2nd: The Age of Stone

After the age between ages, it was the Hoflin whose prospered most among all the tribes in Sumervale. Now the Hoflin were short of stature and easily hid. They were the first to make their homes in caves and in shallow holes. And they were the first to learn to scratch in the dirt with sticks, and to place seeds in the rows that they made. Thus, by sowing and reaping they were able to grow crops, and that which they grew became sweeter and larger for their efforts. They also learned how to husband animals after trapping them behind walls of stacked stone and plaited vine. Between their rows and their livestock, the Hoflin were able to live in one place and have food without having to follow the beasts across the plains.

The Hoflin were also those who named all the plants and creatures of Sumervale. It was they who called the wild men, Larmus, or grass ape. So the latter were regarded as animals still, with no achievements or knowledge of their own. Though they were thought to be great imitators, they were easily startled and often fled from the presence of others.

As the Hoflin prospered, their strength grew and in time they became more numerous than any other tribe. They held the Reign of Sumervale by their numbers, but more than that, by their wisdom. They knew only peace and prosperity, and none were bothered by their greatness... except the Urkine. In due course, that savage people had returned and those that did were little better than the first that Erenth had known. They raided the Hoflin and carried off their goods. While the other tribes had come to trade with that people and to ask for their knowledge, the Urkine would not. They believed that since the Dodon had withdrawn, there were none to stop them and so they sought to regain their mastery of all Sumervale.

And the Urkine had not been idle, for they brought with them the atlatl, which they used to fling spears at great distance and with great effect. Now the actions of the Urkine angered the other tribes. The Lod, Stoneborn and Vyrum pledged themselves to the Hoflin and rose together in the Alliance Prime to stop the depredations. While the three tribes were smaller, with little skill at war, they nonetheless came to the aid of the Hoflin and strove bitterly against the Urkine. Once again, all Sumervale found itself in conflict. In time, even the tribe of the Avariel joined the fray.

Now the Avariel were a winged people who lived separated from the tribes upon the ground. For their queens had forbidden their involvement in the things of the tribes below. But many of them were curious and had grown to hate the atlatl of the Urkine and the bloodshed that it caused. Their hearts were filled with pity for the other tribes and they joined the Alliance Prime to defeat the Urkine. Those Avari that came brought with them the knowledge of the knapping of flint and of the kohlstone.

In the end, the Alliance Prime was successful, but it was also costly. During the conflict, fire had been used with great effect. Large conflagrations had been roused and allowed to run across the green spaces. Eventually, neither field nor wood was spared. Places once lush and fertile were turned to ash and blew away. Rivers and lakes were clogged with the burnt timbers of the forests and the water of such places became brackish.

Destruction was nearly complete. Precious little remained of fields or livestock. And so, while the Urkine had been defeated, every tribe languished in the barren landscape -- famine and disease stalked the land.

In the age between ages, the damage of the great fires subsided, and new plants and trees covered the face of the dale until all Sumervale was green again and the call of birds and beasts could be heard so that Sumervale was restored... and the Age of Stone passed.