the least changed direct descendants of the ancient elves. But I quickly realized that I couldn’t solve the issue of lack of history and that was, rumor has long had it, is something the Lore team (or maybe just Supremacy) has worked on.

In lieu of being able to solve the lack-of-history dilemma, I changed my goal to a more realistic one: “Create something interesting, unique, and new, preferably high-fantasy, in terms of Elven lore, which can function as multiple explorable areas and event lines for the players to enjoy, explore, and most importantly, form their own opinions and conclusions about.”

 

So, with creating this lore I tried to keep the following in mind.

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    Spoiler

     

    • These people did not characterize themselves as Wood Elves. They are not intended to function as the ancestry for any wood elves. They are described as "Wood elven" in appearance and genetics solely because the wood elves are supposedly the least changed of all elven subraces, from the Ancient Elves. 

    • I do not want to stifle the creativity or ingenuity of anyone, or interfere with any other lore currently on the table for Elves. That in mind, this lore takes place: Post Ancient Aegis, and post the departure of Larihei’s group from the Elves, and well before “Modern” Aegis (Aka, when people actually played characters on the server). Ergo, it takes place in that mysterious “grey time” which has very little lore for really any race right now.

    • In keeping with a desire not to stifle other lore or cause issues, this lore was written specifically themed around a single faction of elves which split off from the rest of the population of elves and began a society in isolation. Their reasons for doing so are centered on their differences in opinion on the path the Mali should take.

    • Part of the fun of exploration, discovery, and adventure, is drawing your own conclusions about your discovery. That is part of the reason this Lore is written almost entirely in OOC. It is not written as if discovery notes or otherwise because simply put, none of this has ever been discovered, assumed, or believed, by any characters on LoTC at all. No belief system or culture exists exactly like these people had.

    • If accepted, event areas will be created based off this lore and eventlines carried out. The intent is to allow players to explore, adventure, and form their own conclusions about the place and people who lived there. For that reason a lot of this is kept semi-secret; I don’t want people going to explore an area and then just going to reference the lore and going “Oh, this was obviously a room used for ___. I am so smart. Doo doo doo.”

    • Eventlines/explorable areas for the elves in the past have not taken into consideration the fact that they would render huge tracks of land untouchable to the playerbase. The event areas for this lore are specifically themed to be enclosed, isolated, and hidden. Finding them will be as much an eventline in and of itself as actually getting access to and exploring them; Because they are hidden and separate, they will not ever interfere with normal land access or the ability of a nation to expand.

    • The Lore Team and Event Team has my express permission to create, build, manage, and execute event areas and eventlines based off this lore if I am ever absent, on hiatus, or no longer playing the server, if it is accepted.

    • I really want to incorporate as much lore as possible into this and really make it immersive, and for that purpose most of the writing found in these areas is going to be in Ancient Elven. Nothing will be terribly clearly laid out; Rather, the entire culture of these people will be spread out over many different eventlines and explorable areas.

     

     

 

Theme -
This lore plays off of several themes: A need for cultural history for the Elves, primarily the Wood Elves but a desire not to stifle. That is, a desire to add some cultural history concerning an ancient faction of Elves, the majority of them Mali’ame, without proving incorrect any currently held beliefs or religions, and without stifling the creative possibilities for future lore writers who wish to write more lore for different factions or timelines of the Mali’ame.

This lore also plays off the long-running theme of unity and division for the Elves of LoTC: This theme of unity/divison has been established mainly through the roleplay of the players and the history of the elven nations. It is a theme I personally belief could be played off of greatly, sort of as one of the great quests of the Elves or secondary consequences of Iblees’ curse; In cursing the Elves with low fertility, he also doomed them to division, for with such a low population the Elves would always be seeking those who agreed with them, and to add to their own cause and prevent assisting those they disagreed with, would ceaselessly divide and gather the like-minded to themselves. In a race with a much lower than normal population, but long life, every like-minded body was desired to try and achieve some sense of cultural supremacy over other existing factions. It was, in my belief, that desire to gather those close (including family, relatives, etc) and keep them close which originally caused the split between subraces.

 

What this lore don’t do -

This lore is not intended to justify any current IC beliefs or religion, and it is also not intended to prove wrong any current IC beliefs or religions. This is a splinter group of Elves with radical ideas and beliefs who divided from the Elves long ago. This lore does not intend to create a new subrace, race, faction(as in, current RP faction not dead-ancient-faction), people, playable race, or unique character type. As detailed in the lore, the people (who were just a faction and not their own unique subrace) referenced no longer exist, either through integration with the general populace or through extinction. Descent from these people can be claimed by anyone in RP if they like, but you can claim anything in RP.

This lore is not intended to be a defining point for an entire race or subrace, nor is it meant to supercede or retcon any existing lore. It is not intended to be a crutch for any group to work off of, however whatever becomes of it after reveal in-game and whatever conclusions players make of it is entirely up to them.

 



 

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General Lore Overview

 

 

Spoiler

 

Ame’onn is an elven word meaning “From the Forest,” an ancillary title given by the outside Mali to this separatist faction, due to their choice of home. What they referred to themselves as is unknown. Even under Malin, the Elven people were never in total agreement, for what people ever are even under the most charismatic of leaders? There had always existed different philosophies and attitudes, even concerning the great menace that was and is Iblees. It was these disagreements that finally caused many factions to split off from what was once the Mali as a whole; One of these factions would in time be known as the Ame’onn.

 

What difference the Ame’onn had to the other factions, other than their beliefs, culture and skills, was the size of their split. Relatively small comparatively, unlike other divisions such as Larihei’s. In addition there were no factors, environmental or otherwise, which would alter their appearance over the ages aside from their inherited features. Though they separated from the other Elves before the subraces would truly be known by any other name, aside from Larihei’s group which had separated in the first centuries of Aegis, they maintained the physical features typical of Malin’s elder children, those who would become known later as the Mali’ame.

Not satisfied with Iblees’ banishment or the power the Elves held during the war against Iblees and his undead, the Ame’onn took the peace of the Betrayer’s absence as an opportunity to separate themselves from the other Elves, whom they considered to have inadequate power and inadequate response to threats, as well as a warped view of the world. Fleeing deep into the eldest, most hidden forests of the lands, the Ame’onn took to several small enclaves known as Asimulum. These were typically groves, glades, or other hidden places within nature that were hidden further by the Ame’onn’s magic.

By and large the Ame’onn consisted of scholars, philosophers, and mages. They maintained a respect and reverence of nature, but did not practice druidism or any philosophies associated with such. It is likely no druids were included in their midst for various reasons. They built their homes in hidden groves and glades, and further concealed them with magic in the use of illusion, wards, and other such powers. Having little to no use for outsiders or those who had not the skill or the wherewithal to join their separation (it is to be noted that not all Elven mages joined them and obviously no mages that would become Mali’aheral did, as this exodus was post-Larihei’s group’s departure from the Elves.), they forbade outsiders into their asimulum and forbade most contact with the outside world except in certain circumstances. They sought to live an isolated life wherein they could practice their beliefs, philosophies, and magics in peace. The asimulum’s, or enclaves which they lived in, varied in populace depending on purpose, ranging from less than a dozen individuals, to closer to a hundred in the largest of settlements. They grew no larger than that and it is likely there existed only one of such large population.

Due to the mystery surrounding their existence, purpose, and places of residence, the other Elves began to refer to this faction as “Ame’onn”. They lived in and came from the deepest and eldest parts of the woods, and never could they be tracked back to their homes what few times they were discovered; Indeed, if an asimulum was discovered, the next time it was visited it would be completely empty, devoid of life as if abandoned; Nothing left but the lingering magic in the air of enchantments untangled and wards undone.

In due time the Ame’onn would become naught but a legend. Whatever happened to them is hard to say; Some asimulums may have, after centuries of production, been unable to sustain their population and been forced to re-integrate themselves with the general populace. Some asimulum of smaller populations may have died out, perhaps from the population size being too small, or perhaps plague, or perhaps having been discovered by forces too strong to repel and too large flee from. Whatever their fate, all of the Ame’onn would eventually disappear, either through re-integration with the populace, or something far more unfortunate.

The magic concealing and safeguarding their asimulum would stand stalwart for centuries, allowing their culture and history to go undiscovered for as long as the magic held. To re-discover this lost culture would require wit, ingenuity, and a keen understanding of the magics utilized to conceal them.

 

 

 

 

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General Culture Overview

 

 

Spoiler

 

The Ame’onn’s culture focused on a number of different aspects which defined their everyday life, rituals, and beliefs. Their everyday life was defined by the tir'taynei, or Green Law, which they followed religiously. This law was heavily based on a balance between nature and all living things; it is important to note the Ame’onn did not interpret balance, or meracahe, in the same manner as the Druidic Order. Rather the Ame’onn believed that all living things would interfere with each other, including mortals with animals, plant life, etc. However, the Ame’onn believed in a controlled method of interaction and believed interaction with nature should be kept to the mundane. They were a generally pacifistic society with great reverence and respect for nature, made up primarily of scholars, scribes, researchers, bookkeepers, authors, and most importantly mages. Voidal magic played as important a role in the culture of the Ame’onn as Nature did, but they believed the two were not meant to interact; Thusly magic was not used on nature, to manipulate, alter, destroy, or otherwise interact with it.

 

Asimulums

 

The Ame’onn resided in enclaves known as asimulum; Glades, groves, and other hidden places that acted as isolated sanctuaries for the Mali who settled in them. While these were sometimes in deep elder woods (The largest of such settlements likely were), they could be any isolated place which could be almost completely hidden from mortal eye with the use of magic. This could include the tops of mountains, the inside of circular mountain ranges, cliffsides obscured by waterfalls, swamps, tropical jungles, and other such far-flung and hidden places.

The asimulum were many, but lacked largely in population. They each were dedicated to specific purposes; The most hidden were small, tucked away, and often consisted of just one or two Mali possessing powerful magics whose sole purpose was to protect and preserve designated relics or knowledge. The asimulum dedicated to research were larger, usually being the most populated and difficult to conceal. When research was completed, it was usually sent away to be safeguarded in one of the smaller asimulum.

This isolated society likely lasted for centuries, specifically hand-developing the area they lived in to suit their needs. By the time their culture dwindled and ultimately disappeared, the asimulums would have existed for centuries, designed specifically around the purpose for which the asimulum had existed. Concealed for millenia and defended against outside influence, the asimulums would be untouched by anything save nature, unless some other party had stumbled upon them in the past.



 

Tir'taynei

 

Known as the Green Law, this was the word of law followed by the Ame’onn in day-to-day life. It laid out the laws for living in the asimulum, the punishments for breaking them, and the exceptions. It was the culmination of months of debate amongst the founders of the Ame’onn, and the resultant set of laws was put into place to be enforced by the populace at large. It emphasised balance with nature, the goals of the Ame’onn, the value of their existence, and the importance of their isolation.

It was not the Ame’onn’s belief that their place was to enforce a balance of nature; Rather it was inevitably that mortals would alter and change the worlds they lived in, and while others may hold no respect for the natural world, they would do their best to follow their own laws in regards to it. The Tir'taynei forbid the excess harming of natural things, the death of living things without just cause, and forbade leaving the asimulum save for the few exceptional journeys to gather materials or deliver messages blessed by the leaders.

 

The tir'taynei also demanded that all natural things be kept in their natural place; Animals should not be displaced ever from their natural habitats, nor should plants. Plantlife and animals shall not be treated with anything less than the utmost respect; Bearing this in mind, keeping animals as pets and keeping plants indoors or in confined spaces (pots), was not permitted. Livestock when existing naturally in asimulums, was allowed to roam freely and only given extra care and food as trade for the fact they would eventually be killed for meat towards the end of their natural life; Livestock was never confined within pens. Plants were not grown in “unnatural” settings or places. Animals were generally held in a higher regard than plants in the natural order of things.

The tir'taynei set forth that all life was of a divine nature, and therefore precious. Under this philosophy the Ame’onn maintained a pacifist attitude towards each other and the other races.

 

Preserving the Past for the Future

 

An important part of Ame’onn culture was the gathering, protecting, restoring, and keeping of ancient knowledge, wisdom, history, relics, and magics. They believed that the future was built on the foundations of the past, and that their power alone was enough to safeguard this future. The isolation of the Ame’onn and extensive magical skills made some Mali agree, and they were gifted with or asked to keep safe a number of pieces of knowledge and important relics. But for as many trusted them to keep safe their artifacts or writing, just as many did not; For some items of particular value or importance in the Ame’onn’s eyes, they would not have allowed them to stay in any place they thought unsafe, or hands they deemed unworthy. The Ame’onn did practice forceful acquisition of some items of importance, though always tried to gain by subterfuge and guile before the blade and spell.


 

Magical Practices

 

Magic was an innate and necessary art for the Ame’onn. It is with magic that they concealed their asimulum from prying eyes, and with which they defend themselves and their sacred glades. It is the arcane that they developed and relied upon in order to defeat future foes or, if necessary, Iblees should he rise again. Magical research was performed by anyone of the talent or aptitude for it; Nearly every member of an asimulum would have some magical talent or skill. The most commonly practiced magics within asimulum’s included the more abstract arts. Versions and types of illusion, alteration, cognitism, mental magic, voidal translocation, wards, and other similar arts. Evocations were practiced but not as heavily, as they were not viewed as something that could be of use beyond for use in combat.

Many of the magical wards, enchantments, illusions, and defenses designed to keep the asimulum safe, isolated, and hidden still continue to churn on to this day, millenia after the disappearance of their original crafters.

 

Death

 

Knowledgeable of the inevitable and sometimes unexpected end, the Ame’onn made plans for the maintenance and continuation of their asimulum in the event of their death; This was especially important for asimulum with low population, which could contain less than a half dozen Ame’onn at any time and sometimes contained as little as three. This involved the continued function of illusions and all other magical defenses protecting the asimulum, as well as any traps or other functions within that would keep the artifacts, knowledge, relics, and such safe from intruders. They also created instructions concerning their research or projects, including whether or not it should be continued after their death.

In this way, asimulum in which every member had somehow met an untimely end would still remain sealed, hidden, defended, and safe, up until the time that another asimulum (or other worthy group of explorers clever enough to get through the defenses) re-discovered it.

 

Religion

 

Aside from following theTir'taynei, the Ame’onn had no generalized religious beliefs. There are religious beliefs listed in the Tir'taynei itself, but they do not include any forms of worship; they are more similar to philosophical theories on the founding of the world than anything else. However, the fact that they did have and hold some origin story of sorts, however untruthful or otherwise, and built their laws and relationship with nature based off that knowedge, was what set them largely apart from the Larihei’s followers; those who found truth in Larihei’s words would have followed in that departure from Aegis, rather than remain long enough to become part of the Ame’onn.

Philosophical debate about the nature and purpose of the world was rampant within the asimulums, and was welcome as part of their culture. In truth, many of the asimulum had never read the full content of the Tir'taynei, which was considered the pet-project of elders far too verbose; The laws were derived from it and written in brief so as to not waste time with interpretation and debate on enforcement of it.

What can be said, for certain, is the fact the Ame’onn did not follow any system of faith, belief, or morals quite like any which currently exists. Perhaps this difference was what ultimately ostracized them from their brothers and caused them to isolate themselves away from all others.

 

 

 

 


 

Final Statements

 

As mentioned in the beginning, I am not posting all of the lore. There is a lot more written about this and in more detail than it currently stands; There is also lots of room for improvements and additions. The full lore as it is includes in-depth explanations of how their society functions, their culture, their laws, and the different jobs and positions held within their societal structure. It also includes in-depth information about some important cultural aspects of life, such as rituals for funerals, celebrations, what arts they praticed outside of magic, etc.

The full details are being kept secret because I would like them to be discovered in character and I would like characters to draw their own conclusions based on the discoveries they and others make.

 

tl;dr:: Realist naturalist mage elves who have an actual lore reason to have something left behind after millenia, that can be uncovered and explored by players.

 

Also if you are good at Elven and wish to help me in my attempt to make this lore as immersive as possible, please hit me up.

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Wow, Lulu! Great moves. Keep it up, proud of you.

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Lulu is one of the best lore writers on the Server plus she is more knowledgeable on ancient server rule than myself even. 

 

Lms just say accepted. 

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I most definitely agree with this work. It is creative and does not fall into a confined part of the cultural spectrum that a lot of Elven culture/history lore tends to do. Well done!

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24 minutes ago, Salamandra said:

Dates? This is pre-Aegis so before year 0?

In that grey time that is largely undefined by lore or dates. By Pre-Aegis I mean pre-player Aegis. This did not occur during the same time period as normal roleplay was occuring on the server; by then the asimulums had died out or were dying out.

 

Just for reference I've placed the time periods at roughly post-Larihei's departure (Which occured in pre-roleplay times as they left to Asulon through the same portals all other people who colonized Asulon and then eventually either died out or fled to new lands did). I would characterize Larihei's departure from the Elves as probably the first great "Schism", which in my opinion sort of opened the floodgates for the ultimate division of the elves that inevitably lead to the different sub-races we know today.

 

To clarify they are not ancestors of Wood elves, though some lines may be or may desire to claim descent from them. They were remnants of ancient elves and had no environmental, magical, or other influences which changed their physical appearance. 

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I mean, if we're going to have lore for a pre-player Aegis Wood Elf culture, why not do the one that Leowarrior proposed, that's being RP'd by a bunch of people

 

I just think this is not-necessary, no lore should be accepted about an ancient society, because you don't have to have it-- Just roleplay your culture, and say that 'oh yeah pre-history we did this' in roleplay.

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23 minutes ago, Space said:

I mean, if we're going to have lore for a pre-player Aegis Wood Elf culture, why not do the one that Leowarrior proposed, that's being RP'd by a bunch of people

 

I just think this is not-necessary, no lore should be accepted about an ancient society, because you don't have to have it-- Just roleplay your culture, and say that 'oh yeah pre-history we did this' in roleplay.

There are several differences between what Leo wants and what I intended with this. Obviously you didn't read the thread in it's entirety. If you had you'd realize it is not intended to be justification for a culture that already exists.

 

This isn't a Wood Elven culture; the people were wood elves solely because, according to what is known about lore, Wood Elves are the most unchanged from the appearance of ancient elves, and thusly these people would resemble wood elves, but they would not characterize themselves as wood elves.

 

In addition, this isn't a culture that is established, roleplay, or existing. It was not written to be a history for a culture for people who already had that culture to simply reinforce their pre-existing beliefs. 

 

How can it be "roleplayed" when it has not been discovered and no one knows anything about it? This is lore for a subsect faction that existed in Ancient History, and is intended for events, explorable areas, and event lines to be built up around it. Do I need lore to create eventlines and event areas? No, but out of respect for the LMs I'd rather not bullshit my way into relevance by just starting on a project of this size.

 

If any players find it and decide they want to adopt the culture, that is up to the playerbase. But it was not created nor written to be a culture people are intended to adopt.

 

I am not submitting lore for the justification of my own current IC beliefs, culture, or religion. I am submitted lore in order to bring something to the server for the Players to discover and do what they wish with, which may very well simply be "explore and discover".

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Great work! +10

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Quick advisitory statement: In Elven, the adjective comes after the noun and is separated by an apostrophe, IIRC, so, taynei'tir reads as law green, not green law.

 

Otherwise, lore looks nice, it seems a great idea to put more depth into the world and vary the ruins one might find! +1

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If its a splinter group then frankly I have no issue with this piece of lore, nor does it necessarily have to conflict with the seed lore which most wood elves RP as their history these days!

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1 hour ago, KorusPrime said:

Quick advisitory statement: In Elven, the adjective comes after the noun and is separated by an apostrophe, IIRC, so, taynei'tir reads as law green, not green law.

 

Otherwise, lore looks nice, it seems a great idea to put more depth into the world and vary the ruins one might find! +1

Thank you, I will fix that!

 

1 hour ago, 吳憾戰士14 said:

If its a splinter group then frankly I have no issue with this piece of lore, nor does it necessarily have to conflict with the seed lore which most wood elves RP as their history these days!

Yes, the important thing is that I thoroughly clarified that it is a splinter group, and made it exceedingly clear that it was not intended as an origin story for any subrace of Elves. I also never once claimed "all" of a subrace participated in this, or even "most". Also of importance is the fact that this is not currently being roleplayed at all, and the lore was not written from the standpoint of the "discoverer" who just happened to be the person who started roleplaying the lore as truth before actually getting it accepted. I also have a clear method of implementation that allows players to come to their own conclusions about the discoveries they make; That is why a lot of the lore is kept secret, to avoid coloring anyone's perception of what they discover. The "truth" of the lore is not and will not forced on anyone.

 

:) But thank you for your lack of issues, which is understandable.

 

Just trying to make sure you understand the differences between my lore and your lore, so that if any issues arise in the future its very clear that there is a very clear difference between the two lores, not just in content but in manner and method of implementation and in intent of submission. This way there's no upset in the future. Not an attempt to be passive aggressive, just to make sure you are aware of where the differences in the two works lie.

Edited by TeaLulu
Clarification of position to avoid spamming thread with responses.
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