Lefheim's Fall (2 in 1).

In a world where conflict thrives, an argument over two different points of view could eventually unfold into a fight over ideals, where contrasts betweend what's right or wrong suddenly becomes fuzzy and hard distinguish, a world where the thing that separates a good man from an evil one is the one whos telling the story and how is it being told.

For every side on a war has it's own villians and heroes respectively.

- The world of golden skies. By Lisandro Worr.

Being born within one of the 12 families in the empire, Theodore grew a prvileged life, anything he desire whike growing up was for him to take as long as he wished for it. He was talented too, as an elf, and coming from a prestigious noble family of mages, Theodore showed great achievements since young. Motivated by the praises of his tutors and relatives alike, and futher pushed forwars by the great expectations his parents, theodore dived into the world of magic, learning all kinds of theories and praticing exhaustively to turn his knowledge into actual power, day by day, the weeks turned into months that instead turned into years and then decades and centuries, it was by the end of his third century alive that theodore, now a young man in his late teens, became a Archmage, entering the ranks of the powerful existences that ruled the empire.

But none of that truly mattered to Theodore. The hidden conflicts betweend families?, The fight for resources?, All of it was inconsequential, only magic was important.

His love for magic, is something that only has grew since he was a child. He dreamed of a world where everyone could use magic, and where magic research wasn't something that took centuries just to achieve a small breakthrough because you couldn't share freely your knowledge. Thats why he hated the ways of the council, how they obstructed the advance in magic just so they could remain in power, and how they supressed all the geniuses of other races, forcing them to accept them as their mentors to groom them as lackeys, basically stripping them of their freedom.

Theodore was an idealist, for years, he and his comrades made countless attempts to appeal to the council in order to correct its ways, but their pleas always were ignored. Seeing as his arguments fell into deaf ears, Theodore decided he had enough, after so many years trying to erradicate the filth of elven society from within with a soft approach, using simmilar strategies over and over again without results, it was time to use a different method. If he couldn't change elves from the inside on his own, then he would have to reach out to others.

---------------------------------------------------------

In the year of 12390 E.C. during the spring festival dedicated to the Goddess of Nature, around the months of march and april, occurred an event latter known as "theodore's treachery" by future elven schoolars of the ancient elven empire.

In the basement of one the many mansions of the Navor family a group of less than 10 people where reunited, the room, or to be precise, hall they were currently in was being protected by layers upon layers of spirit seals, preventing the interference and the prying of those from the outside, while aslo hiding the presence of the place itself. Among those reunited were many talents from the vassal races of the empire.

*Sigh* Theodore, knowing full well that what was hes doing right now could easily fall into the category of high treason, steeled himself.

"Hello, ladies and gentelmen" declared Theodore as he approached the geniuses.

"...."

Ignoring the wary gazes of his guests and their silence Theodore continued:

"I understand that many of you should be confused right now. By inviting you all here today, my intention of to share with you something that i belive will definitely be of your interest" as he said this, he reached for his inner pocket in his robe, taking a small booklet made from hide of some unknown magic beast.

Without opening it, just holding it in hus hand, Theodore with his guests the secret of the spirit vessel and how it could very well be related to the way to attain godhood.

"...!"

*Gasp*

"Wha....." Disbelief and shock filled the faces of everyone, but before they could even attempt to question him, Theodore took the booklet on his hand and opened it.

"This is something that even the council isn't aware of" said Theodore as he held the booklet and continued to talk:

"I didn't just reported my discovery, before that i kept looking for simmilar documents, whit the long history of the empire and the even longer history of families like mine, theres bound to be records, but their number is just too vast, feeling unsure of where to start, i decided to do it from the oldest ones, lucky me it only took me 10 years of searc before i found this" with a triumphant smile he waved the booklet at the crowd. His guest instead felt their hearts go cold (fucking 10 years!), Was what most of them thought, once again reminding themselves of the twisted perception of time of elves.

"This right in my hands is something one of my ancestors brought back more than 12 millenia ago. To be sincere even i found it hard to belive, just what kind of material would be so resilient to go through more than 12.000 ears without decaying and crumbling into dust?" As Theodore said this he caresed the hide-like material, showing genuine curiosity.

"From the records of that time, my ancestor picked it from one of the orc tribes he conquered, bringing it with him as a souvenir. Though he didn't knew the language, so it became impossible for him to know what was written in it, leaved eventtualy in the library to collect dust for years".

At the mention of the origin of the booklet, the guests showed some interest, but one of them was more confused than anything. It was a youg orc mage, although the story hes been hearing so far was interesting, he really didn't expect something related to his race would pop out the blue, he didn't voiced his doubts though as he allowed theodore to continue.

"Well, to make things short, i do indeed know Orucc[1], as I've learned it many tears ago when i was studying orcs innate abilities in order to create a spell. By virtue of that, when i got a hold of this and readed it, i knew this was what I've been looking for" the revelation of theodore's knowledge of the orcs leanguage wasn't as shocking to his guests as the ease which he revealed how he researched other races abilities as if it was completely natural.

Then Theodore proceeded to read from the booklet, many of it were just relates of the Great 7 and how the created the races, among them some were mentioned together, tracing their origins to a common ancestor. As theodore continued to read...

"Attorack, lord of the 100 peaks, king of the beasts and our progenitor, thou who have blessed us, his progeny, with talents and might beyond that of mortals. We, the sons of To'en were bestowed the blessings of the earth, giving us bodies as strong as rocks and bones hard like iron". Here, Theodore paused, he closed the booklet and continued on his own. "Here its described the life of the ancient Demigod To'en and tie his origin as the son of The God of Beasts to the orc race by calling him the first of your kind" said Theodore as he pointed at the only orc among his guests.

"Ehhh!" The young orc mage was startled "Lord Theodore is that true? I've never heard of anything related to this from my elders in the tribe i come from"

"Hmmmn" Theodore nodded at the youg magician.

"Though at the start i also had my doubts, this little booklet not only contains information about the orc kind. In fact dauren, darkins, dragons, bassilisks, agnari and many other races are mentioned here"

"....!" This time it was the turn of the other guests to be surprised, as many of the races mentioned by Theodore had at least one member present in the hall.

" It's too soon to be getting surprised yet. What I'm about to tell all of you cannot leave this room, in fact, most of the measures i took for this hall to not be discovered, was because if what I'm about to say. I might be labeled as a tritor by future generations, but the council had disappointed me one too many times already" said Theodore while sighing, looking depressed.

"I know full well of your struggle, I've seen my peers, my kind, treating you like farmers treat their livestock, even though millenia have passed since it's creation, in the empire only the elves enjoy the benefits as the masters while everyone else os deemed as low class citizens"

"Those who're talented are hindered, ridiculed and abused as they have to bear the unreasonable, and often times ill directed whims of their masters" Theodore took a depo breath to calm himself as he got only angrier and more agitated the more he talked. While observing the reactions of his guests, many portrayed looks of helplessness and rage, as what Theodore just said deeply resonated with their experienced.

"I also know that anything i do or say can't really make up for the damage mi people has done to yours, nor is my intention, this is not me trying to be the embodiment of rightiousness to help you out in your revenge. My motives are purely driven by my selfishness, and my dream to achieve a world closer to my ideal"

(If i also wish for elves legacy to continue in this world, some sacrifices have to be made) Thought Theodore to himself.

He was being pragmatic, he knew that sooner or later, the vassal kingdoms and other races would eventualy rise in retaliation against the empire.

"The information I'm sharing today with all of you can be considered as me buying a way out for my people" looking at all of his guests in the hall, Theodore said, taking a pause before declaring "i don't ask for forgiveness, but for survival".

The originally confused mages were suddenly enlightened, it finally downed on them, why would such an important figure amongst the Navor family seek a secret audience with them. It also make them feel slightly perturved how Theodore could give away the secrets of his race just for the sake of survival.

From among the 10 mages, Norec, the orc mage, approached Theodore in the middle of the hall and said:

"We sincerily appreciate the precious information you've brought us today, but even if our races pooled all of our resources and mages into it, our research wouldn't compare to even a hundreth with what the council is capable of" expressed Norec.

"Indeed" said Theodore, not even trying to say otherwise to make them feel better.

*Sighs* hearing theodore's inmediate response, many were depressed by the abysmal diference.

"But..." Theodore's next words catched the attention of some who already had their heads hanging down.

"While is indeed true the council is far more advance in terms of magic theory, it's also true that they're severily lacking in their numbers. The other races instead, have a large pool of mages to choose from, so even if all of you cannot defeat them in quality, it's not a problem to do so with numbers, the sheer amount of all of you, should be more than enough to level the playing field" this wasn't theodore's way to cheer them up, for even the elves themselves, and specialy the council, have always seen the threat in the terrifying numbers of the lesser races, whilst at the same time lamenting their own fertility and the long time it took for one of them to reach adulthood.

"And what's more, although the council is aware of the spirit vessel and it's conection with divinity, i didn't realy gave away all of my own research. First because, then, i still had the hope for the council to chage it's ways, and second because if plan a didn't worli, i could always change to plan b"

"Huh...!?"

*Gasps*

"I see"

"Motherf.... We weren't even the first option"

Amidst tye conversations of the guests, one human mage frowned and asked:

"Plan-b, being us?, How can you expect us to trust you, after you've told us that?

"Because" replied Theodore while showing a genuine smile for the first time "even though my ideals aren't shared by the majority of my kind, i still wish for them to prosper, but last time it, it finally downed on me that the elves are greedy and selfish" (at least the majority are so like this) was in theodore's mind as he talked.

"I am a truthseeker, a mage, i can't tolerate tyat any new discovery i made is locked away in some family vault, only to be used by a few to make themselves more an more powerful, so that they could remain forever on that position" as he speaked, the others could feel how frustrared he was.

"So what if tou have in your possesion huge amounts of knowledge and power, hoarding it all for yourself is a good as waisrinit,"

"In fact, even before making it public to the council, i had already started my own research with all of the information i had at hand for more than 20 years now" theodore's revelation that he was researching for some time now was a shock, even to his accomplices.

"What!!!?"

"How...?"

"20 years " said Theodore "for more than 20 whole years I've dedicated my life into this research, in exchange for your promise to not destroy our race, ill give you all of my research to you"

"Different from us elves, you wouldn't have the privilege to forbid anyone from sharing this knowledge in order to keep it to yourselves, for the vassal races would need their whole combined effort to keep up with the council" confidently declared Theodore.

---------------------------------------------------------

At the end of the meeting, Theodore and his guests signed a treaty, by which, the reseach documents and theodore's help would be exchanged for the promise to not exterminate the elven race after the inminent fall of the empire.

Thus in the year 12568 E.C. more than 100 years later, the empire of Lefheim fell at the hands of the 5 vassal races, bringing an end to the golden elven era, and marking the begining of a new chaotic period of time for the Verdant continent.

[1] - name of the orc language.