חלק ג', הסטוריה:
History Elven bards say that elves were the first to waken upon Krynn. But elven bards lie. First, the ogres awoke. They breathed in the primal dawn, bathing themselves in its virgin light. First to rise from the ground, ogres became the masters of creation. And they were beautiful. The Irdanaith, a mystical book known only to Irda, teaches the following truths of creation. When the gods created Krynn, they formed creatures in their own image. The gods of Good created elves and taught them Goodness. The gods of Neutrality created beasts and taught them Neutrality. The gods of Evil created ogres—creatures of great beauty and strength—and taught them Evil. A fourth type of creature, the Maran humans, partook of none of these alignments. The High God fashioned them from the stars and gave them free will. The ogres rose first. They rubbed the sand of endless sleep from their eyes and spread out across the continents. They chose mountain heights for their homes, lofty places from which their lords could survey the lands. The ogres thus became the lords of creation. The elves, second to awake, chose to live in the forests, for these folk were slender and tall like the gentle trees. They became the Silvanesti. The animals awoke third and spread throughout the world. They became ‘the creatures of every land. When at last the Maran rose from sleep, all the best lands were taken. They settled in what was left: barren plains, rugged mountains, icy glaciers, deserts wastes, and tossing seas. They became the barbarians. The Evil ogres established a realm of tyranny. The strict laws of their land enriched and empowered their king and punished disobedience with death. Once the king gained absolute control over his folk, he sought for minions elsewhere to dominate. The elves and their Goodness proved too repulsive to rule. The animals were too feral and stupid to know they were being ruled. But the Marans— short-lived and shallow-brained—could make excellent slaves. Seeing this, the ogres hunted down the barbarian humans, catching them in broad nets. Thus, the humans became slaves in ogre mines. Squalid and weak though the were, the humans had one great advantage over the ogres: free will. One day, a mine collapsed, killing many slaves and trapping Everlyn, the beautiful daughter of ogre overlord Igraine. Igraine ordered the slaves out of the caves, anxious not to loose any more of his property. A slave named Eadamm refused to emerge and led slaves to rescue Igraine’s daughter. When Eadamm emerged with Everlyn, Igraine knew he must by law kill Eadamm for his disobedience. But Igraine admired the slave’s choice, and learned in that day of free will. Instead of sentencing Eadamm to immediate death, Igraine fulfilled the law by sentencing him to "death at my whim." Thus, Eadamm could continue to live, for Igraine would nev er call for the execution to be carried out. Eadamm, grateful for his reprieve, marshalled the slaves to double their output for Igraine. Igraine soon became richest and most powerful ogre in the region. By allowing his slaves even more freedom, he doubled their output again. But this love of freedom spread through the ranks of human slaves until revolts broke out all across the nation. Seeing this, the other ogres quickly realized the danger of Igraine’s leniency. "Igraine’s Heresy" they called it—a weakness that would lead the ogre state into destruction and degeneracy. Igraine pleaded his case before the Grand Council, but the rulers labeled him insane. He barely escaped with his life. Before fleeing the city, Igraine struck the chains of all his slaves and pronounced them free. He also encouraged all of his friends and family (who shared his lenient views) to do the same. Eadamm then led a slave revolt that decimated the ogre forces. Thus, the Ogre Wars of the Age of Dreams began. Eadamm led his folk into the wilderness, where they harried ogre civilization for 6 years. At last, the ogres captured the rebel. They hamstrung him and paraded him about for 6 days, one day for each of the years he harried their forces. Then, before a packed coliseum, the ogres drew and quartered him. The crowd consisted almost entirely of slaves, who were brought to witness Igraine’s death as warning against further rebellions. The slaves did not take the message to heart. They rebelled, massacring every last ogre in the coliseum. Meanwhile, Igraine and his followers fled to safety. They reached an isle north of Ansalon and there set up a homeland. In time, the Evil ogres who were left behind grew misshapen and horrible, their appearance matching the corruption in their hearts. Their intellects and charms vanished also. They became stupid brutes, with only their vestigial cunning to testify to their former power. Meanwhile, the Irda (as Igraine’s folk called themselves) remained hidden away from the world. The Evil ogres never ceased to look for their traitorous brothers. Takhisis herself hunted them in rage for betraying her worship. Even the men who had been freed by Igraine forgot his role in their liberation. The humans cast themselves as the sole leaders of the rebellion, and cast the Irda as the oppressors. Friendless and hopeless in the world, the Irda resigned themselves to their inevitable deaths. Mishakal, the Healing Hand, saw the plight of the Irda folk. As they slept one night, her healing hand passed through them, granting their bodies the power to change. She blessed the Irda that they could take the form of any humanoid creature of Krynn, becoming one with their enemies. This talent saved the Irda time and again as they harbored away from the hostile world. However, Irda isolation did come to an end. The Cataclysm revealed to Takhisis where her rebels dwelt. She mustered her armies and, in the War of the Lance, sent a huge force to eradicate her former servants. The Irda, who had been studying magic for millenia, staved off the annihilation. However, Takhisis enslaved many Irda and took them to the mainland. Now, the remaining Irda tentatively seek ties with the folk of Ansalon to find and free their enslaved companions.