The Sixth Age (2501 - 2818) - The Age of Elven Alliances

This is the age where the Elf Queen reformed the Shards into her unified crown - the Dark Elves weakened by the disasters in Underdark, the High Elves' detente with the chromatics having fallen back into a period of wariness after the chromatics sided with the Council in the Empire's civil war, and the Empire's civil war itself providing a strong incentive for the Elves to get their act together. In this time, she used the weakness of the Shadow Elves to bring them to heel, lured the High Elves in with the idea of 'you need to stick with people you have more in common with', and the fall of the High Druid and her Barbarian hordes in the end of the last Age to bring the Wood Elves back in towards their kin. And she took actions at high personal risk in a way that cemented the loyalty of all three branches into the future, because she could always remind them of the sacrifices she made to help them. Leading a combined force into the Underdark to rescue a community of Shadow Elves from an Illithid invasion, for example. And leading an expedition to seal off a major leak of GANT from the Lab of Many Colors, saving a group of High Elves in the process.

The sagas sing of the Three Great Gifts the Elf Queen gave, one to each of the three peoples. What were they? To the Shadow Elves, the gift of Light - the promise of refuge, whenever the Underdark should grow too strong for any individual Dark Elf to take. To the Wood Elves, the gift of Lore - whenever the harvests should fail, diseases fall, or the unknown strike, the Dark and High Elves would bring their knowledge to bear. To the High Elves, the gift of Love - a reminder that life requires emotion as well as reason, laughter as well as lore, and forgiveness as well as propriety.

The greatest rebel against all this was Ministar, of the Wood Elves. He had been a follower of the former High Druid, and had argued for the Elves to join with the Barbarian hordes in the wars that ended the prior age; he did not take her death well, and vowed revenge on the forces of the Empire. In the end, she was forced to banish him to the Underdark, there to be guarded by the Shadow Elves in what amounted to house arrest. After many years, he managed to escape and disappeared into the Underdark, never to be seen again. Various rumors suggest that he was eaten by the Illithids, or that he took over and ruled a city of Illithids, or that he became an Illithid. The Elf Queen channeled the aggression of the Elves outwards Against the twisted monsters of the Underdark. This was another way she secured the loyalty of the Shadow Elves, by fighting their enemies. It was also a calculated move, as not only did the Elves hate them, just about everyone else hated them, so it was a safe direction to channel aggression, and also would earn them some brownie points from most of the other races.

Relations with the Dwarves having been soured for a long while, along with the Dwarven Troubles, the Empire saw the ascent of the Elven Queen and sensed a shift in the winds. And at last, the Empire forged a proper treaty with the elves, ushering in advances influenced by elven knowledge. The Empire gained a better understanding of elven magic, and particularly magic related to nature. A boon to help crops grow, and create new ones.

The Dwarves were indeed unhappy with this turn, and began withdrawing military aid and levy economic embargoes. The dwarves however, began to realize all this did was made them rely even more on their newfound alliance with the elves. This would not do. And thus the Dwarves grudgingly realized they'd have to compete with the elves for influence.

Elven aid enabled opening trade with a distant land known as Exilec, who cultivated weird alien insects for all manner of purposes. The people there dwell in the shells of swollen beetles, and wield barbed insects as living weapons. The creatures of Exilec scuttle out of rifts in reality, and are then captured and bred by the rangers of that land. They brought shells, perfumes, and jewels to the Empire and bought various kinds of preserved meats, cloth, and metals. But the biggest benefit they brought was a clearer map of the world, which would enable more exploration in the next age. The Empire, once believing itself the world, now had an idea that the world was far bigger than it had reckoned. This set off a wave of explorers.

It's very difficult for surface dwellers, even the dwarves, to have a clear image of what goes on in the Underdark. But what is known is this: during the 5th Age, a schism formed in Illithid society. Using the knowledge they'd stolen from the Colleges of Magic, Illithid mages, long subordinate to the Elder Brains and their psionic lackeys, began flexing their muscles. The most powerful of them carved out their own fiefdoms in the Underdark, sometimes in uneasy alliance with mainstream Illithid society, sometimes not.

The most powerful of the Illithid mages unified their psionic and arcane might to become something truly terrifying; the Alhoon, Mind-Flayer liches. Liches hadn't been unknown to the Empire prior to this but the Alhoon, or 'Illiches' as some wags in the College of Black named them, married the raw, brutal arcane power of a regular lich with the raw, unearthly discipline of the Illithid race. A council of extremely powerful Alhoon's occupied the Necropolis and began to act as patrons for the more intelligent, powerful kinds of Undead throughout the Empire, using their access to the Underdark as a huge carrot. A lot of deals were struck with vampires, ghoul lords, human liches and demi-liches, and the like. They never truly conquered anything on the surface by the Necropolis but Undead became much more prevalant in the Underdark, and much more ORGANIZED on the surface.

Icon Notes

• The Cultist: Historians argue endlessly over whether the Cultist was just another Diabolist under a fake name, an Icon from some other land who snuck in to cause trouble, or might even be something made by the Elven Queen to purge her followers of their negative feelings which then created an evil Icon. After trying to corrupt everything with mixed success, he was eventually captured by the Prince of Shadows, who sold him to the Elven Queen; his final fate is unknown or whether the Prince really even sold him at all.
• The Grandmaster: Spin the wheel and make a deal. The Grandmaster ran an arena and anyone could bet on the matches if they traveled to Bartertown. The bigger the wish, the bigger the price if you lost the bet. The Wheel of Fortune determined what kind of match you were betting on. On the very last day of the age, Bartertown suddenly vanished and the Grandmaster and Bartertown and everyone in it never returned and their fate is still unknown. The general rumor is that someone made a wish that the Grandmaster could not grant, somehow.
• The Marrow-Eater: To the surprise and horror of all, an Icon arose who fed upon the dead, preying on the Illithid Alhoons and their followers but other dead as well. He was followed by ghouls and trolls and hyenas and vultures and other eaters of carrion and/or the undead. Eventually, he decided to eat the remains of the White, but the Four showed up and ate him.

Emperors of Note

• Lucas I (2501-2538): Son of Boris V, he was born Boris, but instituted the practice of Regnal names. He did much of the hard work of fixing the damage of previous ages.
• Gabrielle II (2608-2642): Her mother had died fighting gnoll invasions in the south. She signed the alliance with the Elves which would bear much fruit.
• Leo III (2674-2706): A worthless drunken degenerate who could apparently drink a bottle of wine with every meal and come back for more. His ability to survive drinking too much was legendary and rumored to have saved him from Yuan-Ti assassins.
• Leo V, Jules II, Melissa I, Clement I, Alexandra I (2751): The Cultist struck and all the children of Leo IV perished in a series of murders over the course of five months. Melissa II (2751-88), daughter of Alexandra I, survived and drove the Cultist off and instituted a bloody hunt for demon cults, aided by Elven magic.

Elves of Note

• Aigle (2542-2809): A Dark Elven merchant who helped to promote the voyages which led to first contact with Exilec. She then became noted for wearing and selling Exilec goods, especially perfumes and beetle carapace armor.
• Calsandros "Quickbeam" (2498-2734): A noted Wood Elf Bard who travelled through the lands, gathering sagas of elder days and turning them into song. His epic about the Elven Civil War, The War of the Three Sisters, remains a popular tune.
• Celebsir (2512-2663): A High Elven wizard who was a leading member of the Red College of Wizardry. Slain in battle preventing the Cultist from assassinating the Elf Queen.

How Does the Age End?

The time came when the Archmage and the Great Gold Wyrm's Paladins moved against General Lead, who called on his sovereign to save him. As General Lead answered to virtuous and upright Emperors... General Dead answers to the LICH KING. The Lich King did not come forth, but General Dead led a massive rampage of undead which devastated the countryside. But the cities held out and in the end, he was put down and the age came to an end with less damage than many ages, setting the stage for the Seventh Age and its glories.

Things Which Remain In Later Ages

• The Golden Carapace: Imagine a sixty foot tall suit of armor made from green, blue and golden beetle carapaces. The rulers of Exilec sent this as a gift to the Emperor. It is thought to remain in the Imperial Arsenal, though it requires rare substances which mean it is used in only the darkest hours.
• The Horror of General Dead: The liches of the Necropolis most successful and terrifying endeavor of the age was the location of the ancient tomb of a long-dead sept of Sorcerors of the Second Age. Using their arcane power, they resurrected that great hero, General Lead, as an unliving avatar of their own twisted power and agenda. He rose from the grave as... General Dead! And he came to free all the people of the land from the tyranny of the living against the dead. General Dead rampaged across the Empire for many years before being finally put down. Wherever the dead had been neglected, mistreated, ancestor shrines left to crumble, cemeteries left to become overgrown and forgotten, forlorn ghosts unplacated and unlamented, General Dead would arise to help them take their righteous revenge against their living oppressors. He was only finally thrown down when the Archmage, as well as multiple orders of Paladins, took a hand. General Lead would return in future ages... but those are tales for another time.
• The Twine of the Three: After her success in reuniting the three branches of Elfdom, the Elf Queen commemorated the event by building a great spire, the Twine of the Three. In a form that mimics her crown, three pillars of obsidian, emerald, and diamond start separately and come together, twisting around until they form a tightly knit braid, culminating in a great beacon. The spire itself can be seen for many leagues during the day, and the beacon turns the night to day. Many many years later, after the Dwarf-Elf truce, the city of Concord is built around what had been a solitary monument.
• The Wyrm Golem: In a terrible accident born dwarven technology, elven magic and human hubris, the empire sought to create a megaweapon and created an artificial wyrm, The Wyrm Golem, which of course, went wild and broke loose. It is known to have nested in the volcanic mountains of the west, and its lair is said to be littered with the things the Wyrm Golem has taken an interest in hoarding. The things it has taken an interest in is dwarven shipments of precious minerals, elven magical lodestones, and stray golems. Few have ventured into the lair, fewer have returned, and all have confirmed the Wyrm Golem is indeed very difficult to kill.