Hmm... something I wrote today...

[Rai Avon-El]

OK, sitting down on the train back home to Växjö got me thinking. We don't have a history. So I started writing from what I know from memory and checked a few dates. So. Please add to this. It could be the start of an extensive history of Elwynn from a in-character view. Please understand that I have a more of a continental view of Elwynn than, say, Scott. He looks at things from the insular perspective. So... It's not inclusive. ANd it may not be correct. So please, correct. And write things from your own perspective.

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When the dust from the Ardashirian massacres had settled down and the people of Elwynn began to feel some sense of normality in their lives, the government of Elwynn was in anarchy. The Ardashirians with money migrated to Babkha where they were hailed as heroes in Babkhanization. Numerous medals and awards were given them.

Left in Elwynn were the poorer Ardashirians, and the descendants of the Elw with whom many Ardashirian soldiers had intermingled. Although the vast majority of the marriages between Ardashirians and Elw-descandants (which I will call here Elwynnians) were by love, there were unforunate cases of forced mriages between some Ardashirians and Elwynnians. The Ardashirian male-to-female ratio was at something like 70-30 which meant that there were few Ardashirian women Ardashirian men could find.

The Elfinshi community of Elwynn had been eradicated. Sure, there were scattered households of Elfinshi here and there, but those who looked Elfinshi, even among the Elwynnians, were killed (they are tall and really pale (the sun doesn't affect their skin)), which meant that a cultural or ethnic identity was difficult to keep. Those who could moved away from Elwynn and the Benacian continent.

Now, after the departure of the last Ardashirian commander, the renowned forests of Elwynn were gone. Some woodland was lost, but due to the harsh economic climate (and harsh winters' climate), the local population used almost all of the woodlands for fuel and building material. The Hyperborean elite of Elwynn, used to life in difficult climates and little vegetation, began working in the main cities of Elwynn: Habrichtsburg, Glenfiddich, Eliria, and Caligae.

Steadily the economy was back up, but Elwynn had not a responsible government of its own. But then came a Hurmu delegation to the Hyperborean council and told it that it would restore Elwynn to its glory. It would take several years before the council had deliberated the matter enough, but in 1940, a young man of a Hurmu father and a Hurmu mother, of the Lyon-Andelarion family, received the permission from the Pan-Hyperborean Council to administrate Elwynn as a county under Hyperborea.

Count Lyon began working immediately, trying to reconcile the Elwynnese communities bla bla bla.

Meanwhile, the state-like community of nations of which Hurmu was a member, Arminy, was in deep economic crisis. The people there had lost faith in the economy and in their governments. The Arminian government began informal discussions and negotiations with several foreign powers of the entire cession of Arminian land to a power, in order to satisfy the People of Arminy. Some of these nations included Attera and Gotzborg. But when each of these countries turned down the Arminian offer ("it will be too expensive to rule over a community of nations!"), the Hyperborean duke of Elwynn and also foreign minister of Shireroth sent a secret message to Count Lyon in which Lyon was asked if he could influence the Arminian government's cession plans towards Shirerithian overlordship.

At this time, the Arminian point of view was that it would not cede itself to any other power. But Lyon talked with the Arminian king and together they drew up a treaty that could satisfy both the Arminian government and the Arminian people.

Count Lyon worked day and night for 54 years in Elwynn, building old temples and visiting the people of Elwynn, developing codes of law, engaging the people in rebuilding projects. But no people ever migrated back to Elwynn. It was still too poor and the memories of the past too haunting.

In 1994, the deal was done. Arminy started planning for becoming a Shirerithian duchy with an autonomous barony of Hurmu beneath it. Immediately there were calls in Hurmu for having an experienced Shirerithian leader, who also happened to have Hurmu extraction, in Huyenkula to lead the barony: Count Lyon.

But Lyon declined. How could he leave Elwynn behind him? Elwynn had during these sixty years become his baby, and he knew the people there. His heart bled for that part of Shireroth. He talked with his Hyperborean duke about this, and the Pan-Hyperborean council, as always, deliberated long about this but finally came to the conclusion that Elwynn should be transferred to the barony of Hurmu (under Lord Thompson). A decree of the Council on the matter was issued in 2003.

Thus Elwynn became a county of a place far far away and subject to a new set and system of laws. First came a constitution for the barony, including Elwynn, which outlined rights and freedoms of people according to a semi-religious life-path known as the Brida. Hurmu and Elwynn started developing a system of law.

Thompson didn't do much as a baron in Hurmu. He came from Slobovia and was in Hurmudans' eyes seen as an alien and foreigner. After a decade or so, he retired and left the baronial throne of Hurmu to Harald Thorstein, himself a foreigner to Hurmu and Elwynn, but only from across the border - Stormark.

As Elwynn was a county under Hurmu, Elwynn employed many people in administration from Hurmu Proper. They came generally to live in north-west Elwynn and Eliria. For the first time since the Ardashirian times, Elwynn had immigrants! Their numbers were great and they had money, for, under Shireroth, Arminy prospered.

[Allot]

Very nice. I dislike the fact that all the elves died... there must be some somewhere.

[Rai Avon-El]

Thanks.

Oh, well there are! In Amity and Mirioth and those islands, that's where some Elfinshi fled. Also, some of them repatriated to Phoenix Forest in Illumination in an effort from Ozarka Monto. (We should add that too)

[Scott of Hyperborea]

Very nice.

I like the idea of a land haunted by its past. But I hope that it managed to recover by, say, the era just before the Great Slump. Certainly I hope the forests have returned. And I hope there are still a lot of pure-blooded Elw left, and not just more or less crossbred Ardashirians.

I agree that the Hyperboreans probably were very hands-off during most of the period described. It took them years to even intervene and stop the Ardashirian genocide - I think they were in denial that Baron Ardashir, who had seemed so nice to begin with, could really do such a thing, and maybe a bit dazzled by the glory of Babkha. Even after they realized what was going on and stopped it, and sent the Paladins under Ragum Volak (Locke) to restore order, the cultural baggage they took with them from Audentior made them terrified to try to rule the land themselves, and they just sort of ordered the Paladins to prevent any massacres but otherwise let things be. I think they feel a bit guilty about it now, which is why they've been a bit trigger-happy the past few centuries. I should write a story about their feelings.

I was actually thinking about the ethnic makeup the other day. The far south is probably pretty Babkhan, there are probably a lot of Stormarkers in Nordland, and the Hyperboreans have colonized a lot of Kai-Raikoth and there are a few in the northern parts of the continent (for example Cape Farewell). Are the Elw everywhere else? Would Araxion and Cape Farewell and Illumination be mostly Elw?

[Andreas the Wise]

Thanks.

Oh, well there are! In Amity and Mirioth and those islands, that's where some Elfinshi fled. Also, some of them repatriated to Phoenix Forest in Illumination in an effort from Ozarka Monto. (We should add that too)

The way it plays out in the Kildarian Time Wars game (the backstory is slightly more developed than the actual game yet), just as the Elfinshi were about to return and Cerune was battling with the demon of Balgurd, the whole area was put under a timelock/timefreeze or equivalent. Who or why I haven't hinted at yet [ie we haven't got up to explaining that part in the game yet, but its probably to do with the Time Crystals being hurled through time as well as space] but the timelock/timefreeze ended just before the Gong Li rebellion began - so when Sebastien returned to Halluci and said it was less than a year since he had left, it was for him, though for the rest of us it was a lot longer (~1000 years). During the Kildarian Time Wars, Andreas went to the County of Illumination and recovered the Envisioning Stone, returning it to Kildare.

How the Phoenix Forest incident ended when the time lock was released we don't know. It was over by the time Andreas got there. Cerune is alive and well in Nelaga, so she of all people would probably be able to tell us. If the Khan found one of his ancestors wondering around recently he may also have some idea. But I'd suspect at least some Elfinshi are successfully and peacefully resettled at the present time, and the Dragons have probably taken over as their defenders.[/Kildarian interference]