The Second Age

(Also known as the Age of Elves or the Age of Silver)

"The second race were the Elves, beloved of Xanadu, and they were joyous and loved all that was beautiful and good. They took the knowledge they had been given, and in their hands it flourished. They created the greatest wonders ever seen, gates between many places and between the dimensions, ships of fantastic visage that sailed between worlds, cities out of living trees and great towers and bridges of gold and crystal. They knew all that was magical and had all that they needed. They looked upon the other races, who were primitive and struggling, and they desired to share their knowledge and bounty.

The first of the younger races were the Giants, but they were as one with the elements and moved to the very rhythms of the earth and had no desire for the knowledge of the Elves.

The second of the younger races were the Dwarves who had themselves discovered the arts of smithing and the working of stone in their mountain homes. The Dwarves took some of the beauty of the Elves and forged it into their work but many of their ways were very strange to the Elves who said, "the Dwarves can never understand what we love, for we love life, and the Dwarves love only that that endures". So the Elves became the friends of the Dwarves, but never more.

The next among the younger races were the Humans, who of the younger races were most like the Elves, and they took the Elven ways and they understood them, and became the servants and then the companions of the Elves. The last among the younger races were the Orcs and their kin, the Goblins and Hobgoblins, but the Elves were repelled by their greed and cruelty and imparted no knowledge unto them.

The Elves and their companions prospered and grew and ruled the land wisely for many years, and if they had any faults it was that of hubris, for they believed that there was nothing that they could not achieve, and no danger they could not face. Some of the Elves grew curious about the Dark Path of magic, and though it had been forbidden to them by the Dragons, they believed that they could overcome its evil and use its power for good.

The voices of darkness spoke to those who followed the Dark Path, and they could not overcome its evil and became twisted and cruel, and like the Dragons before them, they carried their desires beyond death, to live on in the spirit realms, as Demons.

The Elves whose souls were touched by the dark magic became the Drow. The Drow looked about them and saw that the Elves were outnumbered many times over by their Human companions, and saw a time when the Elves would be supplanted by the Humans. They decided that it should not be so, and set upon a course of extermination. The Elves who were untainted were appalled and opposed their dark brethren, and thus began Lothiliar, the War of Tears. Magical energies of awesome destruction caused devastation unseen since the War of the Gods. The land was split, the oceans rose to cover continents, and fire poured from the skies. The great works of the Elves became smoking and twisted ruins, the majestic skyships were scattered irretrievably and the dimensional gates were turned to slag.

Sister fought brother and mother fought son, the Dwarves fled to their mountain fortresses and hid deep underground, the Humans fought against the Drow and were slain in appalling numbers. Eventually the Elves prevailed, and finally the fighting slowed and then stopped. The Elves could not press their advantage, but though neither side won, both lost. The scattered survivors of the Elves and Drow retreated to the deepest remaining forests and out of knowledge, and thus passed the Age of Silver".

 -- Hieronomous Haynes, Sage of Carzala, 784 WK