**This is older Lore, a blurb of the past, when Mooncrest was not even a gleam, and then when it was first founded, a bit about the world itself as well as where in the world, and how in the world Mooncrest came to be, as well as newer events that have changed the face of Mooncrest Vale.**
A brief history of the Empress and Lymurid’s rediscovery-
Many find it difficult to dislike the pale-skinned Empress, Illinosse, who rules the Empire from afar; an albino high-elf with a long, sad story that preceded her coronation some two hundred years past. In brief, she was born with the knowledge and powers of all of her kindred clan, effectively stealing their blood-born, and earned, magicks until a certain prophecy was fulfilled. As it was, it took a young, innocent, powerful and very often shunned elf on a lengthy journey to find the mythical home of Lymurid. According to legend, Lymurid was the birthplace of elves. Not just any one realm of elves, all elves, across the multi-verse. Far-fetched as it seemed, many soon found a pull to at least visit or send representatives to the once-sealed world that would later be dubbed the home of many worlds.
Ancient and powerful towers lay scattered across the vastness of Lymurid, built some say by the first race known as elves, though their descendents likely would not have even recognized them as ancestors. Legend says that they possessed so much deep magic they had to travel to other places, places they dreamed of, places they were called to seek out. It was these portals that, in an attempt to remedy the growing corruption of power, were used in the end by the elders to seal off Lymurid to all elves, thus scattering them across the multiverse. The only ones left behind were the reclusive sea elves who lent their power and wisdom to the Binding. They remained to be the guardians, lest the world be taken over in the vacuum left by the elves.
And so it was millennia that passed before one of the Chosen managed to complete the task, to bring the elves back to their original homeworld. The old magics were long gone from the races, mostly depleted during the the Binding, and so it was that most elves returned much subdued in comparison to their distant elders. The Palace stood as a singular bastion against the ages; built with magics long forgotten and stone, metal and wood that saw no damage during passing aeons. It was there that the Chosen One became Empress, supported by the clan that once shunned her for the theft of their magic, now returned with the finding of Lymurid. She rules with a certain fairness and balance borne of her own trials and difficulties that many cannot dispute, even those who would call her enemy under different circumstances.
The Here and Then of the Vale-
Mooncrest Vale sits on the middle continent of the eastern hemisphere of Lymurid. This continent, Enedemara, is a generally temperate land though in the higher mountains the air is much cooler and a stronger warmth can be found along the southern coast. Nestled on one of the northern edges of Enedemara, the Vale is one of the last of the northern trade ports before the Great Waters that form a barrier between the middle and northern continent, called Baelemara. The vale is a valley between the Shadowpeaks Mountains, and it houses one of the Emissaries from the Empire. The vale has always been touted as one of the last safe ports where the mountains rise and split the continent. Legend says the vale was named after the first founders of the port saw the moon rise between the Elder Twins, the massive trees that tower atop part of the Elderroot Forest, over top the foothills of the Shadowpeaks. They came by way of a pass that would later be called the Rhiminee Pass, after the home of one of the explorers. Later, when the port was fully established the little trade town that bloomed on the island came to be known as Port Endings. It was after the establishment of the Port that the Empress, through her Emissaries, came to realize the need to reach out to those in the Vale and along the coast.
The Guild Founding-
Through the Empress’ wisdom and imperial decree the founding of the Guilds came to be. A guild for 5 different areas, to help their students learn the varying arts of their centers. The Ardent Menders were first for healers and herbalists were in greatest need in the semi -remote northern reaches of the middle continent. Then came the Earthbound, for they were some of the first to reach out of the forest to welcome the people who settled the Port. The Blade, Bow and Shield came next, for there was always a need for defenders and warriors to guard the caravans coming and going. Next came the magicians and their Mystic Circle as they were also needed to safeguard the merchandise transported across the waters and back along the trade routes. With all the trade, the travel, the settling and newcomers came the inevitable, the need for information and disposal of rivals thus perpetuating the need for the Mysterious Mayhem.
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More Recent Past-
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Mooncrest Vale was a busy port until a few years ago. At one point a dragon, gone mad with torture and enraged with unjust wounds descended on the relatively peaceful town and began to lay waste to it. Heroes and even other dragons rose up to defeat it, but not before it had decimated much of the vale. The battle had raged up into the mountains where the ice caps were melted creating a deluge that flooded the vale’s already heavily carved river way destroying much of what had existed. Thanks to the Earthbound and the Mystic Circle some things were saved, though the losses were heavy to both the populace and the area itself. One of the great Twins, two towering elf trees was destroyed, lost to the floods. Several of the mountains were outright leveled.
Not long after things were beginning to settle, one evening quite literally out of nowhere people, creatures, even buildings began appearing, scattered across the vale through portals that winked out as soon as their deliveries were made. Some bore belongings, others could only reach out in vain to the closing portals as their things were left behind. Some found themselves reunited with loved ones, others were more lost than they had been before in the place they had come to know as the Tower. Speculation as to what had happened ranged widely, that the Magus had died and the spell collapsed with him, others felt the old mage had simply ended his experiment and scattered people to the winds, while others still recovering from the mystery illness that had plagued them in the last weeks of their stay felt it might be something far more nefarious. Whatever it was, many of those that had once called the strange place home found themselves in something a little more normal. A place with a sky! Not to mention actual land and water and horizons.
The world, which newcomers quickly find out if they are not from the world already, is called Lymurid. (It’s lore can be found more in depth on the website if you want more detailed reading of its past.) Lymurid is a strange planet full of magic and wonder, adventure and conflict. There is always the possibility for roaming monsters, bands of raiders, even nature itself occasionally grumbles and reshuffles its inhabitants. That being said, there’s a healthy trade between most of the inhabitants of the vale, though not all do so without fuss. Everyone is still finding their place and learning where their once-plentiful resources can be found again, even those who have called Lymurid their home all of their lives. No longer able to seclude themselves, many find themselves forced to go deeper into the forest, further into the ocean, or else trying to coax the land to yield its bounty.
Only a handful of years after the devastation caused by the dragon battles a new cataclysm rattled the vale once again. In the early hours following the Long Night, with the full moon overhead, a violent explosion occurred somewhere deep beneath Mooncrest Vale. Some felt the rumblings that had begun just before midnight, deep within the earth and there was a flurry of activity among the mages that had a slightly panicked air to it. The explosion could be felt all through the Vale, though it seemed to be the most violent beneath Port Endings. Doorways and passages between the underground areas and the port were destroyed utterly, and those with magical abilities and senses would be able to feel that this was definitely magical in nature and only the beginning of something, and it was nothing good.
Less than a day after the initial underground explosion, and several smaller aftershocks, another even more devastating event occurred, effectively wiping Port Endings off the map. There were tell-tale signs of things escalating, so the Guilds pulled together in an effort to evacuate as much of the city as they could before it happened. Craters and debris soon replaced what was once a thriving port city. Wounded and dead were tended as best they were able and thus began the rebuilding of Mooncrest Vale once again.
(See Guilds and their Lore and Points of interest pages)
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