122 Chapter 4: allies and adVersaries
the animals of the world. Some creatures created by this
outpouring of magic remain feral beasts, like the abom-
inable owlbear or giant toad. Others, however, gained
increased intelligence, the ability to create tools, and the
capacity to form civilizations.Centaurs
During the Calamity, many elves fled into the Feywild to
escape the war. One elven tribe that remained on Exan-
dria to fight alongside their gods were the Horselords of
Laphithas. The elves of Laphithas rode alongside the elven
deity Archeart against the mortal servants of the Ruiner,
but the entire tribe was slain in a burst of chaotic magic
when the Archeart stabbed the Ruiner through his eye,
their power merging their mortal bodies with their horses.
The Archeart rewarded his followers by reviving them as
centaurs to ride across the Dividing Plains, forever free of
war. The centaurs have diverged from their elven ancestry,
but still hold a grudge against the elves of Syngorn for
fleeing when their need was greatest. They are an incred-
ibly faithful people—worshipping their creator with a
fervor unknown even among the elves.
This story conflicts somewhat with the creation myth
of the orcs, who were elves corrupted by the spilled
blood of the Ruiner. It is possible that neither story is
entirely accurate—or that both are. If both centaur and
orcs are elves altered by the Ruiner’s defeat, it would cer-
tainly explain the two peoples’ long-standing hatred for
one another.driders
The betrayer god known as the Spider Queen was one of
the first casualties of the Calamity; she was impaled by the
Stormlord’s thunderspear before her drow soldiers even saw
battle. Her blood, thick and silvery, pooled in the sunless
caverns beneath the world. In the years to come, it was
discovered by her most loyal dark elven servants, and they
drank deeply. The blood of the Spider Queen granted them
the goddess’s terrible power and warped their bodies until
they were half-spider, half-elf. The driders grew in number
as more and more drow accepted this gift, but the pools of
divine blood began to run dry, and they found themselves
tormented by its absence. The driders now roam the under-
ground, desperately searching for hidden pools of the silver
nectar. Yet, for their agony, they may still be in better shape
as a tribal civilization than the dark elves.gnOlls
As their canine appearance suggests, gnolls were once
mere hyenas. A pack of wild dogs was caught in the
divine eminence of an unknown deity entering Exan-
dria to do battle in the Calamity, and when the nimbus
faded, the beasts were transformed. Today, most gnolls
are still nomadic tribes led by a matriarch and her mate,
finding food where they can, be it scavenged carrion or
more civilized sustenance from human caravans along
the Silvercut Roadway. Gnolls are a people with few
allies, seen as weak by the Ravagers of the Dividing