LGP Intro
Long Gone Past: Introduction
by Crimishia/Star
This one has most certainly been a difficult life to get through. And enjoyable at times, as well. And most definitely odd. But we are still young as reckoned here, and might well go on living for another hundred years. Yes we are that young. Twenty-three this body's age is. It is a human body. It has its share of pain in our life, but it does not seem to match the emotional struggle of this lifetime. There are too many of us, too screwed up by our individual pasts for this to be very easy.
Where I am from, and how I got to be here, is of importance right now. This is my own story, as well as the history of some of those who share this body with me. Later will be time enough for the whole group of us to account for the experiences we have had on this planet called Earth since the birthing of this body, in 1969.
The world I am from is a world of sand and arid mountains. Although the rocks were fresh with fungus, and the deserts hosted some plants in my day, it is a plane of few lifeforms, none of which are native to it. The planet had never seen a forest, nor a large body of water. I guess it never will. It never concerned us, the planet provided the haven my ancestors had sought, and it had lasted for many generations up to my birthing, and showed no signs of quitting. My people had adapted to desert life before coming to Acres Farendis, even though the strange planet had stolen fertility from my people. And since that did not make us extinct as it may have, we were doing very well there.
My people are the Elves, and twice exiled, first from our first planet where our abuse of magic depleted our planet's resources and brought us to the brink of global war which would probably have led to annihilation of all our people. We went to Eldamore, the planet where the Elders came from, but then were exiled again, and found Acres Farendis. The first exile was very many generations before I was born, well over 2000 generations, and in my time, this is not common knowledge. Warren was able to tell me about this.
There had been no native life to the Acres when my people came there, or at least none that had ever dared surface under the face of the hot sun or the light of the stars. There were apt mountains for shelter and building materials. The first structure built on the planet was built out of the sands by the Elders. The Elders are very powerful beings, strong in magic and energy manipulation.
Three Elders survived to come to Acres Farendis with us, and they became our Lords, having the power and wisdom as well as exceptionally long lives, necessary to rule over us.
The three Elders each have a Temple from which they rule over their Elvish vassals. The first, Temple White, is among the dunes, marking the place where Elves and Elders came into this world from Eldamore. There are no towers, no courtyards, no windows. The battlements are old, unused, for no one would go into the heat of the day or the chill of the night. There is a large dome of blue rising from the center, over the great chapel, where the inhabitants gathered for major feasts, and the Lord and the BondElves gathered to hold councils and prayers. The roofing of the battlements is black. There was no red to be found in the temple, except in one lonely room under the temple, a crypt, the trappings of the room being the color of the person buried there in sadness. The red symbolized her death, and that of the thousands of Elves lost in that final war on Eldamore.
The second, Temple Black, was not too far off, but not too close either, and it was settled into the face of a mountain towards the direction of sunrise from Temple White. The base of the mountain was untouched, in my day, but in the beginning it was a large staircase, leading up to the great door of the Temple, now sealed. The Temple Black is tri-sectored, facing out of the rock towards the West, if that is the direction the sun falls in, with each section having a tower, windows allocated only to one of the sections. Stone-barred windows, but on the highest floors. This is certainly a defensible Temple, Lord Zorak being an untrusting man of his Kindreds not to eventually come in to attack. From the sand, I was told, the mountain is of black stone, with the relief of a castle carved into its face, such as one would see three towers protruding from the stone.
The bottom-most layer of Temple Black is left for laboratories, kitchens, mess halls. The second layer was allocated for training centers, libraries, recreation facilities. The third and fourth were living quarters, the first section was the Lord's private chambers, the second the BondElves' rooms, two to a room usually, thusly thirty or so rooms. The third section was the windowed section, for the Common Elves, which many more rooms and more space allocated to them, as one must always keep one's working classes happiest.
The people who dwelt within the temples were held into a rigid system of rank. The Commoners, the Bound, and the Lord, who was always of the Elder race. It was the duty of the Common Elves to keep the base functions of the Temples operative. They would venture into caverns and farm fungus, venture into the open to gather other plants. They relied on the sight of air, sky, and ground, so essential to all Elves, for their continued happiness. Bond Elves were the bodyguards of the Temple, the Medics, Teachers, Priests and the voice of the Common Elves if they wished to get a message to the Lord of the Temple. BondElves were also at times charged with the duty of venturing out to other planes, to keep an eye on happenings outside the Temples, to form alliances, to be spies on the enemies of the Lords. Temple Black, of all the Temples of Acres Farendis, had the greatest informational network.
For those who read and understood Warren's story, there should be no problem, but otherwise, a BondElf is a being of symbiosis, the symbiosis between Elf and Belek. Belekiv is the race of beings of energy to which Warren belongs. They are invisible and intangible except to beings which can read auras, such as Dreal, who is one of my people. Upon coming to Acres Farendis, the Belekiv began to die, perhaps due to the strange phenomena that caused the Elves to become sterile.
There were approximately 60 BondElves in each Temple at any given time, while the Common Elves were approximately double to triple that number, and kept closely monitored for their behavior. The behavior of the BondElves was exceptional, and rarely questioned or questionable.