The Lay of King Rafn: Fifth Stanza: What Became of His Children

During this time, King Rafn wandered far and wide, ranging between the lands of Atmora, Jokuddr, Akkawijr, and Tamrejlr. Though he traveled a lot and loved seeing all the different lands and people in them, he loved Tamrejlr the most, and while he loved the mountains of the north and the volcanos and the deserts and the swamps, he loved most of all the vast verdant jungles at the land’s heart, and came to call that place Syrodiilgaard.

Here King Rafn met a group of wild crows, the lesser children of those ravens which burst from old King Shorri’s chest when he was killed. King Rafn found these crows to his liking and so he gathered them all on eight islands in a lake that was then called Rumaari, and there he gave them form so they could walk about like men. He taught them to sing and laugh and dance and play games, and they built on the islands a grand mead-hall of jungle timber and built a thatched roof upon it that shone in the sun like white gold.

There King Rafn’s children carved out a peaceful and care-free existence for many years, befriending the Khageetr and Saxleelr tribes that were their neighbors.

King Rafn grew bored, as he was wont to do, and left for a time (during which he had many adventures, as told before). His children propagated and prospered, living a joyful existence on their eight islands and the verdant uplands around them.

Now, during this time, a brave helmsman of the tribe of Haalfen, called Torwaal or sometimes Tjopaal, who sailed his boat up the river Mjaalape, though that name is forgotten and most now call it the Nibaanr. Now Torwaal was a crafty and clever sort, and seeking new lands for his tribe to conquer and colonize.

Realizing that his crew could not conquer King Rafn’s children on their own, Torwaal made a plan, and he traded the knowledge of words and written things to the crowmen, but in return, he asked for their eight islands and their glorious mead-hall for his people to settle in.

King Rafn’s children were clever, but they were also curious, and possessed of old King Shorri’s hunger for knowledge, and they accepted the offer, and were left without their glorious land forever more.

Presently King Rafn returned, “what have you done?” He asked of his children, “forsaken your most special place for scratches on paper!”

“But we now can know so many things!” His children answered back, “surely we can build a great empire with this knowledge!”

“Fools to the last one, you are!” King Rafn chided, “you are all of you lost to me. Now the Haalfen will return in great numbers, and they will destroy you, and even the memory of you, and I cannot help that!”

Some of the Crows cried out, disappointed at letting down their father, still others sat proud of their work. So King Rafn, in his wisdom, took one-third of the Crow-men, those still faithful whose number was thirty-three thousand, and left the lands of White-Gold behind. As punishment for their indiscretion, he took from them their talons and their beaks, such that henceforth they would have to construct their own weapons out of iron. He took from them their sharp eyes, such that they could not see so well except for when the sun was up. Worst of all, he took from them their feathers, their beautiful cloaks of black-blue-violet, and left them with only a bit of hair on their heads and faces to remind them of the costs of dealing with Haalfen. He named these transformed children Njeeds, and that was the name they called themselves in those old days.

Some of the Njeed went with King Rafn to Atmora, and some stayed behind in Tamrejlr, where they spread out far and wide throughout the lands, especially in the north and east, and had many wars with the various tribes of Haalfen and Beastmen.

The Crow-men who stayed behind were eventually conquered and integrated among the Haalfen, and they interbred until their forms were indistinguishable from one another. This tribe took the name of Aalejdr, and, jealous of the Njeeds who still kept King Rafn’s favor, enslaved and tormented them for many years. The great mead-hall in the eight islands was torn down and replaced with a mighty castle and tower, from which the Aalejdr could survey their ever-growing kingdom and gloat about their cruelty.