FAERHSO

An underground city somewhere beneath the Smoking Plains, inhabited by "dark" elves. Once allied to the elithan of Cliffhome, they cut off all contact with the surface when Cliffhome was conquered by Osksi. It is not known whether Faerhso was built by these elves, or if it was taken over from previous occupants.

FENNITH

A type of air elemental. They usually look like genies: large, well-muscled upper bodies and mist from the waist down. They can fully dematerialize, traveling as a puff of wind. It is rumored that they can also materialize fully, but no one has actually seen a fennith's lower half. The upper bodies are mostly air, and they're not nearly as strong as they look. Fenniths are cowardly by nature, and are able to fly away very fast. One who will linger at the scene of a fight long enough to insult the foe before flying away is considered brave, and one who actually stays and fights is considered insane. Fenniths have good magical potential, and some are mages, but none have an innate ability to grant wishes. Their manner of speaking is flowery in the extreme. Adonis al' Edekin Kalaniah the Ever-Prepared, Sheila Greywand's herald, is a fennith.

FERENCIANS

A race of sea traders to the east of Alastari. The Ferenicians had several colonies on the eastern coast of Alastari, chief among them Zuwayza, but these colonies were all conquered by the Serva several hundred years ago. They are great explorers and traders. Many of the caravans that pass along the Great Eastern Route are Ferencian.

FERIL KHY

A high-placed member of the Andorian Assassins' Guild, head of the King's Ears. He is a typical Aruaki of about 60 with an elder-statesman manner and loves intrigue for its own sake; he will sometimes make things more complicated than they need to be for this reason. He is apparently unmarried, though he may have been in the past; he keeps his past completely hidden. Most of his current effort is bent toward increasing the number of branches in his department of the Guild; his proposal is justified but is being resisted by his fellow department-heads because they fear anything that would disturb the balance of power among then.

FOLSTROM

The Folstrom were a people living far to the south, on the western edge of what is now the Twisted Lands who established a fair sized empire at the time of the orc Hurfra's conquests. The Folstrom continued to expand slowly in the years after Hurfra's fall. Five hundred years after Hurfra's "Five-Year Empire" collapsed, the Folstrom empire extended west to the An-Kiu River, north to the World's Edge, east to the Drakenfell Mountains, and south to the ocean. The Folstrom Empire's eastern edge lay upon the very home of the desert dragons of the south. During this time, the Folstrom began to take slaves of other races. The Folstrom's numbers were never great, and their natural birth rate was low.

Faced with a force that they could not control, the Folstrom became engrossed in the study and understanding of dragons. Tantar, a great sorcerer, researched an entirely new field of magic with which he learned to control mere dragons. (See Mere Dragon) Soon, the Folstrom ruled the dragons of the southern deserts. The Folstrom quickly struck the stunned kingdoms of the south and east, bringing all the lands for many hundreds of miles under their rule. Then they shifted north, conquering the lands of Alastari, save for the River Empire (precursor of the Empire of Lirith Kai) with whom they allied. (See Lirith Kai Handbook) The Folstrom determined to cross the karragit lands (modern Aljafir Bay) and conquer the elven kingdom of Alfhame in the Mossmist Forest. After rolling over most of Alastari, the Folstrom marched into the swamplands which lay to the south of the Molen-Tei mountains, both of which barred the way of the Folstrom invasion army. The battle was very costly, but the Folstrom prevailed. As they tended their wounded however, another karragit army appeared on the eastern outskirts of their camps. The Folstrom gathered their greatly reduced army and marched back to the Twisted Lands. (Note: Despite their apparent victory, the karragit abandoned Wright's Depression until several hundred years ago. See Stormcrowe history.)

All but a few of their dragons had been slain in the swampfolk battle. With the remaining dragons and their very effective armies the Folstrom could just barely maintain their empire. They retreated and regrouped. The Folstrom had been arrogant masters, but now they became as monsters in their treatment of the enslaved races of Alastari. Revolts occurred, but they were effectively put down and controlled. The Folstrom became hated to a degree that no other race would ever be hated again. Then the Folstrom discovered how to open the Chaos Gates, long abandoned by the First Gods. They quickly set about finding and opening gates; their armies made swift raids into a dozen or more other worlds. After these raids the Folstrom were wealthy and powerful beyond belief. They used precious stones for "glitter" on the walls of their homes, and the Dragon Lords had storehouses of magical artifacts and items taken in the various alien lands. However, the Folstrom found lands which they could raid through these gateways to be quick to stiffen their defenses. They also did not understand the "Gateways" which they were using.

The Folstrom did not realize the malleable nature of the linkworld. (See Chaos Gate) They stationed dozens of troops within a linkworld, only to find that a single opponent from the dimension on the other end of the gate could force them all out. Upon trying to re-enter the gate, the Folstrom would find that the link location would be inaccessible by more than one warrior at a time. Thus the Folstrom invasion supply and reinforcement lines leading to most of the invaded worlds were broken within the gates. The Folstrom finally began to send true dragons into the gateways to fight these champions, and for the most part the dragons succeeded, but again a few were slain.

It was at this point that the sorcerers of Alfhame, including Sheila soon-to-be-Greywand, discovered a counterspell for the dragon-control spell. The High Elves slipped through the gateways to the various worlds the Dragon Lords were raiding. Whenever the Dragon Lords sent in a dragon to clear a gateway of an enemy champion, it would meet one of the High Elves who would release it from service. Some returned to the Dragon Lords to kill and exact revenge for their enforced servitude, others joined with one of the various worlds to fight the Dragon Lords, others simply went home.

The Folstrom might have been able to combat this threat to their power by developing newer and more powerful control spells, but they had unwisely begun to abuse the terms of their treaty with the River Empire, which was eventually provoked to attack them, razing many of the primary Folstrom cities. The High Elves had been waiting for this moment. At the High Elven word, the remaining might of the Alastarians and their allies struck the Folstrom Empire. The dragons revolted throughout the Folstrom Empire. Throughout Alastari and the lands around it, various races and slave kingdoms rose up and slew and raided the hated Folstrom. From the worlds the Folstrom had raided through the gates came great invasion armies: the champions who had barred the Folstrom from the linkworld could easily open it again when they wanted.

The Folstrom allowed themselves to be drawn into one great final battle near their old capital within the Twisted Lands. There the Folstrom Sorcerers cast a secret powerful form of magic they called "Destruction Magic". (See Destruction Magic) Fully a dozen of the Dragon Lords cast the Destruction magic. Six died on the spot, three failed and could never cast magic again, two caused very faint rainbow-like effects to shimmer across the sky, and one successfully cast the spell. The wizard died in the same instant and began the first Destruction War. The spell's target was an enemy attacking force too close to his own; his own troops were affected. A dozen more Folstrom, affected by the spell's madness, also cast the spell too close to their own troops, though thousands of the enemy were also slain. The remaining Folstrom wizards realized that they had underestimated the power of the spell as both armies were destroyed, and prepared their retreat. First they opened a gate to a recently discovered world, then led tens of thousands of the Folstrom through the gate and into that world. Those unfortunate enough to remain on Ghea were hunted down and slain, man, woman and child: no living Folstrom remains. But the departing wizards flung open every remaining Gate in Alastari.

From the "chaos realms" came an ever increasing number of creatures, none of whom seemed to be alike. This chaos army swept throughout the Twisted Lands, but they weakened and sickened if they strayed too far from lands which had not been touched by destruction magic fallout. The remaining River Empire armies contained them until they could be forced back through the Gates, and Sheila sealed the Chaos Gates for good with the Grey Wand.

FREE BLADES

The regional arena for the Free Cities. Any warrior of the Free Cities invited to the Isle is eligible to fight here, unless inducted to Primus. Sometimes mistakenly applied to the independent nations/cities themselves.

"FREE BLADES FOREVER"

The "fight song" of the Free Blades arena, occasionally called the national anthem of the Free Cities. It has innumerable verses, many unfit for polite company, and is generally set to the tune of an old drinking song. No two Free Cities agree on the correct number and order of the verses.