(v) The Seeds of Doom

The Courage of Men Begins to Fail

For untold thousands of years, the Third Age of Erâth carried on in Changelessness. The battles faded, the discoveries went unnoticed, and the race of men became ever more dreary all the while. With the death of love and dreams, though, a new form of apathy came over the kingdoms of Thaeìn, and the lives of men were bleak indeed.

Yet it was a bleakness men were content with; without deep thought or feeling, there was little grief, though there was also little joy. There were few battles, but also few discoveries, and the race of men was truly at a halt. King after king came and went, and the lands were ever the same.

The Sarâthen’s vision of Changelessness had come to full fruition. Those that had remained in Erâth saw the indifference of men and were saddened, but remembered yet the destruction of the First and Second Ages, and were afraid of what might occur were the veil of Changelessness lifted. They had not intended that the race of men become uncaring about the world, and saw that they might yet be extinguished, if they no […]

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(iv) The Changeless World

So it was that the world of Erâth ceased to change, and began a period of some three thousand years in which the lives of men continued on as they always had done. The knowledge of the powers of Erâth slowly began to fade, and creatures of Darkness were forgotten. The Namirèn and the Duithèn lost their face to men, and were known merely as death and darkness. Soon, men no longer referred to these races rightly, and they became myth.

The Sarâthen, too, faded from the memory of men, and were forgotten entirely, while the Illuèn, who continued to dwell in Thaeìn, had no longer any contact with men, and were forgotten also. Tales of magical beings of light became legend, and soon no one in Thaeìn could remember whether these tales had ever once been true. The race of men turned ever inward to itself, and grew no more.

This is not to say the Third Age of Erâth was uneventful. The pivotal events at the end of the Third Age notwithstanding, men did not stop pushing the borders of themselves or the world around them. Changelessness acted more as a barrier, protecting men […]

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The Sarâthen’s Choice

The world of Erâth had now seen the kingdoms of men brought twice to ruin by the rise of Darkness. Every reasoning being is ultimately responsible for its own actions, and it fate that the Duithèn would become hungry for power and the men of Erâth should be so easily corrupted. Nonetheless, the Sarâthen, held themselves accountable for the great destruction that had now befallen Erâth during the First, and now the Second, Age. They had witnessed the doom men had brought upon themselves at the end of the Age of Light, and the subsequent corruption of the kingdoms of Aélûr and Cathäi. They mourned still the loss of the Mirèn, and unlike men, the memory of their ruin did not fade.

So the Sarâthen set out to put the world of Erâth to right in such a way that could not be undone by men, or any other Race. Their first hope lay in the defeat of the Duithèn, who lay now weakened in the West. The Sarâthen sought to confer with them, and the Illuèn went with them also. They spoke to them of righting the balance of Erâth, and the survival of all races. […]

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