Chapter 1: The Adventure Begins...
History of the Homelands.
On the continent of Elress, lies a land named Arda, there is a forest in these lands of vast proportions and mystery. This forest is known in the Common tongue as the Strymn Woodlands. The forest is home to a kingdom of people, these people are know as the Elves. The Elvish people have lived in these woodlands since the beginning of time as their lore says. The Elves that thrive in the woodlands have looked out onto the world and discovered many things, during this time the Elves interacted with other races and were surprised at what they found.
These other kingdoms were doing everything from magic to technological breakthroughs that the elves could not compete against, the elders of the Elven tribes came together in 132 B.F.W. (Before the First Writings) to form a kingdom that stretched from one end of the forest to the other, this kingdom is known as The Silva Provinces. Since the founding of the Kingdom the Elves have become a very secretive and spiritual race entering deep meditation for hours and honing their natural magic of the world all the while keeping it away from the prying eyes of the other kingdoms. A short while after the founding the elves soon gained fame for their wisdom around the known world and should you run into an elf, it is said that they will always have an answer for your questions.
These days the Elven people pride themselves on knowledge and will do anything to keep their secrets safe. One of the secrets of the elves was that they found a way to bond their magic with all of the world to increase their lifespan, the elvish race is known to be able to reach up to 800 years of age since the bonding with the world. As the knowledge of the elves grew so did their spiritual faith with the world, now only twice during an Elf's life he/she can go into a period of enlightenment, during this time the elf in question will receive a vision upon his/her life from the gods.
Our hero, Elorshin Silverhand has just past the age of 87 and now has decided after his travels into the other kingdoms in the east to go into his period of enlightenment at his home deep into the forest away from all the hustle and bustle of the treetop villages and gleaming elven city. Our hero of this story is a 6' 7'' Elf who has short black hair and a chiseled, tense face. His heavy gray eyes, set a-symmetrically within their sockets, which watched every detail around him in a cold and calculated manner. A scar reaching from the bottom of the left cheek , running towards his left nostril and ending on his right nostril leaves a painful memory of a friends long gone. But that's a story for another time...
Today starts the first day in Elorshin Silverhand's seclusion period and the beginning of the rest of his life...
(Elorshin Silverhand)
Elorshin Silverhand sat in the middle of his hollowed out tree home with all of the preparations made, he'd been preparing to go into his period of enlightenment since he got back from his adventures into the western kingdoms. His meditating mat had been rolled out onto the floor and the enchanted time candles had been lit and set on the table off to his left giving a faint glow to the old home. In front of him was an empty leather covered journal and quill with ink as to which he can place all of his findings from his visions in it.
With that all of the preparations are made, all I have to do it ease my mind into nothingness...
He sat there cross legged with his hands on his knees slowly breathing entering his trance, his mind became nothing, the sounds faded into emptiness and the world around him became blank. When he opened his eyes he was met with a white world, everywhere he looked was white.
"From what the wise men told me, this is not what a vision is supposed to look like... Somethings not right."
"A perceptive one indeed, I beleive we have made a good choice." Someone replied in a soothing voice.
"He has a fire in his eyes brother, I can see the look in his eyes. I approve of this choice." A booming voice responded to a known sorce.
"Then he shall be the one we send, but before we continue, let us inform him of his new duties." A surprisingly old voice said.
"O' great gods of old, Oghma Lord of Knowledge, Tempus Lord of Battle, and Mystra Mother of All Magic" Elorshin Silverhand kneeled "Please tell me of what of my destiny."
"You are needed elsewhere than this world elf, there is a coming evil in which we can not stop as we cant interfere directly with this world."
"The inhabitants of this world are weak and would not survive the coming onslaught if left untended.
"There is a simple story you must understand first elf, in the beginning there were five of us gods, we created countless worlds during our early years. However there was one god who decided he didnt like the being we created to inhabit the worlds, his name was Bane the Lord of Darkness."
"His evil creations were spread across all of our worlds reaking havoc and utter destruction to the beings that lived on them."
"The four of us were able to stop his rampaging, but at a price... Chauntea the Goddess of Creation fell in the battle."
"With her dying breath, all four of us broke apart his body and sealed it upon a world of peace where we hoped no one would find him."
"Then the mortals of this world found a part of his body and it corrupted one of them, thankfully they had the sense to seal the corrupted being away also."
"For 1000 of their years it has stayed that way, but we sense that the seal they placed on the being so long ago is about to be undone."
"Which is why we need your help mortal, since we can not interact with the world ourselves we need to send someone who can finish what we started so long ago and finally destroy Bane. This will be your destiny Elorshin Silverhand if you should accept our request."
"I will accept your request my gods, it has always been a duty of us elves to serve." Elorshin said without a second thought.
"Then I shall craft you the weapons and armors of the gods, they shall serve you well in the time to come!" Tempus said with vigor. Suddenly golden plates of armor started to attach themselves onto Elorshin's body slowly forming an elegant yet strong armor, along with a golden recurve bow materializes in front of him.
"And I shall grant you a boost to your magical reserves to equal some of the greatest mages of all time." Mystra added. Deep inside him, he could feel his magical reserve rapidly expanding to en enormous state Elorshin felt... powerful. Even the most difficult spells would be simple child's play with this much magic.
"We have full confidence in you Elorshin Silverhand, we will respect your decisions on what you must do to see this through. It is time for you to go and begin your journey and finish what we started. May the odds be ever in your favor Elorshin Silverhand" Oghma said as a golden light surrounded Elorshin.
Then the world around him faded into darkness...
Chapter 2: Meeting the locals.
(Elorshin Silverhand)
When I finally awoke from my induced slumber I realized I was lying down in the middle of some unknown forest. How you ask do I notice this when I've just awoken. Well the flora and fauna look nothing like that in the homelands. It almost looks like a forest from the deep south in the Southern Empire's territory. The forest itself was very dark, but thankfully us elves have a reduced light vision. Something that allows us to see better in low light so it was almost like high noon in this forest for me.
Gradually I picked myself up off the ground and looked around me, I was in a small clearing in the middle of this Traako forest. To add insult to injury, all my equipment was scattered. Good news was that most of it was relatively undamaged. That being said I found stuff that I did not originally bring with me such as my travelling pack which acts as a big dimensional pocket. A long brown cloak that can hide all my armor and myself inside it. My dual short swords I always liked to carry. Some potions of healing and my spell book and alchemic recipes book, along with some spell scrolls of varying types. I attached the swords to my belt along with one of the potions, then I placed the rest inside my pack, while doing so I decided to look inside and see what I had to work with.
I was surprised to find that I had a lot of basic equipment and other miscellaneous items. I found a bedroll, some torches along with a tinderbox, some preserved food and a canteen of water, some rope and a grappling hook, a small bag of ball bearings, a vial of anti-toxin, along with an odd bag filled with what I assume is the coin of this realm.
Even in all 63 years of my travels I have not seen a coin minted like this before... I thought as I set the bag back inside the backpack.
With everything set, I put the cloak on and grab my pack and set off in a random direction into the woods...
After what had felt like four hours I finally was able to be clear of that forest. I heard some growling a little earlier along with some kind of strange wooden wolf but for some reason it seemed to ignore me. Perhaps it was my connection with the land was why the creature didn't attack me. There are so many unknown factors of this world I have yet to discover. Anyway, when I was finally able to clear the forest I came into a sizable apple orchard. Of course I had not eaten anything since coming here and seeing as the sun was getting close to setting and since I wanted to preserve what long lasting food I could I let my stomach decide my next actions for me.
I grabbed an apple off a tree and studied it for a second. "Huh, looks to be the same kind of apples that the people in the eastern lands back home grew... I hope it's just as good." I took one bite out of the apple and glorious flavor filled my mouth. "Nuuta! This is better than any apple from the eastern lands, these apples if thrown into a brew could give the Dwarves in the north a run for their money!" I quickly finished the rest of the apple and was about to grab another when-
"Hey! What in tarnation' do ya' think yer' doin' stealing from my apples ya no good thief!"
I turn to look to the source of the voice and all I see is... A humanoid type creature? It's definitely a she by the sound of her voice although the accent strikes me as odd, along with the clothing she's wearing. Also a tail? In all of my travels I have only known two creatures to have tails that were sentient, one was a dragon, the other was the lizard-men. She also had blond hair and tail put into a pony tail? Huh... also very big ears almost like a dog or cat and fur covering her entire body along with ridiculously large eyes.
Quickly formulating a response. "I'm sorry ma'am, you see I've been traveling for a long while and decided to grab an apple to eat. I did not mean to steal from you, I can pay for the apple if you so wish. Please forgive me for intruding upon your land." I said with a bow to her.
Her expression changed from one of anger to one much more forgiving. "Ah' shucks. I think I can forgive ya' for taking one if ya this one time. The names AppleJack by the way."
I simply nod. "Well thank you for your kindness Applejack. One more thing, can you point me to the nearest village in which I might get an idea of where I am. I seem to have gotten lost before arriving at your orchard."
"Sure can partner, just head that way-" She pointed in a direction away from the orchard. "-and ya'll get to a road which will lead ya straight into Ponyville."
"I thank you for the help you have given me, fare thee well Miss Applejack." I said while walking in the direction she pointed.
Thankfully I had the hood up the entire time I had that conversation with the farmer so named 'Applejack', otherwise that could have ended up as a big mess. Seeing as I'm a different species than them, I don't know how well they will react to my presence among their kind seeing as I'm a different species.
I've been following the path for a short time now and I had made my way into the village heading directly to the market square hoping I could get some information about the surrounding lands, that being said, I saw the same type of creatures as Applejack in a bunch of unnatural colors as I progressed through the village. Thankfully I had managed to get to the market without any interruptions, I did get some odd stares from wearing my cloak and I thought I saw something rush past me just a moment ago. I might be slightly paranoid, but I know what I saw and I think someone is following me...
Either way, I started asking around for someone who was some kind of record-keeper or mapmaker and I got pointed in the direction of a library where I can supposedly find a map. This is good because I can look through a book about the history of this land which might come in handy in the near future.
It didn't take me long to reach the library, I was surprised to find that it was a tree of all things. So I did what any polite man would do and knocked on the door. Apparently the librarian also uses this as their house so it's only polite that I knock. When the door opened I was shocked at what came out. I know dragon scales when I see them even though this one was wearing cloths like the others around this village I was not taking any chances and considering my bad experiences with them in the past, I did what any seasoned warrior would do with extreme paranoia of dragons.
I drew both of my swords. "Wyrmling! Prepare to meet thy fate!"
