The High Elven Empire of Caer Sidi

Many have heard the tales of the High Elven Empire of Caer Sidi, cruel, capricious and copper-loving. But long before The Empire held all Elvendome in its despotic grasp the clans hunted freely in the great primeval forest of Faerie. Faerie had been the domain of Elven clans and their related Goblin friends since the beginning of time.

When Hidzi (Humans) and Madzi (Dwarves) first made port in Faerie, coastal Elven clans welcomed them and became arbiters of trade between these copper-seeking seafarers and the autochthonous Elven clans further inland. As Elven nobles enriched themselves, particularly those of the High Elven Clan, the coastland of Faerie was despoiled and its greatest mountain, Shehelemet, plundered.

Deep Elves launched a resistance to the destructive High Elven trade joined by their Goblin allies and their Wood Elven kin. The Forest was engulfed in a relentless and bloody conflict that became ever after known in the sorrowful dirges of the Sidi as the War of 10,000 Arrows.

The vengeful first inhabitants of the wooded and hilly northeastern regions, the Elves keep ties with the faerie folk and the magical sylvan beasts that remain aloof from all other civilizations. Elves are deeply distrustful of all outsiders and of non faerie folk. They show little sympathy for dwarf or goblin and can be quite fearsome and unforgiving when provoked. They are inclined to show cruelty when feeling wronged and are strongly motivated by vengeance.

 

The Sh'ne Sahn

The Ogrekin include the related kinships of Goblins, Hobgoblins and Ogres, none of which have eaten each other for many years. These beings currently inhabit the low and swampy northern regions of The Realm, though they are indigenous to The Mountains.

Many of the Ogrekin, especially Goblins, came to deeply resent Elves. New cultural attitudes were brought into The Realm by Humankind who, seeing both Elves and Goblins as fairy folk, exulted the gracile physical beauty of the Elvish “Seelie Court” while they disdained and laughed at the robustness and animalistic claws and fangs of the “Unseelie Court” of Goblin peoples. Elvish culture and society was also deeply influenced by Humanity and many Elves turned against their former goblin-friends in the foothills of the mountains before The First Elvish War.

As distrustful to outsiders as the Elves, all Ogrekin are capable of displaying the same ferocity in the defense of their homelands. And they will gladly eat their opponents.

 

The Marches of Nagooth

Nagooth is a backwater Elven principality on the border of the Absolute Wild lead by a particularly unscrupulous and grasping Margrave. The Margrave of Nagooth was born Dessetia of the Lake, of the powerful high Elven House of Burrayl. Though upon age she was given The Lake, Dessetia never learned the subtle game of courtly intrigue in Caer Sidi and much preferred the subtlety of the sword.  Repeated lying, cheating and brash insubordination brought her neck to the guillotine, and though the Emperor wished to make a point he had far too much invested with Burrayl to bring such ignominy to their House. Dessetia was spared and sent to the furthest marches of The Realm. There she was allowed to continue whatever wicked plots she could carry on with while using her prowess with a knife and her command of Elven Knights to keep the things of the Wild in their Absolute place.

Nagooth is far from united under The Margrave and she has many enemies among elves who share a claim to her position just waiting for their chance to rise.

 

The Sh'ne Sahn

The Ogrekin include the related kinships of Goblins, Hobgoblins and Ogres, none of which have eaten each other for many years. These beings currently inhabit the low and swampy northern regions of The Realm, though they are indigenous to The Mountains.

Many of the Ogrekin, especially Goblins, came to deeply resent Elves. New cultural attitudes were brought into The Realm by Humankind who, seeing both Elves and Goblins as fairy folk, exulted the gracile physical beauty of the Elvish “Seelie Court” while they disdained and laughed at the robustness and animalistic claws and fangs of the “Unseelie Court” of Goblin peoples. Elvish culture and society was also deeply influenced by Humanity and many Elves turned against their former goblin-friends in the foothills of the mountains before The First Elvish War.

As distrustful to outsiders as the Elves, all Ogrekin are capable of displaying the same ferocity in the defense of their homelands. And they will gladly eat their opponents.

 

The Snôtlinga

Snôtling goblins, the smallest and most unhinged of the Federation, are ingenious explorers. Snótlings are capable of getting anywhere and they have been everywhere. The smallest of all goblinkind, Snôtlings have survived the cruelties of this world through cunning and craft. They bear a particularly strong hatred for the Madzi (Dwarves) who, allied with the Seelie Court in The Ugly War, drove The Goblins out of their beloved tunnels. Brilliant tinkers and inventors, goblin technology was discovered by Madzi after the war and is often still called “dwarven brilliance” by both Hidzi and Sidi.

Snôtlings also have the distinction among all goblins of being most fond of magical things. It would be a disservice to wizened mages to say the Snôtlinga have their own Wizards or Sorcerers among them, but there are always a few Snótlings in every band who have stashed dangerous and colorful tricks up their sleeves.

Goblins are far more prone to argument than most. Yet, it will not bother a goblin in the least to be challenged all day by its peers in a noisy endless chatter. To watch them converse is a dismal and sometimes concerning affair, but it is stimulating and comforting among their kind to bicker and pick at each other. Such bickering never leads to tears or physical conflict as it might between you or I, but instead brings peace of mind to a goblin by ensuring it that it is in a trusted social environment of individuals that care enough to bicker. To bicker is to ping the social milieu and request an existence-affirming ping back.