The Archons of the Stars

by Alison Baird

  Of Our Kindred in Other Worlds

  . . . I am pleased to inform Your Majesty that our embassy was well received in the land of Trynisia, and that in addition to giving us welcome the Elei were willing to instruct us concerning their own race and also their brethren that dwell among the stars. The reports are now verified that came to our attention concerning the superlunary realm known as the Celestial Empire, and the paths that lead through it. The Fairfolk have mastered the art of traveling through the heavens by these ethereal routes, and have established colonies in celestial bodies much like those our own kingdom has established on remote islands. There are indeed Elei living in the sphere of Arainia, as Your Majesty has heard; for that star is not composed of fire, like the fixed stars of the celestial sphere, but is a world like ours containing earth and air and water. Its bright glow, like the moon’s, is caused merely by the reflection of sunlight. And as I am on the topic of the moon, I should add that it too is a world, and has also been settled by the Elei. Everything is lighter there, so that a bar of iron weighs like a straw, and the lunar Fairfolk have made for themselves feathery cloaks which they use to fly through the air. I have procured a powerful spyglass so that Your Majesty may observe for yourself the meres and woodlands of Numia.

  The Elei have also a thriving commerce with races of men and manlike beings that dwell in distant worlds. Concerning the latter, Your Majesty will be interested to learn that not all are unknown to us here on earth: some indeed have appeared in our mythology and in the wonder-tales of other peoples in Mera, perhaps because the memory of true encounters with these beings lingers on, or it may be that the poets who wrote of them were the recipients of divine visions. A brief description of each of these alien races follows.

  The Hobgoblins

  There are several varieties of hobgoblin or hob, not to be confused in any way with the more dangerous goblins, to which they are not closely related. The boggarts are small, dark, and hairy with vestigial tails, and are playful and mischievous. The smaller, more delicate pixies are also playful and capricious by nature. The fenodyrees are larger (though not as large as we), heavyset, and have enormous noses: they are, despite their grotesque appearance, hardworking and good-tempered beings. All hobgoblins live in subterranean dwellings, called by them “hob-holes.”

  The Undines, or Mermen and Mermaids

  These beings are the offspring of human forebears and the Archon inhabitants, also called undines, of the watery planet Talandria that is visible from our world as a star. Like their divine forebears the mer-folk possess fishlike tails in place of legs, and dwell in the deeps of oceans.

  The Dwarfs, or Gnomes

  The children of the planet Valdys (and of the earth-Archons who were likewise known as gnomes) have an unusually short stature owing to the more powerful force of gravitation in that world. They are strong and sturdy however, and long-lived. Owing to inhospitable conditions on the surface of their world, they spend much of their time underground, in natural caverns and subterranean dwellings they have delved for themselves out of the living rock. They love precious stones, gold and silver, and all riches of the earth, which they fashion into elegant adornments for their lords.

  The Sylphs

  This is a graceful aerial race from the moon-worlds of Iantha, descended from unions between Archons of the same name and human beings. They resemble their Archon ancestors in form, with slight and delicate bodies and long diaphanous wings. They are gifted sorcerers, and can pass from one celestial body to the next through the Mid-Heaven, even entering the upper air of Iantha to ride its winds.

  The Dryads

  An arboreal race from a far-off forested world, dryads are descended from Archons known as hamadryads, who are said to have an affinity with trees. They have a peculiar empathy for all green and growing things. They dwell in houses shaped from living trees, for they will cut no wood, taking it only from trees that wind or old age has felled.

  The Satyrs and Wood-nymphs

  This strange race also claims Archonic descent. The women are very beautiful, but the men are all born with the hind legs and horns of goats. They call their ancestors “the gods” and themselves “demigods.” They are most probably descended from the Archons known as oreads, that dwell in hills and forests. Both the men and women are renowned for their love of dancing and music.

  The Centaurs

  Another of the curious races created by the Archons’ intervention with the stuff of life itself, the bodies of the centaurs are a strange meld of horse and human. They claim no divine descent, but are proud nevertheless of their connection to the Archons. They rarely mingle with our kind, not because they disdain our company, but because their unique form makes it difficult for them to enter men’s dwellings and other structures.

  The Harpies

  The only human portion of a harpy’s anatomy is its head. The feathered bodies of these creatures give them far more in common with birds. Their young hatch from eggs, and they live a century or more. Little else is known about them, for their fearsome nature discourages closer study.

  The Sphinxes

  The most peculiar race of all, the sphinxes are a combination of not two but three different kinds of creatures. As with the harpy, only the head is human. The body is leonine, and is further adorned with the feathered wings of a bird. The sphinxes are extremely ancient, having been created—it is reckoned—by the Archons more than a hundred thousand years ago. They prefer warm climates, and are a cultured race with a great fondness for riddle games.

  The Cyclopes, or Arimaspi

  It is not known whether this race was purposely altered or if it developed on its own. Either way, it is difficult to see the advantage of exchanging two eyes for one, though the single eye of the Cyclops is undoubtedly keen and far-seeing. Theirs is a simple pastoral society, but they are exceedingly fond of gold and gems—a predilection that has landed them in trouble with the race of the cherubim more than once, as many of the Archons’ enchanted treasures are made of these things.

  The Androgyni

  This is a most singular race, whose members are neither male nor female but possess some attributes of each. How their genders came to be blended one into another, instead of being separate as in our kind, is not known: their history does not tell of it, and they say that they have always been as they are.

  The Pygmies

  I have written of the dwarf race, whose members are only half our height, but the pygmy people are smaller still. They barely surpass two feet in height, and consider our kind to be giants. (Only the pixie-folk are smaller, and not by much.) They dwell in caves or in little mud huts that they decorate with feathers and shells, and they ride on goats and sheep instead of horses. They are hard put to defend their crops from the wild cranes that share their world, and that seem to them like great winged monsters, owing to the pygmies’ insignificant stature.

  The Amazons

  The amazon-race is one of the few that received no Archonic intervention whatsoever, but developed entirely on its own. Placed on a warm jungle world in ancient times, they exhibited a warlike temperament from the first, engaging in millennia of internecine warfare. One tribe finally rebelled against the rest, its women uniting to defend their children from harm by learning and mastering the arts of war. The female armies defeated all the others, and assumed a dominant role in their world. They have grown taller than their men and stronger, and are deeply distrustful of any new races they encounter.

  The Woodwoses

  The woodwoses or wild men arose from early ancestors placed by the Archons on a cold and densely forested world. In order to remain alive they grew thick pelts of hair, while remaining human in every other way. They can be wild in their behavior, prefer their food raw, and usually sleep out of doors, but will adjust their manners according to the company they are in, even to the point of donning some token clothing for modesty’s sake.

  The Demonspawn

  The creatures called Demonspawn or Morugei consi
st of four separate groups, all of them brutal in nature and uncouth in appearance. The Anthropophagi, named for their cannibalistic habits, are in turn composed of several races: many-eyed, one-legged, bird-footed (the Struthopodes). The Cynocephali have the heads of dogs and are dull-witted, having been bred for docility and loyalty.

  Then there are the goblins, each individual uniquely hideous and barely recognizable as human, with grossly distorted features; the large, brutish and slow-thinking trolls; and the equally large but far more cunning ogres. There are rumors of even more terrible creatures in the benighted world from which the Demonspawn come: the ghouls and vampires that feast, respectively, on dead flesh and living blood. But it is not known whether these truly exist, or are merely myths in which the Demonspawn believe.

  Of the Seven Kingdoms of Mera

  Trynisia

  The peoples of Maurainia had long been aware of the existence of a race that dwelt in the far north, variously referred to as the Elei, the Fairfolk, or the Hyperboreans. They appear first in the myths and legends of the northern tribes, where it was said that they led an idyllic life in an island paradise untouched by the surrounding cold, and lived for more than a hundred and fifty years. Theirs was an easeful, pastoral existence, it was said: they had but one city, built on the summit of the mountain Elendor. The myths told that they learned their language and many other skills from their gods—who were also their progenitors. They believed in an enchanted sky-realm, which differed from the Heaven of other faiths in that they believed they could enter it while still alive, and that they even had kindred dwelling among the stars.

  The first Merei (that is to say, non-Elei) people they contacted were the tribes of Rialain. Shards of Elei pottery and some of their jewelry have been unearthed in the frozen north of that country. They were driven away at first by the native people, however, and made no permanent settlements. Some were captured by warriors, and became thralls or concubines: many Rialainish people claim descent from the Elei today, and declare that the gift of prescience or Second Sight that is widely reported among them is their Elei heritage. In later times the Elei returned, moving farther down the coast to Maurainia, and created settlements along the then uninhabited Coastal Range. They befriended the natives over time, and set up trade with them. They did the same in the northernmost country of the Shurkanese in the Antipodes.

  In the latter days of the Third Millennium they went to war with the Zimbouran people, supposedly over the theft of a sacred gem from their chief temple. It was the first war they had ever waged: minor skirmishes with an unknown, possibly mythical race called the Morugei (described as hideous, misshapen offspring of demons) were the only other conflicts in their recorded history. They required the help of the warrior king of Maurainia and his armies in order to overthrow the Zimbouran king, whom they also described as a demon’s spawn. The war lasted for more than three years, but the enemy surrendered at last and sued for peace. But Elei civilization did not long outlast Zimboura; for mere decades after their triumph the great cataclysm of 2497 N.E. brought a swift end to their domination of the Commonwealth. The race has since interbred with others and died out, leaving only ruins, relics, and the dead language of Elensi as its legacy. The Elei homeland of Trynisia has never been found, leading some scholars to question whether it truly existed.

  The Western Continent

  Our great continent is made up of a triad of nations, home to three distinct peoples: Rialain to the north; our own kingdom of Maurainia; and Marakor in the south. All these countries were once a patchwork of smaller, warring kingdoms until about three thousand years ago. Menyath the Great, first king of Maurainia, conquered the tribes of hill and plain and united them over the course of a thirty-year campaign, bringing them at last under his rule, and reigning from his kingdom in the east. The southern kingdom of the Marakites was formed as an alliance to face this threat of a unified Maurainia. The Rialainish also remained proudly unconquered, and declared that their reputation for ferocity kept them safe, although it is said that in truth Menyath had no desire to annex their cold and inhospitable lands. Nor did he take the Elei settlement on the eastern coast beyond the Range, which remained independent. It is said the mountains proved too great a barrier for his armies, and also that his men had a superstitious fear of the “children of the gods” who dwelt among those distant peaks towering over the eastern plain. Embassies were sent instead, and over the next century peaceful relations with the Elei were established. At about this time the Maurainian prophet, Orendyl, established his One Faith, and Menyath adopted the new religion and insisted that his subjects also convert. His motive in this may well have been more politicial than spiritual: for no doubt he saw one dominating faith in a single deity as yet another means to unify the disparate tribes. The Elei retained their old traditions, but they and the Maurainians continued to live in harmony, with the faithful interpreting the Elei gods as “angels” while the Fairfolk added Orendyl’s god, Aan, to their own pantheon.

  Six centuries later a new threat came from Valivar IX of Zimboura, who sent his fleets in many forays against the Continent. The three kingdoms formed an alliance, and the Elei settlements of the coast and Range were incorporated into Maurainia. Emissaries were also sent, it is said, to the Elei of Trynisia, who proposed that a new Commonwealth of nations be established. The Kaanish people of the Archipelagoes, also fearing the Zimbourans, asked to be included, as did the Antipodean kingdoms of Shurkana and Mohar. Valivar was succeeded by the still more rapacious King Gurusha. In Maurainia, the new-crowned King Brannar Andarion resolved to meet this foe on his own ground. A fabulous tale had already arisen that declared Andarion to be the offspring of a mortal woman and a faerie, and as this put him on something of an equal footing with the “semidivine” Elei he no doubt encouraged its propagation. He led his army and that of the Elei across the sea to Zimboura, where he killed Gurusha in single combat, ending the threat for that time. His choice of an Antipodean woman to be his queen was perhaps designed to help relations with the peoples of the Eastern Continent, though the union proved disastrous in the end, and his one son later rebelled against him and was slain in a siege of Andarion’s own castle. Regarding Brannar Andarion’s own end little is known: he has no tomb in Maurainia, and therefore it must be presumed that he died in a foreign land. (The mythmakers declared that there was no tomb because he did not die at all, but was permitted to enter the Faerie Realm of his supernatural sire, where he lives on to this very day. Some also declare that he will return at some future date, as yet unrevealed.)

  After the Disaster it is said that Maurainia fell into chaos because it was left without the spiritual center of Trynisia. However that may be, the king left no heirs and in the early days of the Dark Age the Patriarchs of the Faith were obliged to set up a theocracy until a true heir of the realm could be found. Forgetting all treaties, Marakor and Rialain took advantage of their neighbor’s disarray to make forays into unguarded territories of Maurainia, and it seemed a relapse into the barbarism of the previous ages would result. But the theocrats anointed King Harron I, thus bringing the Interregnum to a close. Modeling himself after his idol Menyath the Great, he reunited Maurainia and drove the Marakites back behind their former borders. His successor, Harron II, signed new treaties with both Rialain and Marakor, and announced the creation of a second Commonwealth embracing all the Western Continent, as well as several outlying colonies on islands that Maurainia had seized. The Dark Age was ended.

  The Archipelagoes and Antipodes

  The history of the Eastern Continent is sadly marred by an almost continuous strife that goes back to epochs before recorded history. It has at various times been the home of no fewer than four empires, each of which has struggled for dominance over the centuries.

  The oldest is that of the Mohara in the south, who raised the first cities along the river deltas of the western coast. Their later history was plagued with tribal warfare, which ultimately caused the people to abandon the city-
states and return to living off the land as their forefathers had done.

  Next to arise was the empire of Kaana. It lasted for a thousand years, dominating all the Continent not only by the great strength of its armies, but with its art, music, poetry, and philosophy. The Kaans were first to explore the sea, and they claimed as their territory the many archipelagoes there. But Kaana too declined in the end, perhaps by overextension, even as the kingdom of the Shurkana arose in the north. (Shurkana comes from the Kaanish words shur Kaana, or “beyond Kaana.”) The Shurkanese too were a wise and ancient people, and their growing realm might also have come to rule the Antipodes in time. But another rival nation arose to challenge their might.

  The Zimbourans came out of the harsh steppes of the southern peninsula, a land into which the Moharas seldom ventured. Hardy and warlike, with pale skin and the strength of spirit that enables a people to endure bitter weather and scant food, the southern tribe drove the Dogoda people with whom they shared the plains to the extreme tip of the peninsula, and to the very edge of annihilation. They then began to push northward, seeking for fertile lands with gentler climates, but were ill-received by the Moharas due to their religion, which required human sacrifice. This practice was abhorrent to all the other Antipodeans, and because they would not alter their ways the Zimbourans were shunned, and they were excluded from the Commonwealth. In retaliation, or so it is alleged, their King Gurusha later arranged to have a sacred gemstone stolen from the High Temple of Trynisia. But even without this excuse, war between the Zimbourans and the Commonwealth lands was most likely inevitable. Their defeat at the hands of Andarion, and the Disaster with its ensuing chaos, left their kingdom in ruins for some time. Helped by their fierce resilience, however, they were first to recover from the cataclysm, and went on to conquer and despoil the Moharan lands before overrunning the Kaans’ decrepit empire. The last remaining Kaanish people fled across the sea and resettled in the colonies of the Archipelagoes, which had become an island empire and flourished under the old Commonwealth.