The Carindon were one of the three elven cultures which made up what were known as the Hill Peoples, a rough area of elven settlement in the forested hills and low mountain valleys of western Turlu.

Culture

Carindon had a rich culture, drawing strongly from Argyon and relic Elvish tastes.

Religion: The Spirits' Voices

Whereas in larger, more advanced elven societies, the existence of the Silmarilus and fey is recognized as a simple fact, Carindon developed a deeper, more mythological connection with these otherworldly beings that elves had a natural link to.

The Carindon believed that fey spirits infused the world all around them. The animals, trees, even the wind and the soil had fey spirits in them. This superstition emerged out of the millennia spent in primitive life, but it was lived strongly. Elven sages studied natural phenomena as if they were driven by spirits and achieved workable results. This was especially effective in the fields of plant husbandry and arcana.

Many individuals were able to speak with fey spirits, at least to a minor extent. Social roles came to play a role here. Women, considered the heads of their multi-family households, were responsible with dealing with spirits in their immediate environment, to guarantee the families' well-being. Men meanwhile were more outgoing and adventurous. Those who had considerable abilities trained for many years and became spirit-speakers, powerful quasi-priests who could communicate directly with powerful "spirits" (including the elven gods).

Carindon magical-spiritual capabilities grew in correspondence with their social progress. Large temples dedicated to the spirits were built, and spirit-speakers became quite potent mages to whom the gap between the material world and the "spiritual plane" was ever smaller. In 1'090 b. OW, two spirit-speakers managed for the first time to use one of the ephemeral fey crossings to teleport into the feywild. The practice of fey-walking was born.

With great effort, the Carindon worked out how to travel to the feywild, and back. It was not an easy process. The fey-walkers were honored individuals who had some fey-speaking ability and especially the training to visit and survive the dangerous feywild. Fey-walking was a mostly religious practice, in which the visitors mostly acted out rituals of respect and reverence for the fey beings they visited. These people were revered as heroes, who, though in religious standing they stood below the spirit-speaker "clergy", often wielded considerable social influence. They also formed the warrior elite of Carindon, forming the levy armies' officer corps in increasingly frequent conflicts.

Architecture

The early Cardinon people lived in large semi-open clay-and-wood huts. As their society developed, they began building large wooden houses instead. These living spaces were home to one or two dozen people at a time; the Hill People's basic social unit consisted of several nuclear families.

Argyon culture had a very strong influence on Carindon, which of course was also felt in the architecture. In fact, the architectural knowledge mostly came from goblinoid city-dwellers. The first permanent temples, complementing the natural holy sites, were small collonaded temples drawn near-directly from Argyon.

With time, the Carindon developed their own construction knowledge and their own derivative architectural style. They built small towns with stone houses and large temple-like common halls. They also refined the rather blockish Argyon temple style with the graceful curves of their wooden town-square covers; Carindon temples featured arched colonnades, large stone domes like Drubark built, and curved copper roofings for their colonnades.

The Carindon were the first to build open temple complexes appearing to merge with nature on holy sites. This practice became somewhat practiced across the Andan empire, especially by its monasteries, and would for instance inspire the construction of the Grand Stairway in 200 OW.

History

Elven peoples were known to inhabit the western Turlian foothills since the displacement of the Eve'lenne from the lowlands in 6'000 b. OW. By 3'900, these high elven hunter-gatherers, who lived in communities of no more than 30 people, had through trade and popular exchange consolidated into three broad cultural groups with many smaller distinctions. The groups called themselves the "Folk of the Trees and the Creeks", but they would be called Hill Peoples by their goblinoid neighbors and enter history as such.

Carindon (also a goblinoid name, though one chosen by the Carindon themselves around 1'300 b. OW) was one of these three groups. It spoke a slightly distinct accent of High Elvish, kept yattle for their leather, and produced a very strong mead and honey spirit. The Carindon were also known for their rich golden hair, which was said to stem from the blood of the Goldflower Queen, the people's legendary ancestor.

Rise in Prominence, 1'300 - 1'100 b. OW

Carindon was, to its great fortune, located northmost, and thus closest to the rivers and lowlands. This exposed its tribes to occasional attacks from orcs and goblinoids, but ultimately also gave them contact with increasingly settled goblinoids. Trade evolved from a slow trickle to a constant stream of exchange through budding trade settlements near headwaters. Trade had a dual effect: it led to a rapid increase in wealth of the trader tribes, especially compared to more backward and non-Carindon tribes, and also drove social progress as tribes grew in size and combined.

Over two centuries, the Carindon people developed from diverse and scattered tribes to a largely culturally unified network of small but permanent settlements. This change was also facilitated by the Carindon's existing practices of yattle- and beekeeping which made a transition to permanent settlement easier.

Thanks to their greater numbers, wealth, and military strength, the Carindon expanded into other Hill Peoples' territory. Some tribes were simply incorporated into Carindon society, others were forced away or exterminated, and still others assimilated through natural processes. By 1'100 b. OW, the other two cultures had largely disappeared.

During its rise in prominence, Carindon also transformed from a primitive people into a settled society with strong Argyon traits. Most obvious was the economic and technological influence: Carindon settlements and clothing closely resembled that of their goblinoid neighbors. Goblin even became a popular language among the traders and the well-off, used as a way to distinguish themselves as a budding elite and to facilitate contact with goblinoids.

Distinct differences remained, of course. For one, the elves could hardly adopt Argyon subsistence practices. They had to develop their own gardening practices, especially terrace cultivation, and they continued to rely on yattle and bees. They also kept their looks somewhat distinct, suiting their own cultural preferences; while clothing was often imported and thus Argyon-style, embroidery and jewelry remained distinctly Carindon in style. Delicate flower motifs and leather-based decoration were the most notable marker.

A fey-walker having drunk some strong mead and enjoying a spiritual spectacle.^[1]

High Carindon

The elven peoples grew closer economically as well as socially. The practice of spirit reverence was "standardized", especially the training and practice of spirit-speakers. In 986 b. OW, the Carindon chose to form a political community of interests. The head of this community, metaphorically seen as a typical family consisting of communities rather than individuals, was of course a woman; her official title was that of Voice of the Carindon. This Voice represented the elves to the outside, mostly in matters of trade deals, and had the authority to legitimize other representatives with more limited powers (this was a necessary feature: individual towns of course wanted their own representative to make deals concerning them, to ensure fairness and essentially prevent the Voice from benefitting only herself). She was also responsible to mediate internal disputes and assist the spirit-speakers where necessary, and she could call upon her constituency to raise an army if needed. In practice, Carindon only fought in support of goblinoid neighbors, usually against nearby orcish clans.

The Voice chose her own successor at whatever time she deemed suitable. A rotation between towns was expected, and the usual length in office was a few decades.

The faith became a proper institution around 950 b. OW, when Carindon began investing considerably in religious construction and in fey-walker expeditions. The spirit-speakers formed councils to manage their church, took considerable tithes from the communities, and started administering their infrastructure centrally. There was some friction with the emerging government of the Voice due to considerable overlap of powers. Most contentious were the Temples of Fey-Walkers, due to their dual purpose for religious practice and secular defense. In the end, they mostly governed themselves, heeding the wishes of church and state to the extent that tradition demanded it. As a result, fey-walkers did not stand under any real central authority and enjoyed considerable freedoms.

Andan Empire, 820 - 700 b. OW

Carindon's status was not immediately altered when its neighbors fell under the rule of Trensandor. It (as in, the Voice, five prominents, thirteen spirit-speakers, and the heads of six fey-walker temples) signed an accord of protectorate in 818 with the Andan emperor, enjoying a close relationship with the Andans in exchange for military obligations. A small Carindon army marched with the Andans in the war on Turlu, and later also on Balebu. This regular service saw the professionalization of the army under the control of a fey-walker headquarters, also reducing the Voice to a largely figurehead role.

The spirit-speakers and fey-walkers were also key in Trensandor's own efforts to get closer to the spirits and travel, later settle, the Feywild. Spirit-speakers were given important positions and rich compensation notably for their work in developing permanent installations on fey crossings, and fey-walkers were occasionally used as auxiliaries in the Feywild also, and as an inspiration for the Human Auxiliary.

In 766, the general of the army led a coup against the Voice, taking power herself. Three years later, she made Carindon a direct subject of the regional government in Friborg, removing all political sovereignty. Over the following decades, Carindon was worked into Andan society through political reforms, goblinoid immigration, and so on.

By 700, Goblin was the dominant language in the hills of Trees and Creeks, and the Carindon as a people separate from the imperial Andan subjects had disappeared.