The Elven Empire

Long known in this region as the most adept, fastest, and quickest to progress, the Elves of the land they call Il'rendar split amongst themselves into different bloodlines far back, in ancient history, before there was a history to speak of.

The Red Elves, or Rend'ar, as only Red Elves say, are akin to High Elves in that they are tall, graceful, and full of poise. However, the Red Elves eliminated the High Elves in the first great war the region ever knew, when history was first writ, in the year 01.

Their skin is rugged and leathery, which draws their similarities to the Orcish kin to a close. They are otherwise Elven in appearance, with long pointed ears and angular, narrow eyes. Their kingdom is one of refined form, with towering ivory sculptures, domes and cones topping the roofs of their buildings. Epic columns and a signature color scheme of white, gold and scarlet unites the visual features of their mountainous island home.

Renth'ar is their home city, dead center in the middle of a long-exhausted volcano. Their Mage tower is the only feature that stands out amongst the inside city, but sprawling suburbs and other minor cities cover the mountainside, and various other rocky islands are speckled with the constructs of the Red Elven Kingdom.

Since the year 212, the Red Elves have been systematically conquering the outlying islands of other minor Elven species: the Moon Elves, or Rad'ea (so called because their activity coincides with activities of the moon) serve as the lowest caste of untouchables in the Red Elf heirarchy, their homes being the rocky caves and coral reefs that litter the waters of the Great Sea, or [i]Rath'rar[/b] as the Red Elves call it.

The Orcs that originally held a dominant power on the surrounding mainlands had been left in relative peace since their original plunder of most of the native species. Before the Red Elves made their great expansion into solid ground, Orcs were the biggest, toughest, and most greedy race. Humans, Dwarves, and Wood Elves alike - all minor derivatives in the region owed a hefty tax to the brutish warlord tribes of Orcs that populated the region. The Orcish Kin chose the deepest caves and the richest mountains as their home, while creating settlements in the other races' regions. They never expected the otherwise benign and generous Red Elves to strike so quickly.

With far superior technology and a military discipline that has yet to be matched, the Red Elves conquered the mainland of Rurth, as the commoners called it. Orcish settlements were burnt to the ground in a day, and their homelands besieged. Within a week, the Red Elves had claimed all they could see, up to the deserts and oceans that surround their continent.

Orcs that had surrendered, though rare, became captains of a new army. New Orcs were bred from the survivors and the land was repopulated with new Orcs, loyal to the Red Shield. The Red Elves gave the Orcs all they wanted: the power to dominate the minor races, and a better system of management to handle their spoils. They in fact were spoiled themselves, and in their own selfish pride, have come to identify with the Red Elves as their mother race.

The only free port city of Rath'rar (the Great Sea), Rotgir was so named both as an homage and insult to the Elven word for their home-seas. The crudely placed and hard consonant, G, was ugly to the Red Elves of the region, but they tolerated it as a rough translation.

In actuality, the city is a barely-veiled attempt at piracy. While no parrots or one-eyed, one legged men inhabit the dark, Gothic island (one of the last architectural remnants of an ancient Human legacy, before the Orcs invaded), anything a man or woman could want in these lands filtered first through Rotgir, then the Ren'thar city ports.

The Empire tolerates Rotgir only because the merchants of Rotgir are the only ones known to travel abroad, beyond the expanses of the Elven Empire. While the money does exist for the Elves to send ships of their own, they prefer to do business with the merchants first. Rumors abound about what the Magarchs of Ren'thar plan to do when the inevitable expansion of the Empire does arrive, or if it has begun to stir already.