Time of the servant races

As the El-Dren looked out upon the newly settled world they found that there were new inhabitants wandering about the plains of the valley.
The El-Dren records state that the stranger were a race that called themselves the dwarrow. They state that the El-Dren enslaved this race and used their mastery of lifeshaping to attempt to make an ideal servant race to free themselves for the task of defeating the Dreaming. Out of their attempts they produced many of the demi-human races known today. They counted among their successes men, dwarves, orcs, giants, and gnomes as each was suited to certain tasks and were intelligent enough to follow orders without constant supervision. Their failures were many and included most of the monstrous demihumans now known including trolls, goblins, and ogres.
Other records, recently come to light, claim the various races were not created but were cast up by the changestorms and enslaved before they were able to get their bearings and resist.
Whatever the case for the next few millenia the El-Dren or Elves, as the servant races started calling them in corruption of their name, ruled over the other races using them to fill every physical need devoting themselves solely to their research and learning.
In time, entire clans were born, grew up, and died, all in the service of the same masters until the elves finally relaxed their hold allowing the slaves more freedom but never truly setting them free. Under this freedom the slaves learned new skills from their masters, reading, writing, medicine and smithing. In time some of the more intelligent servants were even taught the rudimentary skills of magic to better serve their masters. In this last, the seeds of revolution were planted.
It started as an accident, a spell gone wrong crippling the human apprentice and almost wounding his elven master onto death. The elves who responded assumed the slave had tried to kill his master and slowly executed him before his clan as an example. The act did not have the effect desired, instead of cowing the slaves they rose up and killed the elven overseers. And then looting the estate they fled into the wilderness.
News of the uprising spread leading to further attempts to clamp down on the slaves that elves saw as favored pets at best and intelligent animals at worst. On estate after estate the clans rose, sometimes escaping to the wilderness and sometime put down violently by fearful masters.
On one side the slaves outnumbered the elves almost five to one, but years of servitude had dulled their will to resist. On the other the elves still commanded much of their magical arts and could bring more experience and strategy to the battle.
The last straw came when in fear of further rebellion and to deny the slaves the ability to resist the High King declared that further education of slaves was to be forbidden and all literate slaves were to be silenced by removal of their tongues.
The forests went up in flames as the slaves finally pushed too far rose as one and fled killing anyone who tried to stand in their way. As the elves lived mainly in the forests the mountains of the central valley became the rallying point for the angry mobs of slaves. As they milled about leaders began to rise from the masses and with them plans began to come together.
They knew the elves would not let them go their way. The least the massed slaves could expect was a return to a more debased slavery than they had escaped from. But before that many of them would die. The leaders came together and decided that if they wished to be free then they must take away from the elves the will to harm them further. It was time to strike back!
As quickly as possible the leaders began forming the slaves into an army. The hardy and strong orcs became the core of the infantry. Man who had born the brunt of the tasks of farming and gathering formed the first cavalry. The dwarves who had been the main builders and craftsmen turned their minds and skills to the first siege weapons turning out stone throwers and ballistas by the score.
When they could wait no longer the great host poured forth from the mountains and came against the elves on the plains east of their great forest home. The battle raged for three days. The elves filled the sky with arrows and marched in close order into the orcish lines like a great scythe through wheat. But the servants answered with massed cavalry and filled the air with stones and spears.
Back and forth the battle raged until, on the eve of the third day a shaft from one of the ballista struck down the high king and caused the elves to withdraw.
The body count was staggering, almost 2/3rds of the servants lay dead or dying and fully half the elves would never rise again. Dispirited at the loss of his father, and seeing the ruin of his race, the crown prince went forth under a banner of truce to sue for peace.
The terms given were simple, the elves would return to their forests and allow the other races to live in peace, in return the younger races would depart from the elven lands and promise to venture no closer than two days travel from their borders. The elves agreed.
Fearing that the elves would return in time and tired of fighting the leaders came together and spelled out a treaty so that not only would they come together should their former masters return but that they should not weaken the alliance by bickering amongst themselves. So was born the Treaty of Brass. Five brass plates were engraved each spelling out the agreed alliance and recognizing the right of each race to the lands they would settle.
So it was that the orcs traveled north and settled the great plains there mostly following the great herds of wild oxen and elk.
The dwarves having been miners through the long years of slavery found solace in the caverns under the central mountains claiming these regions for their own.
Man traveled south taking with him the gnomes who wished no land of their own and settled the vast hills and plains he found there being careful never to settle within sight of the great forests. In time he would spread even further to the south and find the first great passes through the barrier range to the world beyond. But the tales of those who departed that route will be told another time.
And so the races prospered for a time limited only by the borders of the land itself and the promises engraved on the tablets. They found that to the far north the land gave way to a frozen wasteland populated by fell beasts. To the east lay a great river so wide that only on the clearest days could one see the far shore. As the river flowed south it passed into a great swamp filled with creature that defied description, but emerged further south and west to eventually flow out to the lands beyond.
For close to a thousand years the peace held but what came then will be told another night.