The Last Days of the Elves

Summary

The high elves - those elves imagined to be among the first brought forth by Lathander to live on this plane - had largely disappeared from the historical record by the early days of The Seventh Age (roughly 600 BFE). Based on the literature, only two populations are assumed to have remained. Songs and poetry associated with the city of Erenlune, presumed to be located far to the northeast of the current The Riding lands, persist until the Treaty of Hammerstand is signed at approximately 300 BFE. A second, more martial population of Elves is presumed to have been settled around the city of Kithkaira and included some of the last known Elvish persons to have been identified by scholarly works, Alluria the Huntress and Galathi. The Kithkairan population was scattered after The Fall of Alluria in approximately 500 BFE.

History

Pre-600 BFE, End of the Sixth Age

The end of the Sixth Age, known in mythology as The Elemental Age (The Sixth Age), is associated with significant changes in the climate and geology of The Riding. Dendrochronology suggests that the oldest trees in the Green River valley of The Riding are no more than 750 years old. This time period closely coincides with a change in the mineral content of sedimentary deposits in the Green River alluvial plain. Older sediments are derived from rhyolite and contain high levels of hornblende and very little carbon. Anthropologists have suggested that the dark green color of hornblende may have contributed to the name of the river. A sharp, sedimentary boundary exists in cores extracted from the Green River delta that suggests a quick transition from these volcanic products to carbon-rich silts and clays. The drastic nature of the switch has long been postulated by geologists and theologians to be evidence of supernatural events, and is widely attributed to the cessation of volcanic events at the end of the sixth age and the subsequent, seemingly instantaneous, emergence of arable ground in and around the Green River Valley.

600-300 BFE, Early Seventh Age

The early days of The Seventh Age saw the creation of the fertile river valley, the emergence and/or increase of forest resources, and the appearance (or reappearance) of Elvish cities such as Kithkaira and Erenlune in the literature.  One of the great unanswered questions in the field of Elvish Studies is why this period is not associated with a corresponding expansion of Elvish culture and civilization. Instead, this appears to be last gasp of the Elves.

The most notable events of this period are all associated with the last throes of the conflict between the Elves and Orcs, and while the Elves appear to have won the war, as evidenced by the increasing strength and reach of forests and fertile lands, they appear to continue to lose all the battles. In approximately 500 BFE, stung by a vicious Orcish raid in Elven lands, the last High Elf Alluria the Huntress appears to have gathered an expeditionary force to retaliate against the Orcs. The subsequent campaign (to be detailed in a subsequent paper on The Fall of Alluria) ended in disaster, including the death of Alluria and the scattering of the Elvish forces. An overwhelming Orcish army immediately advanced deep into Elven territory with the intention of sacking the largely undefended Elven city of Kithkaira. The defense of Kithkaira had fallen to the last remaining captain of the Elves, a protege of Alluria named Galathi. In despair, Galathi sent the remaining population of the city north into the woods and then lured as much of the Orcish army into the streets of Kithkaira as possible. At the last moment he unleashed a cataclysmic, magical detonation that rent the earth, destroyed the city, and killed him and the bulk of the invading army.

Humans arrived in the Green River Valley in approximately 400 BFE. The homeland of the new settlers is unknown and difficult to determine as the newly arrived settlers quickly integrated with the existing population and adopted the local pantheon of gods, consisting of Plethamor and her family. . Any distinctive physical features of the immigrants were quickly subsumed into what has become the standard Riding appearance and it is difficult to differentiate any potential ancestral features from those associated with our elven and orcish heritage. Early people of The Riding did note the enmity between Elves and Orcs and their occasional skirmishes, but written records from the period are mostly transcription of stories that are hundreds of years old.

A total disappearance of Elves from the record, as well as the withdrawal of Orcs into the Badcrag Mountains, is the result of the Treaty of Hammerstand. The details of the treaty are unknown, and while folk of the Riding are accepted to be signatory to the treaty, there is uncertainty as to who the Riding representatives were and what kind of authority they actually had.

300 BFE to present

The presence of Elves is largely unknown. Some theorize that the lands north of the Green River were ceded to the Elves by the Treaty of Hammerstand. Others postulate that it is the Caterwaul Run that marks the boundary to Elvish lands. Nonetheless, the lands north of the Green River have largely proven unsuitable for habitation due to the prevalence of swamps and their associated maladies, as well as horrible beasts that are presumed to have destroyed nascent settlements on that side of the river. An occasional report of shadowy figures launching sudden and inexplicable ambushes has been occasionally associated with elves, but no evidence of this exists to date.

After finding no trace of elves for centuries, a few ancient, elven villages have been discovered in the last decade. It is impossible to exclude observational bias with such a limited sample size, but theories regarding the sudden reemergence of these villages include: superior anthropological processes, the decay of magics that have hidden them, or more cynical suppositions that these villages have been secretly and systematically looted for decades. A careful recreation of the supply chain for small, magical elven trinkets presumably recovered from these villages has led the author to conclude that these villages have only recently been uncovered.