The Death of The High Queen
The year 4200 BGW dawned beneath a moon split by shadow. In the ancient halls of Lumispire, the High Elves gathered for the Festival of Blooming Stars, a celebration honoring Leyara and the annual flowering of the Silvergrove. This sacred event, held deep within the heart of the Lumispire forest, drew the noblest of the High Elves beneath the boughs of trees that shimmered beneath starlight.
Among them was Queen Elaris Starleaf, whose grace and wisdom had guided Lumispire for over three centuries. The Queen, known for her unwavering belief in unity and peace, stood as a beacon of hope during the long tension that followed The Hollowood Falls. Though the Duskborn had retreated, the shadows of the Naerdrith and the scars of the Hollowwood lingered like a cold breath at Lumispire’s borders.
To Queen Elaris, the time had come to restore what had been broken. Her journey to the Silvergrove was not only to preside over the festival but to offer a branch of reconciliation to the Duskborn.
The Queen’s Final Journey
In secret, Elaris had extended an invitation to emissaries of Draidiff—the underground city of the Duskborn. Though many of her councilors protested, warning of the growing restlessness in the south, the Queen believed dialogue could still bridge the divide. “Shadow and light,” she had said, “are but reflections of the same sky. We need not make them enemies.”
Her entourage was light, consisting of trusted Moonwardens and royal guards. The path to the Silvergrove wove through ancient woods, following ley lines that thrummed with the heartbeat of the Weave. But unknown to the Queen, eyes were already watching.
The Ambush at Lightrush Forest
As Queen Elaris and her retinue crossed through Lightrush Forest, the forest grew unnaturally silent. Moonlight spilled in fractured beams, and the wind carried no sound of leaves or birdsong.
The first arrow struck the captain of her guard, piercing his throat before he could sound the alarm. From the trees, figures cloaked in shadow descended—rogue Duskborn assassins, their faces hidden beneath veiled helms of black iron.
The Queen’s guard formed a circle around her, but the assassins moved swiftly, wielding weapons laced with shadow magic. Elaris fell to a blade that left no mark upon her skin, yet stole the breath from her lungs and the light from her eyes.
The Moonwardens fought fiercely, but they were outnumbered. Only a handful survived, retreating with the Queen’s body beneath the shroud of night.
The War of The Two Moons Begins
As Queen Elaris lay dying beneath the open sky, a second light appeared in the heavens.
The High Elves who fled from Lightrush Forest claimed that Leyara herself had manifested in the sky, her luminous form hanging over the Ancient Reach like a second moon. Silent and still, she watched from the edge of eternity as her creation tore itself apart beneath her gaze.
The sight of the two moons—one of silver, one of living light—became etched in the memory of all who bore witness. Thus, the war that followed bore the name War of the Two Moons.
Back in Lumispire, King Elenion Starleaf, stricken with grief, declared the act a betrayal of elvenkind. Though emissaries from Draidiff denied responsibility, the High Council was unmoved.
"Shadow does not strike without reason," Elenion said before the council. "If they cannot command their own, then they stand as complicit in this treachery."
In the weeks that followed, the High Elves gathered their armies, marching south to the edge of the Shadowfront.
The Duskborn’s Denial
Within the depths of Draidiff, Vaeril Dusktide—once a close ally of the Queen before the First Schism—condemned the assassins. They were not sanctioned by the ruling council of the Duskborn, but a rogue faction known as the Pure Elves, radical arcanists who believed the High Elves’ power should be broken entirely.
Despite this, the High Elves refused to distinguish between Duskborn factions. To them, shadow magic had overstepped its bounds once more, and the assassination of their Queen was an unforgivable act.
The Shattering of the Accord
For centuries, the fragile peace between Lumispire and Draidiff had held by the thinnest thread of mutual caution. The Death of The High Queen severed that thread.
"We mourn her beneath two moons, yet her light remains. The stars will guide us, and the shadows will fall beneath their gaze." – King Elenion Starleaf, declaring war on the Duskborn
Legacy of the High Queen’s Death
Queen Elaris’s assassination stands as one of the most pivotal moments in elven history. Her death did not merely spark war—it cemented the divide between High Elf and Duskborn for millennia. To this day, the site of her death at Lightrush Forest is marked by a grove of silverleaf trees, their branches eternally shadowed by the memory of that fateful night.
The Duskborn, though fractured, continue to claim that Elaris sought peace, while the High Elves remember her as a martyr who fell to the folly of extending her hand too far.
In the centuries since, no High Elven monarch has sought diplomacy with the Duskborn.
