Silent King

If he had a real name it is lost to time. All the mortal races know the legend of the Silent King. Who answered the ‘thunder call’ of Bahamut and emboldened gods and mortals alike. Much of what is known is comprised of story and myth, but within myth we often find truth.

The Silent King helped end the Age of Calamity and for his bravery was honoured by the surviving pantheon of the newly formed Ogdoad.

Yet it is not long after he vanishes from history. It is known that what follows as the darkest chapter in elven history as the survivors, struggling in the ruins of the broken world fight for scarce resources and territory. Familes turn on one another and much of what had been preserved from the golden age is in turn destroyed by our own hand. This period lasts for ‘an age’, while this exact timeframe is disputed, it is agreed generations pass in the shadow of war and death.

With the other races subjugated and elven society tribal and far flung, the gods, long dormant from the material world make their return. Where some see opportunity, others look on with horror and a sense of inevitability. They begin reestablishing their presence but the mortal races have little appetite for faith and the gods are shunned and turned upon. The mortal age seems destined to end in violence and the Ogdoad begin to make preparations to leave the material plane for good.

It is here he returns.

Where he went, why he went, nobody knows. As his name suggests, his is not a voice heard often throughout history. But his deeds, they speak.

In this time he journeys, across planes, to the deepest depths and the highest peaks. He journeys to each of the Ogdoad and leaves with a token of their respect and desire to write the wrongs their absence has caused. And so, after a great deal of time the being who history still has not named begins to travel among his people.

Many of the other races cannot fathom how one being is capable of the change that occurred, few elves can scarcely imagine what is real and what is myth as in these troubled times their were few who preserved, caring only to destroy what had been built. We can piece together testimony, story, art and literature to understand some of what transpired. He walked. Where he could, he won hearts. One village may speak of him saving a Lords child, another of a dragon feeding off townsfolk being defeated where none had been able to before.

Art depicts him as using great magics to build, to seed land that had been desolate for centuries. Irrigation, alchemy, herbalism. Arts that were fractured or lost entirely were reintroduced. One village joined another, one town accepted in bandits that had roamed outside its walls.

Other stories tell us more.

Orc ave paintings in the desolate lands show a liberator, a warrior unparalleled. The Wind he is called. Those who continue to oppose are brought low, tyrants, despots are felled in battle.

Scholars, archeologists, researchers and arcane masters from across the ages have found examples in all mortal cultures of this period. The Silent King walks and enlightenment follows. Indeed, the period is named the ‘Age of Enlightenment’. And as the continent is healed, the great city of Thileth Asari is founded. The elven race follow where the hero has gone. Cities, towns, villages are erected in the shadows of the great goliath and finally, the nameless figure of history is named. The Silent King. (historians agree he must have had a name, none know it). The Ormindreal is born and for an age the Silent King rules. A kingdom is built, is harmony with nature and the gods. Borders are defined but no conquest ensues, the Ormindreal, content with its lot begins to live. Record and create. And then, at the zenith of its power. He vanishes.