The Elddar and Takish-Hiz

Tunare’s first children

Tunare saw a lush forest on a great continent, made a race of elves and settled them there. They called themselves the Elddar, and they prospered quickly. Their descendants are today’s high elves and wood elves, and the official lore says you can still see Elddar influence in high elf and wood elf cities.

The Elddar Forest spread across the whole southeastern quarter of Tunaria. Wood elves lived in villages high in the trees; the high elves built marble cities in the clearings, with white towers taller than the tallest trees. At its heart stood Takish-Hiz.

Sources: Library of Erudin: Elddar Forest · Library of Erudin: “The History of Norrath” (original EverQuest manual text) · Allakhazam: Tunare

The first theft

Not every god was pleased. Innoruuk, who had been left out of the gods’ pact, reached into the halls of Takish-Hiz and stole the first elven king and queen. According to the RPG they were of the ruling house of Thex. He tore them apart in body and mind for three hundred years, then rebuilt what was left into the first Teir’Dal, the dark elves, and cast them into the underworld of Norrath.

Sources: Library of Erudin: “The History of Norrath” (original EverQuest manual text) · Library of Erudin: EverQuest RPG Player’s Handbook: History of Norrath (2002) · Allakhazam: Innoruuk

Solusek Ro’s sun

The last of the old empires to fall was the elves’. Solusek Ro, Lord of Flame, arched the spine of the Serpent Mountains and brought the heat of the burning sun down on the forest. Rivers ran dry and the rain came less every year. The elven druids fought it with all their magic, but they could only slow it.

The forest became desert, Takish-Hiz crumbled, and the elves fled Tunaria. That was the beginning of the Lost Age. Much later, in Secrets of Faydwer, Tunare enlisted Karana and Druzzil Ro to send adventurers back in time to the living city, to recover knowledge for the fight against Mayong Mistmoore.

Sources: Library of Erudin: “The History of Norrath” (original EverQuest manual text) · Library of Erudin: Elddar Forest · Library of Erudin: EverQuest RPG Player’s Handbook: History of Norrath (2002) · Allakhazam: Solusek Ro

The Tomb of the Crown

A 2003 EverQuest Online Adventures lore article, credited to Lyriam Kaelean of the College of High Magic, describes the city’s burial ground. To the west, in the Serpent’s Spine, the elves built the tomb and catacombs of Holciel Rowen’dal, which roughly translates as Tomb of the Crown. For hundreds of years the honoured dead were carried there in great processions along the Road of the Dead, and inside the tomb each social caste had its own place, from commoners up to royalty.

Sources: Library of Erudin: The Fall of Takish-Hiz (EQOA — Chapter 2: Tomb of the Crown)

The ones who stayed

The same article says not every elf fled. Many stayed, believing the forest could still be restored. The sands swallowed hundreds of them, hundreds more were carried to the tomb, and the elves still remembered the path of the Road of the Dead after it was buried. Their experiments to bring Elddar back failed, and their numbers shrank every year. Then the Teir’dal came and made war on the home of their ancient enemies. After the defeat of Al’Karad, Takish-Hiz was doomed, and the dark elves slaughtered everyone who could not escape. In Greater Faydark, Niflel Faliwae still tells the story of the elves trapped beneath the sands.

Sources: Library of Erudin: The Fall of Takish-Hiz (EQOA — Tomb of the Crown; Niflel Faliwae dialogue)

A festival when the world ended

The in-game book Veldyn’s Elven Tale gives the fall a single face: Veldyn, an ordinary young Elddar who wove silk and tended the wounded. There was a festival, it says, “the day that the world ended,” with the trees full of glowing wisps. The RPG bestiary Monsters of Norrath adds a stranger legacy. Scrolls from ancient Takish-Hiz suggest the elven druids created the desert’s giant terrorantulas to defend their lands against the armies of Rallos Zek.

Sources: Library of Erudin: The Fall of Takish-Hiz (Veldyn’s Elven Tale; Monsters of Norrath — Terrorantula)