House Arisan

Originally a group of dark-skinned elven exiles who resided in the forests of southern Duria, the Arisan elves were encountered by and allied with the early settlers of Neptag (now Neptaris). In return for leaving their forests east of the Krios river alone, the Arisan elves gave over a thousand human slaves that they had captured from local tribes to the settlers.

Despite a close alliance with Neptag during its first century, the alliance with the Arisan elves was threatened by the madness of the Neptaran King Kregimar of House Ikthian. Though initially popular, Kregimar tried to claim more and more of the Arisan Forest and established anti-elven policies, blaming them for the plagues and famine that hit Neptaris in the early decades of its second century. He even exiled his own brother, Pheremar, for taking an elven wife. It is rumored, was preparing an army to take the forest by force when he died expectantly in [112|112 NC]]. After Kregimar's death, the line of Ikthios came to an abrupt end as the male successors either died or became crippled and unable to rule. Within seven years, the only clear heir to the throne of Neptag was the exiled Pheremar's infant half-elven son, Orris of House Ikthian, who had been living with his mother in the Arisan Forest. Orris was brought back to Neptag and placed under the regency of Joandar, then Dean of the House of the Quill in 120 NC.

In 124 NC, the dwarves of the Kingdom of Derlos (from beneath what is now known as the Cambrecian Mountains) came to the Arisan elves for aid fighting orcs who had ravaged their ancient underground homes. In what would come to be known as The War of the Dark Rider, the Arisan elves (and eventually the humans of Neptag) allied with the dwarves to defeat the orcs and their dark warlord, but at the cost of a great many elven lives.

When the Kamaros betrayed and subjugated Neptag in 170 NC, young King Orris secretly met with the Arisan elves to organize a rebellion against the Kamaran King, Irgalach. Again taking heavy losses in the fighting, the Arisan elves nevertheless were instrumental in securing Neptag's independence. After the war, many elves chose to settle in Neptag itself. By 206 NC the remaining Arisan elves requested permanent residence in Neptag and King Orris formally established them as House Arisan. To commemorate the melding of these two peoples, he also renamed the town Neptaris. The decision was extremely controversial in Neptaris and a subsequent uprising lead to the resignation of King Orris and the end of House Ikthian as the first royal house of Neptaris.

In 328 NC, a young half-elf of House Arisan named Feldan Foxglove was appointed Neptarch (the title of Neptaris' rulers after the resignation of King Orris). Despite being a fairly inoffensive ruler, Foxglove and much of House Arisan were eventually forced into exile by a group of pro-human nobles known as the Rebel Knights in 348 NC. Almost four decades later, Feldan Foxglove returned to Neptaris as the Green Knight and killed the ruling Neptarch, Paenoth of House Rimman. Crowned Neptarch for a second time, Foxglove had become hardened by his treatment at the hands of Neptaris' nobility and established a shadowy secret police force known as the Warders. The Warders were given the right to execute any who dissented against the Crown as traitors to Neptaris and became feared across the growing city.

The central opposition to this policy was brought by the Archbishop Mandrake of Cthos, himself a member of House Arisan and a full blooded elf who had migrated to Neptaris a century and a half before. In 394 NC, the conflict reached its peak when five of Foxglove's Warders defeated the Archbishop's guards and attempted to execute the Archbishop himself. The Archbishop, powerful in his own right, defeated his would-be assassins. Despite this very public assassination attempt, the Archbishop appeared to go about his duties as if nothing would happen. It is said that Foxglove finally went mad waiting for the Archbishop's response.

Instead of overt war, the Archbishop secretly formed his own group of enforcers called the Guardians of the Scythe 402 NC