Sylivas

Sylivas
''The world turns. Great powers ebb and flow. Our people have seen the rise and fall of countless empire, of terrible tyrants and great kings. We are weary of the conquests of men, the pillaging of orcs, and the pride of the dwarves. Leave us to our gardens and forests, there is no gold here. No reason for your presence Leave us be to fade away. Our youth are few, our elderly many. We are not long for this world, but we are long-lived enough to watch your own fall, prideful ones.''

Summary
Isolated by both geography and choice, the Elven nation of Sylivas is an ancient country with a population weary of the wars of conquest that men and dwarves launch against each other. They have seen their cities sacked by greedy generals in years past, and want nothing to do with the affairs of the other nations around them. The population of Sylivas is old, even by Elven standards, and some would even call it "dying", but the citizens in this land would rather slowly dwindle away rather than break from their ancient ways and join the modern, materialistic human world.

Geography
Sylivas is a peninsula jutting out into the Grutharian Sea off the western central portion of the Mainlund, with the Cyressian Mountains separating the two. The coastline of the peninsula is, for the most part, quite treacherous with very steep cliffs dropping off into turbulent seas for most of the coast. The patches of smooth coastline are deceptive, and lead out to very shallow, reef-filled seas, making all ship traffic in and out of the land quite difficult. The climate is temperate, with nearly sub-tropical weather along the southern edge, but cooler in the interior. The Cyressian Mountains trap lots of rainfall right on their western side, which fills the magnificent Kythiatin Lake, as well as The River Cyre, which leaves the mountain range, traveling south into the Footlands and the Gulf of Trageriao.

The land of Sylivas itself is dense forests of oak, pine, walnut, and olive trees, rising and falling in an endless map of tall hills and deep valleys, perfect for hiding pockets of civilization from prying eyes. Furthermore, the deep forests themselves are populated with many number of great magical beasts, including a small population of dragons, and invading forces making it into the interior of the land have always been plagued with the task of dealing with not just the formidable elves themselves, but also the beasts and treacherously magicked forests here.

Racial Distribution
Sylivas is almost entire peopled with Sylvan Elves, the more 'modern' or 'urban' species of elf in the Mainlund (as opposed to their wild Sidhe Elf cousins). These are the elves of lore whom preserved the records of mankind when the Barbarian Hordes were burning down every village whom didn't capitulate to their rule. The elves here created many school for magical and scientific learning in past years, and they have a passion for peaceful civilization. Other races are allowed to enter Sylivas by invitation only, but the land holds no extra prejudice against any race (save for orcs and ogres), so at any given time, 5% of the nation's population are a mix of non-permanent dwarves, humans, gnomes, and other races, most of whom come to study either history or magic from the elves.

History
During the most Ancient of Eras, the Elves of Sylivas were originally spread out around the plains of modern day Bhesina, the Footlands, the forests of Ashtar, and Sylivas. Theirs was a peaceful kingdom rarely at war (conflicts with Gruthar being the exception), and tolerant of many other races. The elves claim to have taught early humans in this area the art of literature, poetry, and heraldry, but this is contested by historians. Regardless, elves and humans lived in cooperative existence until the beginning of what is now called The Barbarian Era, where many tribes of human barbarians in modern day Bhesina, Garmond, and South Partha coalesced into a single fighting force, and laid waste to their human rivals in the Central Mainlund. At this point, the barbarians began sacking elven settlements and cities in Bhesina and the Footlands areas. Sylivas fought back, but was overwhelmed by the numbers of barbarians, and had no answer for their mounted horse archery on the open plains. Slowly, the elves began to withdraw their people westward towards Sylivas. At this time, the Sidhe Elves, who were always the wild, forest dwelling cousins to the Sylvan Elves, totally separated from elven society, deeming it weak, and fought off enough barbarian assaults to claim lands in the forests of the Footlands and Ashtar as their own.

During the time of the Late Barbarian Era, the hordes of human barbarians several times tried to push their way through the Cyressian Mountains to sack the ornate Elven cities on the other side. Fortunately for the elves, these attacks were never successful, as the barbarians strength was mainly in mounted horse warfare and archery, skills which did not serve well when trying to lay siege to elven forts embedded in shear mountain cliffs. Nevertheless, the elves became incredibly paranoid about invasions at this time, going so far as to abandon several cities which lay upon the coastlines of the land, out of fear of a naval assault. This assault never materialized, as the barbarians never were able to command a navy of any size larger than a dozen skiffs or so, but it left a permanent scar on the elves psyche. To this day, there are ruins of several cities near the coastline, and the elves still feel it best to maintain their forces in the hilly interior of the land, despite the beauty of the coast.

Politics & National Relations
The current policies of expansion in the land of Bhesina have been very disturbing to the elves of Sylivas in recent years. The Bhesinian settlers are pushing southwest from their lands into the foothills of the Cyressian Mountains, which has long stood as the barrier to protect Sylivas from outside invasion. The elves do not take kindly to these strange humans on their doorstep, especially because the Bhesinian religion teaches that non-humans are inherently flawed and that the Bhesinian High God desires for his children to spread out over the land as fast as they can. As such, Sylivas has been sending its diplomats out into the world more frequently than in previous decades, in an attempt to gain aid in stopping the Bhesinian expansion into their territory.

Previously, the growth of the Footlands concerned the elves, and relations between that country and Sylivas were strained. The Mushiff Pirate Lords of the western Footlands started using isolated bays and inlets on the southern edge of Sylivas to hide from rival ships, and the elves were none to happy about this intrusion. A few brief skirmishes occurred, but fortunately total war was averted, as the Footlands central government was pressured into reigning in these Pirate Lords. Tensions have been strained since that time, but the shared current threat of Bhesinian expansion has made temporary allies of Sylivas and the Footlands.

Sylivas maintains a diplomatic connection with the nations of Calcova (mostly due to a common enemy in the nearby Ogre Nation of Gruthar), and Northpoint, which is a distant and equally isolated nation. The elves of Sylivas and the mur-ain of Northpoint share a common history in that their power has wanned in recent generations, and they mostly wish to seal off their borders and be left alone. These two cultures respect each other greatly, and work together diplomatically when they can.

The land is currently ruled by an ancient king, Fortheluthian Quithos, a venerable elven noble who has reigned for 150 years now. His father and grandfather ruled before him, and he is well respected by the people.

Culture & Customs
The Elves of Sylivas practice an ancient elven custom of opening up the tombs of respected elders and bringing forth the bones in elaborate ceremonies, before returning them to the tombs the next day. For elven nobility or national heroes, the entire corpses are fastened together with leather straps, and seated at a table for a great ceremonial feast. This tradition dates back as far as the elves have oral history for, and the wild Sidhe Elf cousins of the Sylvan Elves take this practice a step further, and actually consume small portions of the elders remains in these feasts.

The plentiful game animals of the land include stag, pheasants, dog-sized squirrels, river otters, water fowl, and tree lizards. The farming practices of this nation consist almost entirely of fruit production, including citrus in the southern half of the land and along the coast, and apples, plums, pears, or peaches in the interior. Succulent fern tips are grown on a large scale as well. The elves do not consume any vegetables grown underground, and also cannot eat leavened bread products, so lean meats and fruits are their primary foods. Also, the elves do not collect foods from the ocean, as most elves seem to react badly to eating shellfish.

Elves delight in eating edible flowers, preferring them for a dessert instead of anything sweet, so large flower gardens appear in all of the cities of the land, and especially rare and delicious specimens are purchased from the swampy jungles of the eastern Footlands and the Gray Coast. Eating large amounts of nectar-rich flowers gives an elf something akin to the effect of coffee or strong tea for humans, and rare orchids are the most prized species for this effect and for their taste, which is described as something in between honey and vanilla.

Much like their Sidhe cousins, the elves of Sylivas often train their strongest elf maidens to become the elite warriors of the military. While the land is historically led by a King, occasionally a Queen will lead the people for a short time, if the King passes away unexpectedly, and the top military advisors of all Kinds and Queens are almost always females whom have risen up the ranks of the military.

The woodworking skills of the elves of Sylivas are the finest in Myradon The elves know how to make their hardwood trees go in specific shapes and sizes, making for incredibly complex and elaborate finished products. Furniture and architectural decorations from elven craftsmen are prized by the nobles of Partha, Ashtar, Northpoint, and Calcova, and their ornate longbows are highly sought after by nobles in Garmond.

Famous Figures & Groups
During the Barbarian Era, the warrior elf-maiden Shiilaunai Rexaluuda rose to fame as a military leader in charge of repulsing the barbarian sieges of the elven forts in the foothills of the Cyressian Mountains. The barbarians has heard tales of unfathomable wealth of the cities locked behind that mountain range and were eager to conquer new lands. They launched several waves of attack on the forts who protected the mountain range from human aggression, and many of these forts were overran and sacked. Shiilaunai emerged from these battles as a commander who could outwit the barbarians in battle, often tricking them into attacking at the wrong time, or in the wrong location, launching brutal counter attacks against unprotected flanks, or bringing in magical forces to aid in the assaults. Unlike other commanders, she was somewhat successful at actually chasing the invaders back onto the plains near modern day Bhesina that they had come from, a feat her peers seemed unable to achieve with any regular success Shiilaunai was later killed in a minor navel skirmish with Grutharian war ships off the coast of Pequonda Isle to the north of Sylivas, and the nation mourned her passing with a national holiday.

A growing concern the leaders of Sylivas is the cult of Shji'Shylisht, a movement/religion spreading quickly among the younger generations of elves, which believes that all efforts to maintain or grow the elven population in the land are misguided, and that it is time for the elves to allow themselves to fade into extinction. This Nihilist philosophy comes with something like an obsession with death, which the members proudly demonstrating how little they value this existence, and how easily they will accept death when it comes. They also believe that the lands should be returned to the magical, semi-intelligent beasts and monsters who existed before the time of Man and the arrival of the elves themselves. Suicide is relatively uncommon, as it is viewed as marginally better to live long enough to observe the total collapse of the elven civilization. As a whole, the cult is mostly harmless, and the older elven generations view the philosophy as primarily the result of the youngest elven generation being too isolated from the outside world, and not having lived through any kind of existential threat to the people, like the earlier invasions of the land by outside barbarians. A very small minority of the Shji'Shylisht followers however, are actively seeking to bring about the extinction of their own kind, instead of dispassionately observing it, and these dark cultists undertake such activities as reaching out to demonic entities and strange beings from other planes in an effort to bring forth more magical monstrosities into the land of Sylivas, quickening its return to a natural, primal state.

Religion
The tightly sealed home of the Sylvan Elves is guarded over by a group of elven gods that all work to ensure the nation's continued existence Qhe'Shiyr is the elven god of light and good acts, and is the most widely honored deity of the realm. His clerics patrol the magical land, protecting citizens and promoting the laws of the King. Miriantia is the goddess of lore and history, and is honored in all schools in the land as a great scholar and teacher. Bheystinestru is the short tempered god of loyalty, honor and combat, and is honored by the military and peace keepers of the land. His name is often inscribed into the weapons of the soldiers of Sylivas so that he might aid them in battle. Da'lwain is the god of magic and superstition. His role in society is to preserve the elves' inherently mystical nature, and he is honored by mages and isolationists among the elves.