Tales of Long Lost Times

01 | The Tale of the First King

Excerpt from A History of Kings of Old, by Anlesth Maht of the City Karash:

There was once upon time-long ago-in the early ages when the continent gained its name; Gesktókar-a king, the First King. A king whose name is long forgotten-even to the oldest of elves-he who first united the tribes and towns of a land so split and torn.

He was born to the Chief and Chiefess of a parcel of land in the Iastrian province of Baach u'Wih. Born from a long line of elves claiming descent from the Fallen Ones, he was as highborn as one could truly be in that time.

He began gathering warriors from his own and differing tribes in his third or fourth century-he was soon amassing great areas of land-uniting a few of the areas that was soon to be known as the Iastrian provinces. And before long-the whole of Iastri was under his rule, but for a few parcels of land bordering to the sea. The tribes inhabiting the sea more than the land would govern themselves for long to come, still. His quest for power and control brought him eastwards and westwards, and eventually to the southern edge of Gesktókar. He lived for many a century to come after uniting the endlessly vast lands of Gesktókar.

The First King had met his Queen-the one to stand beside him through his reign while tracking through the Red Forests with his warriors. She had been the daughter of the revered Grand Priestess in charge of the Temple of Læchnä, the largest temple in the Forests at the time-or so it's said to be. She-daughter of priestesses-knew the ancient language believed to have been spoken by the Fallen Ones and elves at that long ago time they mingled. A language passed down through the Grand Priestesses for ages and ages.

She bore him a daughter before the battle of Rithath, years and years into the fight to unite the continent. They would have six elflings in their millennia together, the continent would eventually be split between five of them at the death of their father. The sixth child died at her father's hand, accident it might have been, yet he was cursed by his Queen-his wife-in a fit of anger and desperate grief.

She could not live without him-his soulbound-and so she chose to stop the curse from spreading in her last act of life. And so, with that-the first true monarch of Iastri and his Queen Consort exited a world changed beyond measure from the one they came into a birth.