The Allanari Diaspora
Where Now is Allanar?
The land the elves once called Allanar hasn't born that name in nearly a thousand years. Once it stretched the entirety of what is today the Frore Lowlands down to the Grey Downs, and north to the fair coasts between the jut of Silbernval's mountains and the Smoking Peaks to the east.When the war which erupted between the Keldari and the other elvish realms was won and the realms of the Keldari destroyed, none could say whether Allanar had faired any better. The most directly adjacent to many Keldari centers of power, the Allanari were hit the hardest of the elf-realms in their alliance. So devastating was this to the people of Allanar that they still had not recovered when, during the middle centuries of the First Age of the Gods, they faced hostile human tribes looking for plunder. Consumed by despair at the loss of life, of so many sacred memories, and now at their dignity, the elves began to recede in the face of these tribes who often took to settling permanently the lands left behind.
Paths to Home
There are three primary branches of the Allanari, those who went to the present-day Starless Mire, those who went to Andavar, and those who subsequently settled the Silverstand. Despite this, there were other migrations and dispersals. Evidence suggests that some of the elves of northern Allanar ventured to dwell among the dryads of Broceliande, and others further to Mallorn. Lyhorion seems to have also begun as an outgrowth of Allanar. And though no elvish people are extant to the Cronewood now, it is believed a small group settled there. What became of them is unknown.What is known for certain is that the elves never returned to the Forlorn Lands. Not even after the Ruin had scoured the barbarians and the land did they attempt to rebuild Allanar, but this did not stop attempts to establish other realms.
The Allanari-in-exile
The elves still held Ter Haurgonun, hard won from the Keldari and rich in gold veins, and a few sites south of the Mountains of the Silbernval up to the coast. Spread too thin, even in such a withdrawn state, the Allanari could scarcely defend their borders from increasingly bold raiders and began to settle with the barbarian human tribes, granting them land rights and payments of gold to stop the attacks. The great dragon Ivrumitxeros sensed their weakness, and began to make aggressive postures and dominating some of the human tribes for tributes and to provoke them into raiding the elves for plunder.Finally, in 1432 SA 4, the last of the elves of Allanar abandoned the realm with Moon Prince Morthwyl who, utterly tired of fighting and driven by sorrow, gave the land the name which it would come to be known by to the Corsovians: the Forlorn Lands.
Then, Morthwyl led his people in sailing east to Andavar to live among their kin where they have dwelled since. But this last exodus was just that, the last in a stream of receding migrations pulling away from lands the Allanari people still held dear to their hearts.
The Elves of the Starless Mire
Before the final exodus of Morthwyl to Andavar, a new realm had been established south of the hills that formed the southern borders of the Forlorn Lands. However, this new realm had been host to many of the worst battles of the war against the Keldari and also fell into despair. So over centuries the land became the Starless Mire and could not be recovered from this fate, and the elves there dwindled until by 721 SA 5, they had withdrawn to their last refuge: Sor Malada.The elves of Sor Malada would continue to dwell there for a few more centuries before being driven out in 963 SA 5, by the overwhelming hordes of the risen dead of the Mire, organized into a horde by a servant of Orcus. The refugees fled into the Gilten Grove, to dwell in Lyhorion and Lanan Ortheiad, but it would not be long before the master of the dragon armies marched on Lanan Ortheiad with an overwhelming force in 1006 SA 5 to seize the Mistgate Nexus and the elves were again put to flight.
The Silverstand
Later, after the Ruin, but before the spread of human tribes once more across the east, three elves called Atliathae, Eichad, and Auvurlum led a group of Allanari in establishing the Silverstand near to the coast and to the realm which became the Starless Mire. They planted saplings of the silver-leaved trees of lost Allanar and quickened hope in that place. Hope that the elves planned to cultivate into a realm anew. Thus the three elf leaders became the first prince-chieftains of the Silverstand, to which those elves who fled the Starless Mire flocked.Their small realm is sadly not likely to last far into the next age, as even the isolated and resilient elves of Sor Malada were driven from their homes. Even in Andavar, the future is not certain, for in these times, elves everywhere are diminished and any appearance of prosperity is only the reflected memory of better days.
Shared Customs and Beliefs
Many Allanari beliefs are common among elves yet are listed for completeness of description. The primary defining difference in spirituality for the Allanari is the practice of worshiping the primal spirits of the world.- Unity of Realm and Ruler The Allanari believe that the prosperity of the realm is directly tied to the virtue and health of its people, especially its ruler.
- Sanctity of Body and Physical Perfection Because of elvish spiritualism and beliefs about connection to a primordial otherrealm to which they cannot return only preserve themselves, the Allanari place considerable importance on the wholeness and physical perfection of ones' body. Amputations are entirely unheard of, and if an elf should lose a limb or appendage in battle or by some accident the loss would be greatly mourned by the community.
- Sanctity of Memory Again due to elvish spiritual beliefs, memory is held to be sacred and a continuation of identity. Memory is the means by which an elf spirit recalls and preserves its sense of Self.
- Veneration of Primal Spirits Though they still revere the greatest of the elven heroes and the elvish archfey as well as paying homage to the Court of Stars, the Allanari and Andavari elves differ from the elves of the Wilderlands in that they revere many primal spirits worshiped in druidic "old faiths."
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