1st: The Age of War

Long ago, when Erenth was young, there was but one Land in the midst of a great and roiling sea. A word for that place comes to us from the High Speech of the Elder Races -- Sumervale. It was so large that the one end could be under the pall of deepest night, while the other was lit by the brightest noonday sun.

High above Sumervale, on a rocky Surround stood the Aksus – a mountain which stretched as if a ladder to the stars. The Surround was a towering wall of rock and ice that kept back the wind and the waves of the turbulent sea. From it, melt water cascaded down into Sumervale as a thousand misting waterfalls. There it ran into coursing rivers and pooled into great lakes, passing through thick forests and spilling out onto vast grasslands.

In those days there were no nations in Sumervale, for that place had been as a garden and untouched. The lakes were teeming with fish and the forests with game. The grasslands hosted vast herds, some familiar and some now long forgotten. In the air were great flocks of flying things – which traveled back and forth according to their whims.

The First Ones to Sumervale are said to have been a celestial tribe. An angelic race who were either refugees or outcasts from the stars. They crept down the Aksus and discovered the beauty of the dale, and once there, could not bear to leave it. They were greatly feared and wisely respected, having made a great name for themselves. While they were first and dwelt long in the peace of the place without interruption, they were eventually joined by the other tribes -- the so-called Elder Children of Erenth.

Above Sumervale, among the animals that flew, lived the winged folk -- the Avari -- which kept to the rocky heights of the Surround. Down in the dale many other tribes lived together -- the Urok, the Hoflin, the Lod, the Dwenir, and the Vyrum. Now the First Ones viewed these newcomers with suspicion and lived apart -- silent and watching.

It must be said that there were wild men who also lived in Sumervale, but they were fearful and given to hiding. For man did not traffic with the Elder Races and instead lived as little more than two-legged beasts without language or industry. It is not known when they came to Sumervale, at the beginning, middle or end; for in the First Age, they were often mistaken for beasts and little regarded by the others.

Great regard in that age was given to the tribe of the Urok. A fierce and violent people, the Urok found discord among themselves and strove continually against all the other races of Sumervale. They had a natural predilection for conflict and a highly emotional, if impatient, nature. Simple rivalries among them quickly erupted in bloodshed and the resulting recriminations were both long and ruthless. They were savage to be sure, but their greatest advantage proved to be their fecundity. By the end of the age, scarcely any others remained.

The Urok were both like and unlike the other tribes. They stood upon two legs, were thick of jaw and large of hand. They tied their hair in great bands that fell behind their necks and decorated those locks with the bones of their victims and enemies. They scarred their flesh with scratches and sharpened their teeth with stones. Of all things, they admired war the most and were skilled in the use of hurled rocks and sharpened wood spears.

The Urok pressed hard upon the tribes and drove all before them. They held the most terrible of the Reigns of Sumervale. Their savagery is still known. From that ancient and violent time, names still emerge from shrouded memory to frighten children and to herald destruction. Gorond the Terrible, Kunak the Bloodrinker, and Visar the Impaler. Under such noteworthy names, all of Sumervale trembled.

The Urok were as rapacious as they were brutal. Even the beasts of the fields fell before them and the fish of the lakes were depleted, and the great woods were chopped down to drive the animals from them. So, the land was blackened and scarred. The beauty of that place was despoiled. The Urok found all, killed all, and ate all; until those which had sat, waiting and watching from the Surround, would watch no longer.

The First Ones were troubled for the noise made by the Urok, and they sent their children, the Yotinir, to visit justice upon them. Now the Yotinir were far fewer in number, but of terrible aspect. They had lightning in their glares and thunder in their voices. Their height was at least two or three of the other tribes together. It was held that they were not deeply concerned with Sumervale and not easily roused. So they ought to have been left alone, but the Urok imagined themselves the masters of all. So, those which should have been undisturbed were wakened to fury. They abandoned the Surround and when they came to the green floor of Sumervale, they painted it red. The wrath of the Yotinir was inexhaustible. They did not treat with their enemy, nor offer them quarter.

The Urok threw their best warriors upon the Yotinir to slay them. They used every stratagem of warcraft that they had learned and all the savagery that they could muster, but the Yotinir were victorious. Right and left, they slew the Urok. The most brutal and most numerous of everything in the Sumervale, were no match for those the Justice that had come.

Eventually, the wrath of the Yotinir was spent and they withdrew to distant places in order to live apart. They were forgotten by time and nearly passed from all mind, for their wrath was not again kindled for many ages. 

In the age between ages, slowly the trees and plants returned. They covered the face of the dale until all Sumervale was green again and the call of birds and beasts could be heard. So Sumervale was restored and the Age of War, the Age of Chaos had passed.