An excerpt from the scroll ‘The Mysterious Alagariel’ (volume III) by Thyus Saeedi, Court Historian to Jahan II, Shah of Susahnia, written circa 17850.
Though scholars know almost nothing of the coronation of Queen Alagariel, it is central to the history of Vatan and therefore ought to be scrutinised. Everyone born in Taldyr, be they humans, elves or dwarves grow up with tales of Alagariel’s victory over ‘evil’; whatever that may be. Whether she existed or not, or whether any of it actually happened is not greatly relevant to the influence her tale has had on Taldyr’s history.
Despite that, I remain most interested how much of Alagariel’s tale is based in historical fact. Sadly, I was born to the wrong species to have full access to all scholarly works that may exist on the subject. While the elves have not made any special effort to thwart my investigations, very few of them have been interested in helping me navigate their archives. Mostly they do not ever bother to suggest where I might continue my search, as if they are counting on my shorter lifespan to thwart my efforts to make significant progress. The elves seem to be engaged in a process of obfuscation through delay that has been most frustrating during my life. In that light, I have made certain that this document will only be published after my death.
Unfortunately, I need what few elves have been forthcoming greatly and it will not help my subject of study if I alienate them. That said, scholars should be aware that I feel obliged to conclude that the elves do make an effort to keep the actual historical details of Queen Alagariel as murky as possible. Despite many decades devoted to studying thia subject, I have never discovered why they are so reticent to allow access to their libraries.
Having made that as clear as possible, I will continue with the substance of my investigation. The logical place to start, in the sense that it is probably the least controversial historical event, is, in my opinion, the Crowning of Alagariel. To begin with, we should look at the dating of this event. Logically, this would be in year one of the elven calendar. Even this is problematic however, unless she was crowned on the 1st of Wittenarde. If she was crowned later in the year, what year number did the rest of the year have? It is the same problem as the Selinan Kings have with their dating system of course, but it bears mentioning that even this is not known for certain.
I would propose, that the elven Bailiu, the day they traditionally confirm their High Kings and Queens is a strong clue that she too was crowned on that day of the year, which we humans call the 29th of Kaldmeer. This date is only present evert fourth year, of course. This is, predicated on the presumption that we have been using the same calendar for near to twenty millennia. On this point, the elves are more forthcoming, claiming that this much, at least, is certain.
So, what else can be said with any degree of certainty about her coronation? From elven sources, it seems likely that she was active for a long time – even in elven terms – before her coronation. We are speaking of centuries and a single elven bundle of poetry I have studied even suggests a number of three millennia. This is unlikely to be true as she is said to have passed on on 1st of Languise 1201. Twelve hundred years is already a respectable age for an elf, even a fire elf, let alone that she was 4200 years old. It can not be wholly discounted of course as she was also claimed to be a great Magister, but 4200 years certainly seems to be pushing credibility, even for a sorceress of her purported might. She was presumably extraordinary enough, in some way at least, to inspire us to still speak of her twenty millinnia later, but there is no real evidence to suggest that the story we tell of her is literal truth.
What more do we know? The location of her Coronation is also not unequivocally clear from ancient writings. It does not help that Taldyr’s geography was substantially different twenty thousand years ago, with different sea levels and drainage patterns. I have found references to ‘Difayakwininos’ spelled in a multitude of different ways, which translates to ‘The House of the Queen’ from an obscure elven dialect. It means little, though it was used to refer specifically to the region in the vicinity of what is now probably the Westmarch or Sheffield. This too is unlikely as the Kingdom of Fire itself is not terribly far from there and that is surely a more likely location for the Coronation to have taken place. It’s more likely that another Queen had holdings in or around that area and the two are unrelated.
What then, can we learn of this influential and mysterious historical figure’s Coronation? Sadly the answer is ‘not much’, but the simplest explanation is that there was a High Queen of the Elves named Alagariel I and that she was a Magister and that she lived a very long life. If she was active, for instance for three centuries before her Coronation, she passed on at the staggering age of 1500, give or take a few years. Presumably she was Crowned somewhere in the Land of Fire and it’s also likely she was very important in some way, since whatever Monarchs preceded her have been lost to history. Perhaps, she was a great unifier, as my lord’s esteemed ancestor Shahan the First was for the tribes surrounding what is now Greater Susahnia. All these things are the most logical explanations for her reign and seem a sensible set of working assumptions in the absence of more specific historical works and scholarship.
These, admittedly rather sparse, conclusions are the only things which I feel are certain or logical enough to use as a basis for my further research. It is not much, but it may be enough to bring some logical context to other, even more poorly described, events that too place in Alagariel’s time.
