Introduction
Official Simu Document...
It is interesting to note that those the Elanthians
worship as gods were once servants themselves. The Arkati began their existence
as the slaves of the Drakes, for although they were as old a race as dragonkind,
the humanoid Arkati were lesser in both powers and numbers. The Arkati earned
this worship, for it was only by their intervention that the lesser races
such as elves, humans, dwarves and halflings lived at all. At the peak of
each population, there were perhaps one hundred dragons and fifty Arkati.
The planet became overcrowded, and the Drakes sent their servants to live
on the moons of Lornon and Liabo. Unable to refuse their masters’ command,
the Arkati regretfully left for the satellites. Many feared that the dragons
were using Elanthia’s overcrowding as an excuse to remove the lesser
races, and that the relocation of the Arkati was to facilitate this
genocide.
Thus, it is perhaps too convenient that the Ur-Daemons
chose this time to appear. Those Arkati that lived on Liabo did their best
to reason with the Drakes, entreating them to leave the lesser races be.
Many say that those on Lornon followed the same tactic. Some legends recorded
by Faendryl seers and elder historians tell a different tale. Among those
sent to the moon of Lornon was Eorgina, an Arkati with a passion for domination.
She was the strongest personality of those there, and the one with the most
talent for leadership. She was tired of taking a backseat to the Drakes,
and having to grovel for what she wanted. With her masters’ eyes off
her activities for the time, she acted.
She went to Fash’lo’nae, the scholar of
those on Lornon, and asked if he had found anything in his studies that would
rid the Arkati of dragon rule. Fash’lo’nae, punished at one time
for spreading knowledge to the lesser races and bringing them fire, promised
Eorgina his aid. Fash’lo’nae had never mentioned his planar studies
to his masters or his fellow servants. Nor had he ever mentioned the beings
he found in the alternate dimensions. Thus, Eorgina and the other Lornon
Arkati were quite surprised when presented with an Ur- Daemon. Eorgina, quick
to recover from her surprise, wasted no time in pointing out the Drakes and
their abundance of mana to the Ur-Daemons. Were they to remove the dragons,
they could share in the abundance Elanthia presented.
The Ur-Daemons were not stupid. The Arkatis’
ploy was an obvious one, but the rewards were real. Should they remove the
Drakes, the Ur-Daemons would be free to plunder the planet as they saw fit.
They had no intention of sharing with the Arkati, and these lesser creatures
had ended their usefulness the moment they had opened the Veil. With a smile,
the Ur-Daemons agreed to help the Arkati. Whether or not this legend is true
is lost to time. What is known for certain is that the Ur- Daemons found
their way to our dimension, and with them came chaos. The Ur-Daemon War broke
out between the invaders and the Drakes. Many Arkati rushed to help their
masters and were summarily killed. The intelligent ones hid from the conflict,
thereby ensuring their survival.
The War lasted one thousand years. The final stand,
before the portal to the Ur-Daemons’ home plane that Fash’lo’nae
had secretly opened upon Elanthia, blasted the landscape for hundreds of
miles, leaving it a lifeless wasteland. The Ur-Daemons were gone -- but so
were the Drakes. Their numbers had been decimated, and most of those left
had been driven insane by fear. The Arkati were servants no longer. Their
time on Lornon and Liabo had changed the Arkati, however. Those who state
the Lornon Arkati had summoned the Ur-Daemon say that the Liabo Arkati were
horrified and appalled by what the others had done. Others say that the differing
influences of each moon had changed them. The results are undisputed: when
they moved to heal the damage done to Elanthia, the Arkati were a race
divided.
In the early days after the War, some Arkati walked
among the mortal races as teachers, leaders, and guides. They considered
Elanthia and its inhabitants a trust which had befallen them. These were
the Liabo Arkati. As they taught the mortal races, they advised caution dealing
with "the Arkati who once lived upon Lornon." This shortened to "the Arkati
of Lornon." The pantheons of Liabo and Lornon were born. Those of Lornon
did not see things as their Liabo siblings did. They considered the lands
a playground, and the lesser races toys to be trifled with or worse. The
two pantheons grew further and further apart. For a while, war between the
groups seemed imminent.
Then Koar summoned the remaining Arkati to a chamber
in his mountain sanctum. What was said in that meeting is unknown, but when
the Arkati emerged, they no longer spoke of fighting each other. They went
their separate ways and have never come into open conflict, although an abundance
of small battles are waged in the background daily.
