Elfborn: The Quest

Chapter 6: New Stations and Situations

Things progressed quickly after Garrett took his oaths as a warrior of the Shae. Food was followed by pouring over several maps, books and scrolls that spoke not only about Arafel and the Holy Land, but also northern Evindel and the unexplored reaches beyond Human civilization. Feeling much more his old self with a bellyful of food and a tankard of ale in his hand, Garrett sat back in his chair beside Lash's desk somewhere south of midnight, thumbing through a book by lamplight. It was written by one of the early Evindelian explorers, Geof the Black of Calin, the first true kingdom in Evindel following the fall of the Romis Empire.

In that book Geof the Black spoke of maps made by the Romis legions as they warred in both Evindel and Arafel, the early empire struggling with the city-state of Karthos for dominance in the Meridian. They also extended to the east, stretching their armies through the Caucus towards Cathay.

Such maps would've been invaluable in what they would show of the world. Which was precisely the reason the inheritors of the empire, the Ristusian Church clung to those documents as if they were made of pure gold. And any maps made by nations that existed before the Empire had been destroyed by the conquerors as they swept through, crushing any resistance in their drive to unify the continent.

'Perhaps Lash was right,' Garrett thought as he paused at what looked to be an illustration of ancient city of Romis, nearly a full millennia ago. It was a well ordered place, laid out by the ancient world's most advanced engineers and scientists. Perhaps they would find what they were looking for amongst the nations of Arafel, where the Romis Empire did not tread and the fanaticism of the Ristusians did not burn, making their Quest a significantly different one than that of Frederik and his armies.

From what he had heard, mostly from merchants passing through Ekoss from the northern port of Thabinborough, on the Straits, the Manadim respected the nations and peoples that went before. They were generally well-educated, with great libraries and places of learning called universities. The Manadim embraced history, seeking to learn from it, and it was said that their libraries held works by many of the ancient masters the Ristusians had already dismissed as trivial.

And what was trivial to the Church was trivial to the Forerunners, those Jebusin missionaries that comprised the first wave of Ristusia across Evindel. And what was trivial to the Forerunners, and those Jebusin that came after, was often burned and destroyed. And so the ancient works of Hellas, Minos and the nations in the legendary birthplace of Humanity, the fertile valley between the mighty Phratis and Tigron Rivers of Kush known as Mesotomia were systematically burned and no longer existed anywhere in Evindelian Ristusia.

Considering Hybernia, for the most part in the epoch following the fall of the Romis Empire, existed outside of Ristusian influence, the legends of the old nations and ancient peoples of Kush, Hellas, Minos, Avria and others still were told. Although to lesser and lesser degrees as the Jebusin increased their span of influence on the island continent. Soon such tales as Niimar's Hunt of the Golden Lion would join other stories and legends lost in the ignorance of religious fervor.

It, like the story of the race between the Hellesian youth Arkon and the fleet-footed goddess Dafne, didn't have a place in Ristusian culture. The story told of how Dafne desired the handsome young man as her husband, pursuing him in a race that formed the broad and stony mountains of northern Hellas. It, like the tale of the Ghost Army of Presusia, the first empire built with magic in the lands between the Phratis and the Tigron, which was never defeated until Presusia fell to an unlikely Makedon hero by the name of Xander, would be carefully erased from the minds of the people. And so it would disappear, eternally gone for the sake of so-called 'enlightenment'.

Garrett almost snorted at that. 'Enlightenment!' he silently mocked. 'I don't think I've met a priest yet that knew of anything outside the strict tenants of his order and the Book of Hristus! It was as if nothing existed before Hristus; no Romis, no Ebrahin, no Evindel ... nothing. And now they want to charge into Arafel and Ebrahin to destroy any learning the Manadim may have accumulated in their absence. Fools! No, they are worse than fools. They're Ristusians.'