Season 1, Update 10: Cries of the Elan Pah

[Valkyrja]

The Displacement of the Bashurit

In the 30th year of the 23rd age, the Mesa Gith, led by their Skoto, invaded the Thryzn's valley at night. Using a dark ritual, the Skoto found a weak spot between the Known and the Plane of Elkros, unleashing a devastating storm. Despite Thasik Grudash's quick response, the valley was destroyed.

Most Thryzn escaped, but the storm raged for years more leaving them nowhere to return to. A scouting party found the valley lifeless and the Bashurit village utterly ruined. The Bashurit mourned their loss.

In year 48, the Bashurit resettled at the eastern edges of Mantis Valley, near the obelisk. They avoided conflict with the mantis and maintained a tentative peace for twenty-five years. Though their numbers remain noticeably diminished.

In year 65, the Bashurit formed an agreement with the Mul Outpost, bringing it under their protection and establishing it as their primary link to the outside world.

The Rise of the Mesa Gith

Led by the Skoto Diakiaa, The Empty, the Mesa Gith were driven by dark magicks and empowered by their victory over the Bashurit. After failing to assault the Mul Outpost, they pushed further north, turning a Sun Runner ambush into a brutal massacre. The Elan Pah was formed to defend the elven and human tribes but couldn't stop the Mesa Gith, leaving the Tablelands heavily defiled and scarred.

Fortifying the oasis 'The Gem' with sheer numbers and Diakiaa's magicks, the Mesa Gith withstood relentless assaults from the Sun Runners, Dune Stalkers, Soh Lanah Kah, Blackwing, and human tribes Al'Seik and Arabet. Diakiaa's grip tightened, destroying the tribes' main water source and igniting a greater crisis. Amid this chaos, the Mesa Gith decimated the Gem, advancing toward Blackwing Outpost.

Avoiding the Soh Lanah Kah's canyons, the Mesa Gith attacked the Blackwing Outpost. With a renewed, inexplicable power, Diakiaa's forces breached the ancient walls, collapsing roofs and leaving the outpost open to a frenzied assault. Nearly half of the Blackwing Tribe were slaughtered, a thousand lives lost, and the pride of the Tablelands, Blackwing Outpost, was reduced to rubble in a single day. This demonstrated the terrible might and growing power of the Mesa Gith, casting a dark shadow over the land.

The Death of Diakiaa

The Tablelands crumbled as the Elan Pah dissolved, leaving the Mesa Gith as rulers. Diakiaa struggled with the weakness of the Mesa Gith, who could only destroy, not build. The land was scarred, the Gem oasis unusable, the vegetation withered. Shadows of fallen beings were burned into the landscape.

During this turmoil, the Dune Stalkers successfully thinned the Mesa Gith ranks. Diakiaa, making frequent appearances in battles, sustained grave injuries but continued fighting, even replacing a severed arm with a magickal skeletal one.

In the year 34, the Elan Pah launched a desperate assault. Sorka Hallah, leader of the Soh, dueled and killed one of Diakiaa's lieutenants. The Blackwing and Sun Runners stormed the Mesa Gith, forcing Diakiaa to intervene. Olsindrin, a daring Dune Stalker, ambushed and killed Diakiaa but was immediately slain by bodyguards. The sudden loss of Diakiaa caused chaos among the Mesa Gith, leading to unsustainable losses and a retreat to the southern Tablelands.

Under the fog of war, the Sun Runners suffered a devastating blow. The Red Fang, thought to be eradicated, conspired with the Dune Stalkers. During a fierce battle led by Diakiaa, Red Fang assassins, disguised as Dune Stalkers, attacked the exhausted Bahak, including their leader, Sauran. The Sun Runners later discovered the bodies, defiled and desecrated, preventing their death rites. This crisis led to no new Bahak being born, prompting the Sun Runners, under their Bahrain leader, to seek out revenge. The Red Fang were never found, and the Dune Stalkers were fully blamed for harboring them. The Sun Runners, indifferent to actual affiliations, focused on the assassins' markings and tattoos. They exacted the brutal annihilation of the Dune Stalkers, ambushing their camps and leaving no survivors.  They then left Sunspire for an ancient pilgrimage beyond Zalanthas, seeking to solve the Riddle of Flame.

The Mesa Gith eventually lost ground near the Mul Outpost as the Bashurit pushed them back to the Western Tablelands. They remain strong near the Mesa and hold much of the Southern and Eastern Tablelands, though without dark sorcery. They are still a significant menace.

Immediate Impact

As a result of losses at the Outpost, the Blackwing have pulled back further to the west, away from the Tablelands and no longer seem capable of leading the Elan Pah. They dissolve the position of Heru, much to their own shame and discomfort, reverting to their origins of nomadic life and living off the land out of necessity.

The Oasis, the Gem, has been destroyed, though perhaps not irrevocably.

The Arabet and the Seik have lost their traditional homelands, and have been forced to move to the climes near Cenyr.

The Soh Lanah Kah, forced to move their camp with the destruction of the Blackwing Outpost, control the canyons of the Pah and are sometimes found at the Mul Outpost.

The Sun Runners faced existential threats of their own, revenge enacted by the Red Fang, the death of their Aht'Bahak, and no new Bahak being born. This led to a massive and unprecedented pilgrimage to their Waterless Lands Beyond The Earth and Sky, to a realm unknown to them, abandoning the Sun Spire perhaps forever...(A Story For Another Time)

The Dune Stalkers are no more, entirely wiped out by the revenge of the Sun Runners. Rumors suggest the Two Moons possess Red Fang trophies and know their whereabouts, while it is whispered the Red Fang continue on, impersonating other tribes for short-term gains before vanishing once more.

The Mesa Gith Skoto are far fewer in number than ever before; so many were killed during the ongoing conflict that even the rumor of one would be an anomaly. With the death of Diakiaa, it seems the end of a bloodline has occurred.

The 'Pride of the Tablelands', the Blackwing Outpost, has been overrun and destroyed beyond recognition.  Abandoned by all, the elves and the gith alike.  Despite being seemingly abandoned, scouting parties sent to investigate within seem never to return and strange rumors circulate.

In conclusion

The many tribes of the Tablelands will undoubtedly return. The Elan Pah will surely be called again. But for now, the Tablelands lay in quiet, defiled and dark. The Dune Stalkers are but a memory, and a bitter reminder that any may fall.

May you always find shade and the wind at your back,

The Armageddon Team