Iron Elf - A Race Reborn (Book 2) (36 page)

While humans exist in every land, the heart of their civilization (such as it is) can be found in the Northlands. Your Imperial Highness knows this, of course, since our capital is in the same continent, in territory you took from them. Humans and halflings now coexist in an uneasy and unjust state of truce.

Humans are farmers, fishermen, and traders, but above all they are rovers, raiders, and reavers—their history is a tapestry of piracy and war. Our savage neighbors have never managed to develop beyond chiefdoms and tribes. Their economic theories are, frankly, barbaric. While we believe in honest labor and fair trade, they believe in accumulating treasure—and chattel. Their towns and cities run on slave labor. Halfling slave labor.

Your Imperial Majesty, while we are currently not at war with the humans, we recommend finding an excuse as soon as our armies are trained. The humans would band together if they ever realized the threat we represent. Though we outnumber them, we cannot ignore their own numbers. What’s more, their individual battle prowess is considerable. A united human species would be a terrible force.

Elves

Elves are beautiful and cruel. Elves are powerful and eternal. We have heard this before, mostly from the elves themselves. Perhaps not the cruel part, but that much is easy to infer from their history. Elves are very possibly the oldest humanoid species in Brandish. When dealing with other races, they are not known for tolerance or restraint.

Physically, elves are not much different from halflings. To our eyes, the men are more pretty than handsome and the women are universally beautiful, if hard to tell apart. Elves are a little shorter and lighter, their features are a bit more angular, and their eyes are somewhat bigger. Nevertheless, were it not for the pointy ears, elves and halflings could pass for each other.

Of course, elves do not simply look different. Their facility with magic is their chief advantage over other races. What does an elf care if an opponent is bigger than he is, when internalized magic can make him faster and stronger? For that matter, what is to stop him from simply incinerating his enemy?

All elves know magic. While the common folk are never apprenticed to wizards, they know enough to get by. Artisans use trade-specific spells, women know cleaning and cooking spells, and even unskilled laborers have internal magic. (It should be noted that few elves are so poor as to grow up without a trade.)

Every single adult elf knows defensive spells, but only a select few are taught combat magic. This is ostensibly to keep dangerous criminals from becoming even more dangerous, but it mainly serves to keep power in the hands of the right people… the right people here being the landed aristocracy.

It would be possible to train many more combat mages if the elves extended their candidate pool to include everyone who could learn magic.

That is not to say the combat mages are not formidable as they are now. No data yet exists with regard to battles involving elves and halflings, but judging from our common enemy the humans, we can say that a gray wizard is a match for an entire platoon of halfling riflemen. A black wizard, meanwhile, is worth an army.

Under no circumstances are red wizards to be engaged directly. Not even with all our legions. We simply cannot concentrate the necessary firepower on a small enough area.

Aside from spellcasters, elves also have the Royal Guard, a small but powerful military. Well-drilled and well-equipped, each soldier is a master martial artist as well as a minor magician. Confident in their innate superiority as elves and warriors, royal guardsmen will face overwhelming numbers. They usually win.

Massive magical superiority, fast and hard-hitting troops, and the ability to teleport around the battlefield—it’s easy to see why elves dominated the world. Nevertheless, all signs indicate that they have been in decline for generations now. Their numbers dwindle. Their society has turned inward. While we currently have no plans to move against them, the fact remains that their territories have the best climate and the most resources. It seems inevitable that halflings and elves will clash.

Halflings

Halflings, as the other races call us, are a people untouched by magic. Unlike elves, dwarves, and humans, we are unable to manipulate the arcane energies that saturate every part of Brandish. Magic might as well not exist for us, were it not for the species that use it and even rely on it.

Physically we are unremarkable among the humanoid races. We are taller than dwarves but shorter than humans, stronger than elves but weaker than humans, and so on. We have no major weaknesses and can be found in each major landmass.

From the perspective of the other races, we mature fast, breed explosively, and die much too young. However, consensus among our Earth refugees is that this is normal for our species.

At this point, we must discuss the refugees, each of whom claims to be from a world where magic does not exist—where halflings are not only the dominant species, but also the only species. If elven theories are correct, most of our world’s life forms originated from this place. This includes the common ancestors of all the humanoid races. Since these ancestors are apparently identical to halflings, we must be the original form for our species, untouched by Brandish.

On Earth, our ancestors remained a single race and eventually built a civilization that encompassed the entire planet. On Brandish, while we are the most populous species, we remain a minority beyond our borders. Halfling settlements are found virtually everywhere, and halflings are abundant in every city, even the elven capital.

Nevertheless, we remain a marginalized race for several reasons. Before the dawn of empire, we were a scattered and disunited people. We lacked any sort of political identity or culture, and were second-class citizens wherever we lived.

Your Imperial Highness, if we are to survive against the vast forces arrayed against us, it is by capitalizing on our strengths. The refugees prove that we are not intellectually inferior, that given the chance can grow into a mighty power. We absorb new ideas faster than any other, and while we lack magic, have no trouble using artifacts. Then there’s the sheer weight of our numbers, which can be wielded like a hammer against the enemies of halflingkind.

Dwarves

Dwarves are short, squat, and bearded, or at least the men are. To outsiders they present a serious face, seemingly as solid and stolid as the mountains they call home. Once you get to know them, though, you find they have as much emotional range as anyone. Dwarves do have a sense of humor—it just tends toward the grim.

Pound for pound, they are the strongest of the humanoids and their thick, heavy bodies are capable of great endurance. Their outsized hands are amazing for delicate work as well. Coupled with the ability to “see” magical and effects, this makes them master artificers. Other races are able to imbue things with power, but only dwarves can create artifacts that work constantly, consistently, and at a high level.

Note: Dwarves can sense magic and use tools to manipulate it, but they cannot actually cast spells the way elves do. Like halflings, dwarves are limited to using magical gear, which places them at a disadvantage in terms of power and precision. Given enough time, it is possible for a dwarf to replicate any spell, but their goods usually carry low-to-mid-level enchantments. This is for reasons of safety, as anyone can use them. The enchantments are normally impossible to adjust as well. For example, a spellgun will always fire, no matter who pulls the trigger. Given the same ammo, its muzzle velocity will remain unchanged.

My emperor, the ability to produce (even mass-produce) magical weaponry would be a great boon for us. As per your orders, however, we have done nothing to endanger our relationship with the dwarven clans. Instead of enhanced interrogation and vivisection, we have gathered information through softer methods such as seduction. While we do not know exactly how they imbue items, the consensus is that it takes dwarves for the most important bits. They may be able to outsource some parts, but the most important mechanisms must still be dwarf-made.

This does not present a problem, as dwarves are always ready to trade. They prefer to stay in their mountain cities and underground towns. Thus they cannot mine or make plenty of things. Dwarves will accept fish, fruit, grain, and other foodstuffs. They will also take raw fabric, unprocessed ore, and rough lumber. Their forges hunger for charcoal and their palates thirst for beer. Really, it isn’t hard to find something for which they would gladly pay.

The dwarven race can be considered to be in a state of semi-decline. While still active in the world, their populations haven’t grown in centuries. They are content with the territory they have and their cities are already unconquerable fortresses. If we were to replace the elves as the dominant species, we doubt it would make much difference to the dwarves.

Caprans

Little is known about this race of goat-people. Caprans do not actually live in Brandish: they only visit from the neighboring dimension known as the Silver World. An entire race of tourists, if you will.

Caprans are nearly as strong and as hardy as dwarves and humans. They have refined palates but claim to be able to eat almost anything if need be. They are cheerful and delight in good food, strong drink, and pleasant company. A capran is usually the life of a party, although they must have a serious side somewhere or they would never have developed a civilization.

Besides elves, caprans are the only humanoid species to use magic directly. Their spellcasting is erratic, however. Even an experienced capran sorcerer has no way to tell exactly what a spell will do. It could be twice as strong, or a tenth as strong. It could be delayed or even reversed. The effect can vary from minutes to millennia. This would make their combat magic extremely unpredictable—it is likely that caprans do not field their combat mages the way elves do.

Caprans do have an invaluable talent, and that is the ability to brew potions. They take in magic energy and bind it to an elixir, essentially creating a liquid spell that can be poured or ingested. As far as we know, there are no limits to this—capran potions can do anything that elven spells and dwarven artifacts can.

The tactical value of potions lies in their ability to be prepared beforehand. A potioneer can thus eliminate much of the unpredictability of capran magic, although it may take several tries to get precisely the right mix. In addition, magic potions, like enchanted items, can be used by anyone. Finally, potions retain their potency even inside null-magic fields.

There is thus a brisk trade between our world and the capran world. They appreciate elven wines and dwarven goods and their potions find ready buyers.

Our information on the Silver World is not as detailed as we would like. What is certain is that capran activity in our world is steadily increasing. Whether this is leading to anything remains to be seen.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

KLAY TESTAMARK is a man of many interests. He’s sold luxury cars, created mobile apps, and exported designer clothing. Before that he was a bouncer, bodyguard, and bartender. Nowadays he’s proud to be a husband and father--he and his family divide their time between Las Vegas and the Caribbean. Klay has recently returned to his first love, fantasy fiction, and Stone Dragon is the first of a nine-part series. Connect with him through @klaytestamark on Twitter and visit klaytime.com.