Chapter 11- The Fall of House Faline, pt 1
The Svartalf. The Andskotialf. The Illtalf. The black elf. The adversary elf. The evil elf. Named thus because among the Alfar only the Svartalf enslave both Animals and fellow Primes. No reason was ever given for their treachery, and so, they were named Flaralfar. The treacherous elves.
No one knew, nei, not even the common Svartalf knew the real reasons behind their raids on the surface dwellers. Or the reasons for the special vengeance they heaped upon their unknowing Alfar cousins.
To battle drums they marched, and to an anthem they sung a song of betrayal and savage murder. Of supposed evils heaped upon them and their foremothers from times beginning...
The Svartalf would never forget...
And, they would never forgive...
It was all a lie.
It was all propaganda designed to keep the commoners disquietingly in check. Disquieting because they wanted the people to be angry, and to hate! Anyone. Everyone! That doesn't look like a Svartalf. That doesn't think like a Svartalf. That doesn't worship at the same altar as the Svartalf!
For anyone not Svartalf their was only death or slavery awaiting them...
The truth...is a deceptive thing. Elusive and hard to find under so many layers of hate and corruption. But, truth can be found...when searched for hard enough, for long enough.
The truth was that the Svartalf Alf were the smallest of the sub races of Alf to escape the during the Exodus. The truth was that soon after they broke away and alienated themselves from their brothers and sisters. The truth was that in doing so they limited their own gene pool so much they were in danger of becoming sterile, and dying out completely as a people. So, from time to time, the Queen-Matron of the Svartalf would send out orders to her Governors. Each city would send out their militia, generally made up of about five-thousand men and women. Then the Queen's Governors assign a few aspiring young nobles of middling rank with the mission of capturing a borg, and every baer and heimili in between. They were to use the slave militiamen as fodder in the battles. Once they were victorious they would take everyone and everything as spoils of war, and whatever couldn't be carried off was set on fire.
Upon the Svartalf army's eventual return with their prisoners and booty, entire families were bought and sold in the slave markets. Owning slaves and Animals became a status symbol where it was customary that a Household's wealth, prosperity, influence, and political station could be estimated or judged by the type and number of slaves and Animals they owned. With slave labor to build their empire, the lowest common Svartalf Household became wealthy enough to own one or two Animals whereas the wealthier commoners might own one or two Villralfar or Dokkalfar, and as many as twenty Animals. As for the wealthiest merchants and noble Houses, they owned hundreds, sometimes thousands of slaves and Animals. Even their own fellow Svartalf, if such a poor soul had fallen on hard times and into debt. If selling his property could not pay off his debt then he could sell himself, his wife, or children into slavery to pay it off.
As time passed the slave markets grew, and very quickly the rarest, the most sought after, and hence, the most expensive of all the Prime races to purchase as a slave became the Dvergr and Nurm. They are hard to find outside of their Fjallheims, and even harder to capture alive. Everyone of them is a mastersmith and engineer making a House's acquisition of a Dvergr or Nurm a guarantee that their Guard would be outfitted with the finest armor, and weapons. The Household staff would have the finest cutlery and silverware, and the Matron and her House would have the finest jewelry and teknology.
Through the millenniums, as with all civilizations built on the backs of slaves, it became common practice that the more beautiful men and women would be raped by the more nefarious masters and matrons whereas the more benevolent would buy and keep families together and slowly intermarry the children. Most though, fell somewhere in between. It became an open secret that no one discussed since every Svartalf House claimed to have pure bloodlines. However, the Matron's began taking Villr and Dokkalfar males as secondary consorts to sire offspring after having a pure Svartalf heir with a Svartalf consort.
To allay bruised feelings the Matron very often also took the Villr and Dokkalfar men's wives and daughters and gave them as gifts to her husband, sons, and ranking House Guard to breed with, thereby constantly mixing new blood into their stagnant genepool.
Though the taking of the other Alfar subraces as breeding stock was an open secret. The greatest taboo among the Svartalf nobility was also taking Exiled High-humans, Dvergr, or Nurm as consorts. Such a scandal could ostracize a House from all political society if found out, and treachery or assassination from within a House to cover up such a humiliation was not unheard of.
Aldrnari, and her companions were children of such mixed unions. She was the darkest of the lot, with the Svartalf ebony skin. Her eyes were a hazel of red, gold, and green, and her hair was as black as polish onyx giving away her Half-alf heritage. In the whole of House Faline, she knew of only Trina Armiano as having the same black hair as her. Besides her hair, she appeared pure Svartalf. She was five feet four inches tall. She was lithe like all Alf with small breasts just able to fill a man's hand quite nicely. Her waist was slim, and her hips were wide enough that were as broad as her shoulders. Her buttock's was taut and thickly muscled and yet not as large as some of her counterparts.
Dield took after her Dokkalfar father in her coloring, but she was built more robustly like her Svartalf mother. Her eyes were a brilliant hazel gold mixed with deep earthy brown and crimson. Her skin was a dark earthy brown with a deep crimson sheen to it, and her hair was a nearly-golden platinum blonde.
Aetla was the tallest of them standing five feet ten inches tall. She was also the only child in all of Idavollr that was Half-nottalf and Half-svartalf. She had the appearance of a pure Svartalf. However, it only applied to her coloring. Her glowing white hair floated above her head just as all Nottalfar's do, and it's glow brightened according to the phase of the moon just as the Nottalfar's skin would. Other than her skin and hair, her star-filled onyx orbs for eyes also gave away her mixed heritage. Aside from that, her frame was long and lithe. Her breasts were small. Her waist was slim. Her hips were a little wider than usual, and her behind was a little thicker.
Baer was the oldest, but seemed to be fine with Aldrnari and Dield's command of their party. She was the daughter of a Villralfar female and a Jarndvergr male taken captive some seventy years ago. Then twelve years ago Forelain, against all Svartalf social norms, took the Jarndvergr into her bed and as a consort.
Some whispered that it was love that prompted such an abominable breach of propriety. Matron Forelain even allowed him to keep his wife and daughters, and gave them over to the Chamberlain to put them to work as chambermaids. Being Half-alf and Half-dvergr, Baer was the shortest of the group, standing four and half feet tall. She was also the broadest across the shoulders and hips. Her breasts were so large they were the size of most Svartalf men's heads. Her arms and legs were thickly muscled while her waist seemed impossibly small. She had a square shaped face with a wide plump mouth and a turned up button nose. She had her fathers ebony skin, but her mother's indigo eyes and hair.
Katr was Baer's sister. She was a little taller than Baer though she was younger by twenty years, and her breasts were so large they hung to her elbows and grew outward like magnificent mountains until they reached her mid-forearms. A Svartalf man's head could be lost between those great pillowy mountains, and he would die happy! It gave her the appearance of being very rotund, and in fact she was plump, but the majority was an illusion cast by the way her clothing draped over her breasts. The fact was, she was only slightly thicker in the waist than Baer. She was very thickly muscled with only a thin layer of dense fat to soften her. To add to her exotic figure, her coloring was of her mother's chestnut colored skin while she had her father's fiery red hair and crimson eyes.
Lastly, there were the two cellar boys, Gaefr and Naor. Both had Svartalf ebony skin, however, Naor's hair was blue and Gaefr's was green. They stood five feet and four feet ten inches tall, and both were slim with broad shoulders.
