Wrath of the King

The Wrath of the King denotes a black mark in sidhe history, around 28 centuries before Deismaar the wars between the goblins and elves were at their height. A Sidhe lord of Lluabraight known as the Horned King led his forces against the goblins repeatedly, in time he came to see that ?reprisal raids? to punish the goblins for attacks on elves were insufficient to persuade the goblins to let the elves live in peace and he formed the first Gheallie Sidhe, the hunt of the elves.
The Horned King led the Gheallie Sidhe to not merely raid goblin tribes but to exterminate them. Wielding great magics, the Horned King grew ever more intent on genocide until he began drawing power for his spells from the Forest itself, not simply the mebhaighl of the land. The elves grew to fear the ever more powerful Horned King and eventually turned on him, Tuar, queen of the elves led the sidhe against the Horned King who by this time had been twisted by his magics into a mockery of his former sidhe self. Tuar destroyed the shadow-fiends and the cwshegh, weird animated soldiers of ?branch, root and leaf? which served as his troops, and imprisoned the Horned King in his great tower, binding him with three great runes each imperfect (as are all magics not cast by a perfect being).

• The first rune bound him not the leave the tower unless one from without entered and took from him that which was claimed by him.
  

• The second rune bound him not to harm one of sidhe blood so long as none of sidhe blood harmed him or his folk.
  

• The final rune bound him not to use his terrible forest draining magic unless such magics were used against him or his folk.
  

The tower of the horned King is long forgotten, but is believed to lie in the lands of Gandvick, now claimed by the White Witch. Some younger elves wonder if the tower could be found,for it doubtless contains ancient treasures of the sidhe; the elder amongst the sidhe caution against such talk, even over four millennia is not long enough for them to forget the dying of the forests as the Horned King sought to annihilate his foes heedless to the 'short term' damage he wrought in doing so - and four millennia is not so long ago for an elf of the power of the Horned King.
The elves now tend to remember the Horned King as an example of how they can be blinded by rage for years at a time and the tragic consequences of this rage; these elves remember the Horned King by spending a day in the early weeks of summer in contemplation of his downfall. Rhuobhe Manslayer by contrast sees the Horned King as a legendary hero let down by the mercy of his kin and his people celebrate the King?s imprisonment by honoring him with a great hunt against enemies of the elves ? usually goblins but occasionally the folk of Boeruine when they want more of a challenge.