Introduction
It is interesting to note that those the Elanthians worship as gods were
once servants themselves. The Arkati began their existence as the slaves
of the Drakes, for although they were as old a race as dragonkind, the humanoid
Arkati were lesser in both powers and numbers. The Arkati earned this worship,
for it was only by their intervention that the lesser races such as elves,
humans, dwarves and halflings lived at all. At the peak of each population,
there were perhaps one hundred dragons and fifty Arkati. The planet became
overcrowded, and the Drakes sent their servants to live on the moons of Lornon
and Liabo. Unable to refuse their masters’ command, the Arkati regretfully
left for the satellites. Many feared that the dragons were using Elanthia’s
overcrowding as an excuse to remove the lesser races, and that the relocation
of the Arkati was to facilitate this genocide.
Thus, it is perhaps too convenient that the Ur-Daemons chose this time to
appear. Those Arkati that lived on Liabo did their best to reason with the
Drakes, entreating them to leave the lesser races be. Many say that those
on Lornon followed the same tactic. Some legends recorded by Faendryl seers
and elder historians tell a different tale. Among those sent to the moon
of Lornon was Eorgina, an Arkati with a passion for domination. She was the
strongest personality of those there, and the one with the most talent for
leadership. She was tired of taking a backseat to the Drakes, and having
to grovel for what she wanted. With her masters’ eyes off her activities
for the time, she acted.
She went to Fash’lo’nae, the scholar of those on Lornon, and asked
if he had found anything in his studies that would rid the Arkati of dragon
rule. Fash’lo’nae, punished at one time for spreading knowledge
to the lesser races and bringing them fire, promised Eorgina his aid.
Fash’lo’nae had never mentioned his planar studies to his masters
or his fellow servants. Nor had he ever mentioned the beings he found in
the alternate dimensions. Thus, Eorgina and the other Lornon Arkati were
quite surprised when presented with an Ur- Daemon. Eorgina, quick to recover
from her surprise, wasted no time in pointing out the Drakes and their abundance
of mana to the Ur-Daemons. Were they to remove the dragons, they could share
in the abundance Elanthia presented.
The Ur-Daemons were not stupid. The Arkatis’ ploy was an obvious one,
but the rewards were real. Should they remove the Drakes, the Ur-Daemons
would be free to plunder the planet as they saw fit. They had no intention
of sharing with the Arkati, and these lesser creatures had ended their usefulness
the moment they had opened the Veil. With a smile, the Ur-Daemons agreed
to help the Arkati. Whether or not this legend is true is lost to time. What
is known for certain is that the Ur- Daemons found their way to our dimension,
and with them came chaos. The Ur-Daemon War broke out between the invaders
and the Drakes. Many Arkati rushed to help their masters and were summarily
killed. The intelligent ones hid from the conflict, thereby ensuring their
survival.
The War lasted one thousand years. The final stand, before the portal to
the Ur-Daemons’ home plane that Fash’lo’nae had secretly opened
upon Elanthia, blasted the landscape for hundreds of miles, leaving it a
lifeless wasteland. The Ur-Daemons were gone -- but so were the Drakes. Their
numbers had been decimated, and most of those left had been driven insane
by fear. The Arkati were servants no longer. Their time on Lornon and Liabo
had changed the Arkati, however. Those who state the Lornon Arkati had summoned
the Ur-Daemon say that the Liabo Arkati were horrified and appalled by what
the others had done. Others say that the differing influences of each moon
had changed them. The results are undisputed: when they moved to heal the
damage done to Elanthia, the Arkati were a race divided.
In the early days after the War, some Arkati walked among the mortal races
as teachers, leaders, and guides. They considered Elanthia and its inhabitants
a trust which had befallen them. These were the Liabo Arkati. As they taught
the mortal races, they advised caution dealing with "the Arkati who once
lived upon Lornon." This shortened to "the Arkati of Lornon." The pantheons
of Liabo and Lornon were born. Those of Lornon did not see things as their
Liabo siblings did. They considered the lands a playground, and the lesser
races toys to be trifled with or worse. The two pantheons grew further and
further apart. For a while, war between the groups seemed imminent.
Then Koar summoned the remaining Arkati to a chamber in his mountain sanctum.
What was said in that meeting is unknown, but when the Arkati emerged, they
no longer spoke of fighting each other. They went their separate ways and
have never come into open conflict, although an abundance of small battles
are waged in the background daily.
