Q. Korindia

It is not us who has disappointed them. But it is them who have disappointed us. We are not ‘simply gifted’ we are specially gifted. We leave Landra Feya not because of hate but out of sadness and because we search for peace.

								                    Kor   72 A.C.

No one man is an island but Kor gave many bitter, disillusioned, and hateful M’adukar a place to feel welcome and call home. Korindia is an island nation located about 300 miles S.E. off of Shaintar’s coastline. It is a place that a great many M’adukar (children born of Fae and human parents crudely called half-elves) live and call home. The birth of Korindia sprang from what occurred both during and after Vainar released his terrible plague in 300 B.C.
Many thousands of Fae perished before a cure to Vainar’s Curse was found. Not only did the Fae Nation face the challenges of rebuilding their once great civilization but they also faced the problem of rebuilding their population. The solution came from an unusual union between the Faelakar, Solange Elswyth, and a human, Zemos Al’astur. Solange choose to take the Life Bond so that she would not have to endure the pain of living a life without him once he passed on. Because interracial marriage between the two races was taboo they kept their union secret until the birth of Alakar-blooded twins in 45 A.C. Kor was born in 49 A.C. Word of children born from a union of Fae and Human quickly spread and by 50 A.C. the Quo-Unias endorsed marriages between the two races but forbids the Life Bond. 
1,066 children were reported born to Fae and human parents in 52 A.C. But joy soon turned to disappointment as many Fae discover early that many children born between 52 A.C. and 57 A.C. are of a blood that is far removed from sulur-neh (‘trueness’ as defined how close to Corelisian blood on is). These children are named M’adukar and they have shorter lifespans than that of Alakar children. Many Faelakar and Eldekar believe that these children cannot live up to the potential of being a hope for the survival of the Fae Race. While still loved by their Fae and human parents, M’adukar children still experienced what is termed ‘goltrai’ (song of sadness). Goltrai is a very palpable, heavy sadness that while remained unspoken made them feel unwanted and unfavored. And indeed, many saw Alakar children were treated more favorably by Fae society.
As Kor and many other children born from 49 – 57 A.C. grew older they soon discovered they were barred from attaining any position of importance in Fae society. They were told by the elders that they did not have the gifts to accomplish the tasks of higher positions.
Kor’s mother believed that M’adukar children had great potential and that they could achieve many things if simply allowed the chance. She became a champion for her son and all M’adukar children. Solange was sadly in the minority in those feelings. While many in Fae society still accepted her, they pitied her choice of taking the Life Bond with a human. She was tolerated in the elder courts but her words fell on deaf ears. Solange died a natural death in 72 A.C. shortly after her husband passed on.
Kor was bitter and angry over the ill treatment his mother and his fellow M’adukar had endured. With the death of his loving parents he declared that the best of Fae society had died too. A charismatic leader and speaker he spoke to the thousands of disillusioned M’adukar stating, “the time has come for us to leave behind our parent culture and make a stand on our own. For just as the baby bird leaves his nest so too must we.”
In 78 A.C. Kor and 2,258 M’adukar set foot on an uncharted island to begin a new life. The settlers established a small town called Kor-Davine and called their new homeland Korindia, in honor of the man whom led them there. Kor was elected to hold the position of leader, the First Speaker. In the first years of governing the island quickly posed many challenges to survival of Korindians. Food, water, shelter were the primary needs that dominated the early years of the settlements survival. At least a third of the population died in the first ten years as they learned to adapt. 
Early Korindians swiftly learned that to survive they had to learn the ways of nature of the island. They shunned all trappings of other societies and adapted a much simpler lifestyle very much in tune with their environment. Like his mother, Kor followed the Path and instructed many others who took up the druidic calling. Many others, like Kor, had learned hunting and trapping skills from their human parents. Those skills quickly became a part of Korindian society.  Initially they built simple huts on the ground but soon learned that living in the treetops proved to be much safer from predators. Today Kor-Davine is a magnificent tree city complete with wood & rope bridges connecting each building to each other. The only structures on the ground are the pit ovens made of clay and rock for cooking fires.
In 85 A.C. hundreds of ships were seen approaching the island shore as the day dawned. Armed with nothing more than wooden staves the Korindians stood to face the ‘invaders’. What they found was more than 3,000 M’adukar had been lead to their shores by Kor’s brother and sister, Tallis and Tegan. Having received a vision and being genuinely worried for their brother, the twins had lead many M’adukar to Korindia.
It is sung in ballads that Kor was happy to see his siblings and greeted the many newcomers with open arms into Korindian society. The ballads also speak that the twins did not stay but did as their brother entreated them to do. 
From 85 A.C to 203 A.C. the twins assisted 30,000 M’adukar to the island. Many Korindians today point to the two small islands far off the Korindian coast and will tell you, “they are the Twins, the two ships who heard Kor’s call and brought many of our brothers and sisters here.”
Kor died in 117 A.C. but not before deeply engraining the belief of unity, peace, and harmony with the environment in Korindian society. Many scholars scoff at Korindians when they mention Kor did not die. If one simply asks them to explain it becomes clear that they do not mean he still physically lives. They point to their hearts and minds and state that he lives on in them.
Kor’s principles have survived even though through the many centuries unity, peace, harmony with the environment and survival were greatly tested. Sometime between 400-500 A.C. foreign invaders from the shores of Nazatir and The Pirate Archipelagos threatened Korindia’s survival. Korindians were able to stave off the first violent encounter with invaders. But it left much of their beloved tree-cities destroyed by fire. For a time they retreated inland for protection. They nearly abandoned their ways of using what nature gave them for forged weapons when seeking a way to protect themselves from  marauders. Sorin Aldin, believed to be of Kor’s bloodline, rejected these plans stating they did not hold true to Kor’s vision. In 410 A.C. he organized a school for fighting. Taking cues from nature they developed a fighting style that used the hands and feet as weapons. The martial arts of Kor-in was formed and thus Korindians had a powerful and  effective defense against marauders, slavers, and later against the Childer when a Cauldron opened up in the Norshanos Mountains during the Dragon War. 
Principles of unity and peace were tested in 2009 A.C. when hundreds of Alakar, a few Eldakar and humans came seeking safe haven. Some Korindians felt that since the Fae nation had rejected them so long ago that Alakar and Eldakar should not be welcomed into Kor’s homeland. Kor’s principles of unity and peace triumph when the refugees are welcomed into Korindian society. The Council of Elders deemed that mistakes of intolerance made  in the past should not be repeated in Korindia’s present. About half of the human refugees welcomed had difficulties in adapting to the Korindian culture and lifestyle that is in tune with the environment . The First Speaker and the Council of Elders allowed them to create the port town of Re-Lor in 2020 A.C. Today, it still stands as the only place on the island  to allow non-Korindian traditions.
In 2992 A.C. a huge shift in cultural values began to surface. Jantor, First Speaker of the 
Korindian Council of Elders, was discovered to possess thousands in silver and gold and
owned three forged weapons. He is publicly shamed and exiled to the wilderness. Many amoung the younger generations protest and claim that a time for change is coming. The Shaming of Jantor marked the beginnings of a ‘cultural adaptation war’ between the Traditionalists and the Progressives that persists to this day.

Jonkeph Skein
                                                                                               Korindia’s Core Foundations