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Var
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Long ago the eldritch Haelfinan Willcrafters created many races to serve their own
needs. Many have ceased to exist such as the tree-dwelling Therapts, but some have
survived into the modern Age such as Humankind....and the Var. The Var are a race
of small humanoids made by the Haelfinan many millenia ago, as their first fully
sentient servitor race.
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The Haelfinan have an unfortunate reaction to Iron and things made from it which
makes it unhealthy in the extreme for them to mine or work with metal, and the Var
were their answer to this difficulty. The intention was that the Var would mine
for the Haelfinan; immune to the effects of iron they could find the silver and
other rare metals needed to make the Haelfinan silver alloy called Blaenarianodd
(bley-nair-ee-AN-oth).
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As a secondary function they could serve as cannon fodder in the Haelfinan's occasional
skirmishes with the reptilian Ullu.
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As miners the Var were ideally suited, with every advantage they needed to work
and live underground designed into them. If any thing the problem was that the Haelfinan
made the Var too good for eventually the Var began to resent their existance
as servants to the haughty and ungrateful Haelfinan.
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GROWING UNREST
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However the Var are never overly hasty and thus over the course of centuries their
rebellion developed in secret, hidden deep beneath the mountains where the Haelfinan
could not go. The Var taught themselves how to forge weapons made of iron and later
learned the secret of steel. They even learned a form of magic called Runecrafting,
though some legends say that they didn't discover it but were instead taught by
some outside entity.
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Meanwhile the Var spread across what was then the single continent of Danoshorvas
along the spines of the many mountain ranges, building great halls and passages
and mastering all elements of stoneworking in the process.
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REBELLION
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Finally, after over a thousand years of meticulous, plodding planning, the Var struck
as one despite the distances between their halls, so that no conclave of Haelfinan
could warn their brethren elsewhere, attacking most Haelfinan settlements one dark,
moonless night.
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The initial devastation was considerable, and the Haelfinan in many areas were overwhelmed.
Those that survived were forced to retreat into places they could defend, such as
islands, marshlands, and other regions that were inaccessible or difficult for the
Var to reach.
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The Haelfinan still remember this night, which they call Dubrawiau (thih-bra-ooh-EE-oh),
which roughly translates into The Great Betrayal or more literally as The Dark Night
of Deepest Dread, and mourn it every year.
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THE VARIC WAR
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However the Haelfinan are a powerful people and though reeling from the Varic assault,
they eventually rallied, and the better part of the next three millenia saw the
two races waging war across the continent.
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HAELFINAN SERVITORS
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The Haelfinan, relatively few in number, created numerous races during this time
to fight against the Var. Learning from their mistakes with each successive try,
the Haelfinan never again made a race that was as intrinsically powerful as the
Var. Instead they tried to design a number of different control mechanisms ranging
from making a particular servitor race stupid, or with a specific weakness, with
an especially short lifespan, or a need for certain substances that could be used
to control them.
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Nothing really worked, for any creation that wasnt capable enough could not contest
with the Var; any weakness they bred in to their creations the Var would eventually
discover and exploit themselves; to short a lifespan and the Var would bottle up
and outwait it; and if the creations were dependent upon something the Var would
eventually discover it and subvert the servant race by providing the substances.
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ENTER THE HUMANS
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Finally after many less-than-successful attempts, the Haelfinan made Humans. Capable
in battle, with a short lifespan but the ability to learn everything they needed
to know in a mere 15 to 20 years (an eyeblink to the long lived Haelfinan and three
times faster than the Var mature). They were tall like the Haelfinan, but sturdier.
Most importantly, they could breed at an astonishing rate. Soon, within a few centuries,
the Humans turned the tide and were taking the war back to the Var.
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Over the next few hundred years the Haelfinan's Human hosts waged vicious war upon
the Var, forcing them to retreat back to their mountain holds in most places. However
the Var noticed that the Humans seemed to have a definite attraction to Varic ornamentation,
especially gold and silver items that their Haelfinan master's did not object to
them having.
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DEFEAT OF THE HAELFINAN
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Capitalizing on this greed, the Var simply bribed numerous Human warlords by offering
whatever treasures they might want in return for their assistance against the Haelfinan's
armies. Some Humans remained loyal to the Haelfinan, but most entered into alliance
with the Var. Combined, the forces of the Var and their Human allies was enough
to finally break the power of the Haelfinan and those Humans that remained loyal
to them.
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All but a few scattered pockets of Haelfinan died or fled the continent to
live upon islands where the Var could not follow them (Humankind had not yet learned
the way of boatcraft in those days). The power of the Haelfinan was shattered, once
and for all.
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In the many millenia since that long ago Age the Var have continued to exist in
their remote mountain holdfasts, connected to one another by ancient underground
tunnels but their numbers have dwindled a little with each passing century. Though
they prefer to keep their distance with other races, some Varholds have alliances
with nearby Humans or are at least on friendly terms with them in general.
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