‘With written language came the accumulation of knowledge, and this in turn led inevitably to greater power. But this power has exacted a harsh price from us. When we were a simpler folk, like the Pixies and Nymphs of the forests and springs, life was simpler, and we had no need for a King, though we had leaders after a fashion; tribal elders and seers and such.
‘That chapter began when we began writing down our Lore. The most powerful individuals then were the scribes, those who could read and write. Then it was the librarians, those first scholars whose responsibility it was to guard and organize a knowledge that grew with astonishing rapidity, becoming vast over a few short generations.
‘Then came an odd turn of fate. Goblins appeared for the first time, assailing us from the North, and for the first time war was upon us. In an attempt to overthrow our people utterly, the Goblins attacked what was then the Town of Nith, hoping to sack the Library, the chief centre of our knowledge and power.
‘They failed in their bid, but only just barely.
‘Many were left to wonder how the Goblins had come by their knowledge of the Library, and at the time, many assumed that these evil creatures from the North had merely sensed our growing power, and had thereby been provoked into attacking. They had assumed, as well, that the Goblins were a folk unknown to us, that since we knew so little of the North country, these creatures had simply been overlooked, or had until then escaped our notice.