Alaitryn Anansi

In the Golden Dragon Inn in the human province of Waters Edge in the city of Katarassein stands a radiant beauty by any and all human or elven standards. She is stood by the roaring fireplace, and as the warm glow of the flames catches her hair and fair skin she appears to have come down from the celestial plane. She is taking to an old man, her hands and face telling the story as much as her words. She gathers a fair crowd within moments of her starting her tale.

"This city has been my home for 15years, since my birth and into the arms of my elven mother and human father on the outskirts of Waters Edge. I have lived in Waters Edge for over half of my life, I have lived in Aquaumbra for a fair time as well, among the relatives of my mother. I have attended the Fall College for the past year and in the time I have learnt what it is to be educated in Katerassein society.

I have now mastered the scimitar and can best any of my peers in a duel. I am able to shoot an arrow into the centre of any target at 100ft. I have also studied the art of war and can lead battle. I am able to play haunting and enchanting melodies on the flute, harp and lute. I understand what it is to inspire, to lead, to heal and to bolster. I have studied the arcane arts and have some understanding of their practice. I can rally men to act, and I can persuade them to alter their actions. I have studied all manner of subjects and consider myself well versed in a number, and competent in more. Greater than this I understand the importance of cooperation and collaboration in substituting my flaws with the strengths of others.

I am the first of my kind to graduate the college. I am the first graduate to do so in a year. And yet my friends I am still known here as the half elf. Not the dilettante. Or the scholar, but only half an elf.

Today I leave Katerassein."

Katerassein

Katerassein is a city on the edge of a mountain. It was formed as four families, elven followers of Oren made promise to find and protect the falls. They were chosen from the various temples of Oren in other parts of the land to represent the spheres of his influence. The first was a family who truly represented harmony, a mother and father, their parents and children who all lived together contently. The second was a family who represented joy, a newly bound couple about to be blessed with their first child. The third was a family to represent pleasure, a single male who had always followed his own pleasures. And lastly a family to represent the entertainers, an artist and a musician with a young family all gifted in the arts. The priests of Oren had read in the scriptures that the falls were the essence of Oren and believed that a settlement there would be his greatest temple.

Reading from presumably the same scriptures four humans were tasked with finding the falls from the temples of Varna. They had left the astral sea as the bearers of prophecy, truth, foresight, knowledge to protect what they thought would become the tears of Varna.

As the two groups met they argued over the falls but as essentially non-violent, intelligent and righteous people they decided to build a forum over the falls to debate its origin, and its future. The elves wanted to build a temple to Oren at the falls and to drink from the water in their religious practices while the humans wanted to leave the waters believing that one day the tears of Varna would fall here and the waters would bless them with insight and prophecy. The debates lasted a decade, and in this time the families had grown and settled.

One of the humans, the ambassador of knowledge pointed out that at the basin of the falls the exit forked into two streams. One headed south towards the lands of the elves and the other headed north the way the humans had walked. Maybe they could work jointly to protect the falls, with the temples built at the streams with no one touching the falls themselves. And so the city grew but many of the elves and humans in Katerassein have no idea of the origins of the city.