Difference between revisions of "Tretallë"

Revision as of 22:52, 12 December 2016

Dominion Era Tretallë
Bone Elves
Istfet, The Strangers, Invaders, Deathriders
Imperial Standard of the Tretalleri Dominion
Land of Origin
Continent of Origin	Termalttë
Homeland	Teýrivellë
Capital	Ifatallë Cselvë
Racial Lore
Language	Tretalleri
Characteristics	Tretallë (Characteristics)
Culture	Tretallë (Culture)
History	Dominion Era
Government	Tretallë (Government)
Military	Tretallë (Military)
Stats	Tretallë (Stats)
Racial Relations
Allies	None
Enemies	Elledynnë
Neutrals	None

They are the architects, engineers, builders, and heirs to the greatest and most successful empire that the history of the world of Sekhar remembers. They are known by many names to many people all throughout the years of the long and storied histories of the world of Sekhar. To some, they are jailers, to others liberators, and to many more, their arrival is believed to herald a wave of death and destruction that washes over the land, leaving nothing but those who capitulate in its wake. What hasn't changed over the years is how they view themselves—as the protectors of the world from the corrupt ways of their wayward sister-race the Elledynnë.

Although history remembers them as consummate warmongers, the Tretâllë are anything but. Modern scholarship has come to the conclusion that as accurate as the Tretalleri histories might be, they tend to gloss over the empire's more peaceful conquests which far outnumber their military ones. In truth, for the most part, the Imperators and the Twin Courts avoid war as much as possible as the instability that they cause make integration all the more difficult.

The Tretâllë are also known for their martial lifestyle, their acceptance of individual choice and liberty, but perhaps, most of all, their impeccable ability to control their emotions. The former two are certainly pillars of Tretalleri culture and society, but the latter is entirely the result of a misapprehension of the extreme care with which Tretâllë treat their interactions with individuals of other races. The government's tacit approval of the stereotype certainly did not help the matter.

Names

Because of the widespread influence of the Dominion, many names came to be associated with the Tretâllë. A number of them are considered quite offensive these days but were, generally speaking, descriptive to the people that gave them those names.

One of the names that entered popular usage, particularly because of the huge population that accompanied the integration of this particular culture, is the name IstFet from the IktOrryk of the Races of Man. The name comes from the word fetir, which means death. Originally, the Tretâllë were known as the IstAyna, from aynara, which meant stranger.

Shortly after the massacre at IldCarr, however, the tone of popular perception of the Tretallë began to shift. Among the kingdoms that had already capitulated or enthusiastically entered the Dominion, the effect was less pronounced as the people were enjoying the stability that Dominion rule brought. Among those that were still in the process of joining, however, bitterness was rampant. The bloodshed at IldCarr served as a reminder that the otherwise-benevolent visitors would not hesitate to resort to violence if they were repelled. By giving the Tretâllë the name IstFet, the Races of Man were not simply calling them the bringers of death, but rather they were calling the Tretâllë a people of death.

Half the world away in the Pāll-tanír, the Tretâllë were met with a very different tone. To the A'Drekh, they became considered the liberators because they freed those among the A'Drekh that had been enslaved. Furthermore, their coming had also put an end to the wars that were constantly waged between the A'Drekh and the Arventiri over the Font of Life. For this reason, the A'Drekh Ascendants called the Tretâllë Kumārë.

On the other side of that conflict, however, the Arventiri were less than pleased by the Tretalleri occupation of the Pāll-tanír. Not only had the Tretâllë banned warfare and forced them to cooperate with the A'Drekh, they had deprived the Arventiri of their believed gods-given right to take, enslave, and use for their own means the other creatures that lived in the Pāll-tanír. To them, the Tretâllë became Q'ulvyari, the bringers of chains. The oppressors.

To the Sylvari, who, prior to the arrival of the Dominion had only just begun building their civilization, the Tretâllë were a godssend. The Sylvari are nearly as long-lived as the Tretâllë and had had a lot of trouble figuring out how to best set up their lives and communities with that in mind. The arrival of the Tretâllë, who had dealt with this matter already, was hailed as a message from the gods. To the Sylvari, then, the Tretâllë became Gamora and Ganrak, "Namegiver" and "Lawgiver", respectively.

Self-naming

The earliest known name for the Tretâllë is Syd'Taedë Aedyla, one given them by the Prophetess Llyrileýwa in the ancient tongue of Aen_evelyndë. The phrase is believed to mean 'The Pale Ones,' although knowledge of Aen_evelyndë was at best fragmentary, even when the Dominion first started keeping meticulous historical records.

Although the name was passed down through oral tradition, the first known genuine written record of the name comes from a clay tablet discovered at an archeological dig by the Rodë Reýlinë, some hundred miles east of Di'Ifatallë Cselvë. It is believed to be a memorial marking for those that passed during the war for the liberation of the ancestors of the Tretâllë, as it recounts the story of the days of the Pale Ones' slavery under the Aen_evë.

This finding was corroborated by Elloreni Qor'Zavë, Elloreni the Elder, who was the last of the immortal elves to live among the mortals. Initially he confirmed the findings in a missive to the Grand Rookery, but later on, he expanded upon the lore of the name in his seminal work Di'Bremiernë, which was published a few short decades before he eventually succumbed to Di'Wirenë. It is from this that we know that the name was bequeathed to the ancestors of the Tretâllë by the Prophetess.

Another name that saw widespread use among the early Tretâllë was Di'Terredŷnë. It was believed to have been adopted in opposition to the use of the remnants of the Aen_everi empire's use of Di'Elledŷnnë. The earliest known work to have used the term is a short essay written on a badly-preserved scroll found soon after the founding of the Dominion. The work was entitled "Against the Deceivers," and contained the phrase, translated into modern Tretalleri, Sendë qrivë têýna De'nakhë Elledŷnnë te têýna`na Ganë vîttë qrivë îdë De'nakhë Terredynë kirannë vittë enkonë îdë nara s'khatha têýna, which means "If they give the name of Children of the Stars to themselves, then we will give ourselves the name of Children of the Earth so that we will learn that they are enemies."

The name Tretâllë did not come about until much later in the history of the Tretalleri people. It at first referred to the group of people who were able to learn how to use the indigenous population of horses for advantage in armed conflict. It is widely believed now, from recent archaeological findings, that the name Tretâllë was originally borne by a group of notorious bandits who wore the bones of their dead on their bodies so that their arrival would always be heard and feared.

The early history of the name is rather unclear. What evidence survives to the modern age comes not from historians themselves, but from the accounts of men and women who had been alive during the Consolidation. However, what is readily apparent is that the Kingship of the Bone Trees, D'Lanakhë Di'Lignetallë in seeking to bolster its military might, offered pardons and gold to the Bone Riders in exchange for their services, making them, for a short time, the largest mercenary group on the continent.

No one knows how or why the transition happened, but soon after being hired, the Bone Riders officially became part of the Kingship of the Bone Trees' military, and a significant one at that. As time went on, the name became associated with the Kingship of the Bone Trees, and when the first Imperator, Cilritanë a'Detvida established the Dominion, he allowed the name to remain and adopted it officially as the name of his people, thinking it an honour to the Bone Riders who had won for him a great many battles and without whom his dreams of a unified empire for the Tretâllë would have never come to pass.

Historical Background

Early Populations

The myths of the early Tretalleri peoples were largely passed down through oral tradition and only properly codified a few decades after the formation of the Dominion. The stories hold that the early Tretalleri population was simply a sub-group of a larger population, an advanced civilization known only as the Aen_evë, or the Great Elves of the East, as they have become known in modern scholarship.

The stories suggest that during a period of political upheaval, over the gradual waning of immortality in the Aen_evë, in the Aen_everi empire, the ancestors of the Tretallë were singled out for their different appearance and used as a scapegoat for the troubles of contemporary society. Although initially this meant segregation, civil unrest, the introduction of a new religion, and a series of extremist leaders in government saw this original discrimination turn into full-blown slavery.

After gaining their freedom in an unprecedented slave-revolt thanks to the work of the Prophetess Llyrileýwa, the ancestral Tretâllë took a moment to recover and then waged war against the Aen_everi and shattered the empire. The grisly deed done, the ancestral Tretâllë broke off into different groups to avoid infighting and to pursue their own goals—but not without swearing an oath that should the Aen_everi ever rise again, that they would unite against the enemy to strike them down once more.

Allegedly, the early Tretalleri clans were born from these different groups of people, and in fact, the few records that remain from tribal oral traditions indicate that the early Tretalleri clans very meticulously kept records of descent and traced their lineages back to the Tretâllë that participated in the war that broke the empire of the Aen_evë