Role

Chapter 1

Elves are an ancient people, smart and wise, but in some ways they are as prosaic
as any of the other, younger species. One of those is how they treat women. Growing
up a princess of Darsylon was all well and good until she grew old enough that
the freedom to behave as she wished was ended so fast as to almost be like chopping off
a limb. Seemed she went to bed one night able to run the forests, fight the guards,
play with humans and sirines and others in the city, only to wake up in a dress, slippers,
and the only thing with an edge she was allowed to carry being a butter knife for meals.
Men get to lead. Men get to fight. Men get to be, well, men. The injustice and unfairness
of this situation chafed for decades, and in the end was among the reasons for her
departure. But before that, during those years, she had time. Time she could not spend
doing as she wished. Instead, she studied. Studied and studied. Learned all she could.
And one of the areas the libraries of the palace excel at is history. As the eldest of all
the races, their histories go back furthest, and are the most complete. She read them
all. And as her reading and learning progressed she began to perceive a pattern, and
eventually came to a realization. History is doomed to repeat itself if those who live it
do not pay attention to history and learn its lessons. Yet this is precisely what's happened,
when it comes to magic.

The very first of all stories, the very beginning of all history, is made clear to all
who come to thera. The peril of magic and betrayal. And from there the many millenia
confirm, over and over, the devastating - literally to devastate - effects of magic, and
its use by mortals. Death. Destruction to whole swaths of land in Thera. Even gods have
fallen, almost all one way or the other tied to the use of magic. She reads and reads
and nothing else even come close to the spectacular scale and power of magic to kill and destroy.
No other threat, not disease, not famine, not urbanization, nothing, comes close to the
danger posed by magic. And that's where the arrogance comes in. Mortals never learn.
Her integrity compels her to acknowledge that her own people are perhaps the worst of
all in this regard. So self assured of their intellectual superiority, they do not see
how myopic they can be when it comes to their own fallibility. Too smart are we, think her
people, to be unable to use magic wisely. Indeed, they continue, magic is is not like wildfire,
ready to destroy all, but rather like air, a gift to be inhaled deeply. But history is
the only truly infallible thing, and it shows plainly that magic is the greatest danger.
Eventually she came to her father, the king, and in meticulous detail presented her findings.
It was a long and thoughtful presentation. Only her status as princess kept everyone around
her, father included, from laughing in her face. She convinced none of them. Not one.