Syranyle
Traditional Elven Pantheon| {{ #if:|
| Syranyle | |
|---|---|
|
}} | |
| (Nation) | |
| Pronunciation | SĒR-ən-ī-əl
}} |
| Titles |
}} |
| Alignment |
}} |
| Capital |
}} |
| Ruler |
}} |
| Government |
}} |
| Demonym |
}} |
| Adjective | Syranyle
}} |
| Languages | Elven
}} |
| Religions | Ancestor worship Traditional Elven Pantheon }} |
|
}} | |
At the changing of the ages between the Age of Dragons and the Age of Humanity, the elves were driven from their ancestral homeland by humans. When the last of their powerful draconic allies were driven from Gailifor and it became clear beyond measure that there was no possible way that the elves could hope to overcome the humans, the elves, by necessity, splintered into three factions: those who were willing to accept human rule and submit to their new leaders, those elves that would flee to the West to live as wanderers among the other nations, and those who fled East across the ocean. The third of these groups were called the Syranyle, which translates to "Faithful Elves," for their adherence to their beliefs of their ancestors and unwillingness to deviate from these.
Syranyle elves sailed to the East into the uncharted oceans. In their voyage, they came upon a great Maelstrom that would surely rend their ships asunder were they to foolishly sail into it. Some elves took this as a sign to continue, hoping that Makila and Gnorri, the goddesses of the ocean and sky, would protect them as they made the journey. The rest agreed that this was a sign from the goddesses that they were not to continue, and would seek a home elsewhere. These sailed south until they came upon the isle of Makiloshta, later called Greyns by the humans, after Irdol Greyan who discovered the island.
The Syranyle took with them many of the trappings and artifacts of elven culture, most notably the Dreaming Stone, an ancient symbol of their connection to their elemental gods, said to have come from the age when the world was but a dream. This allowed them not only to retain a stronger connection than the elves who remained behind (especially those cursed by the shaman kings of the Syranyle tribes), but also to commune with ancestral who had been slain in the war with the humans. These ruled the tribes in perpetuity with impuny.
Over a thousand years passed before humans once again sought to defeat the elves, this time the cult of the War-Saint Tithus fell upon the island and conquered the Western half, spreading a vicious occupation force. Even as they did, however, half-elven bandits became increasingly organized and, with the assistance of firearms acquired from a tinker from Avenia, were able to raise a powerful peasant-army to oust the humans and claim the island as their own homeland. They agreed to let any elves stay, but would not concede rulership or primacy of the elven ancestor spirits beyond the tribal units who worshiped them.
Over the last six decades, the elves have been forced to rely upon their ancestor spirits less and less, as their people are exhausted from two large-scale total wars and unwilling to sate the ancestor's demands for blood and vengeance. Without the exclusive control of the Dreaming Stone, nor the influence of their ancestor spirits, the elves have fallen into a sort of melancholy resignation. Today, the title of "Syranyle" is fading, as the elves who once considered themselves the only true elves find that increasingly, the old ways cannot save them from the march of progress.
Real-World Comparison
The Syranyle can be compared to First Nation people within the Western world, driven to increasingly small reservations by peoples who, in many cases, were not even truly devoted to fighting them specifically.
Campaign Role
The Syranyle are only very recently removed from the violence that laid waste to their new nation to which they were driven from their old nation. While one might imagine a Syranyle elf's motivation as being to discovered what happened to the elven people of the New World, they are, as a people, understandably wary of presuming they will be welcomed with open arms (or at all, for that matter) by the people they and their ancestors were too cowardly to follow. Many of them may, instead, adopt an attitude that if you can't beat the imperialists, you can always join them.