Elegy

Elegy is the only known planet within the Elegaic System on the Parallel Material Plane. It is orbited by a single moon, Feymoon. The drow know Elegy as "Nevaerûn," and in Deep Speech, despite have no written script, it is pronounced as "Evithl'dresz," which loosely translates to "the world that they forgot." The planet is an anomaly by standard cosmic conventions, as it has no orbit, spins very slowly on its axis, and has impossible alien geometry and landscapes, similar to that of the Inner Astral Sea's planar convergences. The planet is seemingly devoid of life, with no green anywhere in sight, but a wide array of alien minerals, soils, and fungus can support life. While the lands are certainly bleak and gray, the skies are full of cosmic colors, echoing space, and the water on the planet is clear enough to reflect outer space, giving the illusion that the planet's seas are just an "inner space." There are no day and night in Elegy, just an eternal twilight.

Its origins are unknown, but its people worship incomprehensible and impossibly old beings known as the Eldest, credited them for creating the world. It is a land mostly inhabited by aberrations, monstrosities, and mutated humanoids that originated from the Prime Material Plane, such as the vestren and drow. The Warsong is faint, but noticeable, within Elegy, though no notes are scattered amongst the planet, save for those brought to the place by travelers.

Geography
The exact size of Elegy is unknown, as none who have ventured past the deathly mountains that encompass the livable regions of the planet have survived. However, it is estimated that Elegy is around the same size, if not exactly the same size, of Spokenword. It consists of a few continents, including Firstrealm, Theirhome, and the vast Aberrant Wilds. Underneath the planet, in complex cave systems, is a place known as Underspace, which is full of strange creatures and plant life, mostly fungi, which can support life far beneath the surface of Elegy.

Regions

 * Firstrealm: A small region of Elegy that was the original place where the strangers from the Prime Material Plane were transported to. It is now little more than ruins, almost completely consumed by the lightscourge, save for a few drow encampments guarding the main western entrance to Underspace. It was the original homelands of the vestren, before the Opal King's exodus to Theirhome.


 * Theirhome: A medium continent in the middle of the ocean, Theirhome is the holy land which the vestren exodused to en masse, in the footsteps of the Opal King, a scion of and messenger of Ourselves. Originally inhabited by many feral aberrations, Theirhome is the most fertile and rich land in terms of resources, at least of the lands on the surface. However, the lightscourge slowly creeps towards it.


 * Aberrant Wilds: Making up most of the surface of Elegy is the Aberrant Wilds, which range from forests of dead, stone trees in the north, to the empires of slaads in the southwest. There are a very unruly and chaotic land, mostly ruled over by beholders and illithids. Vestren and drow rarely venture to the the wilds, as nothing awaits but the most dangerous of the feral inhabitants of the planet.


 * Underspace: Consisting of a vast network of underground tunnels and caverns, Underspace is the land where the original elven, dwarvish, orcish, and gnomish strangers from the Prime Material Plane fled to, in fear of the Eldest. Living underground, they face constant opposition from the illithids, psionic aberration-like humanoids who rule the underground with the help of their hive-minded society. Though, over time, the drow have risen to be a palpable threat to the illithid kingdoms.


 * Overspace: Overspace is a plateaued region of the Aberrant Wilds in the southwest wilds, with mountains protecting it from the slaads to the north. It houses the largest eastern entrance to Underspace, and is where most of the surface-dwelling drow live. Originally an uninhabited part of Elegy, after it was discovered by the drow, it became the perfect place to create a kingdom unfaltered by the illithids. Unfortunately, like most places on the surface, the lightscourge slowly comes for it.
 * Feymoon: Orbiting the planet of Elegy is Feymoon, which contrary to the lifelessness and gray aberrance of Elegy, is a green and lush place, full of life and color. It is the place where the fey retreated to, after they had accidentally found themselves in Elegy, far from their creator and mother, Lillith. Using a magical ritual, evidenced by the remains of a stone forest in the northern wilds, the fey escaped to the moon alongside some elves, creating the eladrin and a new world of beautiful magical plants, following the guidance of Amaathmor.

General History
Elegy's history began far before the strangers from the Prime Material plane came and started to influence and conqueror its alien lands, though none remember it clearly. Previously just a land of feral aberrations and the cruel and uncaring illithids, Elegy was never seen as a place where history should be preserved, rather a place where life must struggle to persevere. In addition to this, Elegy has no days or night cycle and the only reference for the passing of time is the stars, which were not used as a reference of time for many centuries after vestren first walked the lands. Due to this, Elegy's history is incomplete and mostly speculative, the only true records coming from exiled beholders and illithids long disconnected from the elder brain.

Creation
The creation of Elegy is almost entirely agreed upon to be a world that was created by the Eldest, as a way for them to either test their godly powers of creation, or more likely, for a reason that is part of an incomprehensible agenda, as the actions and purposes of the Eldest are far beyond mortal comprehension. This incomprehensible agenda is commonly referred to as "the greater purpose," which is of no matter to mortals. The Parallel Material Plane itself has possibly existed since the same time the Prime Material Plane has, but instead of created by Oln, it is likely it was created by They From Which We Came. The Warsong's rhythm is faint in Elegy, and it has little bearing on events.

History is generally unrecorded in Elegy, but ever since the First Contact, some brave historians have decided to reside in Opalsky to record Elegy's history alongside the vestren. They have come up with a few different eras of Elegy: the Dark Era, the Inherited Era, the Opal Era, and the Era of Return.

The Dark Era
The dark era can be split into two halves: Elegy as it was before the strangers from the Prime Material Plane arrived, and Elegy after they arrived. Elegy was a place of monsters, aberrations, and was ruled over by the illthid kingdoms, with the capital of psionic menaces being the underground kingdom of Losongim in the north. There was not much to say about it, except for the fact that the presence of the progenitor Eldest were strong, as they created Elegy as part of the greater purpose, then created the aberrations as creatures to live in this strange world, the illithids, beholders, and slaads the greatest of these creatures, representing pure strength and evil, values the Eldest were thought to value over all others. They were destined to rule these lands. The slaads murdered their way through the lesser creatures and created the empire of Renna-Gogasst in the southeast, and the beholders carved out a mighty plateau in the north, a impenetrable city known as Mzbenxilaan. For thousands of years, these races conquered Elegy, which pleased the Eldest. Then, over in Spokenword, the Steel Sea Rapture occured in Prehistory, opening a temporary portal to The Parallel after a cataclysmic cosmic event occurred. This brought "the strangers" to Elegy.

Races from the Prime Material Plane, a place of gods, not Eldest, were accidentally brought across The Parallel via the Astral Strait, to the planet of Elegy where they did not belong. This included a handful of humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, gnomes, and notably some fey creatures, such as pixies. Upon their arrival in the lands that would come to be known as Firstrealm, many of them were killed of by the hostile environments and the monsters that inhabited it. For the next few years (though it was hard to tell the passing of time in Elegy), these strangers tried their best to survive in the unfamiliar world. Many met their demise, and their numbers were dwindling. However, the presence and perseverance of these strangers did something that very few events in Elegy had the potential to do... it interested the Eldest progenitors. In stories the vestren have passed down for centuries, it is said that They From Which We Came, They Who Screamed Into The Void, and They Who Made Us Suffer appeared in the dark skies above Elegy, wanting to witness the strangers.

Mortals were not made to witness the progenitors, even the natives of Elegy. Many of those who stared into the skies and saw the eldritch horrors were instantly killed, their brains and consciousness wishing death over the insurmountable task of trying to comprehend the progenitors. Those who looked away and covered their ears were the only ones who survived. Over the period of time where the progenitors watched, known as the Times of Observation, the inhabitants of Elegy lived in a greater fear and curiosity than ever before. Only now, that curiosity would kill them. During this time, most the elves, gnomes, orcs, and dwarves fled underground into Underspace to flee the gaze of the progenitors, rather taking their chances with the kingdom of illithids below. Only a few elves (who had allied with the fey) and most of the arrogant humans remained. Then, something happened. The progenitors were impressed with what these strangers had done with their world, how they persevered instead of simply giving up as all the lesser races of Elegy had. The progenitors spoke, asking for the champions and leaders of each of these bands of strangers. The wisest of the humans and the kindest of the fey stepped forward to view the progenitors. These two were imbued with some of the power of the progenitors, ascended to divinity, claiming realms far beyond the reaches of Elegy, and were tasked with leading their people to greatness within The Parallel, or simply, they were given power as part of the greater purpose. These were long from the first inheritors of the progenitors, but they would be the last: Ourselves and Amaathmor.

The Inherited Era
When the inheritors gained power, portfolios, and domain, the lands of Elegy were forever changed. Ourselves, the greatest of the inheritors who struck the largest bargain with They From Which We Came, the progenitor of progenitors, had gained the most divinity and power from their inheritance. However, this came at a cost, a cost that was seen more as an evolution than anything. The human strangers as they existed previously were no more. Their blood was taken from their, replaced by vacuous blackness, and they were blessed with a collective unconsciousness, soothing the mind and allowing them to transcend humanity into a form more suitable for Elegy. This was the birth of the vestren. With their newfound eldritch powers and graceful mind, the vestren conquered the rest of Firstrealm throughout the Inherited Era, creating a great city in the center of Firstrealm known as Ourhome. At first, the vestren were lost in the dark, just as they had been in the Times of Observation, but soon after, from their domain in Beyond The Stars' Reach, Ourselves brightened the stars in the elegaic skies from dim shines to glorious beacons of light, giving the vestren better sight, points of reference to navigate with, and a way to track time.

Just as the vestren had Ourselves, the fey had Amaathmor, the Archfey inheritor. When she was first granted her power by They Who Made Us Suffer, her small pixie body was contorted, torn apart and completely annihilated by tentacles (haha hentai) and bones. It was said she suffered thousands of lifetimes of pain, but from her death, she was reborn as a more powerful and more beautiful fey than ever before. She had bloomed from death and become one of the few examples of life and nature in the gray dirts of Elegy. Amaathmor guided her fey and the few elves that followed her north, over the starry seas on ships made of branch and leaf, to a long-dead forest of stone. Somewhere deep within that forest was the echoes of life, but they could not be found, save for a single seed within the northernmost part of Elegy. Amaathmor's followers took the seed from the earth, and by her blessing, escaped to the moon that orbits Elegy to cultivate a beautiful and lush land. Over the years, this moon, which would come to be known as Feymoon, would flourish with life given to it from the First Seed and the Amaathmor's influence. The few elves that followed her fey would come to become eladrin, functionally immortal elf-like humanoids that embodied the changing seasons and nature of Feymoon. From their place far above Elegy, the fey on Feymoon enjoyed life free from the struggles below.

Meanwhile, deep underground in Underspace, the elves of who fled the surface began to conqueror the underground realms, taking land back from the illithids and creating great underground kingdoms. They did so by utilizing poisons and rigid matriarchal society of slavery and torture, following the edicts of an old inheritor whose forgotten altar they stumbled upon, She Who Weaved Her Own Fate. She was a being who embodied a spider with infinite legs, and the elves gave her a new name: Zilvra. She was one of the first inheritors to carry out a portfolio for the progenitors, and was a cruel, evil, and methodical being who enjoyed suffering, believing it was the only way to survive in the cruel worlds of Elegy. Originally presenting her portfolio and ideals to the illithids, the master race of the progenitor's design, they rejected her ideals in favor of Cuggunguzu, the first Elder Brain and chosen inheritor of illithids. There were many more inheritors that were rejected by the illithids, beholders, and slaads that ruled over primal Elegy. These forgotten inheritors were left without worship and slowly losing domain as they rotted away in their realms. However, in this new age, their faiths would be resurrected by the strangers.

With the powers granted by Zilvra and her scions, the elves of Underspace eventually evolved into a race of elite and brutal warriors who use poison, cunning, and magic to destroy their enemies. They became known as the dark elves, or more commonly: the drow. Throughout the Inherited Era, they came to be in power of all other races in Underspace, save for the illithids, their mortal enemies. The orcs, gnomes, and dwarves had too been corrupted by the aberrance of Elegy and Underspace, and they too sought out their own forgotten inheritors for worship. The dark dwarves, known now as duergar, found the forgotten edicts of He Who Carved The Lands, a great inheritor of forge and craft, and managed to make a fair enough kingdom of forge and steel underneath the volcano of Thaldehur, however, they were no match for the drow. The same goes for the dark gnomes, svirfneblin, who came to worship He Who Enchanted All, an inheritor whose portfolio included magic and the arcane. Finally, there was the dark orcs, the orogs, who never found an inheritor to align their ideals with, remained tribal, feral, and lost in the fungal depths of Underspace. Many of the duergar, svirfneblin, and orogs came to be drow slaves, save for the few who were able to defend themselves in their strongest cities and strongholds, places of reverence for their forgotten inheritors.

Back on the planet, an estimated few hundred years later, the vestren had made a suitable kingdom out of Firsthome with their venerable capital of Ourhome. While their civilization was not perfect, and their culture was lacking, not a far cry from tribal, it was not the vestren's perfection that made them the perfect people to civilize Elegy. It was their determination, which was about to be tested when the worst of all afflictions the vestren had seen arrived in their very own capital. From an unknown source, for no feasible reason, a bright light manifested in the middle of Ourhome. At first, some thought it a sign of Ourselves, but it soon became obvious it was no divine favor. It was a curse. From that initial light, the ground turned white and started to shift about. It looked like a pure white, shining bundle of sticks and leaves. And it expanded. Slowly, it crept out from its epicenter, like a corpse dragging its body along the ground, leaving its glowing remains in a trail behind it. This was the lightscourge. None knew if it was punishment from the progenitors, a test of will, or some sort of alien disease that had come to claim the lives of the Elegaic people.

The lightscourge continued to expand, consuming the central square of Ourhome within a half-quarter's time. The best vestren scholars and mages were completely stumped by the strange affliction, even more so when it seemed to stop expanding. The naive minority thought that it was over and the scourge was a strange, routine function of Elegy that was unseen until now. This idea was entertained for a bit. Then the scourgebeasts emerged from the ground. They were what many imagined an angel of death would look like. Beautiful and holy, but feral and monstrous, with warped features that reminded their victims they were no beings of good. Within a few hours, Ourhome fell and the vestren who survived fled. The bravest warriors were killed. The smartest warriors saved who they could. Thankfully, the scourgebeasts could not venture far from the lightscourge itself, but it was enough to keep the vestren from their revered city. Reduced in numbers, most of their pools of creation compromised and their greatest minds stumped, the vestren were close to extinction. They had always lacked a central leader, for their dull and communal culture had no reason for kings or lords. But now more than ever, they needed a leader, and so they prayed. Ourselves, the great saint they were, answered these prayers, and created his scions.

The Opal Era
An inheritor is an Eldest being that was created by the progenitors, given a portfolio with the dominion to control the aspects of the world which they had been assigned with. However, similar to the Rakatist gods of Spokenword, these inheritors were nothing without worship, as they would slowly lose their dominion and portfolio as they faded from the memory of Elegites. inheritors that had a fair bit of worship, however, were able to create scions, the lowest form of Eldest divinity. They still had a portfolio and some dominion over it, but scions were aspects of powerful inheritors, created to expand their portfolios, at the cost of some of their power. They were comparable to 3rd and 4th generation Rakatist gods. The vestren, of course, were expanding quickly and worshiped Ourselves with such devotion that he was able to created many scions, both greater ones and lesser ones. These scions were designed to help the vestren fend off the lightscourge and bring them to a new era of their kind, finally becoming a united force outside of the single city of Ourhome. It was time for their exodus to a new land and to lead them in this exodus, Ourselves created their greater scions: the Opal King, and his two powerful guardsmen, Fateful Sword and Arcane Star.

They were said to have first appeared walking out of a pool of creation that was made from the corpses of many vestren who did not survive the battle with the scourgebeasts. The Opal King emerged first, already clothed in regal garments with a beautiful face and skin that resembled the muted purple color of the elegaic opal, the rarest and most beautiful gem of Elegy. Shortly, to his side arose Fateful Sword, a stern-looking warrior clad in fierce black metal armor. Finally, arose Arcane Star, a scornful-looking man who master of arcane magic. The survivors of Ourhome knew instantly that this was their first true ruler and instantly believed the Opal King when he claimed to the scion and spiritual son of Ourselves. His faint smile comforted the souls of the terrified vestren. At last, their savior had come. It was said that a scourgebeast, more powerful than any other, detected the Opal King's presence and attacked him, but the prophet of Ourselves defeated the beast with a single attack with an eldritch rend, though not before some of the radiant rot had burned his face, notably scarring his nose. However, with this victory, the Opal King now held the heart of a scourgebeast, which he crushed in his hand, creating a light brighter than any other in Elegy's skies. This was a beacon for all vestren, survivors of Ourhome, wanderers, or even those who had long left vestren society. All vestren answered this call and came to bow to the Opal King. While Fateful Sword and Arcane Star defended the vestren people from the scourgebeasts, the Opal King made a decree, and with the power of Ourselves, turned the seas north of Firstrealm into a thin layer of elegaic opal, allowing it to be walked upon. Thus began the great exodus of the vestren.

Ourhome was left in ruins, devoured by the lightscourge. Its name was changed to Oldhome retroactively, since nothing remained there but memories and sorrow. But the name Oldhome meant something else. The Opal King was leading the people to a new home, a place he described as inhabited with the natives of Elegy, but completely unconquered by kingdoms or savage tribes. The native species of aberrations lived their mostly peacefully, and a just and peaceful people like the vestren could easily carve out a new empire in this land. This land, a continent full of natives without tyrants, was called "Theirhome" by the Opal King, and it would come to the site of the vestren's new holy lands. Over months, the Opal King led his people across the Old Sea, to the continent of Theirhome, where they continued their travels until they arrived in the northernmost lands of Theirhome, where the skies were scarred with a beautiful color of elegaic opal, with the most amount of stars possibly visible in all of Elegy. This was where the Opal King had meant to lead his people. Where he could help them create their new kingdom. This was the holy capital of Opalsky.

After arriving in Opalsky, civilization began to rebuild itself from ground in the strange landscapes of Theirhome. However, in order to facilitate the creation of this new kingdom, the Opal King requested of Ourselves their lesser scions. Ourselves, the honorable inheritor they were, created their lesser scions who would help create this new kingdom. Soon, the three new scions emerged: Fair Maiden, Ample Reaper, and Towering Craft. Fair Maiden was a graceful and peaceful woman who helped vestren settle disputes, learn healing magic and ways, and brought vestren closer together. While vestren have no concept of love or marriage, Fair Maiden taught them how to love their neighbors and treat each other with respect, even with their limited emotions. Ample Reaper was a scion with domain over agriculture and food, he was the master of these things and taught the vestren how to farm off of the land and create renewable sources of food and how to treat their water. With his blessing, vestren farmers to this day rack in bountiful harvests and yields. Finally, the last of Ourselves' lesser scions, there was Towering Craft. He was a being of few words, gruff-looking and always lost in thought. He was the greatest architect and blacksmith of all and every future vestren of those profession took after his designs and prayed for his guidance. With his intricate and beautiful designs, he crafted the streets and homes of Opalsky, alongside the holy Opal Palace, where the Opal King would rule over for the rest of his time on Elegy.

Over the next few centuries, with the scions teaching and guiding the vestren, Opalsky expanded from one great city into an entire kingdom of vestren settlements across all of Theirhome, and when their presence was no longer required, the scions returned to Ourselves in their domain in Beyond The Stars' Reach. All except for the Opal King, who was immortal, of course, and remained in the Opal Palace to rule over his people, which he had an undying love for. His rule remains to this day, despite the closure of the Opal Palace to the public, where only the pontiff and his high clergy are allowed to meet with the Opal King and carry out his wishes. The king's seclusion was odd, but many believed it was simply a precaution in making the vestren less dependent on their king, or maybe, because it was time for a new, mortal king to arise. To this day, this question remains in the public mind.

Of the new settlements in the new vestren kingdom of Theirhome, there were many notable cities. One was Everkeep, where the greatest of vestren warriors watch for the expansion of the lightscourge and house an army to defend from hostile aberrations or illithid invaders from Underspace. There was also Reapsow, which was built upon the most fertile lands of Theirhome and created most of the kingdom's food, by the blessing of Ample Reaper. Starspell was the capital for magic and the arcane crafts among the vestren, built on the spot where Arcane Star returned to Beyond The Stars' Reach and is the place where portal magic was first invented. Speaking of portal magic, the city of Barondale is the center for all travel between Elegy and Spokenword via the Astral Strait and is home to most of the portal barons of Theirhome.

While the Opal Era was fantastic for the vestren, the drow were much less fortunate, and did not know this time as the "Opal Era." It was an era of shame and defeat, as most of their empires crumbled underground. After years of skirmishing and minor wars, Cuggunguzu had told his illithid disciples that it was finally time to annihilate the drow menace. All of the illithid elder brains went into action assigning a new agenda to their people: war. The first target of the illithid's invasion was the drow capital of Ernathdarzan. Illithids were a race that preferred to attack a problem at its core and the psionic squid-like menaces razed and destroyed the city within a day. Their organization was impeccable and they were nearly as brutal as the drow themselves, leaving behind nothing but mangled corpses and dusty ruins. Within a year, the drow's great empires across Underspace were diminished to a few large cities and greatly reduced numbers. They were awaiting their deaths, but one drow woman, a chosen of Zilvra, would not go quietly. Her name was Drizbryn Prouta'Ganizt, and she was the greatest rogue of her clan, able to sneak past the illithid's psionic detection and deep into their enemy lines. Honestly, it made no sense, but she was really cool so nobody cared about how dumb it was. On her own, Drizbryn killed and sneaked her way past all of the illithid's greatest warriors, directly into the heart of Losongim. There, she found the elder brain known as Duoolt. While the brain was nothing compared to Cuggunguzu, killing it would still be enough to end the war. So, in a really epic and cool way she totally killed Duoolt without even getting a scratch on her, ending the war and cementing Drizbryn as the hero of all drow, ascending to become a scion of Zilvra. In the years to come, drow authors published a ton of graphic novels and short stories about how cool she was and the adventures she got up to in Spokenword with a small party of heroes as she took on multiple dungeons and dragons. Over five editions.

The illithid's offensive was stalled for now, but the drow were still devastated. They had no choice but to retreat above ground to form a new kingdom in order to take back Underspace from their mortal enemies. In the far southwest of Underspace, drow explorers happened upon a long-forgotten exit from Underspace that led to a great and fertile plateau, longing to be civilized. The drow took this opportunity and built a new kingdom upon these lands where they would be undisturbed by the illithids until the day came where they were able to retake their previous lands and once again inhabit the ruins of their beloved Ernathdarzan. For now, this new kingdom, Overspace, would suffice. They built a new capital, Kaicoraarzan, and started to form trade with the vestren, even though the two races wanted mostly nothing to do with each other. Out of the mouth of tragedy, the drow were content with their new lives on the surface, especially since there was no sign of the progenitors. However, there was something that was possibly worst than the progenitors: the ever-spreading threat of the mysterious lightscourge.

The Era of Return
The Era of Return begins with the discovery of portal magic in Starspell, and therefore is the only era of Elegy with a definite timeline. On 51st of Fire, 167 HR, First Seeker crossed the Astral Strait and became the first vestren to step foot in Spokenword, meeting Chancellor Blue in Wintervale. The desire to return to the Prime Material Plane first arose for the vestren after the Opal Era had ended and Theirhome had grown into a competent kingdom. The aberrant people had always been curious about the tales of the land where their ancestors resides, the land where the first strangers were from. So, the greatest scholars and mages of Theirhome took up the task of finding a way to return to these lands and they soon stumbled upon the realization of the existence of multiple planes of existence, including the Prime Material Plane. Archmage Potent Warp was the first to propose the theory of the parallel portal. Powerful magic rings were crafted using the most potent runes and enchantments available to the vestren, and then they were blessed by the greatest priests of Ourselves, including the pontiff himself.

The metal these rings were made out of was known as theirstone, which was native to Theirhome. It was extremely reactive to magic, both divine and arcane. After the rings were created, many statues of Ourselves were erected across Theirhome, also made of theirstone. These statues were then attuned to the Prime Material Plane by tuning them to track into the rhythm of the Warsong, as it was the most powerful magical force that acted upon Spokenword, making it detectable even in Elegy. Finally, a vestren was to wear the ring, which became known as a Ring of Parallels. When a vestren wearing these rings would stand near a statue of Ourselves, pray to it, and create a rectangle shape with their hands (using both index finger and thumb to form two L-shapes), a portal would appear in that empty space. Of course, this portal led to a location in Spokenword, as determined by the statue of Ourselves, which allowed the vestren to cross over the planes by going through the Astral Stait, the thinnest point of the Inner Astral Sea that separates the Prime and Parallel Material Planes.

Rings of Parallels, while complicated and extremely expensive, were bought by wealthy vestren and those who wished to visit their human ancestors. Barondale was established as both a place of embassy for the humans and the center of all traffic across the Astral Strait. Over the next few hundred years, people across Spokenword learned to accept and integrate the visitors from across The Parallel. Some of these visitors even remained in Spokenword, settling families and mixing their alien culture with the more "normal" culture of the humanoids. In the current day, vestren known as "portal barons" take people to and from The Parallel, and the sight of a Parallel being in Spokenword is certainly rare, but nothing mind-blowing or novel. Races of The Parallel keep their civilizations and kingdoms within The Parallel, but those who wish to leave are welcome to. The two planes are sufficiently integrated with one another, and many vestren and drow alike walk the world of Spokenword, either as adventurers or exiles looking for a place to call home. While some nations and people don't accept the aberrant people, most just look on in curiosity at them, while treating them all the same, save for a dash of prejudice or interest.

At last, the vestren felt complete. They had survived the progenitors, found faith in Ourselves and their scions, created a beautiful and grand kingdom in Theirhome, and had returned to those ancestors from whence they came. However, things were not perfect. Around the year of 280 HR, the lightscourge had impossibly crossed the Old Sea, to the surprise of scholars across all of Theirhome. Granted, the source of and purpose of the lightscourge was just as mysterious to them now as it was when it first appeared in Oldhome. Regardless, it appeared in southernmost part of Theirhome and consumed the city of Firstfall, where the vestren first arrived from their exodus. Even worse, the scourgebeasts were more powerful, larger, and smarter than before. Even the best warriors of Everkeep struggled to fend them off. In the absence of the Opal King, many panicked, but the pontiff and his bishops assured the people that the Opal King had a plan to defend Theirhome. Overspace, aswell, detected lightscourge on their shores, while deep below, the illithids became riled, seemingly preparing to finally wipe the drow off of the map. Elegy seems to be on the brink of new era, but many can only see this era ending in tragedy. Priests seek the blessings of the inheritors, but their prayers are slow to be answered these days, and many even believe the return of the progenitors is on the horizon.

Despite all of its strangeness and the foreign origin of most of its people, Elegy does not deserve to end in the radiant consumption of the lightscourge. Armies assembled. Wanderers flee to Spokenword, across the Astral Strait. Commoners block their doors and shut their windows. Elegy is on the brink of either destruction and salvation, and in the year of 312 HR, it seems that a boiling point is not far off.