The Lay of the Land

Rhea Autumnborne
The Beyonds
Unknown date (day 2)
Late Morning
Gristle Forest

You've reached level 1 in Crafting

You've reached level 8 in Foraging

You've reached level 4 in Observation

Rhea soaks her feet in the crystal clear waters of the stream, sighing as she enjoys the cool feeling as she wiggles her toes. Between her legs rests a small, flexible branch with a spare bow string tied to it. Not the most elegant fishing rod ever designed, but with some luck maybe she'll catch something. Sitting on her shoulder is Illumise, who is eagerly digging into a berry.

"So you said this is Claw Island, right? Is it a big island? Small island? Out in the sea? Near a continent? Part of an archipelago?" The elf asks while watching the waters flow between her toes. The fairy nearly chokes on berry juice.

"Really? Did you grow up in a cave?" Illumise asks after managing to clear her windpipe. "Claw Island is an island off the southern coast of Dragun. Dragun is a continent shaped like a dragon, and this three toed island is its claw."

"I see. So what are the demographics like? I'm guessing elves are pretty common on Claw Island?" Rhea asks, hoping to sus out her place in this world. The fairy glares at her, almost not believing the girl could be so clueless.

"Elves live exclusively on this island, yes. After the Great Separation, humans purged the elves from the hip region and they fled to Claw Island." Illumise explains, before taking another bite from the berry.

"Okay. So what is the Great Separation and why did humans want to eliminate elves? Did we lose a war or somethin'?" Rhea continues her interrogation about the world, starting to feel a bit embarrassed about how clueless she is about the setting. Maybe she should have looked it up in a wiki.

"The Great Separation marked the start of the Fifth Age, known as the Age of Separation. It's when the gods divided the world, separating them into continents surrounded by an impenetrable mist." The fairy monologues. "As for purging the elves, it'd be easier just to give you a run down on world history."

The fairy looks to make sure Rhea is still confused, and with a sigh sets her berry down in her lap. Rhea returns her look with an embarrassed smile, starting to understand why some older games handed out information piecemeal. Asking one person about things a person would generally learn growing up in embarrassing, and she doesn't have the convenient excuse of being an amnesiac.

"Alright. We are currently in the Fifth Age. Before that there were four other ages. I don't have to explain math to you, do I?" Illumise asks, prompting a head shake from Rhea. "Good. The First Age was the Age of the Gods. It was a peaceful era where the mortal races lived in harmony with the gods. That's how it started, anyway. At the end of the First Age, there was a war between the gods that almost destroyed the world, and after that the gods departed from this plane and took up a pact of non-intervention."

"The Second Age is known as the Age of Dragons. The gods' earliest and most powerful creations, the dragons, filled the power vacuum left by the gods. With the world in ruins after the gods' war, they went unopposed at first. However, they grew tyrannical and as the other peoples' numbers bounced back, many resented the dragons' rule, leading to another war. This war lasted far longer than the war of the gods, and was ended when the many races joined together to defeat the dragons. This also marked the end of the Second Age."

"The Third Age is known as the Age of Elves. At the end of the dragon wars, the elves were the largest faction by far. This was by far the longest era. The Ancient Elves were still one species back then, and build a mighty empire that spanned the world. It was during this time elwarves were born as the progeny of elves and dwarves. However, the elves became embroiled in a civil war that ultimately split their empire and sparked the end of the ancient elves and the rebirth as the various elven subspecies we know today. This was known as the First Elf Wars."

"At the time, the largest and most powerful faction of elves was known as the high elves, and they continued to maintain an empire even after the split with the other elven factions. However, the elwarves remained part of their empire and gradually grew more and more numerous, and as they did so they became more and more oppressed. Spurred on by the stories of revolution against the dragons during the second age, they started the Second Elf Wars. Ultimately, the elwarves emerged victorious, in part because the dwarves who had remained neutral during the First Elf Wars got involved. This finally brought an end the Elven Empire, as well as the Age of Elves"

"The elwarves cast off the name elwarf and designated themselves humans. So began the Fourth Age, the Age of Humanity. Unlike the Ancient Elves at the dawn of the Third Age, humanity almost immediately split into factionalism. They established various nations across the world, and waged war with each other. Eventually, the Wars of Man became so destructive, the gods broke the pact of non-intervention and split the world into smaller continents, separating each continent with mist to try to curb the destruction. This, in turn, led to the Fifth Age, the Age of Separation"

Illumise pauses her story to resume eating her berry, leaving Rhea to digest the story. Every age thus far has ended with war. A grim portent, in the elf's opinion. She wonders if her purpose in all of this is to end the cycle of war and bring an end to the Age of Separation by uniting the world. However, she hadn't created this avatar to advance the story, but to experience a different life than that of a shut-in. A life of the wild outdoors.

"So the last age ended with the world being split into continents. I get that. But how did that lead to the elves being exiled Claw Island? That must have happened during this age, right?" Rhea surmises. The fairy sets down the berry on her lap again, and wipes off her chin.

"I was getting to that. Okay, so during the late Third Age, the wood elf kingdom bordered the High Elven Empire. While the kingdom didn't exactly take a side, they fiercely defended their borders, be it from the high elves or the humans, who they still knew as elwarves and considered part of the empire. This led to humanity's early attempts to flee the empire futile. Later, when humanity's forces were split between north and south, those in the south were wiped out as they were trapped between the armies of the high elves and the unrelenting defenses of the wood elves."

"Humanity never really forgave the wood elves for that. After the Great Separation divided humanities kingdoms; The Guilduke Fiefdom, which renamed itself the Dragoon Empire; turned its attention to the wood elves. As the hip region of Dragun cut through part of the old wood elf kingdom, only a fraction of the old kingdom lay on this new continent, but most of the Guilduke Fiefdom remained intact on the torso region. Ultimately the Wood Elves were **** to flee south to Claw Island, but most of your people were wiped out."

Rhea lets that grim note linger for a moment. It sounds like Wood Elves are the only elves on this continent, or at least the only faction with numbers to matter. That leads to the question of how she is supposed to travel between the various continents? A question for later and a different avatar. Still that leaves her with several other questions about the continent.

"You mentioned the torso and hip regions, I assume there is also a head region?" Rhea asks the fairy, who has managed to stain in lily white dress with the berry.

"Ah! Noticed that did you? Well, there are actually three other regions; the head, tail, and wings. This is where it all gets rather confusing. You see, when the gods split the world, they didn't just separate it, they also somehow stuck different pieces of it together like a jigsaw. The Guilduke Fiefdom did not originally border Wood Elf territory. Likewise, it did not initially border the dwarven mountains that make up the head region. Yet, somehow they were smashed together."

"The wings and the tail are something else entirely. From what I've heard, the tail and wings are from a separate continent altogether, one the dragons fled to after the second era. They say that the dragons reigned over that continent long after they abandoned the old world, and it was only in the late Fourth Era when the people of that continent started fighting back. The tail is inhabited by a cat-like race known as the nekonin and the wings are inhabited by a lizard-like race known as the lizolkien."

"However, there are two other races. The mysterious sea serpents, the lamael, who live in the bay off Claw Island, and the dragons themselves, who migrated from the wings to somewhere on the head. As for where the lamael came from, the best guess is that there was an underwater civilization that was also broken up, as the nekonin are unfamiliar with them as well."

As Rhea lets that information sit, she decides to pull up some of the prompts that have been building up as she listened to the fairy.

You've reached level 1 in Fishing

You've reached level 1 in Lore

You've reached level 2 in Lore

You've reached level 3 in Lore

You've reached level 1 Dragun History

You've reached level 1 in World History

You've reached level 2 in World History

With the prompts out of the way, Rhea has a personal question for the fairy.

"I get that I'm probably supposed to know most of that stuff, but I get the feeling the stuff about the dragons, nekonin, and lizolkien aren't common knowledge." The elf says as she strokes her chin and observes the fairy. Illumine actually gives Rhea an appreciative look, however.

"Oh, you picked up on that? Here I was thinking you were just a bumpkin. The nekonin were neighbors with the Wood Elves for over a century as they lived on the hip region. They also remain the only trading partners the wood elves have from the mainland. The other stuff though, well, I told you about knowing nobles and royals, so I've overheard some juicy information over the years before I was..." The fairy stops herself, as if she was about to say something she didn't mean to say. "Before I left."

Rhea's suspicions about the fairy haven't let up, she still isn't sure she can trust her. Now she's also pretty certain Illumise is hiding something from her.

"I see. And where do fairies come from? Did you travel to Claw Island with the Wood Elves? I notice you talk about them with clinical detachment." The elf decides to pull at the thread that's been bothering her.

"Ah! Fairies settled on Claw Island first, and the elves came later. We've always been something of free spirits, so we don't really involve ourselves to much in the factional disputes of other races." Illumise says, unfortunately a perfectly reasonable explanation. "However, you speaks of the Wood Elves as if they aren't your people."

Rhea smirks. Although she can't simply tell the fairy the truth, she has a simple excuse in mind.

"They aren't. Not really. I mean, I am Wood Elf, but I've spent all my life out here in the wilderness, as you've already figured out." The elf casually lies. However, she starts to sweat a bit as the fairy looks at her suspiciously. It looks like they both have their secrets. Suddenly, she's interrupted by a bite on her line.

"Aha! Caught something!" Rhea exclaims, and gives a sharp tug on her fishing pole.