Brother Girolamo's Brief History of Transcaliga [Scroll I]

by **Melnerag** Mon Nov 19, 2012 12:30 pm

OOC:

Brother Girolamo's Brief History of Transcaliga

This is the unveiling of my inquiry into the history of the Transcaligal World (from Old Common trans caligo : on the other side of mist) so that the deeds of heroes and villains may not remain unknown to the people of Pandaria and so that each character on the great stage of history may have his due glory.

The Blessing of Free Will

Her Holiness Vicar Ioanna has received a revelation of the world's creation through the volition of the Holy Light, yet how that process of creation played out inside the world and whether it continues to this day is unknown to us. Therefore, as a man of reason as well as faith I shall rely on the sciences of archaeology and history where Revelation is lacking.

The race of the Titans acted as harbingers of the Light and bringers of Order to the universe born from chaos. When the Titans came to proto-Azeroth, they found it in hands of the malevolent Old Gods who are as unfathomable as they are evil. My hand trembles at writing “Old Gods”, as I spit at their false title and deny them any claim to divinity. I mention them only since the literature calls them thus, and I will refer to them as Old Ones instead.

These Old Ones were served by the two savage primordial races of the Aqir and the Trolls whom they created out of earth and water of ancient Azeroth and in whom they breathed life through aid of the Elementals. For indeed, the Four Elementals were servants and minions of the Old Ones. Chaos ruled on Azeroth, as the two races fought in great wars to appease the bloodlust and evil of their dark masters and the elementals roamed freely. Then the Titans came and waged war on the Old Ones. They fought them in the skies and in the seas, on earth and beneath the earth and within the fiery heart of our world. The titans scattered the mortal armies of the Old Ones across the face of the earth and separated Azeroth from the Elemental Planes, dividing Order and Chaos and doing Light's Will. In the end, they imprisoned the leaders of the Old Ones deep beneath the earth. Order triumphed.

As the Old Ones stand for evil, chaos and madness the Titans stand for good, order, justice and Reason. Just as the creations of the Old Ones are ugly, repulsive, savage and fickle the Titan creations are stoic, noble, creative and orderly. The titans made the races of Humans (Vrykul), Dwarves (Earthen and Iron Dwarves), Gnomes (Mechagnomes), Giants (Aesir, Vanir and other giant species), Tol'vir, Dragons and Watchers...the last of whom they made in their own image to watch over Azeroth in their stead.

Yet the races made by the Titans had one flaw, as they lacked free will. The Light is all-benevolent and wants the creation to be happy and to know It, yet knowledge of Sin and Virtue is impossible without Free Will. And so the Light breathed upon the world, and bestowed Free Will upon the titanic creations. Yet the Titans grew proud by this time. They had forgotten that the Light made them to shape the world in Its name and became misguided and deluded, they saw the world as their creation and their playground. And so they rebelled against the Light.

Aman'thul, the Sage of the Titans spoke thus, “come, let us abandon those pitiful creatures to their fates and return to our lands. We have long enough laboured for the benefit of others, I say, let us withdraw and labour for our own pleasure and delight and recognize no power above us, for we are Gods indeed.” But not all Titans followed his call. Sargeras, the Warrior of the Titans replied, “no, father, to withdraw is to suffer injustice. Have we not been taught to avenge every wrong? I say, let us make war against the Light, and shatter Its radiant throne, banish Its glory from the universe so that it may be forever in darkness and fire. And then we shall mould it in our image, and to our liking, and rule it as we see fit until the end time.” From Sargeras' rebellion and wrath against the Most Highly Divine, Fel was born. His Dark Will twisted the creative powers of the Arcane and turned them into a force of destruction and death. And the universe reeled from the birth of Sargeras' Burning Legion. The shock of that betrayal of the Most Highly Divine, this rebellion against the true Creator is felt to this day...for Sargeras' creation of Fel has also left a mark upon the Arcane. His Dark Whisper lingers in every atom of mana, and every mage who drinks of it is tempted to seek out the Dark One and suck on his ruinous power of Fel.

That is why the Legion hates Azeroth with such fierce loathing, because this world represents the reason it was born.

The titans fought a bitter civil war and withdrew into the Great Dark to lick their wounds. In their departure, some Titans, notably Eonar felt pity for the world the Titans were abandoning. She spoke to the Titans and swayed them, even the callous Aman'thul, to leave a parting gift to the world. The Titans bestowed a portion of their power upon the race of Dragons, and created the Five Flights to watch over the world as it grows in wisdom and prosperity.

Yet Aman'thul had one final trick to play. He issued a secret command to all the titanic creations who did not yet receive Free Will, and he conditioned them to believe it to be the work of the Old Ones and hate it. The world still shudders from that lie. Some Gnomes and Dwarves suffer from an existential crisis as they see their Free Will and the forms of flesh it brought to be inherently evil, and they long to slavery under the Titans once more, indeed some misguided Dwarves have taken to worshipping Titans as gods! The Giants rejected their freedom, and as such their transformation to flesh is incomplete – to these days they still labour and toil as they did under the Titans, in denial of freedom. The Tol'vir were driven mad by Aman'thul's lies, one of the three tribes was eradicated and another sided with Deathwing because he promised to take away their flesh and return them to stone. Only the Ramkahen tribe endured the challenge of Faith, and recognized Light's great gift for what it is. Only the Dragons and Humans accepted the Blessing of Free Will without reservation and saw straight through Aman'thul's deception.

First Civilizations

The Proto-humans – the Vrykul were a race of noble warriors of phenomenal strength who dwelt in the northernmost reaches of the world. Theirs was the first civilization. These ancient humans knew the dangers of the Arcane and the lingering whispers of the Dark One that tainted it and practised runic magic, using what the Light-created nature provided instead of taking the tools of creation in their own hands. Yet the Light knew that this nation of proud warriors, each man an army, could not know It for they lacked humility and compassion. And so the next chapter in the story of Creation began.

The Light took away their gigantic strength and shortened their lives, and taught them to work together instead of relying on themselves and commanded them to farm and work. King of the Vrykul, Ymiron, resisted Light's will. He saw the newly-born, truly human children as an abomination and commanded every new-born babe in his realm slain. And there was great massacre in the north. Fathers smashed the heads of their children against the walls and mothers cooked them in cauldrons. But some resisted. A handful of Vrukul families resisted the King's Decree and saved their children and took them to the wilderness, but Ymiron gave fierce pursuit.

Ymiron and his fiercest companions closed upon the refugees and surrounded them, they jeered and mocked and beat their shields in three shifts every night for seven nights and refused to stop the intimidation or attack until the families first slay their children before surrendering to King's justice. Tyr the Just, one of the Titan watchers heard this clamour and his heart was moved. Tyr came from the mountains of the North and stood before Ymiron and challenged him to a duel. If Ymiron would win, the Human children were his. If Tyr would win, Ymiron would give them all supplies and allow them to leave and search for a new homeland.

And so Ymiron and Tyr fought inside a circle of warriors, their swords clashed and armour rattled as they did battle from sunrise until dusk without rest, and then they battled through the starless night in total darkness until dawn. With the first rays of light, Tyr knew that he was growing weary and Ymiron's Dark-inspired strength was undiminished. And so he let Ymiron's blade strike true without dodging or parrying, and lost his right hand. His left hand, still holding the shield, sought Ymiron's face and brought the butcher-king down into the mud. Tyr had won the duel and saved human kind.

The humans were given provisions and set on their way southwards, while King Ymiron and his Vrykul wept in shame and went to slumber beneath the earth, where they slept until the Lich King had woken them and offered them revenge against the human kind.

As the human caravan continued south, the word of Vrykuk's slumber reached them. One of their number, a Vrykul father named Suxen spoke to his fellows: “The King's men slumber. Come, let us head back to the North and slay them in their sleep and take their strength for ourselves. Surely, our magic can grant us this. Then we can restore our kind and remove this crippling weakness that befalls our children!” His brother was ashamed of this. He spoke out against Suxen and rallied the others to his side and called Suxen to stand down and accept the consensus. But Suxen fought him, he unleashed the darkest sorceries against his brother and sought to dominate the minds of his fellows. Outnumbered, Suxen fell to the blows of the other Vrykul and his dark vision was denied before it could begin. Despite all this, Suxen's brother could not banish love from his heart and could not slay Suxen, even when he was overcome. So, he called forth the Runecasters and bid them open the pit to the Void and banish Suxen, so that he may slumber till the end of time or such time that the Light may redeem him. He could not have known that Suxen's rage would waken him, and he would reach out from the Void to plague humankind ever since.

And so the Human Kind was born, from resistance to tyranny and service of good. Brought up to value life, justice and bravery. They took the name of Tyr to their new homeland. One of them had taken Tyr's severed hand as a relic and buried it in the earth of their new home. Today, the Tyr's Hand Abbey stands on that site and the whole city is named after Tyr the Just.

Another great civilization is that of the Night Elves. The Light-inspired Dragon Aspects tried to guide the two Old One races of Trolls and Aqir away from darkness, while the Aqir denied redemption some of the Trolls accepted it. They were guided to the Well of Eternity, a font of Arcane Power that miraculously avoided Sargeras' dark taint and remained pure. The creative powers of the Well and Benevolence of the Holy Light transformed the forms and minds and souls of the Trolls and wrote their fates into the Light's grand design. They were no longer hideous and savage, and became beautiful and graceful and learned order, justice and reason.

The greatest sage of the new race of the Elves, Elune, sat on the shores of the Well and taught her people the great noble truth of creation and urged respect towards nature and warned against the thirst for power. As Elven mages travelled from the well, they heard the Dark Whispers that reverberate on the winds of the Arcane. So Elune taught the elves to be content with the powers of the Well and not seek out the magic from beyond. In guiding her people, Elune was drawing closer to the Light. Elune's apprentice, Haidene, saw the danger to the power of the small clique of disciples. For if the Light was the answer, and all could reach it, what use would there be for the priesthood? Haidene tricked Elune and took her to a moonlit glade, under the glare of the full moon. While Elune bathed in moonlight and beheld the beauty of heaven, Haidene drew her dagger and pierced Elune's heart. She then used the powers of the Well to open a new, weaker conduit of uncorrupted Arcane from the Great Dark to come down in a torrent of celestial fire and consume the body of Elune. When the Elves saw this mighty pillar of light descending from heaven, they hurried to the glade. Haidene announced to them that Elune has reached out and ascended to the moon to watch over her children as a Goddess, and she taught them to worship her as an idol and made a cult of priestesses who usurped the divine and rule the Night Elves to this day and, although they no longer remember why, fiercely deny the call of the Holy Light. Even today they channel the Uncorrupted Arcane from the tear in the Sky that Haidene had opened and think that this power comes from Elune. Some of these priestesses are so close to the Light, despite their petty denials, they they all upon Light's powers while thinking they come from Elune. The Light is above such silliness and it works even through those who do their Sacred Duty without knowledge of the Light!

In this I urge caution, for this shows how a power-hungry man (or woman) may usurp upon the message of peace and Light! We must beware of such false followers of true prophets, for had Elune lived today she would not recognize what the Haidenean priesthood had done to her teaching!

The Shattering

As creatures of reason, the Night Elves sought to understand the powers of the Well around which they built their empire. In doing so, they ignored Elune's warning.

A word must said about Trolls again. The Trolls worship great beast-spirits of the primordial forests, and the elves took the practice despite their uplifting. Just as the Elves have evolved, so did their beast-spirits. Troll loa are petty and dark, cruel and hungry for power. Elven Ancients are more graceful and refined, even if they are still far removed from true divinity. It is through these Ancients that the Elves are connected to nature and practice primeval, outdated druidry.

The Priesthood, the Druids and the Ancients watched in horror as a new caste emerged around the Well. The Highborne were Arcanists in the truest sense of the word. Their bodies were frail and deformed, for they never walked and never used their arms. They ate and moved with magic, and abused it in every possible way. Eight mightiest arcanists stood on watch to serve their sorceress-queen Azshara in her every whim, and mould her magic-tainted, lethargic flesh into a thing of mythic beauty.

But it was not enough for Azshara, from the Arcane Sargeras whispered and promised her the universe if only she would summon his Legion from the Great Dark. And so she did, and fire rained from the sky as fel-twisted demons walked the earth. It behoves to remember that Demons are the creations of the Light that were twisted by Sargeras' Fel-Arcane and moulded into his twisted image of beauty and perfection. Most Highborne embraced Azshara's vision of the future, and to show their dedication they accepted Sargeras' dark gifts and were turned into demonic Satyr. Other Highborne saw reason and fled the Well and took side of the Good. The side of Good, led by Tyrande Whisperwind (who leads the Night Elves to this day) emerged victorious after much sorrow and great sacrifice.

Azshara sat in her palace and saw her doom, and so she called forth an image of Sargeras and seduced it with her charms and begged the Dark Titan to take her with him into the Great Dark and save her from retribution and give her a world to rule and destroy Kalimdor out of spite. At first moved, Sargeras told her that he will break the lands and give her the sea, for he could not spirit her away from the world as his power was diminished by Tyrande's forces. But in last moment he realized what the vain sorceress had done, and that she dared to seduced him, and he twisted his blessing. Indeed, he gave Azshara and her clique of toadies the seas to rule, but he twisted their once-beautiful forms to resemble their true natures and turned them into the Naga and banished them to the depths of the ocean as the world broke and continents (including Pandaria) drifted apart.

But reliance on any power safe the Light has once again proved fatal. The Night Elves were so accustomed to their last remnants of the Pure Arcane that they could not bear to watch an era end and the Well die. Illidan Stormrage, a great elven Demonslayer took a vial of water from a small pool on the side of the Well that remained untainted by Sargeras' attempted entry into the world. He used it to create the new font of power high in the newly-risen mountains. The Dragons, who were commanded by the titans to protect the world but had just allowed most of it to be destroyed, could also not invision a world without the Well. They were frightened by what they saw and by betrayal of one of their number (Neltharion, aka Deathwing, who took the Legion's side in the war). And so, in their fear, they uplifted the Elves as the Titans once uplifted the Dragons and passed onto them the charge of watching over the world and nature and blessed them with eternal lives, which were tied to a great Tree they planted over Illidan's font. Tyrande and the Arch Druid Malfurion Stormrage knew that they should not accept Illidan's gift of a new Well, yet they saw the benefit of it. And so they allowed it to be and continued to use it, and in an act of meaningless atonement they imprisoned Illidan while continuing to use the fruits of his crime.

This tragic event in the history of the world, known as the War of the Ancients, formed the world as we know it today. It gave birth to Deathwing, who fell to the ancient whispers of the Old Ones while dwelling deep within the Earth where they were buried. I was told that during these very events your Last Emperor shielded Pandaria from the doom that afflicted the rest of the world.

While this may draw an unsympathetic picture of the Night Elves, I urge you to reconsider. While Azshara and her Highborne Court around the Well were corrupt and decadent, the majority of her subjects resisted this evil and remained true to less-harmful Elunite Faith and Druidry of the Ancients. When Azshara promised her people to rule every world under every star, most of them said no to that grand temptation and fought to the last to defeat their fallen queen whom they were brought up to worship.

I find it a great honour to be allied to these people, who will choose right over wrong in the end and withstand temptation, and I pray with my heart that one day soon they will realize that the Light hides behind the moon-hued veil of their Faith and embrace the Most Highly Divine as other races of the Alliance did.

Exile of the Highborne

Those Highborne who resisted Azshara were regardless seen as collaborators and cause of the problem that broke the world. These arcanists were shunned, but ultimately spared for the Light is all-merciful and forgives all who repent, and the Light hides behind the veil of Elunite worship. So, the Elven leaders placed a ban forbidding all Arcane magic (save the magic of their priesthood).

Some Highborne remembered the days of glory, where they were the masters attended by slaves and had the very forces of Creation at their command. They could not resist the lure of Magic. Some of them began using it again, falling back to their old ways while the remainder of the Highborne urged them to stop and repent. Seeing this, the Elven leaders decided not to distinguish between the Guilty and the Innocent and placed all of them on great ships and sent them East.

These Highborne came to the Land that would later be called Lordaeron, and on the very north of it the made their home. In remembrance of the past, they created a new Well using a vial of Illidan's water they secretly obtained before. Those Highborne who returned to irresponsible practice of magic took charge, and became the Magisters and Rulers of the new kingdom while those who abandoned Arcane altogether or practised it safely were moved to the second class. The former will give birth to the Blood Elven elite many centuries later, while the latter would form the core of the High Elves who remained true to the Light and the Alliance.

The Troll Wars

The human kind who had numbered a handful of children brought to the new home by their Vrykul parents had multiplied and lived in tribes that knew no cities and had forgotten the Light. Instead, they worshipped the man who guided them along the way and settled them into their new home and whose direct lineage was the only one to endure: ….....,Suxen's brother. Yet these scattered and savage tribes were faced with a great danger.

The land of Lordaeron, in which the humans settled, also contained the terrible Amani Empire along its eastern coast. The Amani Trolls rose to prominence after they vanquished the Aqir and brought down the Aqir Empire that split into the Qiraji, Nerubian and the Mantid kingdoms. This Northern Troll Empire worshipped bloody gods. Their pyramidal temples ran with blood of countless sacrifices as cruel priests ripped still-beating hearts from the chests of their victims. Souls of the victims were trapped in their heads which were then shrunken down and worn as gruesome jewellery. Yet one empire was not enough for the Amani, and their Emperor commanded them to conquer the Elven kingdom of Quel'thalas and the Human tribes.

The Elves wielded powerful magic, but the were still few in number and could not match the Amani. The humans who were fierce, proud, numerous and strong stood no chance either, for trolls regenerate the wounds they take unless the cut is treated with fire. Human blades and torches were no match for the Amani brute strength, sheer numbers and regenerative power.

All who dwell under the Light are a single people, and so, the Elves chose to share their Magic with the humans, who had long-forgotten the Vrykul spells. The humans learned fast and well, and combined armies repelled the Amani. Great human chief, Thoradin, was a man of vision. He saw that now that the humans were united in war, they must also be united in peace. He seized upon his reputation as warrior and general and bound the tribes together, and bid them come and pay homage to him on a bare, modest hill in Arathi Highlands (For that was the name of Thoradin's tribe: Arathi). There, Thoradin gave them law and justice, taught them to settle feuds instead of fighting them out made peace prevail throughout the lands.

In gratitude, the humans made Thoradin a throne from the same metal from which Tyr made a replacement for his hand, and near that hill of first homage they built a great fortress of Strom that will be the bastion of men should the trolls return and a save haven for stable government, safe from rebellion and banditry. On Thoradin's head, they laid a great helmet that will set him apart from other warriors on the field of battle. Thus, first Human King was made.

As for the Men and Elves, they realized that although their kingdoms were distinct they were now united and magic was the unifying force. The human magi and elven magisters have agreed to make a city of Dalaran, dedicated to learning. Having learned the lessons of the past, the founding fathers of Dalaran made a strict code containing the Rules of Magic that ensured that the like of the War of the Ancients would never happen again. Inevitably, great concentration of Magi had led to the infiltration by the Demons, but the elves and the humans combined their might and empowered an Arcane champion to fight demons whether they may appear and close the rifts that spawned them. These arcane champions of Dalaran had kept Azeroth safe from demon-kind and virtually eradicated all practice of Fel Magic and Demonology. Their vigil had endured until the present century.

It is worth noting that the second human city, Dalaran is also the second High Elven city. From that day the fates of the two races would be intertwined in peace and cordial relations and an exchange of culture. Today, Elves can be found in virtually every human settlement, living as neighbours, friends and loved-ones. Although we will come to the topic later, the Blood Elves are only an interruption of the millennia of friendship and their influence will amount to nothing but a footnote in history.

In the next scroll, I shall move on to discuss the emergence of the Gnomes and the Dwarves and cover the time until the opening of the Dark Portal.