Betrayal of Man

Time, seasons, and holidays » Betrayal of Man
The Betrayal of Man is an event remembered by the elves in Anuire on the day after the spring equinox, in Rjurik it occurs a week after Midsummer, in the Khinasi lands it occurs on the Winter Solstice, in Vosgaard the elves of Tuar Annwn remember it on the 16th of Talienir.
The elves of the Gheallie Sidhe typically ride to hunt men in memory of this day, which was the crucial point in each of the countries on which the humans turned on the sidhe. The initial contacts between the sidhe and the humans were generally peaceful in most realms, as both races struggled against the goblins. However at some point the relations soured, usually because the humans coveted the elven lands (at least from the elves' viewpoint).
In Anuire, Landen of Haelyn began his crusade against ?elven wickedness? with an attack on the elven village of Three Trees which was burnt to the ground, its inhabitants caged in iron cages, hung from trees and left to burn in the flames or starve to death thereafter. Although Landen had long raged against the elves and been cast out from the main church for his demagogic rants this was the first direct attack on an elven village. Rhuobhe Manslayer always raids Boeruine on this day, and the inhabitants of Nietier and Redoubt often spend the days of Rhuobhe?s wrath in Seasedge. Landen was slain by Rhuobhe a week after the Three Trees massacre and every few years another priest of Haelyn is foolish enough to be caught by the elf on this day and made a martyr.
In the Rjurik lands Archdruid Gunnar Thorsson made the declaration of Erik?s charge in which he proclaimed the Rjurik the only true defenders of the wilderness and claimed that the elves were ?still allied with Azrai and therefore should be driven out of Erik?s forests?, this was the start of the open hostility between the druids and the elves, each of whom considered themselves the true guardians of the forests.
In Khinasi the serious conflict between the Basarji and the elves was caused not by a priest, but by a merchant, Farid ibn Salim. Farid, a vastly wealthy merchant, was terrified of water after a series of mishaps at sea was determined to build a road from Mesire to the Vos lands which he believed to hold vast mineral wealth. He cleared land along the banks of the southern parts of the Zhaïnge River with ease; dredging the river in parts to make it deep enough to take large ships and building fortified trading posts along the bank. The northern part of the river however (now the lands of Kozlovnyy) cut straight through the great elven realm of Innishiere. A deeply pious man Farid saw it as his duty to clear the forest for 3 leagues to either side of the river. At least fifty thousand Basarji and Masetians died in fulfilling his dream, but when he was done the elven realm had been shattered. Now Innishiere has fragmented into three surviving elven realms, the western woods are still called Innishiere, while the northern part of the realm is known as Cwmb Bheinn and the southeast is called Rhuannach. The anger of the Khinasi elves on this day is tempered by a great guilt ? the magic unleashed by their sorcerers turned the pastures and rolling hills of Taravan into a wasteland where, almost two millennia later, the land is barren and covered in sand dunes.
In Vosgaard the elves of Tuar Annwn in the Grovnekevic Forest grieve not for the day when the Vos turned on them ? the two races never lived in peace, instead they remember the terrible day when their warriors battled on the shores of the Leviathan?s Reach and their sorcerers tore the barrier between Cerilia and the Shadow World, releasing the terrors of the Shadow World against the warriors of the Vos. The Battle Fens still writhe with the unleashed magic and the Shadow World is omnipresent even during the brief summer.
As the Brecht always gave the forests a wide berth (partly due to their preference for staying close to the coast, and partly due to the fact that they actually asked the goblins about the elves, and the stories made them see co-existence as more profitable), the elves of Coullabhie do not have a similar day in their calendar.