Nanielle ur vadlum

Lore

The White Tiger

Algador was a great stretch of land, so great that when it was past midnight on the east side, the nations on the west were still celebrating daylight. 17 nations constituted Algador, and war seldom broke out between the neighbouring kingdoms.

All that, however, changed on the day after the Garven festival in the Kingdom of Naschval. The nightsky was disturbed by a massive celestial storm, visible to all nations in West Algador. Luden, the prophet of Naschval and the wise counsellor to the Naschval king, read the sign from his tower, and with a face as white as paper, he rushed to Tomor the King with the news that doom was upon them. The prophecy read:

Tostqu was a huntsman who lived in the remotest part of Naschval. He was away on a month-long hunting trip in the Deep Realm Forest when King Tomor's decree was passed, and returned to find his pregnant wife and children mercilessly slain. Consumed with grief and rage, Tostqu vowed to take revenge upon King Tomor and his kins, and with his suffering villagers he planned to assassinate the king. With this event also began the Age of Reckoning.

The Mylvyjllen Clan

Following the Night of the White Tiger, conflicts started to brew across Great Algador as kings were haunted with suspicion and fear. Small wars broke out every now and then between neighbouring kingdoms, yet all this upheaval passed almost unheeded by the Mylvyjllen. They for one were a strange people. Together they were small, with no more than 3,000 heads that formed a clan that resided on a secluded island called Gil surrounded by the Tjanneren River (meaning the Fallen Star) and facing the North Ocean. Though small in number, the Mylvyjllen possessed a rare power that was both admired and envied by other races: they were protected by Nature and could bend Her to their will, as true as could be to their name*. Since the Beginning of Time the Mylvyjllen had aided other races in cultivation and life building, and the Great land of Algador had therefore prospered. Yet with the blessing came the curse. For generations warnings had been passed among the Mylvyjllen to use their power wisely, or they might risk losing their gift and being wiped out completely if they betrayed their dealings with Nature. Unfortunately, the warnings had dated back for so many long years no one in the clan now understood fully what would constitute a betrayal. As a matter of precautions, the Mylvyjllen gradually restricted interactions to among themselves, and never married anyone outside of their clan, and thus had been living in safety and comfort for thousands of years.

Nanielle was born the second child to the head of the Mylvyjllen clan, and was renowned for both her beauty and power. She had dark brown hair long as a flowing river, and twinkles in her deep green eyes. Despite her delicate appearance and her name (Nanielle meant ‘the soothing touch of the velvety petals’), Nanielle was strong-willed and stern. 30 years after her birth, her father passed away and entrusted the clan to her brother's lead. Nanielle became his right arm, but her skills were second to none in Mylvyjllen. Words spread across the island that formless elements like air and water bent to Nanielle like grass to the wind. One year after she had come of age**, Nanielle had already succeeded in carving a gateway, using wind and sea currents, out of a rocky cliff blocking the main waterway connecting the Island of Gil and other neighbouring nations northeast of Algador. No one could have achieved such a feat alone, not even in over span of 5 years.

Yet the peace and secluded life of the Mylvyjllen was forever changed with the coming of the Age of Reckoning. One fine day in the Spring of Reckoning Fifty-Seven, a group of travellers crossed the Tjanneren River to the Island of Gil, seeking out the help of Mylvyjllen in overthrowing Uddil who was waging war across wider Aldagor at that time.

(*) Mylvyjllen meant 'the leaf winding its way through turbulent air'.
(**) Life expectancy of Algador people was usually long, of about 200 years on average. An adult came of age at 30, and their youth lasted for another 100 years before descending into old age. For Mylvyjllen people, life often ended at the age of 250, unless they suffered from wounds or grief.

The Companions

Fifty years after the death of his wife and children, Tostqu had risen to great power and continued to seek revenge on King Tomor. When he finally raided the castle, King Tomor had already fled through a secret passage and later sought shelter in a neighbouring kingdom. Tostqu took the throne and announced himself Lord Uddil (meaning The Doombringer), renaming Naschval to the Kingdom of Udd (meaning Doom). Furious at letting Tomor slip through his grasp, Uddil vowed to wipe out any nation that would aid Tomor in his flight. High on Tomor’s heels, Uddil took the borders of the two adjoining kingdoms to Umbar where Tomor sought refuge, and before Tomor could react, he succeeded in conquering Umbar’s capital city. The King of Umbar was driven to jump off a cliff in his defeat while Tomor once again escaped death and fled to the East of Algador by sea, to Uddil’s dismay. Uddil vowed to leave no stone in Great Algador unturned until he found Tomor, even if he had to go against every nation in this great land.

Realising their risk of going to war with Uddil, the kingdoms in middle Algador sent their wisest ambassadors to Mylvyjllen to seek their aid in weakening Uddil's army. The companion managed to persuade Nanielle to join them. Leaving her brother, Nanielle brought with her the most capable of her folks, and headed to Arc ur Rhion where the planning for the Great Battle took place.

The following people apart from Nanielle constituted the Companions:

Hurés son of Húron, a man of few words but otherwise an excellent strategist in war. In the ensuing chaos in Great Algador after the Night of the White Tiger he had aided his father in battles, and had proved himself a worthy man. Hurés was less skilled in direct combat than his comrades, but was the brain behind the sword. Well-versed in astronomy, geography and meteorology, Hurés knew how to ulitise his knowledge to his advantage. In the Third Battle, however, he met his match in Uddil and his strategist, which led to his failure and the breaking of the Companion. Hurés also nurtured an unrequited love toward Nanielle, but backed off when he knew her heart had belonged to someone else.

Lorthan Prince of Arc ur Rhion (Kingdom of Arc), the youngest member and the most skilled swordsman of the Companions. At 35, he had barely come of age when his father entrusted him with the task of standing up against Uddil. His name meaning ‘the roaring river’, Lorthan was a carefree spirit, with a bit of arrogance which was said to be ‘just enough to make the other person enchanted without growing sick of him.’ Lorthan was at the prime of his youth and was starkly handsome with long, flowing blond hair and eye colour of warm, burning fire. He and Nanielle fell in love after a challenge in which she won against him, and the two planned for marriage after the war ended. Lorthan however died in the Third Battle in a face-off against Uddil.

Deya was a mysterious young maiden who asked to join Hurés’s travelling company to the Island of Gil. Deya was an orphanage and homeless, and no one knew about her true identity, not even herself. Though first accepted to the party because of Hurés’s pity on her and intention to find her a home once they went back to Arc ur Rhion, Deya later learned to wield the sword and became a prominent figure in the war against Uddil and Tomor after the Third Battle.

The Last Battles

There were five battles between the Companions and Uddil’s armies. The Companions won the first two battles, claiming back two small nations in middle Algador they had lost earlier to Uddil and his men. In the Third Battle, Uddil retreated to his strongholds within the Gulf of Byr, and with mountains and deep woods blocking land access to his fortress, which would take even Nanielle and her people months to open a path, the Companions had to resort to a battle at sea. Unfamiliar with the treacherous terrain of the gulf and the violent waters of Byr, the Companions was no match for their enemies and suffered great calamity. In an attempt to buy time for his comrades to escape, Lorthan engaged Uddil in a sword fight. He was on the verge of losing, and in her desperation to rescue him, Nanielle used all of her remaining energy to summon a wall of seawater to drown Uddil, but due to her waning strength the wave only disturbed the ship, causing Lorthan to lose his footing. Uddil delivered the final blow, sending Lorthan to his death.

After the Third Battle Nanielle was the only survivor among the Mylvyjllen people who went to war. Stricken with grief for the loss of her love and her people, Nanielle lost her will and went back to the Island of Gil, where she remained with her brother and the rest of her clan for the next 21 years. Then in winter of the Age of Reckoning Ninety, Deya sought Nanielle in her homeland, persuading her to aid the people of Algador again in war. Nanielle’s brother agreed, seeing sooner or later Uddil would come knocking at their door if Tomor had not been found alive or dead. Nanielle at first refused to, but later accepted after Deya asked Nanielle to ‘bring Lorthan back to his forever resting home.’

The Fourth Battle went on for two years and was a tie, but Uddil’s army was weakened considerably because Tomor had bided his time and decided to strike when Uddil was having his hands full with the Companions. The Companions had to deal also with Tomor, who started to send scouts and ambushers to weaken the Companions’s army, for fear they would turn against him once Uddil was taken down. In the year of Reckoning Ninety-Nine when the Fifth (also the Last) Battle took place, Uddil once again retreated to his strongholds deep in the Gulf of Byr, forcing the Companions to consider another sea battle, as the strongholds were inaccessible from the cliffs above, despite a path was open over the years through the Spines* and the Deep Realm Forest.

Numerous attacks took place during the four years of the Fifth Battle, but none was successful. Due to the formation of the Byr, it was impossible to approach the strongholds by ships or boats. Nanielle decided that they had to destroy the two walls of solid rock cliff that formed a sort of gateway, barring access to Uddil’s strongholds located in the inner gulf. The most discreet and quickest way to achieve this was for Nanielle and her people to wear away the rock at close range. For six months Nanielle and nine other of her folks dived into the violent waters of Byr, silently worked two gaping mouths in the rock with the guard towers of Uddil directly above their head, at the top of the two rock cliffs.

On the final day of the Last Battle nature was unexpectedly violent, as if She meant to aid Uddil in his defence. Although the Companion won the battle, the Mylvyjllen suffered the most and many perished in the waters of the Gulf of Byr due to their delicate nature and the inability to withstand long exhausting fights. Nanielle herself was rescued by Deya and Hurés when her strength was spent, and lapsed into unconsciousness before the fleet of the Companions entered the gaping gulf of Byr following the explosion that brought the two walls of rock down into the depth of the sea.

(*) The Spines was the name of the longest mountain range running through Mid-Algador, forming the border between the easten and western nations.

The Fall of Nanielle

Nanielle woke up in Arc ur Rhion to the news of victory, but was devastated to learn that her brother had died and almost all of her people slain or missing. Completely heart-broken, Nanielle left Arc ur Rhion at nightfall without telling anyone, and walked the long miles back to her Island of Gil. On the way back, Nanielle had a conversation with Nature by listening to the whisper of the wind, and finally learned of what activated the curse upon the people of Mylvyjllen. What she heard from Nature was that the Mylvyjllen was not allowed to use the hand of Nature in killing – that alone must be done by Nature’s own will. Even though she and her people served what most people in Great Algador deemed the Cause, they had inadvertently broken the deal with Nature by using Her power for destruction and the taking of human lives. Nanielle and her people did not lose their special ability, but the Mylvyjllen clan had almost been wiped off the face of Algador for the betrayal of their pledge with Nature.

On the forty-third day of her journey, Nanielle arrived at a waterfall by the edge of the Deep Realm Wood. With her heart filled with guilt and devastation, Nanielle made for herself a wreath of white flowers and a bunch of elven-hair grass. The former was a sign of her mourning for the loss of her people, the latter was to follow the Mylvyjllen marriage traditions, as a promise she had made to Lorthan that they would belong together after the Great War ended. With that, Nanielle sang a song of farewell and threw herself down the waterfall where she had stood.

After the death of Nanielle, the very few surviving Mylvyjllen did not return to their island but mingled with other races of Great Algador. They must have known about Nanielle’s demise, probably from Nature herself on the wind, because the waterfall at Deep Realm Forest was afterwards called the Fall of Nanielle. There were also rumours that Nanielle turned into an antelope in her afterlife. Many huntsmen and travellers claimed to have seen this ethereal creature as it roamed along the Tjanneren River. Some said it was Nanielle looking for the last survivors of her race in case they would cross the Tjanneren to their home on the Island of Gil; while some insisted that she could not bear to leave the river because it forever reminded her of Lorthan*.

(*) Lorthan meant 'the roaring river.'

Maskros

Unda-Nanielle ip lor-iduien

Nanielle in battle

The Mylvyjllen race were more constructors than warriors. Though possessing great power, Nanielle like any other Mylvyjllen was accustomed to wielding it in short bursts, taking rests in between to regenerate her energy. Long, exhausting fights therefore would wear her down quickly and weaken her attacks significantly.

The Great Wars against Uddil

A brief account of Nanielle's roles and strategies in the Five Battles against Uddil.
***

The First Battle

Elements : Air
Strategy : Offensive
Using strong winds and periodical thinning of air around enemies to slow down their approach and reduce their physical strength

The Second Battle

Elements : Air, Earth and Nature
Strategy : Offensive
Using strong winds, falling trees, vines and sheets of dust to reduce the accuracy of enemies' attacks and wear them down physically

The Third Battle

Elements : Water
Strategy : Defensive
Creating still waters enveloping the Companions' fleet. Summoning walls of seawater to soften projectiles from Uddil's strongholds.

The Fourth Battle

Elements : Water and Earth
Strategy : Defensive
Wearing down sharp rocks at the bed of the gulf, opening gapes for placement of gunpowder at the feet of the rock cliffs, creating cracks in the cliffs over the course of months so as not to alarm Uddil's guards.

The Final Battle

Elements : Water and Earth
Strategy : Offensive and Defensive
Augmenting damage from the explosion by widening the cracks on the rock cliffs, shattering them completely; smoothing out sea paths for the Companions' fleet; paralysing Uddil's cannons with ice blocks made from bolts of seawater.

Other Epic Battles

No records

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