Mist Harbor Library Lectures - 2020-09-27 - Age of Darkness (log)

The following was the first lecture in the Mist Harbor Library lecture series, where Xorus was the guest speaker, which was given on 9/27/5120. The topics must be lore based but otherwise are at the discretion of the invited speaker. This lecture is on the pre-historical period known as the Age of Darkness.

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[Library, Meeting Hall]
A trio of wide stairs lead down from a wide archway into this brightly lit room. A small podium stands atop a small dais opposite the archway, and several cushioned benches have been arranged throughout the space, each offering an excellent line of sight. A number of elliptical windows line the walls of the hall, and a rich crimson-patterned carpet covers the entirety of the floor underfoot. You also see a small silver tray with some stuff on it.
Also here: Cruxophim, Akenna, High Lord Erek who is sitting, Xortrin, Alisaire, Nimaera who is sitting, Loremaster Rohese, Rhaenor who is sitting, High Lord Azanoth who is sitting, Mistress Naamit, Yukito, Lady Elysia who is sitting, Magister Raelee who is sitting, Meril who is sitting, Xorus, Lord Thrassus, Great Lord Nazarr who is sitting, Chatelaine Traiva who is sitting
Obvious exits: none

Loremaster Rohese just arrived.

Rohese smiles.

(Rohese takes up a position behind the small podium.)

Rohese sharply claps her hands together twice, calling for attention.

Rohese excitedly greets, "Good afternoon and welcome to the first of the Mist Harbor Library Lectures."

Rohese deliberately adds, "It's so lovely to see so many here today."

Rohese softly explains, "The aim of this series is to provide a platform for imparting knowledge and to encourage discussion."

Rohese smiles.

Rohese softly exclaims, "The first of many ... we hope!"

Rohese wrinkles her nose.

Rohese gently reminds, "I ask that everyone be considerate to our speaker and to those who raise points or ask questions."

Rohese softly reiterates, "All opinions are welcome as long as they are courteously expressed."

Rohese softly says, "I am also delighted to be holding this inaugural event in the new Meeting Hall."

Rohese gazes with interest at her surroundings.

Rohese softly says, "I'm sure you will agree with me that it is a perfect venue for our lectures."

Rohese nods approvingly.

Rohese smiles.

Rohese softly exclaims, "So, please help yourselves to refreshments and find yourself a seat!"

Rohese glances around the room.

Rohese gazes thoughtfully at a small silver tray.

Rohese softly says, "As it now gives me great pleasure to hand over to our first speaker ..."

Rohese softly introduces, "Lord Xorus Kul'shin!"

Rohese gets a strange look on her face and glances about suspiciously.

Rohese nods appreciatively to you.

(Rohese steps away from the small podium.)

Xorus says, "Good afternoon."

Xorus says, "When I was an elder historian in Ta'Faendryl, one of my special interests was heterodox or apocryphal theology from the Age of Darkness, and the archaeology of cryptic and malevolent pre-historical sites."

[General] Peggyanne thinks, "Thats an unnatural esclipse."

Xorus says, "The simplest explanation is that the legends of those times are largely the truth. I, personally, do not trust religious texts at all."

[General] Grutak thinks, "Fun times."

[General] Cruxophim thinks, "That would be Alisaire."

[General] Najeira thinks, "I do not remember seeing news of one.."

Xorus says, "Whether they are mostly right with bits of wrongness, or mostly wrong with bits of rightness, one cannot know."

Xorus says, "So today I will be asking what might be the case if it is the latter."

[General] Eyvindr asks, "Lornan is poised to strike the sun?"

Xorus says, "Much ink has been spilled on 'history', the stories of past civilizations, which are reconstructed in later ages from their surviving records."

[General] Cruxophim thinks, "She does bring a certain panache wherever she goes."

[General] Peggyanne exclaims, "They didnt listen!!! Dharthir will return... you desecrated the resting place of an ancient evil. Did you think there wouldnt be concequences?!"

Xorus says, "History is never an immaculate window on the past. It is a twisting of imperfections into conformity with contemporary prejudices."

Xorus says, "Often the story itself is paramount over the historical figures, histories more concerned with telling 'truths' than facts."

Xorus says, "I will be speaking today instead of the time before history and what we truly know about it."

Xorus says, "Of course, this will only be a glancing blow at the matter, as the subject is vast."

Xorus says, "I will be disputing what we may be too cavalier in treating as settled wisdom."

Xorus says, "What we do not know, or only think we know, if you will."

Xorus wryly says, "Even if it puts me at terribly high risk of being wrong."

Xorus says, "The Age of Darkness is what we call the very ancient past. The time of the dragons and the great demonic war, the healing of the earth by the gods."

Xorus says, "In truth this term is relative to ourselves and not the higher powers, who might themselves distinguish the times in other ways."

Xorus says, "In fact, the 'purgatory' of Lorminstra is a timeless void, and Eorgina herself recently said she experiences time differently."

Xorus says, "In her own words, 'An eternity has passed for me since your last attempt to commune.' It was only days."

Xorus says, "This is not a rhetorical flourish. The 'gods' are often in other worlds."

Xorus says, "Ronan, Gosaena, Fash'lo'nae, Luukos, and so on."

Xorus says, "The dark ages are those that took place before written language. Those times which are 'pre-historical' compared to the early Elven Empire sixty thousand years ago."

Xorus says, "There were only oral traditions for the thousands of years preceding it, which means by itself much of what we say of those times is distorted or wrong."

Xorus says, "Most any sacred truth you may seek in the religious legends, what we all 'know' to be so, will be found to be in contradiction with one or more of the other legends."

Xorus says, "Indeed. Much of our 'history' of the Second Age is corrupted with legends. Think of what is written of wyverns or the life of Leya."

Xorus says, "In this sense it is much the same as the Age of Chaos, where much knowledge was lost in the wake of the Undead War."

Xorus says, "Thus, I will be questioning what we truly know, and what we have only taken from myth and legend."

Xorus says, "These legends are not even remotely consistent. They interest us in the vestiges of truth surviving within them. What they betray about the history of our own ideas."

Xorus says, "The Age of Darkness might be considered to consist of two distinct periods. The Age of the Drakes and the Arkati guided era before the Elven Empire."

Xorus says, "'Draekeche' is the ancient elven for 'darkness', after all, which speaks volumes on how our elven ancestors regarded the dragons."

Xorus says, "The association of the Age of Darkness with dragon rule is deep. It was used as political rhetoric in the early empire."

Xorus says, "This is not an indisputable dichotomy. The dark ages in such rhetoric includes the Arkati tutelage period."

Xorus says, "In some ways the latter is laden with assumptions passed down on religious authority."

Xorus says, "One might object that there may have been a time before the dragons. That the role of the Arkati may have been overstated in all periods."

Xorus says, "There is perhaps no way to speak intelligibly about a time before the great drakes other than by studying rocks."

Xorus says, "The dragons were, however, once the rulers of this world. Of this there is no question."

Xorus says, "Which is not to imply, as some scholars do, that this was a 'civilization'."

Xorus says, "There were very few Great Drakes compared to our own populations."

Xorus says, "The Loremasters think, perhaps, one hundred."

Xorus says, "The dragons have been seen fighting with enormous demons in various time warps. We have found surviving colossal bones and more terrible remnants."

Xorus says, "Whether the Arkati were 'servants' of the Drakes, born of them or fashioned of the essence as were the 'lesser drakes', is much more dubious."

Xorus says, "Fash'lo'nae was supposedly born instead from the primitive elves. Specifically from the very first of our proto-writing."

Xorus says, "This is strange considering those same legends also regard him as among the very eldest of the Arkati."

Xorus says, "He plays into this with a relic he made, now in Library Aies, called the Grandfather's Stone."

Xorus says, "In a certain sense Fash'lo'nae even has an authorized biography."

Xorus says, "Much as Eorgina has a palace that 'proves' her theology."

Xanthium chuckles to herself.

Raelee nods at Xorus.

Xorus says, "It is important to remember that the gods are notorious for allowing the various cultures of the world to misinterpret them."

Xorus says, "I refer to them as 'the gods' not out of any veneration, but rather because the word 'Arkati' is not neutral."

(Xortrin walks in, trying to keep quiet so as not to disturb the lecture.)

Xorus says, "Imaera is the goddess of untamed wilderness to sylvans, while she is the goddess of harvest to humans."

Xorus says, "This only deviates so far because of shared cultural roots through the imperial elves."

Xorus says, "More extreme is the case of the krolvin, who have other names for the gods entirely, as well as a radically divergent theology."

(Rohese indicates a spare seat near the front for Xortrin to sit in.)

Xorus says, "Their king of the gods is Khar'ta, for example, who appears to be Charl and Koar and Eorgina as one god."

Meril leans to her left slightly.

Xorus asks, "Why would we, the peoples of Elanith, be privileged with the truth?"

Xorus says, "For all we truly know Lumnis and Fash'lo'nae, Kai and V'tull, Oleani and Ivas, and so on, are merely the lighter and darker manifestations of more singular gods."

(Xortrin takes the seat indicated by Rohese with a slight smile.)

Xorus says, "If they have no interest in telling us the truth, or if they somehow only reflect what we read into them, what they tell us cannot be trusted."

Xanthium says, "Or they all are. Of a singular being."

Xanthium coughs.

Xorus says, "But we are still able to interrogate our own history of ideas for vestigial remnants of the forgotten past."

Xorus nods at Xanthium.

Xanthium blushes a rosy pink shade at you.

Xanthium touches one finger to her lips.

Speaking to Xanthium, Xorus says, "I have encountered that sort of One monism."

Rohese smiles quietly to herself.

Xorus says, "In the case of this continent we must look back to the ancient elven legends. What was recorded of the oral traditions in the early Elven Empire."

Xorus says, "These might only reflect the beliefs of sixty thousand years ago, even though they speak of events twice as far back."

Xorus says, "Of special interest is the legend of Yadzari, supposedly an ancestor of the Illistim, who was a great heretic for doubting the divinity of the gods."

Rohese nods appreciatively.

Xorus says, "What is most remarkable about the elven dogma is that in it the Arkati were not regarded as servants of the dragons by our ancestors until later."

Nazarr turns an inquisitive ear toward Xorus.

Xorus says, "The dragons were regarded as great sky monsters, and the gods were our protectors who kept them at bay."

Xorus says, "Yadzari questioned why the dragons were allowed to be terrors if the gods were more powerful."

Xorus asks, "Why did they treat with the dragons, as if they were servants rather than rulers?"

Cruxophim chuckles.

Xorus says, "The legend remarkably, if read closely, implies the gods were not exiled."

Xorus says, "That they were surprised by the Ur-Daemon rather than not present."

Xorus says, "Yadzari asks why the gods 'hid from the rampages', and why 'did they not take them away to someplace safe', which is a matter I will bring up again later."

Xorus says, "The heresy of Yadzari was not believed until the gods failed to protect us from the Ur-Daemon War and the dead body of an Arkati was found."

Xorus says, "This was discovered by Amas, son of Faendryl, ancestor of Korthyr. What scholars might charitably call a 'just so' story."

Xorus says, "Thus, in the elven dogma, the Arkati are merely a more powerful race, mortal as the elves and liars, worthy of respect but not worship."

Xorus says, "Within this is the ideology of elves as between gods and mortals, heirs to the world and the next to ascend."

Xorus says, "Now, this is absurd as proof of mortality, as we know 'the gods' are fundamentally incorporeal."

Cruxophim holds his right palm over the bone teacup on the floor, allowing the blood to flow down into it. As the teacup fills, the flow eventually decreases to a trickle, then stops.

Xorus says, "They only take on manifestations, projections, avatars when interacting with us."

Rohese surreptitiously glances at Cruxophim.

Cruxophim runs a finger along the edge of his dagger's blade.

Rohese's face turns slightly pale.

Xorus says, "The destruction of such a form implies nothing of mortality."

Cruxophim takes a drink from his bone teacup.

Cruxophim gives Rohese a strong, encouraging smile.

Nimaera raises an eyebrow.

Xorus says, "Dead gods seem to be more akin to when Meyno was imprisoned in her shrine. Unconscious and unable to manifest. But still remaining in the world as a source of magical power."

Xorus says, "Of these merely mortal god-things, the 'Arkati' are those who served the Drakes, while the others are said without proof to be demi-gods or else 'ascended'."

Xorus says, "Elaborate familial relationships are imagined for them, while in other legends, they originate instead in some fanciful way from dragons."

Xorus says, "Lorminstra is the daughter of Koar and Lumnis. But sister to Ronan. Who is twin brother to Phoen. Who is father to Tonis."

Elysia takes a drink from her spiked anise tea.

Xortrin mutters under his breath.

Xorus says, "Except Ronan and Sheru are brothers born of the 'Shadow With Wings', not related to Phoen or Lorminstra at all."

Xorus says, "It is incoherent nonsense and owes itself to contradictory beliefs about their inherent natures."

Rohese rubs her chin thoughtfully.

Xorus says, "Regardless, the religion of Arkati as servants of the Drakes may descend from this irreligious argument, twisting it to reconcile it with faith."

Traiva looks thoughtfully at Xorus.

Xorus says, "The Arkati become sent away to Liabo and Lornon by the Drakes, which happens to match their philosophical disagreements."

Xorus says, "Others attribute the darkness of the Lornon gods to the corrupting influence of that moon."

Xorus says, "The veil between worlds is thought to be especially weak on Lornon."

Xorus says, "The dragon born myths instead ascribe all of their natures to their formative experiences, whether during or prior to the Ur-Daemon War or its aftermath."

Xorus says, "They must be treated as foreign to the moons for religion. They must have been exiled before, or perhaps at the very beginning, of the Ur-Daemon War."

Xorus says, "It is not difficult to see in this excuse making by our religious ancestors for abandonment by their gods."

Rohese's expression is thoughtful, but her furrowed brow indicates she's working something out for herself.

Xorus says, "The 'dead' Arkati itself may be apologetics, for then some did try, but were not strong enough."

Xorus says, "The irreligious argument is then superficial, making it less difficult to swallow."

Xorus says, "The dragons thus become considered more powerful than the gods, even though in elven legend our ancestors made this up after the fact, or else the whole conceit falls apart."

Xorus says, "From this we assume the dragons that survive today must be weaker than their ancestors, and the Ur-Daemon must therefore also have been that much more powerful."

Xorus says, "Such a basic article of faith is astonishingly flimsy. Buttressed by Koar's penchant for conflating himself with dragons."

Xorus says, "Marlu would be an unstoppable force of destruction. Why he does not devour the world becomes a mystery."

Xorus says, "Suppose it were true the Arkati were weaker and formed mostly from dragons. It would not follow that they are weaker now, today, than the drakes were in antiquity."

Yukito ponders.

Xorus says, "It is widely thought these beings become more or less powerful over time owing to their followers and spheres of influence."

Xorus says, "Eorgina said as much herself when she manifested at her palace Li'aerion in the DragonSpine Mountains."

Xorus says, "Which does not at all look its age, in spite of having supposedly been built by elves."

Xorus says, "Ironically its deterioration in the absence of elves is part of its legend."

Rohese nods slowly.

Xorus wryly says, "Replace all of the parts of a ship, it is still the same ship. Renovate a palace for a hundred thousand years, it is the same as a palace built yesterday."

Xanthium chuckles.

Xorus says, "Now, there are surely grains of truth in all of this, and it is not difficult to construct heterodox interpretations."

Xorus says, "When the dragons were the dominant beast they may have had a lot of effect on 'Arkati' spheres of influence."

Xorus says, "The Arkati may have entreated with them on behalf of the lesser races. They may have shown some deference in terrestrial affairs, as they have always done with mortals."

Xorus says, "Perhaps newly formed 'gods' really were weaker than the dragons, but some of them were becoming too powerful."

Xorus says, "They may fundamentally be of spiritual planes and only projecting themselves."

Xorus says, "This might imply they are fundamentally immortal, if they become powerful enough, but a great dragon or demon would still be able to strike down their incarnations."

Xorus says, "Our ancestors would not have been able to conceive of such subtleties. The balances of powers and politics that occur at such heights."

Xorus says, "The domination of the lands by dragons, indeed, implies nothing of the intrinsic power of the great spirits."

Xorus says, "They may have been more powerful than the dragons but incapable of ruling the world themselves."

Xorus says, "This is hardly implausible considering they still do not rule the world."

Xorus says, "When one has an unassailable fortress, this says nothing for whether one is able to lay siege to other fortresses, which may be too far away to be contested."

Xorus says, "In the aftermath of the demonic war there was a great deal of instability. This balance of powers was deeply impacted by the deaths of many dragons."

Xorus says, "There was the formation of 'primordials', such as Althedeus, from the tremendous forces unleashed in the war."

Xorus says, "Athedeus, incidentally, was a 'demon' limited to another plane of existence, but formed by the powers unleashed on this world."

Xorus says, "Great Elementals waged wars on each other as well. There were untold tears in reality."

Xorus says, "Sealing this was the purpose of the Eye of the Drake on Mount Aenatumgana."

Xorus says, "In the end 'the Arkati' emerged on top of the new hierarchy of powers. This is perhaps why there was a conclave where they agreed to not war against each other."

Xorus says, "It would seem that Koar himself spends his time and energy on keeping the world sealed off from the extraplanar powers rather than ruling."

Xorus says, "The irony is that the ancient question of 'why good gods allow bad things' remains in spite of theology."

Traiva takes a drink from her golden jasmine tea.

Xorus says, "Merely consider what the Church of Koar was allowed to do in Talador by the higher powers."

Rohese glances away.

Xorus says, "The so-called Drake's Shrine is marvelously strange in its own right."

Xorus says, "It must have been constructed a hundred thousand years ago and was sealed off until two decades ago in the incident with the Vvrael."

Xorus says, "While the shrine is covered in very ancient runes, quite indecipherable, there is also writing in contemporary Common."

Xorus says, "The stone letters of it are impossibly ancient. They were not crafted by human hands."

Xorus says, "If such powers of prophecy were possible, it raises more problems than answers."

Xorus says, "There are frescoes of dragons with vast armies against legions of darkness, bas-reliefs depicting dragons alongside what must be mortals on steeds, with siege engines pulled by oxen."

Xorus says, "This is violently inconsistent with what we think we know of the Age of Darkness, where such a scene would have made no sense whatsoever."

Xorus says, "It is imagery invoking concepts that should not have existed and heralding a future war of mortals against the darkness."

Elysia places one hand over her brushed silver locket, closing her eyes briefly.

Xorus says, "The Illistim Loremasters believe, for example, there were never more than fifty Arkati."

Xorus says, "And that the lesser races had no such civilization or role in the demon war."

Xorus , "This is not without its own vestigial support in myth. The legends of Lumnis have her teaching the lesser races, who had wars between themselves, prior to the Ur-Daemon War."

You hear very soft footsteps.

Erek sits down next to Elysia.

Xorus says, "They even speak of her sitting 'with holy men as they penned the first scrolls', and books, which as far as we know first happened many tens of thousands of years later."

Naamit grins wryly.

Xorus says, "There is the narrative of our hiding from the dragons, who tolerated no other civilizations, and the narrative of their tolerating it for the Arkati."

Xorus says, "One has elven artisans and sculptors making Li'aerion before the Ur-Daemon War. The other has illiterates hiding under the forest canopy."

Xorus says, "Something in all of this is terribly wrong. This was long before it is thought the elves and sylvans split."

Xorus says, "The Yadzari legend for instance is strikingly inconsistent with the legend of L'Naere, who the Arkati never speak of, and whose existence the Illistim elites kept secret as too dubious."

Xorus says, "In the L'Naere legend the elves knew the Arkati were servants and were exiled, and L'Naere was a traitor offering to bring them to safe haven off world."

Xorus says, "The Aelotoi prove there is at least some truth in it. But the Loremaster account is almost certainly corrupted with more modern beliefs."

Xorus says, "And it should come as no surprise the Aelotoi oral traditions do not speak of her as a traitor."

Rohese nods gravely.

Traiva chortles softly at some secret joke.

Xorus says, "The Yadzari legend, in contrast, is very old. It was used during the Elven Empire to criticize excessive veneration of monarchs."

Xorus says, "Yadzari questions why the gods have not saved them by bringing them somewhere else."

Xorus says, "What might have truly happened was some number of gods were hoarding followers, and some 'lesser races' were keeping the faith by staying on Elanthia."

Xorus says, "Suppose they were not servants of the Drakes, and by foresight or design knew the impending doom, and set about securing their own interests."

Xorus says, "The seeds of the 'exiled off world' myth may owe more to this than any truth in dragons sending their beloved servants away."

Xorus says, "In the legends of Lumnis this is instead described as having been a violent dispute among the Drakes."

Xorus says, "And the notion of Eorgina hoarding elven slaves survives in her own legends."

Xorus says, "There are subtleties in the myths concerning the lesser races. Imaera is widely thought to have re-created the life on this world and manipulated the physical forms of the living."

Xorus says, "The legend of L'Naere, which sounds conspicuously similar to Imaera, also speaks of fashioning humanoid races."

Xorus says, "And filling that world of Bre'Naere with the flora and fauna of this world to save it."

Xorus says, "The Giver of Life, as they call her. Who disappeared."

Xorus says, "In my opinion there was likely only one 'humanoid' race originally, and through various intentional or accidental processes, we acquired major differences from each other."

Rohese furrows her brow.

Xorus says, "The elves imagine themselves to be most ancient, for obvious reasons. But I think humans would be the ones most similar to such a common ancestor."

Cruxophim chuckles.

Elysia takes a drink from her spiked anise tea.

Xorus says, "They seem to be the most adept at interbreeding with other bloodlines without unnatural methods."

Xanthium nods slowly at Xorus.

Raelee looks thoughtfully at Xorus.

Rohese lowers her gaze.

Rohese smiles quietly to herself.

Xorus says, "There are other tantalizing hints in the surviving fragments."

Naamit chortles softly at some secret joke.

Nimaera raises an eyebrow.

Xorus says, "The earliest written records of Marlu refer to a blackness speaking of being in shackles in the cold moon, which even then possessed within it the infamous conspiracy of Eorgina and Fash'lo'nae to burn the world."

Xorus says, "This was before there was any understanding of extraplanar entities, and the primordial demons were understood more as personifications of darkness."

Tsarmina takes a drink from her cinnamon tea.

Xorus says, "It is interpreted to be an attempt to usurp the dragon masters. But if the dragons were not more powerful, it has some more subtle meaning."

Xorus says, "It is remarkable that the legends of Kai hold that he killed more of the Ur-Daemon than any of the Drakes."

Xorus says, "One wonders if it really true, after all, that the gods never warred with each other."

Xorus says, "Other matters are more subtle and imply differences in the world itself."

Xorus says, "The legends imply the DragonSpine Mountains were once warmer than now. In the Second Age they were colder, we know the seas were lower."

Xorus says, "Ta'Nalfein and Ta'Loenthra are now canal cities. The western coastal settlements that once existed are under water."

Xorus says, "There are ruins in Torre, for instance, with ancient human writing. The ancestors of reivers."

Xorus says, "That the seas were higher than today in the Age of Darkness is clear from tropical islands. Those apparently made from dead coral."

Rohese bites her lip.

Erek helps himself to a handful of nutty toffee popcorn.

Raelee takes a drink from her golden jasmine tea.

Xorus says, "The Shattered Continent may well rise and sink into the sea over the millennia with the ocean."

Xorus asks, "Mysteries remain beyond theology in physical sites. Where did the bizarre spire of Talon Isle come from, with its shrine of Charl?"

Xorus asks, "Were the southern wastes once all jungles until the demons came and the war made it a blasted wasteland?"

Xorus asks, "Was Eonak the one who trapped one of the Ur-Daemon in glaes and veil iron under Teras Isle?"

Xorus asks, "How is such a thing possible if the demons were too powerful for the gods?"

Xorus asks, "When Kai was the only Arkati to survive participating in the war?"

Xorus says, "While I cannot tell you what really happened so long ago, one must beware legends when they agree with each other."

Naamit places her hand on her pierced heart tattoo.

Xorus concludes, "This may speak more to borrowing fabrications from each other to void difficult questions."