THE
TÉTHIAS'QUARÓN
(THE
OATH
OF THE YOUNG) |
The Téthias'quarón (Styrásh: Téthias'quarón, lit. "Oath of the Young") is the famous oath sworn by the commanders of the elven and the human armies, the Erpheronian Karthach of Ishmarin and the elven High Ava'ránn hailing from the Maeverhim tribe, Vilanciash of the Sharadon Forest. The agreement was called the "Oath of the Young" as the long serving leaders of both races were eliminated during the war and Karthach hadn't reached his twentieth cyle and the elven Vilanciash also was only in her sixties when swearing to the oath. The oath took place at the final days of the Second Sarvonian War (501 b.S.), marking the end of a period of wars between the human and the elven race, committing both former opponents to the seemingly naive guideline to "never again allow bloodshed" between these two races. Nevertheless the Téthias'quáron has remained valued and respected until this very day, a miraculous fact the historians still fail to explain.
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Description.
The Téthias'quarón
sealed the end of the Second Sarvonian War (550-501 b.S.),
the War of the Inpious. SW II was a decades lasting war between the
elven and the
human race in southern Sarvonia, which
started in 550 b.S. with the looting of the Mausoleum of the Leaders on the Isle
of Hope. There leaders of both races - humans
and elves - had been enterred together as a
sign of peace after the end of SW I. With the desecration of the tomb a long and
bloody war began, but the Téthias'quarón
would finally peacefully unite the races - it would not bring the races together
in death as was the case with the Mausoleum of the Leaders, but it would be a
sign of life.
In 501 b.S. the joined human
armies suffered severe losses, and with the scenes of mass suicide of the
Erpheronian army at the Last
Stand at the Selidor Pass in front of his eyes, the newly assigned
Erpheronian king and warlord
Karthach of Ishmarin surrendered unconditionally to the overwhelming
elven forces. A treaty was to be signed near
the ruins of Nyermersys between the
representative of the human armies and the
elven
High Ava'ránn, the
Maeverhim Vilanciash,
who - like her human counterpart - had only
recently been elected to the elven suvereign.
Karthach was no more than 20 years old while Vilanciash
in her late sixties.
In this agreement exact borders were defined, but to the surprise of the
humans the elves
renounced on the payment of reparations. Instead both leaders assured each other
by swearing and oath on the own tribe's insignia to never again start
the bloodshed of war between the elven and the
human race again - not in
their lifetime and not among their ancestors. As a sign of their
good-will the emblem of the former hostile tribe was
burned into the chest
and at both arms of each
of the leaders, so that everyone could see their commitment
to the contract. Thus the more aggressive
Erpheronian
phoenix from now on "adorned" the
elven leader's body and an elegant white bird
with the eye of Avá would be seen on the
human counterpart. Since this time every new regent of the
Erpheronian
and the Maeverhim
in representation of their race has to go through
this ritual before the coronation. The Téthias'quarón also
should be renewed on many
important occasions by the leaders of the races or at meetings of
elven and
human commanders at
joint operations.
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Picture description. The protagonists of the Oath of the Young, Karthach of Ishmarin and Vilanciash. Images drawn by Quellion and Faugar. |
Later on the Téthias'quarón was condemned
and praised by many people on both sides. It was condemned as it is said to have
been a naive action of mere "children" without thinking about the
consequences and it is praised at the same time as
it was precisely just this innocence of the oath,
which was mainly responsible
for many peaceful years to come.
Importance.
The impact the symbolic rituals of the oath had on
elven and human subjects of that time
cannot be stressed enough. The burning of the tribe signs into the flesh of the
regents was a demonstration of the new alliance and at the same time a very
visible solidarity with the public's pain and therefore seen as an act of
courage and strong sign of leadership of a new generation in times of chaos and
uncertainty. Not only accidentally his procedure reminded also of the branding
of animals or even slaves in former times, where the servitude to a Lord was
defined by putting such a fire mark on a beast or
human being. Thus with the Téthias'quarón the
leaders of whole races brought down their uttermost noble intentions to a level
even the peasants could understand due to its graphical display of the basic
reciprocal meaning - to serve each other and to be bound to the fate of the
other race. Surpisingly for both sides until this very day the implications of
this famous oath have been heeded. Actually the oath brought the races more and more
together in the course of time, paving the way for the explicit joining of
forces against the orcish invasion in SW III and
later for the unification in the Kingdom of
Santharia. Also the Erpheronians
and the
Maeverhim
tribes still stand in high esteem by the other
elven or human tribes for the
Téthias'quarón, representing the major breakthrough
towards a peaceful development between the two once fierce enemy races.
Information provided by
Artimidor
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