A script written by
Eladan Delvair, Poet Laureate to the Throne of Elsfar
Believer in The Lost Irrail
300 AF (After Fjiorim)
My lord King Wellington has instructed me to write for him a history of the races that he may peruse upon his return from his confrontation on the field with Loire, the treasonous Duke of Gerighelm.
Old passages of history, journals, and previous scripts are scarce. Most were destroyed in the First War and at best all we can do is place together what we find with logic. And so I pray Irrail will be my guide as I place together what I found with my own intuitions and thoughts.
The First Race, and in my humble opinion the one closest to perfection, is none other than humanity. When Fjiorim wished to populate the world, we came into being by the nameless one's power. We have no inclination towards evil, good, or neutrality, but we have within ourselves the capacity to do all three. This was shown by the perfect society we created under Fjiorim's guidance. Furthermore it was shown again when our vile greed caused us to make an item so powerful it destroyed our very creator.
The second races came into being simultaneously. With the death of Fjiorim's physical form, her spirit divided into three, and they became individual beings. Toroid the White called a group of humans away from their free path, and granted them, in return for following the path of goodness, special powers. To one group he gave a greater nimbleness and an affinity to nature and magic, and called them elves. To another he gave great duration and affinity to the earth, and called them dwarves.
Ytrewtsu lured his own group of humans into his command, and changed their physical forms as well. To one group he gave a lust for pain and destruction, and called them orcs. To another he gave a special kind of cruelty and perverse attitude, and they were known as goblins. Then he made a group of great stature and strength, called giants, with hopes they would crush all his enemies.
All four new races had their own god's best interests at heart, and the Goddess Irrail knew humans would no longer be enough to control the balance, because they could easily be swayed to one side or the other. And so with her power she called into being all manners of races that, like the humans, had a great capacity to do good and evil. They were given different skills to ensure their survival. Halflings were made first, because Irrail wanted to make something that could have the nimbleness of the elves, and the duration of the dwarves. Then from the halflings, she gathered more groups up, and gave some wings and innate magic, and called them pixies. Others she took and gave greatspeed, and they were known as quicklings. One group was given a love for invention and all things material; those she called gnomes.
Time passed and Ytrewstu, seeking to gain an upper hand, lured groups of dwarves and elves under his control. These he renamed the duergar and the drow, and ordered them to live deep beneath the ground, so far they would even be under the darkness. But this came at a price: the giants began to follow their own path, and like races of Irrail, became so that they could follow either good or evil. Irrail helped the giants by sending groups of them to live in the rivers; in time they became trolls. Groups of giants gained a higher intelligence; they became known as titans.
Lastly, when the Goddess Maeve came into being, she called a group of elves to follow her paths in the Dream World. They decided to live in the harsh lands of the Barren Waste, and by steeling themselves physically they hoped to become stronger in the realm of dreams.
Who is to say what other races may be out there, undiscovered by any explorer, or have yet to be created by a God or Goddess to tip the balance in the eternal struggle to his or her side?. Contrary to what history says, I believe Irrail is still out there, and if the need for a race to continue the balance calls, I have no doubt she will answer.
