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Originally posted by Jeremy Grenemyer

Crazed, that was a great follow up question.

I think it would be cool if one of the paintings was a one waytime portal leading back to that painting's era, or a portal leading to a fixed size demiplane where every day at the castle is the same day over and over. Wouldn't be surprised to find a few escapees or refugees from Cormyr's past in that last one.

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The Searing
In the days so forgotten and long ago that they've
become known to some sages as "the Dawn Days" (others
call them "the Dawn Age" or "the Time of Dragons"), a
time so distant that present-day Realmslore preserves
no reliable written records and scant known facts from
them (so that what follows is largely drawn from old
ballads), most of the lands around the Sea of Fallen
Stars were one vast, deep forest.
This great woodland was home to many creatures, of
whom perhaps the proudest and the most advanced in
Art, craftings, and courtesies were the elves. Their
time of might and great realms and mastery of magic
were soon to come, but were then more the stuff of
excited dreams than reality.
In the Dalereckoning of today, the years of the events
recounted hereafter would have been -24,600 DR and the
three decades or so that followed.
Dragons ruled the peaks and skies in those days, and
betimes set forests afire to flush forth food from the
dim green depths. Inside the mountains, the power of
the dwarves was quietly rising as the pride and ruling
vigor of the giants was sapped by endless wars with
orcs, hobgoblins, goblins, and their kindred.
One region where orcs were strong and dwarves gaining
power (in part because ongoing strife with the rising
might of ogres to the immediate north, in what was to
become known as Thar, had weakened local giants) was
the Lhaurokh, later known as the Dragonreach. Wood
elves dwelt in small treehome communities near
present-day Ravens Bluff, and moon elves lived in
small clan hunting territories in what is now
Featherdale, Battledale, Harrowdale, and Deepingdale.
There arose among the wood elves an ambitious
war-leader known as Aubron Halavanthlarr, who chafed
against the gentle, peaceful ways of his kin (who
lived in harmony with the forest, clearing nothing,
building as little as possible, and tending the beasts
they hunted with the same patient care as they
gardened herbs and leafy edibles---notably the
fleshy-leafed sarrauva vine---in the high boughs of
the forest). This young elf met with little approval
from his elders. At length Halavanthlarr gathered a
handful of his friends who shared his restlessness and
eagerness for adventure, and set forth into the forest
to seek power and better things.
Somewhere near present-day Tsurlagol, he found a small
realm of gold elves who'd mastered magic enough to
slay wyverns, cage some edible forest monsters, and
even to fight off dragons who espied these morsels and
descended for an easy meal (but who soon turned their
attentions to easier dining elsewhere, when met by
spells that most of them assumed were the work of a
hidden dragon who'd set out the caged creatures as a
lure for dragonkind). Halavanthlarr seized what magic
he could, first by stealth and then through bloodshed,
and happened upon Ulelesse Chamaranthe, an unhappy
young 'she' of the gold elves who was smitten by his
strangeness and daring. He spirited her away,
and---hunted by a few of her kin--- made his way back
to his people.
There Halavanthlarr's new-found magic, boldness, and
cunning soon won him followers. Although most of the
wood elves remained horrified at his ways,
Halavanthlarr took the most restless of his kin with
him---away from the treehomes and across the Lhaurr
(the waters of the Reach) to the 'far forests' on the
other side...in other words, to the western shores
where, unbeknownst to the wood elves, dwelt the
Oronthaebur.
The Oronthaebur, or 'Moon Clans,' built but little,
and changed the woods they called home little more
than the wood elves across the sundering Lhaurr. There
were at least three eight-counts of these moon
peoples, and though rivalries between them were often
fierce, they avoided each other's lands, and so passed
the years in relative peace.
When Halavanthlarr came, the Oronthaebur merely 'faded
away into the forest' before his advance. Calling
themselves the Hlarr in an echo of their revered
leader's name, Halavanthlarr's wood elves began to
mount hunts of their own: cage-captures to breed
beasts for food as well as food-slayings. They sought
out the best springs and beast-colonies, faring ever
farther inland, and slew Moon Clan elves upon sight.
As self-styled lord over the Hlarr, Halavanthlarr
hewed ever to two things: keeping his folk in
readiness for war, with arms and patrols and sentries;
and mastering ever-greater magic, with spell
experimentations and sharing.
The Oronthaebur watched him in their turn, and knew
fear. 'Madlord' they named him, and gave way before
his ever-farther forays, until at length they were
driven to meet among themselves in uneasy,
unaccustomed alliance against him, and whelm their
magical might, and make ready for war. They took the
name 'Yhendorn' after the wise elder who convened the
council, and bound his own mind to that of a nearby
green wyrm to make their greatest weapon: a dragon the
moon elves could control, to wage war for them.
Thus emboldened, they struck back at the wood elves in
strength, working slaughter upon three patrols with
their arms and spells alone. Enraged, Halavanthlarr
hurled other patrols against the Yhendorn; only a few
ragged survivors fled back to him.
Mastering his temper into a cold fury, Halavanthlarr
ordered the Hlarr back to their coastal holds, to
gather all the magic and arms they could. "Hold
nothing back," he's reputed to have said, "for there
is no sunrise for the defeated."
In one host, some seventy or eighty strong, they went
hunting the Yhendorn---and were skillfully harried and
led to the forested height that is today known as
Hunters' Down, in Deepingdale. There the dragon swept
down upon them, and their spells raged, and in a
day-long, bloody fray the dragon perished, along with
the elder who guided it...and almost all of the Hlarr.
A few Yhendorn survived. So also did Ulelesse
Chamaranthe, who'd led a handful of young shes aside
from the final fray---and Halavanthlarr, who fled,
alone and wounded, back east towards the coast. Ere he
reached it, he was met by three grim Chamaranthe gold
elves, who slew him, the ballads insist, with their
bare hands.
Ulelesse led her handful of shes to the dragon-torn
battlefield, and on the height gathered the dead and
comforted the surviving Yhendorn. There the three
warriors of her kin who'd hunted and slain her
Halavanthlarr found her.
She refused to return to her homeland with them,
choosing to remain with the Yhendorn, and in time a
few---a very few---moon and gold elves made traffic
and friendship between what is now Deepingdale and the
coast nigh what is now Tsurlagol. Under the guidance
of Ulelesse Chamaranthe, who became known as 'Old
Mother' (this is the same "Old Mother" that many Fair
Folk of the three dryland elven races tell moral tales
to their young about, and sometimes, when astonished
or facing doom, startle themselves by swearing by) the
handful of Yhendorn grew great in magic. They and she
raised the earthen barrow-tomb atop the hill that
holds the dead of the Searing, and became the baelnorn
who guarded it down the passing ages, and still guard
it today.
Some folk in Deepingdale say that certain of the
baelnorn walk the Dales, in disguise and cloaked in
concealing magic, and watch unfolding events. This
they have always done, sometimes aiding or giving
warnings, and often covertly stealing magic. For some
years, in the early days of the Elven Court (and among
the Heralds soon after their founding), it was the
custom of certain reverent elves (and heralds) to
journey to Hunters' Down and converse with the
baelnorn, trading enchanted items, spell scrolls, and
news of events across the Realms for specific lore
answers. Some say most of the Chosen of Mystra have
also made this journey---and Elminster has confirmed
that pacts have been made that will bring the aid of
present-day wizards to baelnorn of Hunters' Down who
request it.

-- George Krashos

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Originally posted by The Hooded One

Hello again.
dazzlerdal, here's Ed's reply:

Dwarvenhome was known to the dwarves as Ahrrune.

(from: runedar = haven, home for all and ahrraem = all-kin, meaning the race of dwarves)

. . . and it follows that dwarves referred to themselves formally (as a race) as Ahrraem.
A less formal, daily "we" or "dwarves" (meaning: a group of dwarves that wasn't all one clan or family, or a group assembled for a specific purpose like a warband or a shift in a mine) is "Ahra" (as in, "ahra always drink from the higher spring," or "ahra prefer that ale to the weak human stuff")

So saith Ed, and there you have it.
love,
THO

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Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

On a related note, do dwarves have a general, catchall term for non-dwarves? Something similar to the elven N'Tel'Quess?

And how about dwarven profanity?

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Originally posted by The Hooded One

Hi again, all. George, Ed has come through. Here are your dwarvish queries:

Clan: ddin
Dwarf: arl
Elf: elgon
Elves (group): elgonnyn
Elves (race): gonnynd
Gnome: del
Gnomes (group): deldal
Gnomes (race): delvar
Halfling: thim
Halflings (group): thimdal
Halflings (race): orthim
Human: tahl
Humans (group): tahln
Humans (race): oumtahl
Ruling House: ostoan

So saith Ed. And there you have it!
love,
THO

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Originally posted by The Hooded One

Hi, BenN, I've tracked down an e-mail from Ed in which he says:

Narya survived, too, sorely wounded, but is under care in Semberholme and expected to survive; the right spells and treatment should replace the right forearm she lost in the fighting.

So saith Ed. And no, Narya isn't, so far as Ed or I know, mentioned in other published Realmslore, but I do know Ed has jotted down something of her story and past dealings with the Delcastles, because that same e-mail mentioned her as one of "half a dozen" elves not of prominent rank, influence, or published Realms profile that Ed "follows" in his imagination to chart the general tenor of the elves in that region (their rises, falls, attitudes, etc.). It might currently be NDA, but I've forwarded your query to him in hopes that it isn't, and you'll get a useful reply.
love,
THO

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