The scrolls herein contain not only the history of Elanthia as passed down through the ages, but the place the great House of the Rising Phoenix has held throughout that history.

It is said that the Vaalor treated humans as waste during the Second Age, even more so than all other Elves. During the rule of one Vaalor Patriarch by name Korthyr IV, it came to pass that a human resistance group appeared, one to outmatch all its predecessors. It is said that the leader of this group was a human by the name of Aramur Forean. It is also said that he was assisted by a human by the name of Fenog.

The resistance named themselves the Black Wolves, and archeological excursions show that they took up hiding in the sea caverns off Darkstone Bay. Their device was an open-mouthed sable wolf upon a field of red. Their refuge they called the Wolves Den, and they protected it with standard fortifications of the time: military innovations such as sliding barricades, narrow halls with arrow slits, and a well-constructed subterranean version of a barbican. It is interesting to note here that the barricades and other defenses were never used, and they kept more in than they did out.

Aramur Forean, the human wizard, was taught by the scholars of Ta’Illistim. It is not known how he received such instruction in a time of such racial discord, but his journals show this to be true. He started interested only in knowledge, but after witnessing a beating of a human in his travels with his teachers, his interests leant towards politics. Aramur led the Wolves on sortie after sortie, and the end result was a withdrawal of the Vaalor forces from the northern Vornavian coast, the very same that now supports the outpost of Wehnimer’s Landing.

Not content with their success, the Wolves set their sights higher. Aramur’s journals show a gradual heightening of expectations, leading up to their swan song. It is said in some records that agents of House Nalfein contacted the Black Wolves, wishing to sow strife in other houses. There is another theory to the source of this contact which scholars debate. It is said by some that the elf second in succession to the throne contacted the Wolves and gave them the false information. This heir presumptive or the agent of House Nalfein allegedly gave the time and place of the carriage of the Vaalorian Patriarch to the Wolves. The Wolves planned an ambush upon the carriage, only to discover too late that the personage inside the carriage was the son of the Patriarch, the first in succession to the throne of Ta’Vaalor. Aramur entered the carriage to find the child wounded by a black arrow, and it was then that the assassination attempt dissolved around them. The Wolves, demoralized, were chased back to their hideout by the Patriarch himself. The Wolves returned to their well-hidden refuge, but the caves were completely surrounded by the armies of the Vaalor, who, at the time, were second to none.

The food inside the Den gradually decreased until it finally whittled away into nothing. It is prudent at this point to discuss the structure of the life of the Black Wolves. Because they were a committed force, it was not only the men that lived together, but the women and children as well. They were a religious people, having an altar to the Arkati Kai and Lorminstra.

The Vaalor Heir was brought to the infirmirary, but nothing could be done. To this day, his skeleton lies atop one of the beds in the long-abandoned room. It has been proven through divination and deduction that the Black Wolves resorted to cannibalism. There are teethmarks on a few of the human skeletons, yet no bestial skeleton was ever uncovered. However, most of the Wolves, such as Aramur himself, chose suicide over such a path.

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IV. The Undead Wars

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