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The world is about to change.
Most people are aware of it on some level. It’s been changing for a while, after all. After decades of relative peace—centuries, even!—the Age of Man is waning. There are fractures in old alliances, between North and South, East and West, Man and Elf. Old enemies are rising—monsters in the mountains, demons from the pit, black-skinned elves and dead-eyed dwarves. There are whispers of dragons, and the scent of smoke. It’s easy to think that change, ANY change, must necessarily be away from what is good and towards that which is evil and ugly.
But now you know different. Change you have learned, can be a beautiful thing.
You are Ezreal Van Houtzmann—or Ezrea Mious, or ‘Tips’, depending who you ask. You are half-human and half-elf, the child of Mylarelea Mious of the Sylvan Realms and Ruldofo Van Houtzmann, the swashbuckling human adventurer. Recently, you returned to the land of you’re your mother—the land of your birth—for the first time in a long time. In Dappulyet, the seasonal village and ritual centre of your mother’s clan, you hoped to find answers to some of the great mysteries which have eluded you: the nature of the gods, and the world, and the Fair Folk, and especially the origins and purpose of the sacred fairy ritual which transformed you (and others) into something beyond merely Human or Elf, and into something… Other.
You found that which you sought.
Many of the particulars elude you, but you are learning. You risked your life to protect the sacred moon-stone which is central to the spiritual life of your mother’s kin, and in exchange their priestess, Clanirae, revealed some of her secrets to you.
Secrets like the fact that she is an ‘eladrin’ (or ‘High Elf’) from THE MOON! Or that the Gods of Light are from even FURTHER beyond this mortal realm-alien to this entire universe itself! Or that the ritual which so transformed you—that turned your flesh and blood and bone to elemental aether, and made you ‘eladrin’ yourself—is actually an invention of those same high elves and alien gods to bring harmony, beauty, and peace to the whole world!
…And perhaps biggest of all, or at least most PERSONAL, the fact that you could be instrumental to making it happen. At least, Priestess Clanirae thinks so.
It’s a lot to take in, of course. A LOT of a lot. You still get a little dizzy just thinking about it Maybe that’s why, infuriating as it can be, the priestess has declined to elaborate any further in the last few days, recommending instead that you take some time to think about what it all means to YOU. You’ve been trying, but a part of you simply cannot focus, not when you know there’s still so much more to learn, to know, to DO! As ever when you uncover such hidden knowledge, you are filled with a nervous energy, and the need to uncover MORE, or else to apply what you already know.
It's so much, all at once, that you almost miss the letter.
Most people are aware of it on some level. It’s been changing for a while, after all. After decades of relative peace—centuries, even!—the Age of Man is waning. There are fractures in old alliances, between North and South, East and West, Man and Elf. Old enemies are rising—monsters in the mountains, demons from the pit, black-skinned elves and dead-eyed dwarves. There are whispers of dragons, and the scent of smoke. It’s easy to think that change, ANY change, must necessarily be away from what is good and towards that which is evil and ugly.
But now you know different. Change you have learned, can be a beautiful thing.
You are Ezreal Van Houtzmann—or Ezrea Mious, or ‘Tips’, depending who you ask. You are half-human and half-elf, the child of Mylarelea Mious of the Sylvan Realms and Ruldofo Van Houtzmann, the swashbuckling human adventurer. Recently, you returned to the land of you’re your mother—the land of your birth—for the first time in a long time. In Dappulyet, the seasonal village and ritual centre of your mother’s clan, you hoped to find answers to some of the great mysteries which have eluded you: the nature of the gods, and the world, and the Fair Folk, and especially the origins and purpose of the sacred fairy ritual which transformed you (and others) into something beyond merely Human or Elf, and into something… Other.
You found that which you sought.
Many of the particulars elude you, but you are learning. You risked your life to protect the sacred moon-stone which is central to the spiritual life of your mother’s kin, and in exchange their priestess, Clanirae, revealed some of her secrets to you.
Secrets like the fact that she is an ‘eladrin’ (or ‘High Elf’) from THE MOON! Or that the Gods of Light are from even FURTHER beyond this mortal realm-alien to this entire universe itself! Or that the ritual which so transformed you—that turned your flesh and blood and bone to elemental aether, and made you ‘eladrin’ yourself—is actually an invention of those same high elves and alien gods to bring harmony, beauty, and peace to the whole world!
…And perhaps biggest of all, or at least most PERSONAL, the fact that you could be instrumental to making it happen. At least, Priestess Clanirae thinks so.
It’s a lot to take in, of course. A LOT of a lot. You still get a little dizzy just thinking about it Maybe that’s why, infuriating as it can be, the priestess has declined to elaborate any further in the last few days, recommending instead that you take some time to think about what it all means to YOU. You’ve been trying, but a part of you simply cannot focus, not when you know there’s still so much more to learn, to know, to DO! As ever when you uncover such hidden knowledge, you are filled with a nervous energy, and the need to uncover MORE, or else to apply what you already know.
It's so much, all at once, that you almost miss the letter.
