Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 856 - 849: Past Events of Snow Domain

Chapter 856: Chapter 849: Past Events of Snow Domain

"Are there many such large tombs in the Snow Domain?" Luo’er asked.

"Well, I’m not exactly sure how many there are," Eve thought for a moment before replying, "but according to my mother’s memories, there are at least a hundred known tombs, and they are all large ones."

"So many tombs, can the Snow Domain keep up with the productivity?" Hu Daoke asked in surprise.

"Productivity?" Eve clearly did not understand this term from Earth.

"What he means is," Luo’er explained, "Who built all those tombs?"

"Who else could it be but the Snow Elves," Eve sighed, "My mother said that the Snow Domain was not originally a territory of the Aud Empire. The indigenous people here were the Snow Elves; some of them are said to have fled to the south and became the Wood Elves that we see today..."

Luo’er could only smile at Eve’s words without offering a response, because the existing scientific research on Earth does not explain whether it was the Wood Elves who descended from the Snow Elves, or the Snow Elves from the Wood Elves, or perhaps, both derived from the Night Elves of Xia Yue Island.

The main reason the Snow Elves and the Wood Elves are believed to be related is that they both worship the same primary deity, leading Earth researchers to boldly posit that there must be a connection between the two races.

However, Luo’er felt that if he were to ask the Wood Elves about the Snow Elves, it’s likely they would say that the Snow Elves had fled north from Ilanadale and only then transformed into the Snow Elves.

From Luo’er’s actual experience, Wood Elves don’t tolerate cold well, but Snow Elves do. Evolution of a species would take at least tens of thousands of years, which means that if the common origin theory held true, the two great Elven races must have separated a very long time ago.

Or perhaps, there is no connection between them at all; but this fails to explain why both Elven races worship the same primary deity.

It’s important to note that the Night Elves and the Wood Elves merely diverged across the sea, yet they worship different gods and have extremely serious divergences and opposition, to the point of being like fire and water. While the Snow Elves are at the extreme north and the Wood Elves in the south, by all accounts, they should have no connection whatsoever, yet, without exception, they both worship the same god. This is a mystery that Earth’s scientists have not been able to unravel even after decades of research.

Eve did not notice Luo’er’s expression or care about the problems he was pondering, but continued to speak: "A thousand years ago, the Aud people established the Aud Empire and began to expand comprehensively, quickly unifying the broad lands west of the Northern Domain Mountain Range and the Winter Mountains. Then they targeted the Snow Domain north of the mountain range and sent a large army on an expedition, conquering the fortresses of the North Lead Corridor in just a few months. The native Snow Elf tribes were powerless to resist and were brutally subdued by the advancing armies of the Aud Empire, ultimately being forced to surrender in humiliation. Thus, the Snow Domain was incorporated into the Empire’s territory."

Luo’er nodded in understanding, as it is generally true that relatively isolated groups tend to have a lower level of civilizational development. Depending on the fortress of the North Lead Corridor, the Snow Elves could guard the pass and secure peace without further development of advanced military technologies. It was inevitable that they would be easily defeated by the Aud Empire at its peak.

When it comes to the Elf Race, one unavoidable topic is their dismal fertility rate. Luo’er suspected that the main reason the Snow Elves were powerless against the invasion of the Aud Empire was simply their small numbers.

Of course, Earth’s historical investigations are much more thorough than those conducted in the Otherworld, as they have calculated and analyzed the climatic patterns of the Otherworld and found that the Snow Domain during the time of the Aud Empire was not as cold as it is now.

Historical records indicate that generally a month after the start of spring, the snow throughout the Snow Domain would have mostly melted, suggesting that it had plentiful vegetation resources suitable for cultivation. Although it couldn’t compare to the lands south of the mountains, it wasn’t too bad either.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain why the Aud Empire would invade the Snow Domain—if the Snow Domain had been as cold then as it is now, the Aud people would certainly have had no interest in venturing through the North Lead Corridor to occupy the entirety of the Snow Domain, going through great pains to govern such a desolate place.

"After the Aud Empire conquered the Snow Domain, most of the Snow Elves were reduced to slavery. Although at that time the Aud Empire had strict laws prohibiting union between Aud people and Snow Elves, during their hundred-year rule, many half-elf offspring were born. These individuals were born outcasts, looked down upon by the Aud people and ostracized by the Snow Elves. Most of them ended up becoming slaves of the Aud people, driven to work the fields and construct buildings and facilities."

Eve continued to speak, "The Aud nobility were grandiose and loved to construct opulent palaces. Even in death, they wished to maintain the same treatment as in life, so they built a vast amount of large tombs to serve as their dwelling places after death."

"In order to enjoy posthumous opulence, they made even more slaves help them build their palaces for the afterlife. Once the Snow Elves were all dead, they captured Half-elves to replace them. When the Half-elves were also captured, they brought in slaves from their own tribe from the south. It was a crazy era, and over a hundred years, these nobles built a great number of architectural wonders, at the cost of countless slaves’ lives."

"I have a question," Hu Daoke raised his hand and said.

"What question?" Eve turned her head to look at him and asked.

"These people did all this, didn’t the central government of the Aud Empire care?" Hu Daoke asked.

"Central government?" Eve was once again perplexed by this term from Earth.

"He means, did the Emperor of the Aud Empire allow these nobles to waste manpower on building wonders at will?" Luo’er explained.

Eve stood there, not saying a word because the question directly hit a blind spot in her knowledge. Instead, it was Baiyue, who was sitting beside Luo’er, who took the initiative to explain.

"The Aud Empire wasn’t as centralized as we imagine," Baiyue said earnestly, "We have all been educated in the civilization of Huaxia since childhood, so we naturally assume that an empire should have a highly centralized system, but that wasn’t the case. The Aud Empire of that time was more similar to the Holy Roman Empire on Earth, with kings under the Emperor, and the central control over the regions was not as strong as we imagine."

"Moreover, we know that to enter the Snow Domain, one must either pass through the North Lead Corridor or travel by ship along the western coast of the continent to the north. As long as these two routes are securely held, the lord of the Snow Domain is in effect an independent lord who doesn’t need to heed the government of the Aud Empire, just like the saying goes, ’Imperial edicts don’t extend past the Northern Domain Mountain Range.’" Baiyue explained.

"Oh, so that’s to say, as long as the lord of the Snow Domain can hold the routes north, they essentially don’t have to obey the orders of the Emperor of the Aud Empire," Hu Daoke said in sudden realization, "No wonder they were so reckless."

"Such a loose political system was actually not suitable for the Aud Empire at its peak. At its height, the Aud Empire controlled almost half of the Aels Continent, yet the central control over the localities was extremely weak, which laid severe hidden dangers for the later fragmentation."

"When the founding Emperor of the Aud Empire was alive, he could still suppress the restless local forces. After his death, his descendants were utterly incapable of controlling such a vast empire, leading to the disintegration of the Aud Empire, turning into the kingdoms we see today," Baiyue explained slowly.

"Have you been catching up on your reading on this topic recently?" Luo’er looked at her, curiously asking.

"Yes," Baiyue nodded her head, then picked up a book that was beside her, flaunting it in front of Luo’er, hoping to receive his praise.

"Impressive, very impressive," Luo’er exclaimed sincerely.

Baiyue had always been a very earnest child. Whatever mission the Advance Team was about to undertake, she would be the first to find books on the subject to understand it better.

If Luo’er remembered correctly, when they went to Ronisca, Baiyue had taught herself the Dwarven Language and the skills to pilot flying machines. When they went to the Ancient States, she also caught up on books related to Runes. It could be said that Baiyue alone had raised the average intelligence of the Advance Team by a significant margin.

Luo’er, along with Ziang and Momo, might be crafty when it came to scheming, but once it came to relatively specialized fields, they could only rely on Baiyue. And Baiyue never disappointed them, always producing answers that satisfied everyone.