A long time ago, before the world changed so much, all races lived on their own, far away from each other. We were spread across the lands and had little contact, except for very occasional trades. For why should we? We all had what we needed to survive, and the distrust towards the other races was too big to overcome easily. We missed out on each other’s culture, never heard the wonderful Elithren ballads or learnt some of the impressive Sirrush fighting techniques. But, of course, we weren’t aware of that. We were happy enough.
But the world changed slowly. The land outside our precious homes seemed to become more dangerous – or maybe we only perceived it as that, for we became lazy and did not look after anything but our own selves anymore. We started to fear the monsters outside, and with our fear our distrust of other races grew. Both the other races and the masses of monsters seemed equally dangerous to us, even though – as the future would show – only the monsters were a real danger. For they were not just dumb creatures that we could hunt and kill easily, and make simple traps for. Some of them were more intelligent, cunning and sly. We did not expect them to be more clever at hunting us than we were at hunting them.

The strongest and wisest among us saw this change in the world and in our attitudes, and they realized that it destroyed us. So they met up and searched for a solution for the problem, and they got together with ambassadors of other races, who had reached similar conclusions. An idea started to grow in their minds, and eventually they happily agreed on it. We would form a council whose members were the wisest man or woman of every race. This council would help the races take decisions, and they would stand stronger against the enemies and create a powerful bond between the races, to allow for more trust and to help each other better.

For a very long time this worked well. The council did good work. Trade between the cities and between the races blossomed, and at the same time the danger that the monsters constituted diminished. The lands went through a glorious period and we lived in peace.

But this peace did not last forever. It lasted long, for centuries, but eventually we listened less and less to the council members. Centuries of good fortune had made us careless again. The council had to admit that their influence was slipping away, and that they could no longer serve their original purpose very well. Additionally, the enemies – the cunning monsters that we were only partly aware of - had formed their own council as a counter action, to lessen the power of the original council. But none of us looked beyond the borders of what we considered the civilised world. In our arrogance and feeling of superiority nobody kept track of what the monsters were doing.

Most of us were not aware of how bad the situation was. We did not pay much attention to the council and did not really care about the future as everything looked so good to us. So when the war came, we were caught by surprise.
The council discussed the loss of their influence and decided they had to act against it – for the good of the lands. The council had to act quickly, and with only the most necessary research they created a strong artefact: The Arindal. With the Arindal, the council wanted to clean the world from evil, and make their position clear to all races. It was a good plan. We did not want to live with monsters surrounding us, so we welcomed the Arindal. And it would have worked well, if the council of the enemies had not created a powerful artefact of their own, to work against the powers of the Arindal.
So, eventually, a war broke out. It was a terrible war, in which the powers of the artefacts was used to their utmost capability. We, the mere people, could not do much. We merely stood and watched, hoping that the worst effects of the war would pass over the regions where we lived, and not affect us too much.

We hoped in vain.

None of us really knows what happened. We saw some of the effects of the war, mighty and horrible powers that destroyed parts of the lands around us. However, when the most horrible disaster occurred, it was worse than any of us could have imagined. Something must have gone wrong, for nobody could have wanted what eventually was done to the world. Probably only the councils themselves know what went wrong – or if everything went as planned, which would be worse.
The war changed everything – our world changed completely. In the middle of the war, this catastrophe made the earth react to the powers of the Arindal and the other artefact. The result were earthquakes, huge floods and eruptions. Our cities were destroyed, whole civilisations extinct. In a last struggle the council moved the Arindal, and they used all their energy to transfer the Arindal into a safe cave and to change its power. From then on, the artefact that was intended to destroy evil was an artefact that preserved life.

I doubt that any of the big cities survived this disaster. Maybe even all of the small villages were destroyed too. Only slowly Wanderers started to find together again, and sometimes they began to build new towns. The world has become hostile again, and we cannot afford to mistrust each other only because we have different roots. We need to work together just to survive. Even to this day, nobody has found out whether we won or lost, what happened to both councils, or to the other artefact.

No bards have sung songs about this. What happened is just too horrible, and really, we don’t want to remember it, all the mistakes we did.