Defining the Corame
"They called them kormai then, "masters of half," for they discerned then that this strange people possessed a wisdom they themselves did not, and that meant that their perception of their own wisdom was halved, and so they did not have everything they had thought they did before. And yet at the same time the kormai refused to admit that the Elwens had any wisdom at all, that in passion and chaos some virtues might lie, or that what is small and belonging to one person alone might occasionally have more value than that which is large and belongs to many. This is only a rough summary of the differences between the Children of the Stars and those who came after to name themselves corame, from the Primal name; but it will suffice to make a beginning."
---From The Children of the Stars and the Children of the Mother: A Move Towards A Preliminary History, by the black alfar poet Erfrasse; unfinished.
The corame of Arcadia have a history different from the histories of most of the other races that inhabit that vast continent. They seem to have considered themselves from the beginning of history more or less as one people, though divided into different races; and they have not spread as far or as fast as Elwens, dragons, or even the late-arrived humans. Their numbers are small, though they often have more children than Elwens, and many more of them marry than among the independent-minded Children of the Stars. Some claim this is due to war, others to fate. The corame themselves say that the way things are is the way they are supposed to be. (This acceptance of what happens in the world as the natural order of things infuriates the Elwens, who nearly always move to change things).
During the course of history, corame have been most often defined by what Elwens are not. Here are some texts in their own voices (or those of non-Elwen outsiders, like Erfrasse) to give them a chance to tell the world as they see it.
A Corame Creation Myth- All the different peoples of Arcadia have their own legends of the creation of the world. What do the corame believe? (Not complete).
Races of the Corame- The present races of the corame.
Chanticlir- Notes on the greatest kingdom of the corame, situated in the Tableland in the early Age of Dawn.
Foods for Thought- A brief, somewhat silly essay on how the foods the corame eat (and how they eat them) reveal some of their basic philosophies.
Veleth- The name for Elwens in the most ancient coramay tongues, and still surviving in many today, is veleth, "children of evil." What have the Elwens done to merit this distinction?
The Lanime- One of the most commented-upon tragedies of the corame (at least by outside historians) is the destruction of the lanime, the dark-skinned corame race said to have been born of the Sunsister's union with the Prince of Night, by their kin. For millions of years it was believed they had perished to the last child. Now, a strange scrap of paper recovered by Linguist-Historians from the ruins of a supposed alfar city tells an intriguing tale.
More to come.
