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The Fall of the Ilythiiri
as told by Mourniss Arabett
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This document can be found in the archives of Arach-Tinilith. Another copy lies somewhere in Ultrinnan library, probably buried beneath more recent leaflets, speeches and propaganda authored by later power figures of the city. On the margin, there is a note that this lecture was held in the Academy; the date reveals it to be decades old.


This story tells you about the greatest danger our people are facing. It is not about the creatures of the underdark threatening our glorious city. The greedy Druegar that wait behind our borders to invade our territory. Wicked and tough as stone. They are nothing compared to the danger you read about here. It must never be forgotten. Then, there are the beholders with their cursed eyes. They can turn you into stone so that you remain as a memorial of your own defeat. Still this is not the danger that threatens us most. You might face the haszak. The Illithid or Mindflayers. These creatures can not only enslave your body but your very mind. The torture of your soul in their hands can last till eternity. But this is not the evil I want to write about. As there is a story of a more dreadful danger to be told.

The danger of which I desire to write is as old as our race. Its root span over the centuries and still its shadow lies over us. It takes us back to when the land was young. That time, we the Drow, were known as the Ilythiiri. We danced under the trees and the inferno of the surface could not harm us. It was the time when our race still had its rightfull place. It were the elfs that ruled over all other races. Mighty empires and glorious cities stood incincible to any foe. Now they are long forgotten. That century when the elven nations looked for leadership we, the Ilythiiri, claimed the throne to rule all the elven nations in unity as we are the wisest and strongest of all elfs. It were the days when our dark mother, the mistress of the demonweb pits, began to show us the real power of our people. We came to see the strength of the spider queen. With her help we rose to power. That time when the world was what it was supposed to be, all races ruled by the elfs and the elfs ruled by us, the Ilythiiri.

But there were other elven gods, which feared the strength of our goddess. These gods plotted against us. They laid the shadow of mistrust and envy in the hearts of our elven cousins. Their shadow wove its insidious tendrils about them and whispered lies in their ears. That time should become the darkest of all. Khaless nau uss mzild taga dosstan. ((Trust no one more than yourself.)) We learned that lesson then. Our perfidious cousins knew that they could not match us in strength. Secretly they conducted rituals to built up a horrid magical storm with cloying mists and bloody rain, which is known as the dark disaster in the legends of the past. It was unleashed without warning on the unprepared homes of our ancestors and allies. By lies and wrong accusations they united all elven nations against us. They marched to war on our weakened lands.

Never again their were seen as migthy battles as in these days. Powerfull armies of Ilythiiri met our invading traitor cousins on ancient battlefields. The rivers turned red from the blood of the slain. Against their united strength we were driven off the surface into the darkness of the underground. With the help of their false gods our cousins cursed the light itself so that it now hurts our eyes and burns our skin. At that time we became the Drow. They believed that the cruel life in the underdark would destroy us. But the spider queen embraced us and gave us the strength to survive. We remained to remind our cousins of their betrayal. And the price they paid was indeed high. They not only betrayed us, their cousins and leaders, but also destroyed the mighty elven nations. It was the end of the rule of the elfs. Now when you go to the surface, you see that these traitors hide in deep forests and lonely cities. The strength of the elfs has vanished on the surface. It is here in the underdark that the strength of the elven nations is not forgotten. And the day will come when we claim back what should have been ours from the beginning of time. The day when we take back the surface and once again rule all of the races.

The greatest danger does not lie in the dark tunnels of the underdark but in the world above us. Our cousins and know of their own weakness and our strength. Therefore, they turn to there old tactics and try once again to destroy us. They convince our own blood to ally with them and betray their people and the spider queen. Lure us with false promises, so you become a puppet of those that forced us into darkness. Those heretics turn against us. They even ally with our eternal foes, those which have betrayed us centuries ago. They have forgotten the crimes that were comitted against their own race. But we remember the betrayal of our cousins on the surface. We are aware of those traitors and their lies. We shall never betray the spider queen, who saved our people from the merciless slaugther of our traitor cousins.

Lloth tlu malla. Jal ultrinnan zhah xundus!

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