The Half Breeds, Children of Two Worlds
The sterile offspring of Elf and Man, the Aelfborn are feared and
distrusted by the both of the races that sired them. Creatures of
passion, Aelfborn are driven to extremes of emotion and often are
driven to madness by the imbalance in their blood. In previous Ages it
was believed that the offspring of Man and Elf were the vessels of
Chaos, creatures of spirit rather than soul, consumed by demons of
madness as they grow older. No sure cure for the Curse of the Aelfborn
has ever been found, but Aelfborn children are often marked with
magical tattoos to keep them sane. In the days since the Turning,
unprecedented numbers of Aelfborn are said to be gathering in the
wilds, far from the eyes of Elves or Men, to forge a new society of
their own. Aelfborn lack the immortality of both races -- they age as
men, yet can produce no offspring.
Their People
The offspring of Men and Elves, Aelfborn (there are other names for
them, but few so kind) show a balanced blending of their parent's
features. No matter the stock of their Human parent, Aelfborn always
have fair, pale golden skin, although their hair is quite varied. The
child's face also tends toward Elvish features, although their eyes are
not quite so large and their faces less sharp. Their large ears are
distinctly pointed. Aelfborn inherit an Elf's sharp eyes and keen ears.
If their faces favor the Elf blood in them, the bodies of the Aelfborn
are more Human. Aelfborn, though taller than most Men, are shorter than
Elves, and tend to be more muscular as well.
Aelfborn are more agile and quicker
of mind than Men, though they fall short of an Elf's speed, grace, and
reason. They also inherit the strength of their Human parent, and are
hardier than most Elves. While the traits of an Aelfborn might seem an
ideal blend of Human and Elf, their great weakness lies in Spirit: the
conflicting virtues of the Human and Elf blood leave the Aelfborn with
weaker Spirits than either Humans or Elves. Their mixed blood gives
rise to other flaws as well. Aelfborn inherit the mortality of their
Human parent, and actually live shorter lives than men due to some
instability in their blood (since the Turning this shortcoming has been
eased somewhat). Also, Aelfborn are incapable of siring or bearing
children: like a mule bred from a horse and donkey, these hybrids are
sterile. Born of mortal enemies, Fate denied the Aelfborn the
immortality of either of their parents until the Turning, when true
death ceased altogether.
Their Ways
The Aelfborn are not truly a race unto themselves, and as such have
developed little in the way of a unique culture, at least so far as the
rest of the World knows. Their infertility has ensured that there are
no Aelfborn nations or kingdoms, and the animosity between Elves and
the Sons of Men has always kept their numbers low. Rare in the extreme,
most Aelfborn tend to be loners, wondering from one place to the next,
and only rarely finding a permanent home. A Half Breed must choose the
ways of one of his parents: thus, some live, dress, and speak as Elves,
while others take on the culture of Men. As many seem to choose a Human
life as an Elvish one, and each Aelfborn chooses for his own reasons.
Whichever parent a Half Breed
emulates, Aelfborn tend to be unanimously rejected both by Humans and
Elves alike. Most Aelfborn are automatically deemed illegitimate, and
forced to live at the fringes of society. Humans fear the touch of fey
blood in the veins of the Aelfborn, while Elves believe that the
hybrids have been corrupted by the "lesser" blood of Men. Rarely
trusted and almost never befriended, most Aelfborn are outcasts, and
come to hate one side of their heritage for giving them birth at all.
There are some places in the World, however, where the lot of the
Aelfborn is easier. The Church of the All-Father has always been
tolerant of all Aelfborn, especially those who take up the cloth.
Aelfborn are also drawn to the deeps of the wood, where the Druids and
Rangers welcome them into their ranks. The Amazons are probably the
most tolerant of all the people of the World when it comes to the
Aelfborn, and more than one Aelfborn Huntress has ruled as Queen of all
Amazons.
The reputation of the Aelfborn is
hurt even further by the Curse, which strikes many Half Breeds as soon
as they reach adulthood. As an Aelfborn grows older, they become
subject to a strange, lingering madness that strikes each Aelfborn
differently. Some hear voices, while others are tormented by hideous
nightmares or waking visions. Many rock between violent rages and fits
of despair. No one can say with any certainty why those born of Men and
Elves should be so afflicted, but most Aelfborn battle the Curse all
their lives. Throughout the World, the parents of Aelfborn children
have intricate magical tattoos inscribed across their scalps and other
places on their bodies when they are born to keep the Curse at bay.
Their effectiveness is uncertain, but they look very striking, and many
Aelfborn shave their heads to keep them visible. Most Aelfborn try to
bring peace and balance to their troubled souls by taking professions
which demand focus and calm - many have calmed their inner demons by
living the contemplative life of a Druid, tempering their focus as a
Warlock, or devoting themselves to the discipline of Blademastery.
The days since the Turning have
been times of both hardship and change for the Aelfborn of the World.
It is widely believed that the Traitor who dealt the Woeful Stroke was
Aelfborn, a Half Breed turncloak who betrayed his father's people,
became one of Cambruin's Champions, but finally had not the heart to
destroy the Elvish Empire forever. The Traitor's deeds have brought
down the wrath of all the Men of the Petty Kingdoms on all Aelfborn,
and the Grand Inquisition Against the Misborn, pursued with fanatical
precision by the followers of the Cleansing Flame, will soon celebrate
its one hundredth anniversary. The Elves, for their part, have been no
kinder to their wayward children, and have shunned all Aelfborn since
the Turning. In most lands, Aelfborn try to hide their natures, for
safe havens are few and far between. It is hardly surprising, then,
that bands of Aelfborn outcasts have begun congregating in the wilds,
forging new nations of their own. What will become of them remains to
be seen.
Their Lore
"Wake up! Yeh you! Wake up! Stop yer drooling, it's disgusting!"
"I think he can hear us. There is no need to shout so. There you are.
Now open your eyes, and look about you. No? Very well. Just listen,
then. You don't remember anything, do you? Do you even know who you
are? Be not troubled. The Curse has finally taken you. Memories will
come back, with time. It's not my place to tell you who you are, but I
can tell you what you are."
"You're a HALF BREED! A witless, cursed bastard! That's what ye are!"
"Do shut up! Don't listen to my vulgar brother here. You are an
Aelfborn, the same as us. If he's a cursed bastard, dear my brother,
he's no more of one than you!"
"That's as may be. We're all
cursed, all three of us. Where are his bones? Where are my father's
bones, you strumpet!"
"I'll not play that game with you
now, simpleton. Do try to compose yourself. 'The Low Blood is sluggish,
the High Blood sighed,'"
"'While the High Blood brings
madness, the Low replied.' I know all yer riddles, you peacock. Don't
waste my time with 'em. I know all about Rydall Rhimetamer, the
half-blooded Bard who was cursed ne'er to forget a single word he ever
heard, or the slightest thing he'd ever seen. The knowledge filled his
head to bursting � all them songs and rhymes and tales and simple
memories trapped inside his skull. They drove him mad, and they burned
him for it. But then, we all go mad, we Aelfborn, don't we?"
"I fear he speaks the truth. We are
all Aelfborn, hybrids of fair Elf and stubborn Human, doomed to be
outcasts wherever we go. Our race is no race at all, for never shall
any Aelfborn sire or bear a child. Our parents, be they Fey or Man,
they remember their long histories with pride, writing chronicles and
telling legends of better days and mighty deeds. Not so with us. We
have no history. The heritage of both our parents is denied us.
There have been a lucky few, it's
true, who have made a mark on the flow of history as our dear parents
record it, but they are the exception, not the rule. Like scraps from
their high feast tables, sometimes Men or Elves actually allow their
misbegotten pups a footnote in their histories. More often than not, an
Aelfborn's name is only remembered to be reviled. Like Sesherin,
Cambruin's Champion who some say turned traitor. Nobody will ever know
if his hand actually drove Shadowbane through Cambruin's back, for the
high Confessors that hold him in chains cut his tongue out every day at
dawn. I wonder, how many times will poor Sesherin be flayed alive
before they decide justice has been done?
We have no past, nothing more than
the dismal or sordid stories of our conceptions and our births. Can you
remember yours? Was you mother some Human princess, seduced by a
shining fey in the midst of a forest glade? Or was she some Highborn
Elf child, taken at sword's point by a gore spattered soldier? Were you
born of tragic love or the horrors of war? You don't even know, do you?
How typical. Most Aelfborn live as orphans, abandoned by both their
parents, treated like beasts by any kind enough not to slay us out of
hand."
"Ye may as well stop askin' this
one questions. It's clear as ice, the Curse has his tongue. What's
that? Oh, ye do speak! It's a miracle, praise the Archons! What's the
Curse, you ask? Why, it's the reason ye can't remember yer own name,
an' why yer too scared to open yer eyes. The Curse is what drive all us
half breeds mad. It takes some sooner than others, an' never touches
any two quite the same way."
"Why are we so afflicted? The tale
is an ancient one, and tragic. The wisest Magi and Loremasters call the
Curse by it's true name, the Mother's curse, for it was the Elvish
Queen Silesteree Allvolanar, daughter of Gilliandor himself, who
pronounced our Doom in the Age of Twilight. After the Dragon had been
defeated, the All-Father lingered long among the shattered spires of
the Twilight Kingdom's greatest city. There He recovered from his
grievous wounds, and Silesteree herself tended Him. In return for all
her care, the All-Father wandered away again, but not before He had
wooed the queen and left her with child. When Silesteree learned that
it had been the All-Father's hand that had roused the Dragon in the
first place, she seethed with anger, and pronounced a curse of madness
and ruin on any born to Elves that had not pure Elvish blood, even her
own son. Saedron the Fate Weaver heard the queen's cry, and wove her
words into the tapestry of fate. Draethen, her son, is revered by many
of our kind as the first of the Aelfborn. And while the True Son was
troubled by the Curse throughout his life, he learned to master it
through the discipline of steel. Is it any wonder that so many Aelfborn
walk the steady path of the Jen'e'tai? Perhaps someday the rigid focus
of blademastery will calm the fevers in your mind."
"Fah! I've heard that tale as well,
an' I didn't believe it the first time. Nor should you. Everyone with a
whit of sense knows that Draethen weren't any manner of Aelfborn: all
Aelfborn are of Human blood! No other mixture will take. The All-Father
(blessed and praised be His holy name) may be the maker of Men, but
that don't make Him a Man himself. He's a God. And before you bring the
wording of that Elf witch's curse back up, explain to me why
Elf-blooded babies born to Human mothers also fall to the Curse! No
answers, eh? Yer eloquence has failed ye? Save yer fairy tales, for I
know the true cause of the Curse. It lays in the blood itself, the
mixed blood that leaves us all brothers and sisters. Haldogrim of
Nordanwick, the finest Alchemist who ever lived (who, let me hasten to
add, was of mixed blood himself) distilled Aelfborn blood into its
basest essence, and found the root of madness in it. Elf blood, said
he, holds too much Bile (hence the traditional surliness of the Elvish
temper), and nothing exists in the Human blood to balance it. The Elf
blood poisons the half Human flesh, and breaks the mind. It's no legend
that drives us mad, 'tis our very natures."
"Alchemy is a sham, a refuge of
charlatans and tricksters who pass themselves off as true Magi. Not
that I believe Haldogrim's ludicrous explanation for one moment, but
even if I did, it is obvious that if anyone has poison in heir veins,
it is Humans, not Elves. Why, there is even proof of this to be found
in ancient history. As it is sung among the �" "Not another fairy
tale!"
"Do be quiet! Call it a fairy tale
to the Invorri Skalds who sing it, I dare you. Among the Northmen, it
is still told how the All-Father was bitten by the great Serpent,
paying agony and madness for wisdom. The serpent's venom lingered in
the All-Father's blood, and is it a mere coincidence that the
All-Father quickened the Titans with blood drawn from his left hand,
the very hand the Serpent smote? There's your bile, brother alchemist."
"Oh, so now it's the All-father
that's cursed us? There's no new tune there, either. Malorn and his
torch wavers have been crowing it from rooftops ever since their Temple
was first founded. To them the Curse is a divine punishment, the bitter
price of miscegenation. Empty vessels are we, so they say, full of
Spirit, but vulnerable to Chaos and possession by bodiless demons.
Hogwash! They quickly forget that there've been Aelfborn far longer
than Confessors or Templars, an' that there were learned folk who heard
the All-Father's will five thousand years ago. If we Aelfborn all be
abominations in the All-Father's eyes, why has the Holy Church always
been so kind to us? Prayer and faith can also calm a tormented soul,
and the routine of monastic life can cool fevered blood. Indeed, was it
not Kellast the Aelfborn, Saint Kellast the Conciliator, who first
convinced the Bishops of the Elvish Church and the Cardinals of the
Human Church to join together into the Holy Church as we know it? In
the Testaments of St. Kellast he presented a lengthy parable that
likened the conflicts of Men and Elves to the Curse that torments every
Aelfborn. As prayer saved him, so devotion to the All-Father might
foster peace. Another fairy tale, no doubt, but I like the sound o'
this one better."
"As many of us have found peace
living as Druids, the Mother's Curse tempered by the hand of the Green
Mother, Mother of All. Some still even claim that the marks work. What
marks? Here, open your eyes. Do you see your face in the glass? Those
marks. No, not the blood - what's underneath it. The tattoos. Almeus
the Young was charged by Paolus, the first king of Brethild to cure his
son, an Aelfborn born of an Elvish concubine. The wizard tattooed the
boy from scalp to sole in scarlet signs, woven with spells to calm the
child's spirit. According to legend, the spells worked. And so it is
that Elvish and Human parents alike tattoo their screaming babes,
warding them against possession by demons or the Curse of an angry
ancestor. Many Aelfborn succumb despite the tattoos, but our parents
keep painting us all the same."
"Aye, it's the pain of it that does
the trick, I'll warrant. Here, look at me arms � see these scars? When
the voices get too loud and too many, I draw a blade across the skin.
The pain and the blood bring the World back into focus. For some half
breeds, the thrill of battle is the only calm they have left, the only
time when they can truly be themselves. But with all this talk of cures
and curing, dear sister, there's one question ye haven't even asked.
Who says this Curse is even a Curse at all? Our esteemed parents, the
very ones who are ashamed to even look upon us? They don't like the way
we rant and gibber, so they brand us as accursed. How like them. In the
days since the War of Tears, there's some among the Aelfborn who've
turned their backs on Elves and Men, and gone into the Wilds to live.
They let their madness take them, and live like feral beasts, painted
from head to foot and armed with deadly bows. Wyldkin, most folk call
them, and they leave any who trespass in their woods hanging from the
tree boughs, scalped and bristling with arrows. Good riddance, says I."
"Savage! Don't listen to him, child
� you are a Child of Aerynth, not a beast. Savage treatment by our
parents need not breed savagery in us. Of all the folk trapped on the
fragments of the World, we Aelfborn alone found hope in the Turning.
Once we of mixed blood all died young � rare indeed was the Aelfborn
who lived two score years, and most died in half that time. Some say
that the Curse kills us with age, but more blame the cruelty and strife
of the World. Since the Turning, no Aelfborn has died."
"Not even poor Sesherin himself, try as they might!"
"Yes, brother, not even him. For the first time, Aelfborn can achieve
true age, and some have found wisdom waiting for them. There are now
Aelfborn walking the fragments who have lived for more than a century,
and some of them claim that the Curse is a storm to be endured, but one
that passes with time. We had not the means to survive it before, but
now we have no alternative. With the passing of our madness, these
elders say, comes a new awareness of the World and an appreciation of
the Now. Some of them have sent out the call to their scattered kin,
and for the first time in history thousands of Aelfborn have gathered
together and founded new kingdoms, kingdoms of our own. The greatest of
these is ruled by a Ranger whose name has been carefully hidden. Folk
call him the Briar King, and some say even the Wyldkin answer to his
will. Tales say that all who come to the Briar King's land draw lots,
and the token drawn grants them membership in a family, a group of
Aelfborn who drew a like-colored token. Elders serve as mentors to the
young, and the wisest help all endure the Curse. For the first time in
history, Aelfborn are building a home, and forging ties of kinship. In
time, we orphans born of war shall make our proud parents tremble, and
regret every wrong that Elf or Man ever did to us. They have denied us
any past, but we shall seize a future!"
"More fairy tales! We're half
breeds � no more, no less, and we always will be. As if I'd trust any
other Aelfborn anyway. Even the Briar King and his dear subjects can't
escape the curse. All the Turning has done is make our torment
eternal."
"We shall see, dear brother. We shall see."
"Where are his bones, my father's bones?"
"You should know, you dullard! 'Twas your hand that buried them!"
"Never!"
"Aye, search your feeble memory. And your hand staved in his thick skull!"
"I never did! It was you, all the time! You're the murderer!"
"Haven't you forgotten, my dear brother? We're the same, you and I � and this wastrel here! Can't you remember?"
"No! Never! I'll kill you! I swear it!"
"For that you'd need hands, dear boy. I remember the smell of the flesh
boiling off of father's bones as we burned him. How he sizzled! The
flesh withering and dying, revealing the black bones beneath�"
"No! You demon, you hag, get out of my head!"
"It's my head too, dear brother. Don't you remember?"
At this point the Aelfborn prisoner ceased talking in either of the two
voices, and only wailed and sobbed. After some time, the prisoner rose
to his feet, and tried to strangle Inquisitor Heveron through the bars
of his cell. Luckily, the Templar bailiffs quickly intervened, and the
prisoner was dispatched.
I have sent this transcript to you
because the revelations regarding the so-called Wyldkin and the
mysterious Briar King sort well with rumors that have plagued my
diocese this summer past. I respectfully request, honored Lictor, that
you pass word of these tidings to the Temple leadership at large, for
surely the prospect of an organized nation of misborn half castes may
pose as great a threat to our righteous flock and the salvation of all
Aerynth as the plague of stillborn Shades. The council of Justicars
must know of this impending threat. I see no other recourse but to
launch a full crusade into the Elder Forests, as soon as sufficient
Templars can be gathered.
Humbly rendered this ninetieth day
of the ninety-seventh year of the Ascendancy of Malorn the Just, the
Living Saint, Kindler and Keeper of the Cleansing Flame.
Korwin of Mangarth, Confessor
Tribune of the Order of the Iron Cage,
Monastery of Saint Eldarn the Thrice-Martyred