The Ksarate of Alekki

"Take me to husband, then," quoth Sekadi, "that of our union a single people shall spring."

-- inscription at the base of The Lovers Entwined, Suor Market, Kiitomen Town, erected 823 III Age

Ruler's Title: Ksar
National Hero: Tovainen
National Wizard: Leina
Military Units: Jarl, Ice Chariots, Pikemen of the Ksar, Hawks of the Ksar
Starting Forces: Tovainen, Leina, 3 Ice Chariots, 3 Pikemen, 3 Hawks
Starting Treasury: 10
Continent: Ahaut

History: During the Second Age, say the legends, the ancient Kingdom of Allectus, one of the greatest fiefs of the Empire of the Sun, was inhabited mainly by elves of the Beleadri, one of the three main elven peoples. But in the Transformation that ended the Age, its wide forests became high mountains, glaciers, deep valleys; and the great Kingdom became scattered elven settlements, surviving in a strange and different world, struggling against a tide of human invaders.

Those humans were the Suor, springing out of the north: herders of caribou and craggy sheep, nomads with scant knowledge of metalworking or much else, but possessing a strange, wild magic of their own.

For centuries, the Allectines and Suor coexisted uneasily; from the Suor, the Allectines learned the arts of survival in their suddenly cold lands, learned new magic forms, learned herding. From the Allectines, the Suor learned metalworking, literacy, agriculture. Though these peoples warred often, they grew to know and respect one another. And their languages grew closer, too, until they could hardly be distinguished, until the elves could no longer read the works of the Allectines, until they began to call themselves and the Suor together the "Alekki" -- a Suor corruption of "Allectus."

And then came the first true marriage between the two peoples. A Suor shaman named Kiita took to husband an elf, Sekadi, a prince among his own people; her powers ensured that their offspring would be viable. They became Ksar and Ksarina among the Alekki, and their half-human, half-elven offspring remain the nation's royal house. In imitation, the nobility -- and even some of the commoners -- of both races have frequently intermarried in recent centuries.