Rhuobhe is dead - what now?

[Osprey]

If your world is rabidly anti-magic, a crusade against the elves of Rhuobhe by any neighboring regent who is all-in on the anti-magic theme would be very tempting for political gain and a powerful source province (and a lot of magical loot no doubt!).

Everybody's elves are different in BR, as are general magic levels and NPC character levels. In mine (a world that's gotten very high level by the time we were fighting Rhuobhe; Spider and many other villains already vanquished), there aren't many elves serving Rhuobhe who are low level except the newest members of his tribe (cult). I put some of the oldest and most dangerous of human-hunters among Rhuobhe's ranks, with extraordinary numbers of wizards and fighter-mages (eldritch knights).

So unless the PCs took out most of his inner circle of elders and veterans in the original attack, there should be many deadly elite NPCs and many wizards ready to organize a defense and continue the mission of Rhuobhe against the humans. Even without realm magic they would be extremely dangerous to invaders trying to come in to a magical mountain forest province that's never been scouted by humans. Guerilla warfare could kill hundreds of soldiers per day without many if any losses to the elves.

On Realm Magic:
BRCS says the province of Rhuobhe is permanently warded by magical mists that prevent most folks from entering, as per the 6th level realm spell Warding. (In which case a higher-level party with a strong-willed leader can fairly reliably infiltrate, but larger groups cannot, preventing armies and regular level 1 NPCs from marching through).

This warding could be a truly permanent feature of the magical province. Or it could simply be a Warding realm spell cast and renewed for 2000 years by Rhuobhe himself, or a blooded wizard Lieutenant if he had any that strong (11th level+). If this is the case, the realm spell would continue to function for its duration, which could be many months still remaining depending when it was last cast and what level wizard Rhuobhe is in your game. This could provide the months needed for the elves to reorganize and prepare defenses and/or revenge.

If there was no designated heir, Rhuobhe's sources would go uncontrolled, and 1 or more blooded elven wizards of Rhuobhe would probably try to claim the source for themselves. But no more than one level can be ruled per month, and with no starting RP success on every attempt is not guaranteed, nor will there be an RP reservoir for realm spell casting at any level unless the mage performs some "heroic" deed (murder a hated elf-hunting human lord nearby?) and gets some RP from a minor or major Gain of Regency.

Fwiw I think the elves who did not want to stay could easily sneak out and make their way to Tuarhievel or the Sielwode, passing as human with a little disguise in human cloaks and staying out of towns and cities.
Elven refugees from Rhuobhe can make for a very socially complex situation if the PCs discover them...there may very well be children and other non-combatants in those groups, especially if invasion of Rhuobhe seems imminent and the warriors want to make sure their precious children survive!

That being said...I think elves tend to fight only when they have overwhelming advantage. Forget all this honorable battle nonsense - the lack of healing magic and very slow reproduction makes elves impossibly disadvantaged against humans in stand-up battles. Every elven casualty is a hard-to-replace grim tragedy, a life taken that might have lived for thousands of years more if violence did not claim it.

If elves die, it's because something went wrong; an enemy was far stronger or more dangerous than they anticipated. Elven plans should always anticipate zero losses if things work out as expected. That's how superior elves need to be to survive in the world.

That's my take on Rhuobhe's cult of elven psychology anyways. To survive as he has in the middle of Anuire for 2000 years...his elves would need to be really damned good at what they do, and rarely get caught or killed in their work. Otherwise there'd be none left.

[Rowan]

Some elves may be discouraged or seek something else and wander off, particularly if your elves are fickle and mercurial, but I would think this event would be a flashpoint for rage across the elven world. I would have news of it cause trouble within factions of sympathizers in every Sidhelien kingdom across Cerilia. Many likely served with Rhuobhe at some time in their lives.

This means Gheallie Sidhe raids everywhere. It means some of the more militant kingdoms, like Sielwode and Twr Annwn, may go to war outright, or have such intense Gheallie Sidhe reprisals as to lay waste to all human settlements within reach, killing everyone and everything.

In my games, the Sidhelien have means of communication with each other and even travel; they are not wholly isolated by distances across human lands. For me, this has taken different forms: travel through the Shadow World, through tree gates, or realm spells and hidden ley line connections. If you have anything like this, a great many elves from all over Cerilia could come to Rhuobhe's land to make war, or defend it -- even if they intend to eventually abandon the province, but just want to cause maximum human losses in taking it.

Rhuobhe had lieutenants, and between these and sympathizers or those who served with him at some time, like powerful elven sorcerers and nobles from other kingdoms, you can easily find a war council of very strong generals and sorcerers. Some may have mebhaigl stones or rings and can quickly move in to cast realm magic, or invest in slapping down long ley lines to anchor to the source there (perhaps hopping through connections in the Five Peaks).

I have always envisioned Rhuobhe's province as being virtually impossible to assault. Impassable trails, high mountains and cliffs, dense forests, a tower on an island in the middle of the lake. Effectively level 10 fortifications. Traps and contingency plans and tunnels and secret routes. Only human Scout units or small parties can even get there, none mounted, and elves have massive defensive advantages, stealth, etc.

The realm magics might have failed, or they might still linger, fading and weakening but biding the elves time to take over and build up the Sources again, or prepare for war. Realm magics could include ley line traps, Warding, contingency-type things that summon defenders or launch a realm spell against attackers.

If other elves and even rulers are enraged by this (even if they may not have explicitly been Rhuobhe sympathizers before), they might sponsor much with gold and RP and forces, court wizards who can wreak havoc with realm spells in the surrounding areas.

Expect elves to strike and fade, always having the initiative in timing and terrain, cover of night, fighting in forests and mountains (no human cavalry, no infantry formations so that even regular infantry take on the "irregular" status because they can't form up). Battlefield magic that is constantly causing morale checks and frequently routing terrified humans. Lots of GB and province levels lost to raids. I would even let elves ignore some levels of fortifications, given their style of warfare (though not being able to invest provinces).

And here's the kicker: Rhuobhe's assassination will lead to kill squads and widespread assassinations of human nobles and officials. A campaign to cause pain. Even lots of bloodtheft, such that several elven leaders could rapidly grow in blood strength. Even tighmaevril weapon bloodthefts. End up with dozens, even hundreds of dead human scions pretty quickly, with a storm of bloodstrength concentrating in an inner circle of elven leaders. The result could be as bad or worse than having the status quo, long-simmer of Rhuobhe.

I would make it very ugly for the humans. Let Rhuobhe's death matter.

[daisho]

First and foremost - I would ask what does the fiction ask?

The Elf is dead. How do the players feel about his followers?

If there is hatred or antipathy, they go on a rampage. If there is some sympathy, then they ask for help.

One question that I've always had is: Why? Why do his followers stay? Were they compelled magically? Was it an immortal loyalty? If you ask these questions your answer will probably become clear.

[JanessaVR]

And here's the kicker: Rhuobhe's assassination will lead to kill squads and widespread assassinations of human nobles and officials. A campaign to cause pain. Even lots of bloodtheft, such that several elven leaders could rapidly grow in blood strength. Even tighmaevril weapon bloodthefts. End up with dozens, even hundreds of dead human scions pretty quickly, with a storm of bloodstrength concentrating in an inner circle of elven leaders. The result could be as bad or worse than having the status quo, long-simmer of Rhuobhe.

I would make it very ugly for the humans. Let Rhuobhe's death matter.

If the elves are this badass and unstoppable, how did the rest of Cerilia's history even happen? This is cranking the power of the elves up to 11, and there shouldn't even be any humans in Cerilia, as the elves would have killed them off or driven them away centuries ago. The Empire should never have had a chance to form in the first place.

[Doyle]

The elves and humans were initially peaceful and the elves happy for help against the gnolls and goblins. By the time the peace fell down, it wasn't all elves, nor all humans that wanted the fight. Following Deismaar, those elves that still wanted the humans destroyed were too few to achieve this and instead retreated to plot and seethe.
While this event might push more elves towards the anti-human sentiment, they are still too few in number, so assassinations and other traps are the 'better' option. Destroy leaders rather than armies.

Of course, this could just be a machination of the Gorgon to weaken both groups for his next rampage. Or perhaps wanting that group of elven leaders with the increased bloodline level so he has both something to harvest and can look like the hero to the remaining humans, to then reclaim the empire that should have been his centuries ago.

[JanessaVR]

Sorry, don't buy it. Hundreds of scions dead, to tighmaevril weapon bloodthefts at that? Why the hell were they just sitting around for generations doing nothing but being an annoyance to neighboring regents with their terrorist campaigns here and there?

"Yeah, we're invincible and could kill all of you just like that [snaps fingers]. We're so powerful that there's nothing you could do to stop us. And we could have done this at any time but just sat around for centuries twiddling our thumbs. But then you killed this one guy and, okay, now you're gonna get it!"

Yeah...no.

[Fizz]

Sorry, don't buy it. Hundreds of scions dead, to tighmaevril weapon bloodthefts at that? Why the hell were they just sitting around for generations doing nothing but being an annoyance to neighboring regents with their terrorist campaigns here and there?

IThe elves are not invincible and they'd not be successful in killing every noble in Cerilia. But just a few successful assassinations would certainly get the attention of every regent. Assassinations would also let them keep their defenses on their few remaining forests, which are sacred to them.

It's an interesting scenario. On one hand, elves are moved emotionally very quickly, so avenging their loss in some form would make sense. On the other hand, being immortal the elven sense of time is entirely different than that of a human. Waiting many years to take their revenge may be nothing to an elf; like a human waiting for tomorrow.

Lots of possibilities. That's what makes it fun.

-FIzz

[JanessaVR]

A few successful assassinations is far more believable. My point was that hundreds of scions dead to tighmaevril weapon bloodthefts was not. If they were that unbelievably badass, then what were they waiting for all this time? Launching that campaign of overwhelming terror and chaos while Rhuobhe was still alive would have made way more sense.

[Rowan]

A few successful assassinations is far more believable. My point was that hundreds of scions dead to tighmaevril weapon bloodthefts was not. If they were that unbelievably badass, then what were they waiting for all this time? Launching that campaign of overwhelming terror and chaos while Rhuobhe was still alive would have made way more sense.

"Scion" does not mean just all named realm and domain holders and their families; it's any blooded person. There are likely tens of thousands of human scions, mostly of tainted bloodline strength. Maybe hundreds of thousands, depending on the demographics in your game. Whether the blooded make up 1%-5% of the population, if you're talking about millions of humans in Anuire, you're in the 10,000s. I have always tended towards larger land areas and populations, with Cerilia more akin to Europe, and Anuire around the size of France. There's a wide population range within that you could go with, depending on era, but if attempting real world analogies, Anuire could easily have well over 10 million people. Fantasy demographics tend to think far too small.

That's some context. Hundreds of scions, mostly petty lords and knights on the border provinces, is easily within the realm of possibility for hundreds of elves to target. Hundreds of these minor scions could die in major or long term wars, anyway.

Sure, it would be harder to get to scions with stronger bloodlines. But several key assassinations could cause all sorts of consequences, even if they are just on the count or baron level, or children of a cadet line of the major families.

A short period of intense rage and Gheallie Sidhe is well within Sidhelien lore, with quite destructive raids along the borderlands of various elven kingdoms. Before humans can mount a major response, why wouldn't they be able to burn out many villages and cause serious disruptions in the border towns? Elves have fast scout units, and realm magic to drop in close proximity of their borders.

An intense period of retribution does not mean that elves would be a major threat over the long haul. For one, I don't think they can sustain unity beyond the short term, nor interest; many would likely wander off after the initial bloodlust is sated, or pragmatically before humans could mount a major unified response.

The lore has Sidhelien losing due to human numbers, persistence, unity, and divine realm magic countering their sorcery. I would see that still being true. If elves tried a long term campaign, they would be thrown back with significant losses after humans organized a sustained response and defense. Elves can't sustain losses over the long term, and they know it. The existing stalemate exists largely, IMO, bc elves DO have many advantages in forests that negate human advantages, to the point where human losses in offensive campaigns are far too great for any current kingdoms to endure. It would take a much more united Anuire to burn the elves out of Tuarhievel and the Sielwode. But on the other hand, elves really can't do much more than raid and run some assassinations, threaten border provinces a couple deep.

As for tighmaevril, it's kind of a game-breaking concept the designers threw in there. It could be the route to creating follow-on problems like Rhuobhe, since blood strength can increase rapidly with it, even from bloodtheft of scions of more minor bloodlines. So if you wanted to create some more elven nemeses in the legacy of Rhuobhe, having a couple old, powerful elves get equipped with the few remaining tighmaevril weapons would be how you could do it. None would become as powerful as Rhuobhe, but you could have several, which could become a different sort of problem. 3-5 "successors" of Rhuobhe building up to major or even great bloodline strength this way could provide a challenge to a party of PCs if one wanted to go that route.

[AndrewTall]

I had fairly strong links between the shadow/spirit world and some realms, so would have Rhoubhe's realm as including multiple spirit world provinces - and thus both much tougher to defeat for any invaders, and a way for the sidhe population to simply disappear from a human invaders perspective.

I wouldn't expect any sort of stand up fight from Rhoubhe's followers, but I would expect any humans who tried to cut their way through the forest to use the mountain pass between Avanil and Boeruine and make it properly navigable for troops to suffer absolute hell from raids, sabotage, etc.

If the followers have a high level wizrd they would probably do a spate of raids then ward for decades, if not I would expect them to go through the spirit/shadow world to Lluabraight or the Sielwode, where they would fit in better than a more outgoing sidhe realm like Tuarheviel.