| Arnor | |
 | |
| Homeworld: | Arnor |
|---|---|
| Ethical allignment: | Good |
| Leader | Tandis |
- Official Name: Elas'nir/Arnor
- Alignment: Good (100)
- Short Name: Arnor
- Leader: Pariden, Tandis
- Homeworld: Arnor, Ixith
- Homestar: ?
- Description: None
The Arnor were an ancient and powerful civilization that was once on the brink of being exterminated by the Dread Lords before both vanished, thousands of years ago.
The Arnor play a part in the campaign in Twilight of the Arnor, as Tandis helps the Terran Resistance fight back against the Dread Lords, his ancestral enemies.
Biology[]
The Arnor are not exactly living things so much as mechanisms, or rather aspects and echoes of their creator, Draginol. For this reason, they are nearly identical to the Terrans. Both groups of Arnor, however, have differences with their creator's race. Unlike Terrans, Arnor are extremely long-lived and do not age. Their bodies house shards of Draginol's own dark cosmic energy, which in large enough amounts can warp reality according to its wielder's demands. Arnor can also channel that energy to empower objects and pieces of technology with it. The amount of energy inside each Arnor varies greatly, but the Dread Lords possess the largest share of it. A few of the younger Arnor, like Tandis, possessed far greater amounts than the average and could even rival their Dread Lord kin.
History[]
Creation[]
The Arnor were the first sentient race to exist, created by Draginol the Dark Mithrilar to harness the power of the Telenanth Crystal and use its power to stop the Cycle that led to his creation and future destruction of the universe, which he caused in his Crusade. The first fivescore (100) Arnor, the Dred'nir (First Ones) were Draginol's attempt to create true living beings. As such, he gave them a near-perfect perception of time and a deep sense of righteousness similar to his own.
The results were mixed. Although they seemed alive, Draginol realized the Arnor were little more than pieces of himself separated from the whole. Dismayed, he changed his goal from creating true life to just making tools for his plans, so the next batch of Arnor, the Elas'nir (Second Ones) weren't given the same care his firstborn were. Unlike the Dred'nir, the Elas'nir couldn't perceive time and were made to be placid, submissive and weak-willed. A few Elas'nir, however, inherited their creator's willpower despite his carelessness. These anomalous fledglings were considered "transitional", as they shared traits of both Arnor races.
Early History and First War[]
The Arnor formed a flourishing nation in Arnor, with the Dred'nir in charge. Although they built a great civilization, the Arnor stagnated due to their immortality and their inability to advance quickly enough. This frustrated the Firstborn, as they knew life would rise elsewhere in the galaxy and they had no way to reach them. Over the eons, their sense of righteousness was twisted into a desire to control everything, as it became twisted by the passage of time that weighed on their minds. Aware that developing technology to reach the stars would take far too long for their minds to handle, the Dred'nir saw another way: the very energy inside the Arnor's bodies, which they realized it could be their key to the stars if enough of it was gathered. As time frayed their morality and sanity, most Dred'nir began to see their Elas'nir siblings as "fledglings" unworthy of being anything but serfs and cattle for them.
Led by Kona, the first of their kind and the strongest of them all, the Dred'nir drained the lifeforce of countless Arnor and used it to create a powerful artifact of immeasurable power, an "Orb of Dominion" that would allow them to effectively twist existence in any way they wished. Although there was initially little opposition due to the pliability of the Second Ones, the transitional Tandis became opposed to the Dread Lords' abuse of his kin and gathered them under his banner to fight back, with the help of Mascrinthus of the Mithrilar and Talax, a Dred'nir that turned against his own kind.
The war between Tandis and the Dread Lords lasted millennia, and reduced most of Arnor to a smoking ruin. Despite their best efforts, Tandis' faction was losing the war, partly because their forces were greatly outnumbered by the Dread Knights, those Arnor that followed the Dread Lords and agreed with their views. Despite the setbacks, the Arnor's efforts had made a dent in the First Ones' numbers, who had been reduced to only 20 individuals.
Although Draginol originally sided with his elder children and acted as an advisor to Kona, the Dread Lords' degeneration into pointless cruelty made him disgusted with them. When Kona tried to sacrifice Amandara, a younger Arnor of immense power whom he'd grown fond of, Draginol had enough. He revealed his true self and defeated Kona's armies single-handedly.
As punishment for his misdeeds, Draginol cursed Kona and banished him from Arnor forever, using his powers to hurl him across time and space, where he would be reborn in a new form, fated to only remember the truth once his time to die came at the moment of Draginol's ascension. Thanks to his intervention, the Arnor were able to reclaim their world and their freedom.
The Rise and Fall of the Iconians[]
With the power of the Orb of Dominion (later renamed as "The Bane of the Dred'nir"), the Elas'nir rebuilt Arnor and their civilization. Draginol would later retake the Bane once he felt it had gathered enough essence, and use it in his failed attempt to control the Telenanth, which made the crystal explode and blasted him deep into a newborn planet. Despite losing the Bane, both factions of Arnor were able to gain hold of the Telenanth's shards, which they used to create artificial Orbs that didn't need Arnor souls to function. With the shards' power, both Arnor factions built powerful interstellar civilizations. As the eons passed and their Dread Lord kin's desire for control further degraded into a murderous obsession to destroy all life, both Arnor factions went to war once more, only in more even terms this time.
To gain an advantage, the Arnor uplifted a younger race, the Iconians. Originally nurtured as servants to them, the Iconians' growth made the Arnor hesitate in keeping them as such, and they decided they had the right to be free. As the Arnor had grown dependent on them, they decided to create a race of mechanical beings to replace them in that role, whom they named the Nyx. Although initially loyal, the Nyx were tampered by the Dread Lords, became sentient and mutated into the Yor Collective, which rebelled and nearly destroyed the Iconians, forcing them into exile.
Later History and Elemental[]
The Arnor conflict continued as a bloody stalemate until 505,000 years ago, when both Arnor factions detected a surge of cosmic energy coming from Altaria, known back then as Elemental, caused by three of the natives manipulating the energy to create a powerful forge of "magical" objects. The reason they were even capable of doing this was because the planet had become infused by the essence of Draginol, which had seeded the planet with life and acted as the source of what the "Humans" (proto-Altarians) that lived in Elemental called "magic".
1500 years later, to further observe them, the Arnor Pariden built a portal that connected Arnor and Elemental, right in the very location of the cosmic anomaly his people had detected. To his shock, he discovered that the planet was a verdant world with medieval levels of technology, filled with civilizations. The natives mistook Pariden for a god and renamed the city he'd arrived in, Hallas, after him. For the next 4 centuries, Pariden, Tandis and several other Arnor traveled across Elemental, studying it and its mysterious power. Unfortunately, the creation of the portal attracted the attention of the Dread Lords, now led by Curgen.
With the power of their own Telenanth shards, Curgen's forces hijacked the portal, invaded Elemental and murdered Pariden. In a desperate attempt to protect the world from further depredations, Tandis destroyed the portal, which stranded him and Arnor from both factions there. Throughout the next 2988 years, Tandis and his allies in Elemental fought Curgen's empire, which became divided due to his fellow Dread Lords' obsession with personal power, which drove them to fight and kill each other for the Shards' power. Even some proto-Altarians like Morrigan joined forces with both factions in their search for might, prestige and even immortality.
Eventually, as his empire began to crumble, Curgen grew desperate and tried to rebuild the portal to Arnor. In a final attempt to stop him, Tandis and his allies gathered an army of proto-Altarians and Drath to defeat him once and for all. While the army didn't stop its advance through Anthys, it took a crippling blow due to Tandis' disappearance. Unfortunately, in their final battle, the armies' clash awoke Draginol from his slumber. Furious with his children for draining his power against his will, he went berserk and triggered a massive explosion. Elemental was utterly devastated, its three continents were ripped apart and over 90% of its inhabitants died, including all the Dread Lords and most of the Arnor in it.
Draginol attempted to reclaim his stolen essence throughout the next millennium, but was ultimately defeated by an Altarian that wielded his own Bane against him. He was sealed within his creation, and Tandis sealed the Bane inside a pocket universe. To ensure the Drath's survival, the Arnor evacuated them from Altaria against their will, which started their long-lasting vitriol towards the Altarians.
Decline[]
With Pariden dead and Tandis stranded in a primitive planet, the Dread Lords were able to gain the upper hand in their long-standing conflict with their kin. They routed the Arnorian forces all the way to their capital world, Inthix, which was sealed under an impenetrable forcefield with the Salvation/Imprisonment Device. Eventually the remaining Arnor were able to defeat the Dread Lords by trapping them in a pocket universe.
Eventually the Arnor removed themselves from the galactic scene entirely. Arnor and many of their former worlds were left ruined and abandoned.
Known Arnor[]
- Elas'nir (Second Ones)
- Tandis
- Amandara the Morningstar
- Pariden
- Dred'nir (First Ones)
- Kona
- Bane
- Curgen
- Kir'Tion
- Lady Umber
- Talax
- Tar-Thela
- Xoran
- Dread Knights (Dread Lord servants)
- Calax
- Magnar