The Deerfriends.
The royal line of Arcadia.
Founders of cities. Explorers. Musicians. Outlaws, Inventors. Councilmasters of Rowan. Beloved of the gods.
The Deerfriends stand highest of all the high blood lines of Rowan. They were the first to become high blood, and remain so to this day, the longest-enduring of all the lines so founded. Nerlk Deerfriend, at the command of Nystze, Goddess of Emotion, followed a stag into a grove and spared its life rather than killing it. So the line became known as Deerfriend.
Nerlk's sons Komas and Terlin pursued their paths in different ways. There are rumors that Komas founded Rowan, but because he married a curalli the knowledge was barred from others. Terlin has written songs like the Starlight Song, which became the funeral music of all Elwenkind and still endures today, more than five billion years after he wrote it. Other members of the line were heroes in their own ways, but for a long time nothing so great was said of Deerfriend as was said of those first three.
Then came the Lord Somal. In a black time of siege by the Goddess Tirosina, Lady of Dark Magic, he confronted the goddess as she was coming into the world and cut off three of her fingers. Though he died for it, he caused her pain that endures to this day, as he cut off the fingers in her true form, and she cannot heal the wound. He single-handedly stopped the goddess from taking the world.
After the War of the Falling arose the Lord Yubro Deerfriend. When the Dying swept across the land, attacking all in spite of race, it was the Lord Yubro who found the cure in a pool of godsblood. He later used that same pool to create horses and six intelligent races (Rocococci, Swan Maidens, Pookahs, flame elves, lachrai, and silen'en). Though he destroyed the secret when he died, in his time he was the greatest hero the Deerfriends ever knew, and so far none have matched him.
The Lady Eleriad, who arose a few generations later, did scarcely less than he. Councilmaster of Rowan for more than five thousand years, she kept the city both safe and at peace, and a haven of high art and science. She it was as well who discovered the secret of starflight, linking the minds and magic of many Elwens together so they might lift ships to the moons and beyond. This secret was taken by the Yavil, and the Lady Eleriad herself died in the Battle of Esshellen from a traitor's arrow, but not before she had become the second of the three great leaders of Rowan in the Third Era.
Then arose the Lord Keren Deerfriend, who rules the line today. Though his sister Kalupa holds title and lands, and Keren himself was exiled in disgrace from Rowan for attempted murder, none would deny that Keren's achievements are the greater. He fought for years against slavery, attacking and destroying slavers and then not only freeing slaves, but escorting them back to their homes. He is now a Councilman of Arcadia, who represents the wolf Elwens of the Tableland. In light of this, and that his attempt at murder was directed against the traitor Sodiest Lafoxbane who killed his best friend, he can perhaps be forgiven.
Below are links to the great history of Deerfriend. If thou wouldst touch them, thou mayest.
Deerfriend Links
