Expulsion
From Zok
Approximately 500 years ago, before the nation of Pallon was formed, that land was ruled by just under a dozen powerful city-states. Plugen, Comtraya, Weldnig, Itarada, Eltrin, Saltur, Kashrak, Fured, Valtadre, and Lagat each ruled large areas of land, collecting tribute from surrounding towns in exchange for military protection. This military protection usually took the form of a police force and a court system, as well as access to the hospitals in the capital. Only rarely did the elves war with one another, but when they did they did so with honor and mercy, and noncombatants rarely needed military protection.
This all changed during the Expulsion. The single darkest moment in Elven history, and perhaps in the history of all the Westlands, the Expulsion simmered for a century before exploding over Pallon in a wave of fire and blood.
Prior to the Expulsion:
Roughly a thousand years ago, the elves of Kashrak first encountered the Cerneen in the mountains to the south of their territory. The elves marvelled at their primitive tribal culture, and took some of them home as entertainment. As it became obvious that these hairy creatures (more similar in form to the rock-apes of the mountains than to elves, really) were capable of rudimentary reasoning and could learn to speak, the elves strove to uplift them. They tried to show them art and architecture and lore and economics, with some success. The Cerneen showed an eagerness to learn and a great facility for understanding of tools and physical creations, but they simply didn't possess the lifespan necessary for true competence, much less mastery, of any craft as it was taught by the elves. Elven scholars concluded that the Cerneen were likely the result of frequent breeding between the faerie and the Kashrak rock-ape, similar to many other animals granted unusual cunning by the blood of Dream.
Still, the Cerneen were easily trainable and took well to construction and combat, and it was not long before the practice of keeping them as "pets" caught on among elven nobles. They were collected in large numbers from the "wild" and bred in captivity. Trained adolescents were sold by professional breeders, and the Cerneen rapidly became a slave-race, the primary source of labor for several massive construction projects that the souther city-states were initiating. The south exported the practice to the north over several Cerneen generations, and the Cerneen became somewhat used to elven society, and elven society to the Cerneen. Fast-breeding and sturdy workers that they were, the elves generally treated their slaves in roughly the same manner a master would treat prized pets; punishing them fairly and feeding them well. Many elves developed sentimental attachments, for their slaves were capable of speech and independent thought, and household slaves were often permitted great freedoms.
Many older elves claim that the innate elven generosity was the root of the disaster that followed. Others, especially in the south, claim that the Expulsion was punishment from Cernin for mistreating his chosen people, or a punishment from Anata for Kashrak's refusal to send aid to Losthi during the Dakzani Migration, or that the Expulsion was a result of the Cerneen tendency to fall in passionate love rapidly and without consideration due to their short lifespan. The truth is that newer generations of elves, especially in the south, were birthed by elven midwives with Cerneen attendants. They were raised (especially in noble houses) by Cerneen nannies, and many learned to fight by battling groups of Cernin slaves. Many noble elven children spent more time with "humans," as they learned the Cerneen called themselves in their own language, than they did with older elves. Many of them came quickly to view their servants as people, with hopes and emotions and legitimate rights, rather than as well-trained animals. And as they reached puberty, they saw the Cerneen as legitimate romantic partners. And the Cerneen, who had been raised for generations now to obey the elves, to see them as eternal fonts of beauty, wisdom, and power, were certainly not going to refuse them sexual favors. In fact, many a Cerneen man or woman fell deeply in love with their elven master, who in turn felt deep regret when their secret lovers died of old age after only forty or fifty years.
In much, much less than fifty years, however, the first Bantlings were born.
