Eronidas Exodus

Expanded Eronidas Lore
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Part of Eronidas lore.

The Eronidas Exodus is the single most important event in Eronidas History, though in the modern era it has largely been forgotten about as ancient history due to the rapid changes in Eronidas society since. The event concerns the flight of the entire Eronidas people from their once homeland continent of Guldar, to sail east on massive city-sized ships in fleets to search for a new homeland away from the continent that had forsaken them. This page will examine the background of the Exodus, their experiences during the passage through the Drifting Isles and the strange things they witnessed there, and finally the arrival in the west of Daen that would precipitate the Eronidas Elven Wars that would last a thousand years, and force sections of the fleets to split off and search for lands beyond the Allorn Empire to settle. This page is considered Expanded Lore, meaning it is not required reading for a roleplay experience on MassiveCraft but can be used to add additional depth and content to Roleplay.

Background

The Eronidas are native to the continent of Guldar, which geographically is about as far removed from the Allorn Empire, as the edge of Ard-al Nur, the homeland of the Songaskians and the Qadir Ailor, was from its eastern shores. The Elves never traveled this far west, deeming the Drifting Isles in between them to be filled with dangers, leading to most of the history being told from legends and myths among the Eronidas. Their folklore telling, states that once their race was small and weak, short and often walking on all fours, using the thick canopy and bushes of the jungle-like tropical rainforest regions of Guldar to hide. They were hunted by the Avarr, a race of large muscular predator-bird humanoids that both hunted the Eronidas for food, and their double hearts as sacrifice to their Gods on high pyramid altars. The Avarr had a culture of The Hunt, relishing the fleeing prey, and the final kill of the chase, leading to the Eronidas mostly being a scavenger and nimble people that would focus more on escaping rather than fighting back.

At some point in time, for reasons unclear to history, the Avarr were all killed by the Dragons, at least this much is claimed by Caius worshipers, who claim that the Avarr fell to the vices of Demon Worship, and were purged as a Race from existence. The Dragons however preserved all their living souls in Canoptic Jars, which were later found by the Maquixtl who colonized Guldar long after the Eronidas had gone, re-inhabited the Avarr cities they left behind, and revived many of their souls in their bodies to honor their memory. The Eronidas have a lasting trauma to the concept of the Avarr, and even the largest, meanest, most muscular Eronidas, can be given to bouts of fear and fight or flight response to the presence of an Avarr. After the Avarr were destroyed, the Eronidas founded city states that largely competed with one another for thousands of years, and the Eronidas were stuck in the Bronze Age effectively.

In the latter years before the Exodus, the Eronidas states started unifying, and the first beginnings of Empire might have even formed, had it not been for the toxification of the continent. How or why the continent of Guldar became so poisonous so rapidly to the Eronidas (but not any of the wild animals or plants), is unclear, but Dragon intervention has always been speculated. While Caius is keen to admit his destruction of the Avarr, the subject of the Eronidas has always been dodged, though many modern Draconism scholars have speculated that this was a calculated move to try and avert the coming Cataclysm by subtly steering the Eronidas into the direction of conflict with the Allorn Empire, knowing that the closest landmass they could reach, was Daen. The implication here being, that Caius took a rather drastic measure to try and avert a Cataclysm, by having his favored Eronidas, wipe out the Elves. Regardless of the reasons, the Eronidas built vast city ships (though rafts, would be a better assessment due to how slowly they moved), upon which they loaded their population, built farms, and herded cattle to supply them for decades to come. Large fleets grouped up and sailed east, seeking new land, and leaving behind Guldar before it brought their people to extinction.

The Drifting Isles

The individual events on the Drifting Isles are not necessarily in chronological order, and are self-encapsulating historical adventures that inform some of the Eronidas cultural habits and quirks of the modern era.

The Bay of the Bodytakers

After many weeks without encountering a place to weigh anchor, the Eronidas fleets came to an oblong island. One end of the island held an enormous bay, land curling around it, and forming a natural harbor for low-draft vessels (none of the Eronidas fleet ships were, but they did have other, smaller boats for landing purposes). The bay had broad sandy beaches, and surprisingly open ground rich with plantlife. A sandy isthmus connected the bay half of the island back to a dense region of sea stacks, tropical vegetation, and jagged rocks. The Eronidas chose to land by the bay first, but were surprised when faintly glowing cyan clouds of a gaseous substance appeared from the thin treeline. While communication was initially impossible, the Eronidas quickly found that they could not fight these entities, their blows going right through them, and the beings seemed unable to interact with the world around them.

A dialogue was eventually established when one of them temporarily took possession of an Eronidas, and explained the island was a place of passage for their kind, and that the living were free to roam it, and do as they wished. The entity then left its host, with the formerly claimed Eronidas stating that while possessed, they had been embraced by a warm, forgiving light. The Eronidas quickly got to work and largely ignored the gaseous beings, however, one by one, members of work details, and even those back on the ship, were detected to be acting strangely. Their eyes had also developed a bright cyan limbus, and it was quickly determined that the beings were trying to take the Eronidas population who was landing for their own purposes. What these purposes were remained unclear, as the taken individuals refused to divulge that information.

From here, the final days of the Eronidas on the island enter the annals of legend. Not wanting to alert their enemy, they kept the taken individuals locked up onboard of the main fleet ship anchored just outside of the bay, while the Eronidas turned to their Magic users for a solution. It is believed that these entities were some form of Spirit, and so the Eronidas quickly determined how to exorcize them from the taken individuals. However, others believe that an Eronidas team plunged deep into the far side of the island, protected from possession, and found a totem or structure, rigging it with Black Powder, and threatening to blow up the gaseous’ beings “power source” if they did not release everyone. It may be that both were true, but regardless, the Eronidas soon evacuated the island and quickly left, with everyone taken soon returned to normal. This island remains unlocated today.

The Isle of the Invisibles

The Eronidas fleets had built farms and pastures on board their ships, keeping cattle in complex pens, with important plantlife and earth for them to walk around on to keep them well exercised. But, when they landed on a secure island, they often let their animals out to pasture, and to stretch their legs. The fleets came to an island that seemed to fit that description, an old volcanic island with a vast caldera in the middle of it. With some engineering prowess, the Eronidas gained easy access to the central, damp, but densely grassed hills of the island’s center, before they turned to mining what minerals were available to them. However, despite their thoroughness, their eyes deceived them, because there was a dire threat on the island in the form of unique reptilian creatures. Capable of supreme camouflage, they struck at the end of the first week, and the following two months of carnage left an unforgettable mark on the Eronidas.

They infiltrated the herds of different animals, sometimes hiding in plain sight unmoving, other times in the shadow of boulders or stones that dotted the open grassland. Their form of attack was vicious, and involved latching themselves onto their prey while digging their claws in while they bit the victim’s neck, both ripping past the skin and into arteries of blood, while their bite also excreted a toxin that sent an animal into a mania, causing them to pump even more blood and bleed out quicker. Exactly how many of these creatures there were is unclear, but there perhaps only a dozen or so. They still proved very difficult to kill, and cunning, killing Eronidas as effectively as they did their cattle, and prolonging the problem for two months. However, at last, the final two were caught when the Eronidas rigged an ingenious trap, forging from some of the surplus metals they had acquired on the island. They thus killed the last of these creatures, and after another month, they departed the island. They skinned the creatures, and found their pelts to still have their camouflaging effect even after death. On future islands, the very best rangers and scouts of the fleets would have the opportunity to use the cloaks, though only one survived the full journey all the way to the new lands the Eronidas call home today. The island, meanwhile, is one of the rare examples of one discovered in recent decades, and explored, though if any of the creatures remain alive somehow, they did not show themselves to the crew of the exploration vessel.

The Lush Inlets

One of the first islands encountered in the Eronidas quest through the Drifting Isles was large and mountainous. Several peaks, tinged with clouds, sat above the land below, which black stone swirled with grey anday and flecks of a silvery substance dominated the rock formations that spread out in every which way. However, the coastline all around the island was covered in lush inlets, with vast growths of thriving nature with all manner of strange ground insects scuttling or tunneling while in the dense trees, huge brilliant colored flowers blossomed in the sun, and closed at night. Or at least, that is how it seemed. As one of the first islands the Eronidas encountered, there were very limited landing protocols, and so the fleets of ships each claimed a particular inlet, and got to work stripping them of resources and materials. However, workers began to go missing, and investigations to find them turned up nothing. It was only when livestock began to get grabbed that the Eronidas were able to successfully track their problem back to its source.

All of the blooms on the island, initially assumed to be different specimens of some common species, were revealed to be intricate and highly advanced traps. Smelling sweet, and vaguely prehensile, these blooms were also thick with a pheromone that meant any insect or living creature that came into contact with them would be marked by a scent. Even if an Eronidas bathed, and theoretically washed the sticky nectar from their hands, its scent remained on them, undetected. Undetected, that is, to all but the vines of the same plant. At night, when the blooms closed, the vines of the plant organism would slip forward, and grab their victims, pulling them away for consumption. The Eronidas ultimately tracked the vines back to their source, and found them perfectly willing to move in the daylight to defend itself as the Eronidas drew closer to the island’s center.

There, deep underground, the Eronidas came into contact with a collossom plant organism, something with a greater intelligence, though flawed and centered around consuming what it needed to live. The fight that followed was long, but fruitful, the organism being killed when the Eronidas caused the cave it was dwelling in to collapse, crushing it. Simultaneously, across the island, the large flower blooms began to wilt, as did the vines, and the Eronidas were able to work unimpeded. Uniquely, this island was discovered centuries later by the Maquixtl, who found it populated with animal life, and non-hostile flora now free to spread and develop even after the Eronidas ravaging of the ecosystem. They supposedly built an outpost on it, and this now helps guard the passage to distant Guldar. The proximity of the island to Guldar also created the mistaken impression in the Ailor that the Eronidas were driven from Guldar itself by hostile flora, something gradually corrected in the past several decades.

The Mists of Madness

When the Eronidas fleets initially landed on a large, mist-wreathed island, they were on alert. The location seemed threatening by the fact that so much of it was layered in a fine pale green mist, however, the Eronidas discovered dense clusters of crabs, clams and other coastal sea life in tidal pools that covered well over half the island. As teams of Eronidas moved deeper inland though, they found marshy ground and limited foliage beyond scrub and mosses, alongside some aquatic plants. As the search parties fanned out however, one by one, the mist appeared to clear, and wondrous, joyful sights were found. Freshwater springs with clear, crystal waters, a rich overgrown of plantlife ripe for picking and eating, and more each appeared in turn. As the Eronidas who were fanned out celebrated though, and began to pick, drink, investigate and more, whispers began to meet their ears reaching them in the voices of those around them. The whispers spoke of plots, conspiracies, mutiny, and murder, all to keep and claim these valuable resources, and deprive the listener of credit, life, and more. Confrontations, verbal, and then physical broke out, before a violent surge of deaths gripped those afflicted as the group members turned on each other, and then those survivors, on the remaining similarly madened groups.

Back at the landing grounds, the Eronidas foraging parties became overdue, and so other groups were sent out to investigate what had happened, only to both fall into the same trap, or meet the crazed survivors who assaulted them in a violent mania. In the end, all those who were left at last rushed the landed Eronidas, convinced that all of the resources were theirs to use, or that the leaders of the ships had sent Eronidas out to claim resources in some sort of power game. Many were injured, and more were killed, so the Eronidas immediately left the area, taking those few maddened survivors with them as they realized something on the island had affected not just them, but was beginning to affect those in the camps too. The insanity in the survivors broke a few days away from the island, and they were all overcome with horror by what they had done, forever repentant. Many believe today, thanks to the expertise of the Sihndar, that some sort of Greater Demon was living on the island, and it was using powers much like those of Drowda’s own Greater Demons to lure the Eronidas to their deaths. For obvious reasons, no one has actively sought out this island again.

The Lone Light

As the Eronidas fleets almost exclusively traveled at the mercy of the Drifting Isles’ currents, it was both a miracle they stayed together for as long as they did, but also that they did not lose many vessels. However, one instance, halfway through their journey, saw the fleets somewhat more spread out than in the past. One ship, later renamed to “The Survivor” (for reasons made obvious shortly, was abruptly pulled away from the other members of the fleet. In able to observe the ship, others in the fleet saw an island in the far distance of their travel direction, with some sort of white spire and a light atop it. However, after drifting for a few days, they realized that the ship was both beached, and they had not received any signals from it. Other ships slowly approached the island, getting closer to the gleaming light, and what they began to hear as a gentle, harmonious melody. However, the magically inclined among the Eronidas were repulsed by what they heard, one ship almost losing control to a manic Mage who insisted they not approach the light. As a result, half of the ships turned back, but those that pressed forward stuffed their ears with wax, and secured it through wrapping around their heads and ears.

On closer inspection, they found the island in question was rocky, but filled with wide open pale sand beaches. The white spire at the middle of the island was immense, but strange in design, with floating elements, and the light actually proving some sort of cylinder of energy half-connected to the sleek white tip of the structure. The base of the tower meanwhile, connected into a highly porous rock deposit, and as the Eronidas of the investigating ships landed, they found the beached ship freely disembarking its population onto the beaches, where they had made fires, and were simply waiting. Efforts to snap them out of it were fruitless, but it was then that the Eronidas encountered the Light Servants. Strange machines, built similarly to the tower, emerged from the caverns, and were not expecting a fight, so were cut down, their spherical centers shattering as they were destroyed. The Eronidas charged deeper underground, where they then came across a horrifying sight.

A vast crypt stretched out before them, with long-worn-down statues looming over sites where these machines used some sort of heating device to instantaneously disintegrate the Eronidas for interment in vast, strange clay jars. Suffice to say, the Eronidas investigating violently purged the place of its guardians, and shortly after, using Black Powder to blast the tower, and caused the beacon to shut down, the structure partially collapsing. Broken from their spell, the Eronidas fled the site. Unlike other locations, this island was sighted several decades ago, but apparently the tower mechanism now emits an extremely discordant noise that repels any who approach. The ship that tried fell into physical pain, with efforts to block their ears being fruitless, and so they turned back.

The Golden Grove

Late into the Eronidas voyage, they reached a cluster of three islands. These were fortunately more normal landmasses, though with black sand beaches, and smooth gray stones speckled with white dots covering the area. The two islands closest to the first arrivals from the fleets were smaller, but the third and furthest was larger, and also much more densely vegetated. While something that looked like spires or rock formations were seen from the boats, voyages inland by foraging parties instead found a vast circular gated garden with an imposing stone and metallic mesh fence. The materials used to make it were a dark brown to amber hue, with every edge somehow gleaming with a golden light. When the Eronidas eventually found the enormous front gate, they found it locked, but soon afterward, stepping from within the golden garden, was a tall, powerful warrior dressed in gleaming armor. They matched even the largest Eronidas in height, yet were indescribably alien, their armor shielding their face, and its design beyond anything the Eronidas had seen. The entity somehow understood the Eronidas within mere minutes, and stated it would only allow one to enter the grove under its protection if it was defeated in combat. Foolishly, half a dozen Eronidas rushed the entryway, seeking to overpower the figure, only to be confronted and seriously mauled by large ugly canine-like creatures also said to possess armor similar in design to that of the guardian.

For the next three months, the Eronidas ships sent their greatest warriors to challenge the guardian, using swords, clubs, and even wrestling in their contests. He would never lethally harm any of his opponents, and was defeated several times, but some Eronidas still sought to sneak into the grove under his guard by surpassing the fence, often with ramps or other clever engineering tricks. However, they were always attacked by his armored canines, and these Eronidas were killed by the animals for violating his rules. Beyond this, he generally let the Eronidas have their run of the islands, allowing them to strip down pretty much every inch of foliage and shave away stones, while his grove remained intact. The plantlife inside was said to gleam with golden light, and the fruits harvested were similarly all hues of yellow and gold. The most numerous was a species of pear-like fruit, while another was a kind of melon, and the rarest was a sort of gourd or pumpkin. The Eronidas who gained entry always brought sledges, and multiple baskets with them, hauling away all they could physically carry. They mentioned that near the very center of the grove, some sort of structure stood, ringed by hedges, but that the guard dogs specifically stopped them from getting too close to the structure.

The Eronidas ultimately left the island, missing only a few of their many thousands of passengers due to those individual’s own schemes and foolish efforts. It is said the fleets watched the warrior see them go, his armor gleaming in the morning sun, until he was too far away to be seen. While the fruit and other produce the Eronidas had acquired from him was edible and was able to be grown aboard their ships, the seeds stopped working after about a decade, and no more of the plants could be grown. Who the guardian was is unknown, some suggesting it may have been an automaton, while others postulate some kind of magical construct, but the nature of the Drifting Isles means his strange home is not likely to be easily found again

The Blue Lagoons

The fleets passed by a chain of islands that were later called the Blue Lagoons, forced to lay anchor in these troubling waters because some of the lead ships had stranded on a low lying sandbank that they had failed to spot at night. The Blue Lagoons were described as strange islands where the very air was warped with opalescent colors and shades, where the horizon seemed to disappear in a soupy distortion of air, and where the plant life itself seemed to defy conforming to its own genetic code. Long vines with flowers seemed to mutate to different colors and shapes with each different branch and strand reaching out to envelop more land, and each animal found had a different set of antlers, length of legs, tail, and fur pattern, some of which were completely white and blind, and others were blue and violent.

The Eronidas who were first to land on the islands were struck with a sickness when they went foraging, and quarantined away from the city ships. Eronidas groups that went after them to try and help them also became sick, and before long, it was made clear that the land itself caused a sickness. The exact description of the sickness is not well recorded, because it all had to be communicated over long distances as the Eronidas practiced a minimum of 50 meters distance from the sick on land. What little records were kept indicated that the Eronidas skins turned pale blue, some had their tusks elongated or curled in their mouths, others formed horns, some had their limbs elongated and became thinner, others grew extra limbs, and some developed translucent skin where underneath the organs could be seen to coil and move around in the body.

These changes were deemed dangerous to the fleet, and the decision was eventually made amicably that the sick would be left behind with some basic provisions and equipment to survive. Eronidas records indicate that the sick volunteered to stay, and that some of their families even agreed to step on land and be with them no matter their fate, but there is no way to be sure whether the Eronidas fleets didn’t just record this more sanitized version of events as such, and immediately left off without paying the lost any courtesy for survival. After this particular misadventure, the Eronidas implemented very strict security protocols for future island visits, using a multi step procedure with trained goats to ensure the land was safe and would not immediately start mutating any foragers that were sent to gather timber for repairs and food to supplement their rations. It is not known in the modern era if these Eronidas survived on the Blue Lagoons, the islands had drifted away when explorer ships attempted to relocate the islands a thousand years later, meaning it was very difficult to actually find the remnants, if they were still alive.

Arrival

Arrival in Daen was rather hectic. As one might expect, the fleets were designed for a few decades of travel, not a hundred years. While some of the people who still remembered Guldar were around, most of the first generation had died, and the second and third generation were now in control of the ships. Some of the ships were quite literally falling apart with rotting wood, and the soil upon which they grew grass and vegetables had long since lost its ability to sustain growth. The decision was made to crash-land the ships in the somewhat mountainous region that would become Kezzeret Artamon in the modern era, which was technically claimed and owned by the Allorn Empire, but where the Elves had built no cities to enforce their rule or claim. Upon arrival, the ships were scuttled, and cities were built out of the half rotting timber to provide quick shelter and security from the wild animals, and eventually the Elves who would come knocking.

When the Elves noticed their arrival, the Eronidas were immediately treated like an invasive pest, no attempt was made to even engage in diplomacy with them, they had the audacity to colonize the glorious Allorn Empire, and the Elves would not suffer this indignity from what they perceived as barbarians. The Eronidas were well prepared for a military conflict, expecting any land they landed on to already be claimed, but the Elven conflict turned out to be a very bloody and long one. Many of the Eronidas who still had functional ships decided that Daen was not the place for them to settle, hoping that elsewhere there might be less aggressive local populations (or weaker ones) that they might be able to settle permanently, and so they left. Some of the Eronidas who still live in the Kezzeret states are resentful to this day about the decision to leave, believing that if they had all stayed united, they would have pushed back the Elves far more than a thousand years of bloody war could have.

Regardless, large sections of the fleets sailed around the Allorn Empire through the Sendrassian Strait, luckily aided by a lack of strange Drifting Isles that would blow them off course or sandbank several ships and slow down their journey. They made short contact with the Allar and Slizzar in Hadar and north Sendrass, but decided not to settle in either place for fear of what jungles could turn toxic to them in the future. From the Slizzar however, they did receive maps of Westwynd, Southwynd, and the Regalian Archipelago, the latter of which in particular was sold as fertile land ripe for the taking. The Eronidas set on, and sailed forth in search for new lands where they could call home without the entire Elven Empire bearing down on them.

Trivia

• Some Eronidas hulks are still somewhat intact, the most notable one is the Kuras city-ship that was stranded in the Anglian province of Vrouweklooster, though half the ship has since collapsed into a rotting pile of wood, and it continues to degrade in the frequent Anglian sea storms in the north.
• It is commonly believed that the Exodus ships were massive sailing vehicles, but it is more accurate to say that the Eronidas built rafts and just hoped the currents would lead them somewhere, with minimal rowing on their part to steer away from obstacles.
• The Exodus Fleet is why many Eronidas engage in recreational rowing or rowing competitions, as a form of homage to those sailors who were born, lived, and died on those ships.

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Accreditation
Writers MonMarty, birdsfoot_violet, HydraLana Processors MonMarty, FireFan96	Last Editor HydraLana on 11/12/2023.

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