Iquendi

The Iquendi are a secretive race of Elves who came from an unkown land which possibly was another continent and migrated away when they where forced out by mightier people. They would settle a long time ago in what is now SI long before even a first kingdom of man they had a mighty kingdom until a faithful day, in which a civil war consumed the Iquendi as a people into hundreds of years of war. finally, their kingdom collapsed and the surviving Iquendi retreated into the wild, and did their best to stay away from trouble. They would become known as the Iquendinorean Order which was an order of Iquendi that as rangers did their best to protect the people wandering into their land.

Origin
It is unknown where the Iquendi came from but it is suspected that they migrated away west before any of the other elven kinds migrated in the Elven Migrations they changed physically to become stronger and lived longer lives, whilest they went through the icecold tundra towards the west of rathnir.

Ancient period
The Iquendi originally lived in a fertile and plentiful land east of rathnir in a valley, which the Iquendi call "The holy land", they would found a kingdom which was believed to be known as Iquendinor. This kingdom would be founded at a well at which the first high-king of the Iquendi saw a vision of a god named "Sol Invictorion" who was also known as "the unconquered sun" who told him in his holy voice: "Thee shalt build a city around my holy lake, and thy shalt be the high-king of the kingdom of Iquendinor, if thy refuses to accept thee holy mission I give to thy, then tell me now; if thy accepts, then do as what I say and thy shalt become a prosperous leader."

The high-king would later be known as Voronwë I "The enlightened", he would build the social structure of the Iquendi. He would create the noble families, and differentiate the High Iquendi from the Iquendi in social status, he would also found the first university in Iquendi history, and lay the ground work for a strong military of unrivaled quality in the area, he would be killed in an ambush orchestrated by a rival that would end up being the bane of Iquendinor. The hard work of Voronwë I and his heirs, the Imin Voronwë, would lay the foundation for the Iquendi golden age. Or so they believed; due to war and infighting and very weak rulers, the Ancient Iquendinorean kingdom declined in splendour and power for the first time since its begin; this would all transpire into the Iquendi dark ages.

Dark ages
As previously stated, due to the first Iquendi civil war in which two brothers fought for the right to succeed their grandfather, corruption, weak rule and more the Iquendi declined in splendour and power and entered its first dark age. This also caused a sharp decline in population with approximately 35% due to disease and dispair. Whilest all of this transpired, barbarians crossed the Ered Ninuthiel which was the mountain range that existed around the Iquendi kingdom and launched an invasion to conquer the kingdom of Iquendinor.

War of survival
During the dark ages an invasion by barbarian human tribes which crossed the Ered Ninuthiel and arrived at the fortress of Qiralanthë which was a border fort in the Iquendinorean kingdom used to check travellers before they entered the kingdom. The barbarians wo where approximately 945 thousand strong split into two groups; the first one build an encampment for the women, elderly and children; whilest the second one layed siege to the fortress, the legendar figure, called "the first light" appeared in the fortress and rallied the outnumbered Iquendi to fight until the last man all the way until aid would arrive; this hero also had send a raven to the capital to inform of this invasion. When aid finally arrived three months later, they found a fort full of corpses of the massacered Iquendi, they would pursue the barbarians and during a faithfull day in the winter with nearly 12 inches of snow, they met the barbarians in battle, at the plain of Qurtanth at which the Iquendi suffered a deceisive defeat. After their victory the barbarians went to the unguarded city of Qalandë which they destroyed, they sold the population into slavery. The war ended when the Iquendi drove the barbarians out during the winter a few years later.

Slow recovery
The Iquendi in the late dark ages started slowly recovering in number and started rebuilding what had been lost, thanks to some terrible rulership this process couldn't be fully accomplished, an Iquendi citizen once said:"It is a wonder our kingdom still exists whilest absolute idiots rule it.", faith in the monarchy didn't really recover until the end of the dark ages and beginning of the revival era, the best thing that happened in the late dark ages was the military reforms in which the central government completely overhauled the military to better defend the Iquendi people.