Chapter 34: The Lands History
Luoyang had endless forests to the south and east. Besides the countless magic beasts roaming the woods, legend has it that elves lived among these trees.
They were the once rulers of the Aram Continent, with beautiful complexions, long lives and gifted in magic, controlling plant life and magic beasts to call to their aid in battle.
But everything that had a beginning had an end. Because of their incredible gifts, the gods took from them a crucial feature.
Despite their long lives, their reproduction was very poor, making the humans grow in far larger numbers and faster.
Putting an end to their reign on the Aram Continent and enslaving every other race since their force had a thousand rank four, a hundred rank five and countless soldiers of other ranks.
It was enough to quell any race. Especially with the human's Moon Goddess, Annabelle cowering the Forest God Frieda with Elven God Neil and other races' weaker gods.
The age of elves came to an end from the thousands of years of peace they wallowed in. It destroyed their battle spirit and vigilance. All they ever cared about was the pursuit of love, freedom, art, music and all that crap.
They neglected magic research, put off archery and settling for mundane life while abhorring anything remotely violent.
They pursued something as insipid as love, never marrying in loyalty for their loved ones. Wasting resources on art and killing many lives by exploiting others.
It was then the seed of hate took hold, growing into an unyielding tree.
The ignorant elves slept at peace as the race with the biggest ambition grew stronger and stronger, humans.
Despite having strength, they lacked land, resources and support. It reached a point where they turned their eyes to the rulers of the continent, the elves.
Knowing their numbers weren't enough as their kingdom paled in comparison to their empire, the leaders went to ally with other races, to overthrow the elves' brutal regime.
Waiting and buying their time for a hundred years, everything was in order for war to erupt.
Under the combined force of men, dwarfs and beastmen, helped by hundreds of other less numerous races, they struck the elves with a flood of 100 million army.
The corrupt elves were crushed, losing as much as 200,000 people in the initial attack.
The arrogant higher ups clinged to the long lost glory of the elves in vain, amplifying the losses.
The death toll rose so much even the rebels didn't want to see another elf's execution.
It reached to a point thousands died every day in this pointless war for over a year.
Their population plunged to just 200,000, with their strongest having long since died and the newborns killed.
This led to the population being made of only old and young fighters. Even the old were close to being wiped out, having no power to defend themselves. Only 10% survived those that had the strength to fight back.
The genocide had progressed so much that the survival of the elven race was at stake.
Because of the elven gods, a meeting took place to decide the fate of the elven race. They feared the elven gods might unleash their wrath and wipe everyone along with the elves.
The god's might on the Aram Continent was under the world's suppression, but it was more than enough to deal with common people.
It led to all the other races' gods reaching a consensus, banishing the elves in four directions, the southwest swamp, the south ridge, the southeast forest and east prairie; the same areas they looked on with disdain, would now be their new homes.
As for the rebels, they took the central area with its lush lands to support the numerous races and people.
But this was far from over. The humans, now having access to rich resources, didn't like sharing them with the rest.
Through conspiracies and schemes, they incited a dwarven and beastman war while dragging the other races into the bloody murder machine. All while humans stood at the side and watched them burn each other in the flames of war.
Years of war later, the two races were at their end, the perfect time for humans to bear their fangs. They struck hard and fast, either wiping, driving them out or forcing them to surrender.
The dwarves hid in the south ridge and southwest swamp. Despite pursuing, the elven alliance pushed the humans back.
The beastmen fled to the northwest desert, to endure starvation and the bitter sandstorms. As for the other races, very few members remained.
With foreign affairs over, the human's empire went through civil war over power. The defeated were banished into the northwest desert, and the north's icy flats.
Because of the constant wars and cruelties, the human society devolved into a different kind of humans, barbarians.
The same one Zhong Yu was fighting right now.
For the elves, it took merely three generations with their 1000 years lifespan.
The wounds from the war were still healing, their population barely reaching 300,000. Compared to the rest of the human population of a billion and millions of soldiers with heroic figures rising again and again, it was nowhere near enough.
All they could do was sit in their corner and lick their wounds, lest they enter a hole so deep they'd never get out, extinction.
Proof was the countless battles the savages had all these years and yet not once did they see elves joining.