Historia et Historiarum: Laten elves
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*Maps and concept art can be found on my Instagram @AlexanderCa0
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The Laten elven heaven was one of the two main heavens that rebelled against Thalos and his greater elven heaven. The Laten elves hail from the world of Latium. They lived in nations that were at first all independent, but later became all conquered by force by one powerful city-state.
They worship many gods, mainly in this order, Jupiter god of the state worshipped by statesmen and rulers, Mars god of intellectual war and self-discipline, Deimos the god of the fields and peasantry, Phobos the god of fear and courage, Diana the god of chaotic warfare, Bacchus the god of enjoyment and Minerva goddess of the arts.
The Laten elves loved arts, music, and craftsmanship. They were one of the most obsessed elves with perfection, but this sometimes pushed them towards hostile obsession. Their rulers worshipped Jupiter, who gave blessings to kings and statesmen to become great leaders. In many ways, Jupiter was the god of the politician. Mars was instead worshiped by the generals and the regular soldier worshipped Phobos during war and Deimos when he returned to collect the harvest. They also had no qualms with slavery, something the Tenka elves dispised. They continued the act of obtaining slaves for centuries after the fall of Thalos and the golden elves.
The original inhabitants of Latium are foul and pesky beings known as Ghelids who live in the north. They have black scaly skin and can climb trees like a rodent. Their culture is unrefined and barbaric and many believe they sacrifice themselves and prisoners to their god, Ytonus, the shadow of the forest.
South of the world already had numerous Phoenician colonies. At first, the relationships were cordial and warm, as the Phoenicians were not willing to inhabit the continent where the Ghelids lived and the elves were few in number. Later, these two races would wage a war that lasted for centuries.
One city-state, known as Remos rose thought from a puny village to form a great nation. The elves of the city of Remos decided to elect their leader among them. The military leaders were forbidden to run for office and had to retire once the war was over. One such family that produced great military leaders, was the Juliai family.
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The gods of the Laten elves:
The Juliai family had a father, Jupiter, and his son Mars. During Jupiter's leadership, the future god enabled the greatest invention of the Remos city, the municipal system, and the legionaries. These warriors became the staple of the Remos armies and with them, Jupiter and Mars were able to conquer many cities and eventually nations. Each legionary was molded by years of hard work and with the elven longevity, a perfect soldier could be made that had discipline and courage.
Eventually, the ambitions of the people of Remos grew too big and war with the Phoenician colonies was inevitable. These colonies called their mother cities to help them, but every time Phoenicians tried to come to their rescue, Mars and Jupiter fought them back. The Phoenician gods didn't want to anger Thalos so they didn't take part in the war.
Jupiter and Mars rose to godhood and later the brothers in arms of Mars, Phobos, and Deimos rose to godhood as well. So did the fearless god Diana, conqueror of the northern nations of Laten, and sworn enemy of the Ghelids.
The youngest son of Mars, Bacchus was the god of food and enjoyment and was worshipped during hedonistic parties. He was a devoted worshipper of Lyrondor and is said to have been accidentally cursed by him, but Bacchus didn't care. He was despised by his own father as Mars was the embodiment of discipline and Bacchus was the opposite. Many believe he became later in life a child of Pandora and was the one who invited the old lady of the north to the world of Latium.
The god of arts and craftsmanship Minerva is the only god that has survived to this day, she was the daughter of Jupiter and half-sister to Mars. The entire world of Laten was subdued and conquered by the Laten elves under Jupiter and Mars.
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Kinship war:
The Laten elves had been discriminated against for a long time by the elves who worshipped the Thalos and lived in the then-known, greater golden-elven heaven. A nail in the coffin is when a malum exima army attacked a Laten elven nation. The golden elves had a chance to aid them but refuse to risk their own, instead, Diana routed the eximas.
After the death of Izanami, the Laten elves and their gods joined with the Tenka elves to fight against golden elves and Thalos. Jupiter saw this as a chance to see his people free for a long time his laten elves were looked down upon by the elves who worshipped Thalos.
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War with phoenicians and Hannibal:
After the kinship war was over, the long-time enemy of the laten elves returned, the phoenicians. As now the laten elves were not believed to be part of a great golden elven heaven and thalos was dead, the phoenicians wished to push them out of the entire world of Latium. Mars beat the Phoenician gods and pushed toward other worlds. Mars and Phobos then sailed across the stars and started to create the Laten elven heaven, conquering phoenician colonies and enslaving their people.
The phoenicians sent relief armies, but the Laten elves beat them back, but as they did, the Phoenicians sent a young warrior to subdue them. This man was known as Hannibal. For years Hannibal waged a bloody war on Laten almost, destroying the Remos empire in the world of Latium, but at the last minute, Baal brokered a peace with the Remos's senate and Jupiter, ending the war.
Hannibal was furious and refused to surrender. He disobeyed and decided to wage war on the Laten elves and on Baal, the god of the Phoenicians. Eventually, he fought too many enemies at once and saw his own destruction as just a matter of time. In his rage, he gave into the winds of pandora and sacrificed half of his own army for this. The survivors who had also agreed to serve the chaotic winds of pandora fled with Hannibal to the collapsed universe.
After the wars with the Phoenicians and Hannibal were over, the Laten elves spread. They colonized a couple of neighboring worlds and with great bloodshed made the original inhabitants extinct. Jupiter had no problem with this, but Mars saw this as a disgrace but didn't do anything.
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The old lady and downfall of the Laten heaven:
As the Laten heaven was reaching its zenith, an old lady appeared to the world of Latium. The world of Latium had been struggling with a sickness. Many of the laten elves prayed to their gods, but they were unable to end this calamity. The old lady healed the sick and was praised by the people. Jupiter, being sure this old lady was a sorcerer, something that he despised, sent his saints to capture her. When she was brought in front of Jupiter, the god's most loved lover, Canaria, had grown ill. He begged the old lady to heal her, and the only thing she wished for in return was a handshake.
Jupiter agreed, but he didn't know he had done a deal with a child of pandora. She healed Canaria, who leaped into the arms of the god Jupiter. The king of the Laten elven gods was still distrusting the old woman and ordered her to be executed. The old lady just laughed and disappeared. In a month's time after the lady had vanished, Canaria became pregnant. Eager to see his child, Jupiter waited for the birth of his child. As the belly of Canaria was at its biggest, it burst open, releasing a plague unseen in the universe. It infected everyone, from mortals to gods, making them become mad with hunger for flesh. This plague was called the sickness of Canaria.
The world of Latium fell into chaos as Jupiter was made into a mad animal by the sickness, including his saint and worshippers. The dead walked on the ground, hunting other elves and their kind like crazed madmen.
At the same time, the Ghelids invaded from the northern forests, plundering and killing elves in the mighty cities. Diana was said to have died at the hands of the Ytonus, who took him deep into the Ghelid northern forests.
Many Laten elves fled to other worlds, hoping to flee, but they unknowingly brought either the sickness or the Ghelids to their worlds. To curve this, all heavens barred entry of any Laten elves from entering their worlds and some were openly killed, fearing that either the Ghelids or the sickness would spread to their homes.
Mars gathered the surviving legionary elves, and armies and set out to kill all the infected and mad elves. No one knows what actually happened in the end, but the infection stopped spreading, and Mars vanished with many feeling the divine powers of Jupiter disappearing from the Laten elven heaven.
The only Laten elves currently alive live in small holdouts, surrounded by Ghelids and the sickness of canaria, with Minerva being the only god alive.