Belcadiz History
by Marco DalmonteBasically the darker complexion is already been there, and they were the second group that fled Grunland shortly after Ilsundal departed, joining with him after crossing the Addakian Sound and prior migrating to Brun.
Then they along with other "fair elves" came to Glantri e settled there. Up to this point, they were not yet the flamenco elves, just a bit more tanned (probably same stock as Verdier), bolder and hotter-tempered.
Then the Glantrian catastrophe came, and the elves fled deep down the earth. Some emerged in Five Shires region (Gentle Folk), some in the Hollow World (Icevale and Atziann) and some emerged not so far from the Thyatian coast, on the isle that is now called Terentias. And yes, you guessed it right: these were the Belcadiz.
They stayed alone for many centuries, much like their neighbour Verdier and Meditor, both groups ignoring the other's existence, up to the time when the Nithians began settling the southern isles (with Minroth). Some Nithians brought with them slaves from the Alatian Isles (descendants of the Alasiyans.. never thought of the assonance of the names Alatian and Alasiyan? also check out GAZ2 for the real origin of these Alasiyans, who are different from Nithians) and settled Terentias around 1000 BC as well as parts of Thyatian mainland (at that time still occupied by Toralai tribes - source HW).
But the Belcadiz stayed hidden in their woods, and the Nithians never discovered them really.
Then the Thyatians, Kerendans and Hattians came in BC 600, and some Kerendans settled in Terentias as well, warring with Nithians for the island. The Kerendans won with the help of the Alasiyan slaves and the elves, who revealed themselves. IN the next centuries, Terentias civilisation was a mix of Alasiyan-Kerendan-elvish and from this came out the Ispan culture and the Belcadiz flamenco elves.
Terentias had many bulls on its soil and the Belcadiz were already a fan of bullfights before the Kerendans came for example, lending this attitude to the Kerendans becoming Ispans, while the mix of Alasiyans and Kerendans made the darker complexion of the Ispans as well as their unique language, which the elves partly adopted using Ispan words in their otherwise truly elven tongue, creating thus a unique Belcadiz dialect.
Obviously with the total memory reset of the Immortals after the fall of Nithia, none of them ever remembered the Nithians and so they went on living together.
Terentias was always rather distant from mainland Thyatis, a rather contested land between Thyatis and Minrothad, and stood its ground for many decades, being occupied for small lapses of time by one or another of the two nations, but the elves always managed to stay hidden from the other humans (hey, if the Minrothad elves did, why not the Belcadiz!)
Then in AC 700 something happened (we're still working on this, probably Thyatis moved in with major legionnaires to claim Terentias once and for all) and the elves decided to abandon the island, refusing to subdue. Helped by their friends the Meditor, they were "spirited away" in secret and landed in Athenos, where they came to know that the long abandoned Glantri (their former homeland in Brun) had been settled by humans and was now ripe for colonisation. Thus appearing apparently from nowhere they marched northwards claiming to be "coming from south of Thanegioth" and being descendants of the first elves settlers of Glantri.
They were later joined by Erewan elves around AC730, and the two groups merged. It was the Erewans who gave them a children Tree of Life as sign of friendship and union, and from them they learnt the faith of Ilsundal. After they split, the Belcadiz kept the ToL anyway, since it is a major artifact and can always be useful (they don't really follow Ilsundal)
Pretty convoluted, but not as much far-fetched as Mystaros's theory of them coming from Thanegioth IMVHO.
Stay tuned for other revelations : we're now working on the history of Darokin and its language (and have already written down the complete history of the rakasta)