"Your world is strange. Well, I suppose ours must seem strange to you. Would you like to hear our history? It may be useful to know if you are going to try to solve our current problems."

"You're right, though my world's outlandish enough that I think I'm less... startled? It's strange but not surprising. I agree that a history overview would help, and I'd be interested anyways."

"Many thousands of years ago, the Eriai came to the world from somewhere outside of it - I was not alive then, this part is secondhand - back then, there was only one kind of people here. They lived harsh, brutish, short lives - war was common, food was scarce, they didn't know about plumbing or medicine or anything of the sort. The Eriai came and changed that - they offered technology and wisdom, and offered to...change some of the people, making them more like the Eriai. Some accepted those gifts and became the Annalië - literally, 'people of the gift' - while others rejected them. The Ewerthaid - literally 'the Forsaken' - rejected the gifts. Then, the Eriai went to the utmost south and the utmost north of the world, where none lived, and dwelt there. Even then, they were split into two factions - those in the north we called the Narvelethrim, fire-lovers, as they dug deep and drank of the fires at the center of the world and had great mastery over both fire and ice. Those in the south we called the lossvelethrim, ice-lovers - mainly to contrast with their northern kin, in truth the narvelethrim had greater mastery of ice as well."

"That's certainly... different. I'm guessing the two factions warred?"

"Eventually. At first they simply dwelt apart. That part of the tale is coming, but the lead-up to the wars are important to know."

"The Eriai had servants, which they made, called the Anglî - people of iron. The first Anglî were made from metal and diamond, and they never tired and never hungered, and never faltered in their devotion to their masters. Yet, their children were of soft stone, and pursued their own interests alongside those of the Eriai, and their children's children were of flesh, and felt no loyalty to the masters of their ancestors. In the south, the Anglî of flesh wished for freedom, and they arranged a great council of all their people, hoping to as one people depart the halls of Oromaril. But the elder Anglî rejected that desire, and were embittered at their kin for interrupting their work, and rather than coming to an arrangement they came to blows. Blood was spilled, the silver blood of the elder and the red of the younger alike, and when the conflict was ended almost the entirety of those who wished to remain were slain. The Lossvelethrim made a proclamation to those who lived - they declared that the freedom that they fought for would be granted, but nothing else, and they gave the Anglî only until the sun rose to prepare their departure, and gave them no tools nor materials nor food. Most of the Anglî perished when they failed to leave, or when their hastily-made ships sunk as they crossed the sea, but a few of them came to these shores. The Ewerthaid call them 'dwarves', for they are short and made for small spaces."

She nods.

"The Narvelethrim heard of what had happened with the Anglî in the south, and were afraid of the same strife coming to their halls. So they changed the Anglî that they had - they made them less intelligent and more brutish, and reverted their flesh to stone and their bones to iron. This was against the laws of the Eriai in some way, and displeased the Lossvelethrim to hear it, but was forgiven for the circumstances which prompted it."

"The Lossvelethrim, though, were now without servants, so they sent emissaries back to the north. Those emissaries spoke to the Annalië, and offered even greater gifts than they had given already, in exchange for service to them. Some accepted and traveled south with Eriai, yet when they passed the sunlit islands in the middle of the world many of the Annalië were enchanted by them, and chose to stay there and did not continue to Oromaril. Thus, the Annalië became three peoples - The Yelindrim, winter-elves who stayed in the north, the Ennari, sun-elves who dwelt on the islands at the world's waist, and the Cildhrim, steel-elves who followed the Eriai to Oromaril with its towers of metal and crystal."

"The Narvelethrim saw this, and desired servants of their own. But all those of the Annalië who remained in the north were the Yelindrim, who would not bow to any Ariâ. And so the Narvelethrim went among the Ewerthaid and found servants among them, and came to hate the Yelindrim. In time, the Narvelethrim grew bolder, and their vassal kingdoms performed human sacrifice and blood rites to increase the Narvelethrim's power, and were sent to war with the Yelindrim and all others who would not kneel at the feet of the Narvelethrim."

Nod.

"When word of this came to Oromaril, the Lossvelethrim were concerned, but did not at first go to war. They cared little for the Yelindrim and Anglî who had rejected them, and even less for the Ewerthaid, but they feared that the Narvelethrim might have ambitions beyond merely ruling the north. So Luiston, the captain of the Lossvelethrim's warriors, went with many of his soldiers and dwelt on the moon to keep watch. This angered the Narvelethrim, who withdrew their armies and feigned peace, but made secret preparation for war."

"It took them many centuries to prepare, but in time they were ready and the war began in earnest. The moon was shattered as part of the initial assault, and with the watchers fled bodiless to Oromaril the Narvelethrim came forth from their halls in bodies tall and strong, with skin like adamant and lances like fire. And with them marched their vassal Ewerthaid and their Anglî who had been reshaped into fearsome forms for war, and the free people of the north could not stand against them."

"But though they had lost the moon, the Lossvelethrim were not cowed and rather angered. They sent storms to the north, and the armies of the Narvelethrim were choked in flooded rivers and flowing mud, and their leaders struck down by bolts of lightning. And in place of the moon, the Lossvelethrim built a great bulwark in the heavens and set many watchers on it and warded it with powerful sorcery so that it could not be destroyed or bypassed." - he gestures at the line of white across the sky - "And the narvelethrim retreated and hid for many lifetimes of ewerthaid."

"When the Narvelethrim attacked again, they did not personally lead their armies, and so the Lossvelethrim again took no part in the fighting. The Narvelethrim knew that this would be, and that they had no need to take the field themselves, for among their forces were the first of the Tekidi, and they had many Ewerthaid, and the trolls which had been made from the Anglî."

...Nod. 

"After a time, word of the war reached the Cildhrim in Oromaril. We found the Eriai's stance unacceptable. We begged for them to intervene, and they said no, they didn't want to escalate. We told them people were dying and they asked if the right response to that was to kill more. We told them to stop the Narvelethrim, imprison them or kill them or something. They said that they would not war among themselves for something so trifling as genocide.

"So we left. We studied their secrets and learned how we might kill them and left. We joined the Ennari on the sunlit isles, and there we developed weapons which could kill an Ariâ and make it stay dead. And then we went to war, and eventually that war escalated enough for the Lossvelethrim to get involved. And eventually, we won. The Narvelethrim were all killed, their puppet-kingdoms broken up, and the Lossvelethrim retreated behind their Bulwark and have not ventured forth since. Good riddance."

Yeah 'unacceptable' had been about her opinion of the Lossvelethrim, too. "Your people acted bravely. And I think I'm glad that my world doesn't share a plane of existence with our gods. Was Gorvaethor one of the Narvelethrim?"

A look of terror crosses his face for just a moment as he considers the possibility. "The reason the Lossvelethrim gave for being reluctant to go to war is that they tend to commit rather strongly. The impression I got was that the Eriai all bindingly swore not to cease not to cease hostilities until the other side was completely annihilated. Gorvaethor is still present in the world, hence he is not a Narveleth."

"Ah. So he's a Lossveleth, or unaligned? And binding yourself to unceasing warfare is... more extreme than I had been expecting."

"Far more likely he is an Anno. With strange priorities. I told you of the Eriai's wars because those are a... backdrop... to what has followed. There are two Cildhrim kingdoms - Airâlad, in the north, was founded during the wars. When the wars ended, some of us split with Airâlad. Their leaders had abandoned ours to die when the war opened, and... commandeered... many of our weapons and tools. We named our kingdom Rainë - peace. Airâlad had ewerthaid vassal states, but most of them also separated when the war ended. Gorvaethor won one - possibly more - of them to his side, with the aim of overthrowing the Annalië and taking our lands."

"Ah. For some reason when you first mentioned him I assumed he was an Aria."

"An understandable mistake, I suppose, without the background. Especially given that your daedric princes are more prone to intervene in your world than the Eriai are in the north." He sighs and lies back on the ground.

"I believe you intended to test your weapon?"

"Yes, I had, thank you for reminding me." She walks a good bit away from Finyalambe, and aims well away from him. Aimed at the ground or at random objects, the Wabbajack produces explosions of fire, lightning, or frost, or simply sends things flying. Which. Aren't its typically described powers. 

She sighs and walks back. "I should try this on animals, too. It's not behaving as I think it's supposed to." Are there frogs or something in the swamp? 

She didn't see any but she can certainly hear them. 

Can she catch or at least find them to aim at? Or anything really, she'll also accept rabbits and birds and the like.

She does eventually track down a handful of frogs and a few small birds. And lots and lots of bugs, if those relevantly count.

Not unless they're unnaturally big, otherwise Interesting Things would've happened while firing at ants.

The same explosions still occur, but added into the mix is that one gets turned into a rabbit, one into a bottle of wine, one into a shower of forty golden septims, and one into an angry Dremora (which is when Malielle learns that a second hit undoes the changes). The rabbit turns back into a frog after a few minutes, and inanimate objects remain inanimate. Malielle strongly suspects that this isn't the extent of the staff's powers, but she's running out of easily found critters.

"Any idea how many Swords these would be worth?" Malielle asks once she's tired of chasing down frogs and birds, showing a septim to Finyalambe. "Also did the fire and lightning look bright enough to work against tekidi?"

"If those are solid gold - merchants will probably check, since it's not a known coinage - then that would cover your travel to Rainë, a horse, and a small armory. If you're just buying swords... two hundred, maybe? If you are aiming for quality but not gaudiness."

"I more meant the conversion to the silver coin, I should have been more specific. I'm not actually sure; I think they're solid, not gilded, but I don't know what kind of alloy they are. So would each coin be worth all that, or all forty of them? That's - a lot, gold must be much rarer here than back home."

"That was for all forty, yes. If they're solid gold, about two hundred Swords apiece, with the assumption that you would probably buy swords for forty or fifty Swords apiece on average... Unloving South, that's confusing. I have just gained a whole new appreciation for the noble efforts of logistics officers."