알라산: 제2장

알라산에 무슨 일이 일어났는지 물었느냐? 슬프게도, 우리는 모른다. 고대의 전설지기조차도 정말로 어떤 일이 일어났는지에 대한 기록은 찾지 못했다. 우리에게 남은 것은 몰락 이전의 삶에 대한 기록과 신들의 변덕에 대한 설화뿐이다.

인간의 세계는 엘프들이 잠자고 있을 때도 계속 변화했다. 부족들은 테빈터라는 강력한 제국에 굴복하였고, 이유는 모르겠으나 그들은 엘브헤난을 정복하려 하였다. 그들이 위대한 도시 알라산까지 침입했을 때, 우리 민족은 불멸성의 상실과 그들이 가져올 병을 두려워하며 싸우는 대신 도망치기를 택했다. 마법과 악마, 그리고 심지어 용까지 대동하고, 테빈터 제국은 몇 시대 동안 존재했던 주택과 회랑들과 극장들을 파괴하며, 알라산까지 손쉽게 행군했다. 우리 민족은 노예가 되었고, 인간과의 접촉은 그들의 핏줄을 타고 흐르며 모든 불멸성을 잃게 했다. 엘프들은 그들의 고대 신들을 목놓아 불렀지만, 대답은 없었다.

신들께서 왜 대답하지 않으셨는지는 오직 전설로만 전해질 뿐이다. 그에 의하면 장난꾸러기 신이자 공포의 늑대, 펜하렐이 고대 신들에게 접근해 휴전 협정을 제안했다고 말한다. 선한 신들은 천국으로 돌아가고, 악의 군주들은 심연으로 돌아가 서로의 땅을 영원히 침범하지 않기로 한 것이다. 그러나 신들은 펜하렐이 그들을 배신할 계획을 세우고 있는 것을 눈치채지 못했다. 그들이 공포의 늑대의 배신을 알아차렸을 때는, 이미 각자의 세계에 봉인당한 뒤였고, 두 번 다시는 필멸자들의 세계에 영향력을 행사할 수 없게 되었다. 이는 분명 우화이다. 하지만 저 너머를 여행한 자들의 말로는 펜하렐이 여전히 꿈의 세계를 돌아다니며 신들이 감옥을 빠져나오지 못하도록 감시하고 있다고 한다.

진실이 무엇이든 간에, 알라산은 우리 민족이 한때 단순한 해충으로 여기던 자들에게 몰락했다. 테빈터 매지스터들은 그들의 파괴적인 힘을 사용해 알라산 전체가 대지에 집어삼켜지게 하였고, 무한에 가깝게 축적된 지식, 문화, 예술을 파괴해 버렸다는 이야기가 있다. 이 모든 엘프 이야기는 오직 기억 속에만 남아 있다.

—데일스 엘프 랠러피린 부족의 수호자, 기샤렐의 이야기를 바탕으로 한 알라산의 멸망에서 발췌

Arlathan: Part Two

You ask what happened to Arlathan? Sadly, we do not know. Even those of us who keep the ancient lore have no record of what truly happened. What we have are accounts of the days before the fall, and a fable of the whims of the gods.

The human world was changing even as the elves slept. Clans and tribes gave way to a powerful empire called Tevinter, which—and for what reason we do not know—moved to conquer Elvhenan. When they breached the great city of Arlathan, our people, fearful of disease and loss of immortality, chose to flee rather than fight. With magic, demons, and even dragons at their behest, the Tevinter Imperium marched easily through Arlathan, destroying homes and galleries and amphitheaters that had stood for ages. Our people were corralled as slaves, and human contact quickened their veins until every captured elf turned mortal. The elves called to their ancient gods, but there was no answer.

As to why the gods didn't answer, our people left only a legend. They say that Fen'Harel, the Dread Wolf and Lord of Tricksters, approached the ancient gods of good and evil and proposed a truce. The gods of good would remove themselves to heaven, and the lords of evil would exile themselves to the abyss, neither group ever again to enter the other's lands. But the gods did not know that Fen'Harel had planned to betray them, and by the time they realized the Dread Wolf's treachery, they were sealed in their respective realms, never again to interact with the mortal world. It is a fable, to be sure, but those elves who travel the Beyond claim that Fen'Harel still roams the world of dreams, keeping watch over the gods lest they escape from their prisons.

Whatever the case, Arlathan had fallen to the very humans our people had once considered mere pests. It is said that the Tevinter magisters used their great destructive power to force the very ground to swallow Arlathan whole, destroying aeons of collected knowledge, culture, and art. The whole of elven lore left only to memory.

—The Fall of Arlathan, as told by Gisharel, Keeper of the Ralaferin clan of the Dalish elves