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Fantasy Friday: The War of the Broken Oaths

When Vows Shatter, Empires Fall

Author

John Harrison
June 20, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

TODAY’S LORE FOCUS

Of Light Once Whole and Kin Once One

Before calendars carved time into stone and stars stood still in the stories of men, the Elfin lands of Cennír Nî’cussa shimmered in harmony. Bound by songlines and ley-lines, by vows older than death, the Quessir—the Firstborn—walked in radiant unity.

Until they didn’t.

What broke them was not war. Not yet.
It was choice. Vision. And the unbearable weight of inheritance.

This is the tale of Ith’vaelen’dar, the War of Broken Oaths.

Welcome, Wayfarer!

You’ve stepped once more into Fantasy Friday—where myths murmur beneath the mundane, and forgotten worlds breathe through fractured parchment. Every week, we gather the scattered whispers of history, imagination, and wonder.

We do not merely tell stories.

We remember.

- HoH Presents
THE LORE

A Vow Too Sacred to Survive

t began on Ondrakuu 14, in the year An 560—a season of order. Under a high sun, King Areilin and Queen Datiana enacted the Vael’tumariin—the Ascendant Pact. A ritual so ancient it predated flame. A blessing—or curse—that unbound them from mortal flesh and ushered them into the realm of the Elder Gods.

Their departure was meant to seal harmony.

Instead, it unraveled everything.

No regent named. No line drawn. Just legacy—torn in two. Their children, Bravin and Velain, born of one celestial bloodline, could not see through one another’s eyes. Bravin, the traditionalist. Velain, the visionary.

They didn’t argue.

They fractured the world.

The Shattering of Unity

When a people divides, it is not the land that splits first—it is the heart. From the ashes of a sacred vow undone, two Elfin lineages rose, each bearing a different truth, each believing themselves the rightful heirs of harmony. What followed was not just a war—but the birth of two worlds.

PThe Two Great Kindreds

From the broken vow, two Kindreds rose—each believing themselves true.

Æl’quessir – The Radiant Kin

Those who clung to harmony, to balance, to the golden thread of tradition. They listened to ley-lines like lullabies and lived in cities carved of crystal and starlight.

  • Luthien’kaar – High Elves of law and sky-scribed magic

  • Sylva’shiran – Grey Elves of prophecy and wisdom

  • Vael’shiran – Wood Elves of wind and wild reverence

Mori’quessir – The Veiled Kin

Born of silence and dissent. Exiled by belief. Driven into the shadowed places not by hatred, but hunger—hunger to remake, to redefine, to reclaim truth from the grip of dogma.

They did not fall.
They evolved.

The War

Ith’vaelen’dar: The War of Broken Oaths

It was a war of mirrors—brother against sister, belief against blood. A war where temples bled and forests burned not for conquest, but because memory could not forgive itself.

No battlefield held purity.

Each death rang through the ley-lines like discord through a harp. Even the land recoiled—rivers rerouted, trees unrooted, starlight dimmed. The very rhythm of Cennír Nî’cussa faltered.

To this day, they say, some spirits still wander—shards of vows unfinished.

THE PRESENT

The Echo Still Whispers

Though the war is long past, the schism is not. You’ll see it in the northern high-cities where moonlight reflects off sapphire spires, and again in the southern under-realms, where glowing moss winds through halls of obsidian.

But the true remnant?
It’s in their silence.

The Quessir no longer vow lightly.
They bind their promises not in word, but in memory and blood. For they know: an oath once broken can unmake worlds.

FINAL THOUGHTS

What, then, is a vow?

Is it a chain or a bridge?
A prison or a promise?

The Quessir learned too late that to swear by the stars is to place your soul upon the blade’s edge. One breath, one choice, one shattered vow—and eternity may bleed.

So we ask you:

What do you vow to never forget?

Did this memory stir something in you?

If the echo of Cennír Nî’cussa rang through your bones, whispering of oaths, of kin, of wars not yet won—carry it forward.

You might:

🔸 Tell it around a fire of your own
🔸 Share it with #FantasyFriday
🔸 Name us @HoHPresents

Each retelling rekindles the truth:
Even shattered oaths deserve remembrance.

Until next Friday, Wayfarer—
Keep your vows close, and your stories closer.

– The HoH Presents Family

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