Ulon-Zirak

The Ulon-Zirak was a war fought in ancient history. Few know of the histories of the war, and fewer still can speak its truth. In this day and age, the stories have passed from account to tale, from tale to legend, and from legend into myth. One thing remains certain: that in each instance and case of research into the origins of the Under-Dark, the wise are driven mad, and the foolish disappear.

From the Origins of Sarapadia spoken by Kyðeon, the Last Scion, recorded by Xerox Poughkeepsie

The land of Apadia was changing. The sentient beings of the land began to war, which drew the attention of beings from other realms, the Space Between the Branches, who are drawn to such power. Long before then, some of them had planted their seeds while Midgard was young, and they returned to reap their harvest. Tiamat returned to burgeon the dragon population, and Lolth, the Spider Queen, a young and vital usurper, to check upon her children, the Dark Elves we call drow. Their servants, minions, and allies would come along like remora with a shark. This ultimately drew the likes of Eldanoth, who would forever after be known as The Enemy to all of Midgard. His enslavement to his own master requires enormous power of life force to sustain, and his subjects cannot thrive in a place where drow and dragons do not lurk. While they are not allies, they serve a common goal, and simply sort of co-exist in an unholy symbiotic structure from the directions of their masters. This also makes them formidable foes, for they are powerful, secretive, and bloodthirsty. Goblins, orcs, ogres, hobgoblins, and duergar, they all serve Eldanoth with any other subjects they can turn, who come from all races. Power they are promised, and power they are given, for Eldanoth is generous with his gifts, and he loves his children fiercely, and helps them each achieve their dreams of power and wealth.

With the help of Lolth and her subjects, and with the legions of darkness to his call, Eldanoth convinced Tiamat that their time had come to take all of the new continent, Sarapadia, for the dragons, and the drow, and the legions of his servants, while their enemies warred amongst themselves in Apadia. Once established, they could then wipe out Apadian resistance and claim the globe for themselves; then they would have a land on the Material Plane they would be able to use as a gateway for themselves. For nearly two centuries, they crept their foothold into Sarapadia, a wild land only tamed by Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes, and Halflings, who largely kept to themselves in tribes. Alliances and friendships formed between localities, and they each survived together. None were prepared for the darkest of their dreams to become real and attack them. Then the dragons came. The skies became a threat to all, and every crevasse filled with seething darkness unless commanded by the Dwarven Empire or the Gnomish Empire. Alone the humans and halflings braved the open terrain, sometimes food for bulettes and wyverns; but they bred quickly, their hardy races full of love and hope, even though darkness lies within all its souls in differing degrees.

For nearly two centuries, this darkness festered in Sarapadia, while the peoples of Apadia broke out in a war spanning the continent, among peoples who were once allies and friends. The work of Eldanoth and Lolth was strongest there, weaving their webs of deceit, and manipulating their leaders into war, while reserving their armies amassing in the Caverns of Ulon, the Under-Dark, the birthplace of drow from the ancestors of my own people, under the influence of Lolth, the Spider-Queen. Drow and driders and ettercaps and spiders joined with orcs and hobgoblins and goblins and ogres, all awaiting to be lead by the chromatic dragons and perhaps even Tiamat herself, if she chose to come to the Material Plane. Then one day, 1003 years ago, the Ulon-Zirak, the War on the Under-Dark, began. The land of Apadia was entirely bathed in darkness, impenetrable to all but magical sources. Only a small archipelago far to the northeast of Apadia was spared from the onslaught, likely only due to its insignificance to every other warring culture in Apadia. Every battle ceased to face this new common foe, but it was too late. Their supply lines cut and their towns aflame, crops burned and forests ablaze, there was nothing left but to fight a foe they couldn’t see, whose initial strikes were carried out by dozens of dragons. They prayed to their gods, but their gods had forsaken them, for they had forgotten the old ways; and in their wealth and hubris, they found war from lies and division from forgotten love. They had prayed to the same gods from both sides of their petty wars. They chose to believe in their own privilege as their right rather than the gift it was. And for that, they burned alive on the pyre of their own folly, bathed in the breath of every kind of chromatic dragon.

Were it not for the foresight of the Elves of Tarisir, I would not be speaking with you today. We kept our old ways, and warred not, so we used our resources to escape from Apadia and flock to Sarapadia. As we traveled to the new land and upon our arrival, we beseeched the help of Bahamut, the Platinum Dragon, the Lord of All Metallic Dragons, and indeed the grandsire of all dragons. He heard our pleas and recognized our plight, and granted each of the peoples who lived in Sarapadia and those who would now call it home, a Scion of their people, for the good of Sarapadia. I am the last of the original Scions remaining, and my gift is to see the movement of Urðr, whether or not I understand Her motivations. I saw then that our days would be numbered far less in Apadia, and used what influence I had to convince others to stay in this new land instead. We sent back the ships that brought our nearly ten thousand souls to Sarapadia, to gather more of our kith and kin; and they were never heard from again. For our thanks, we would forever become the guardians of Sarapadia, which is why we are a militaristic culture of elves. And I can see now that our past debts are coming again due, to test our strength.