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The Gods
of Elanthia: Introduction
It is interesting to note that those the Elanthians worship as
gods were once servants themselves. The Arkati began their existence
as the slaves of the Drakes, for although they were as old a race
as dragonkind, the humanoid Arkati were lesser in both powers and
numbers. The Arkati earned this worship, for it was only by their
intervention that the lesser races such as elves, humans, dwarves
and halflings lived at all.
At the peak of each population, there were perhaps one hundred
dragons and fifty Arkati. The planet became overcrowded, and the
Drakes sent their servants to live on the moons of Lornon and Liabo.
Unable to refuse their masters’ command, the Arkati regretfully
left for the satellites. Many feared that the dragons were using
Elanthia’s overcrowding as an excuse to remove the lesser races,
and that the relocation of the Arkati was to facilitate this genocide.
Thus, it is perhaps too convenient that the Ur-Daemons chose this
time to appear. Those Arkati that lived on Liabo did their best
to reason with the Drakes, entreating them to leave the lesser races
be. Many say that those on Lornon followed the same tactic. Some
legends recorded by Faendryl seers and elder historians tell a different
tale.
Among those sent to the moon of Lornon was Eorgina, an Arkati with
a passion for domination. She was the strongest personality of those
there, and the one with the most talent for leadership. She was
tired of taking a backseat to the Drakes, and having to grovel for
what she wanted. With her masters’ eyes off her activities
for the time, she acted.
She went to Fash’lo’nae, the scholar of those on Lornon,
and asked if he had found anything in his studies that would rid
the Arkati of dragon rule. Fash’lo’nae, punished at one
time for spreading knowledge to the lesser races and bringing them
fire, promised Eorgina his aid.
Fash’lo’nae had never mentioned his planar studies to
his masters or his fellow servants. Nor had he ever mentioned the
beings he found in the alternate dimensions. Thus, Eorgina and the
other Lornon Arkati were quite surprised when presented with an
Ur- Daemon. Eorgina, quick to recover from her surprise, wasted
no time in pointing out the Drakes and their abundance of mana to
the Ur-Daemons. Were they to remove the dragons, they could share
in the abundance Elanthia presented.
The Ur-Daemons were not stupid. The Arkatis’ ploy was an obvious
one, but the rewards were real. Should they remove the Drakes, the
Ur-Daemons would be free to plunder the planet as they saw fit.
They had no intention of sharing with the Arkati, and these lesser
creatures had ended their usefulness the moment they had opened
the Veil. With a smile, the Ur-Daemons agreed to help the Arkati.
Whether or not this legend is true is lost to time. What is known
for certain is that the Ur- Daemons found their way to our dimension,
and with them came chaos. The Ur-Daemon War broke out between the
invaders and the Drakes. Many Arkati rushed to help their masters
and were summarily killed. The intelligent ones hid from the conflict,
thereby ensuring their survival.
The War lasted one thousand years. The final stand, before the
portal to the Ur-Daemons’ home plane that Fash’lo’nae
had secretly opened upon Elanthia, blasted the landscape for hundreds
of miles, leaving it a lifeless wasteland. The Ur-Daemons were gone
-- but so were the Drakes. Their numbers had been decimated, and
most of those left had been driven insane by fear. The Arkati were
servants no longer.
Their time on Lornon and Liabo had changed the Arkati, however.
Those who state the Lornon Arkati had summoned the Ur-Daemon say
that the Liabo Arkati were horrified and appalled by what the others
had done. Others say that the differing influences of each moon
had changed them. The results are undisputed: when they moved to
heal the damage done to Elanthia, the Arkati were a race divided.
In the early days after the War, some Arkati walked among the mortal
races as teachers, leaders, and guides. They considered Elanthia
and its inhabitants a trust which had befallen them. These were
the Liabo Arkati. As they taught the mortal races, they advised
caution dealing with "the Arkati who once lived upon Lornon."
This shortened to "the Arkati of Lornon." The pantheons
of Liabo and Lornon were born.
Those of Lornon did not see things as their Liabo siblings did.
They considered the lands a playground, and the lesser races toys
to be trifled with or worse. The two pantheons grew further and
further apart. For a while, war between the groups seemed imminent.
Then Koar summoned the remaining Arkati to a chamber in his mountain
sanctum. What was said in that meeting is unknown, but when the
Arkati emerged, they no longer spoke of fighting each other. They
went their separate ways and have never come into open conflict,
although an abundance of small battles are waged in the background
daily.
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