The Path of the Faendryl
IV. Tahlad’s Betrayal and the Sorrow for the Lost
Some scholars feel that had Tahlad Tsi’shalar remained with the Elves an eighth House would have formed. Although Faendryl, Tahlad Tsi’shalar was an acolyte of Ivaryn, the Deceiver, and did not follow the Way of the Elves. When Ivaryn believed his words were firmly entrenched in the mind of Tahlad, he bade the young Faendryl to go among the people and spread his word.
The Elders of the House sought to counsel Tahlad against the teachings of Ivaryn, to return the light of Elven understanding to the darkness that consumed his spirit. Tahlad, so long a student of Ivaryn, was unable to hear, and began to openly speak against the rising influence of the great families and the burgeoning might of the Elven people as drawn from within rather than from the power of the ‘gods.’
The words of Tahlad drew the rash youth of many families to him, those too young to comprehend the truth and those besotted with tales of the past glories of the Arkati. The view of this group, led by Tahlad, became vastly different than that held by the majority of the Elven people. It was this group, had they remained, that some believe would have formed the eighth House.
While Tahlad was spreading the teachings of Ivaryn, Elven life continued. In those days the Faendryl were perhaps closer to the Illistim than any other great family, for their shared love of knowledge bound them together. The Faendryl were, even then, researchers, delvers into the unknown. The Illistim were collectors of lore, gathering unto themselves vast numbers of works from every place they could find it.
The two families often worked together, and so it was that Linsandrych Illistim approached Korthyr Faendryl about a new work. Instead of a new volume, and new collection of lore, this was to be a work that would preserve all of the accumulated lore of the Illistim and the Elven people. They began to plan for the construction of a Great Library, to be built in the western foothills of the DragonSpine.
At this time Korthyr also began to plan for the construction of a great city, one that would be a center of life for the Elven people. He shared his thoughts with others of the great families, and they too began to make plans for their own centers of life and thought. The Elves would move forth, building places of beauty and learning. They would stretch forth their hand into the world, bringing safety, peace and prosperity to the Land and to the Elven people. One family, the Ardenai would remain to watch the forests. Another group, those who had kept the closest ties to the forest and did not wish to venture forth, would also remain, move deeper into the wood, and eventually become known as the Sylvisterai, or the Sylvan.
Construction was begun, and shortly after the completion of the Great Library the Patriarchal Basilica of the Faendryl was finished. The Library, and the city that rose up around it, eventually became known as Ta’Illistim. The city built by the Faendryl around the Basilica would become Ta’Faendryl. In the following years other cities would be founded by other families, thereby laying the foundation for the move towards an Empire.
Only one of those spoken to by Korthyr rejected these plans, this way of thinking. Tahlad felt the Elven people slipping from the grasp of his masters, and he knew that with the coming of the Great Cities the Elves would never again return to the worship of the Arkati. He spoke with his nephew, Korthyr, to attempt to sway him from this path, but when he found he could not turn Korthyr to his way of thinking he took his concerns to Ivaryn, who had secluded himself in the place of the dark Arkati he served.
Ivaryn, long disturbed by the refusal of the Elven people to abase themselves once more before the Arkati, grew angry, knowing that his wish, and that of his masters, would be thwarted. He left his dark temple, and confronted Korthyr before a gathered crowd. He spoke of doom for the Elves if they followed the path laid out by Korthyr, hoping that his words would bring fear and return the people into the hands of the Arkati. Instead of bowing before the onslaught of old Elf, Korthyr rose up with the strength of the Elven spirit, rebuffing Ivaryn and scolding him for his weakness.
Angered, Ivaryn called upon the powers granted to him by the dark Arkati. The blackness of his spirit spilled forth, and his voice echoed from place to place. He spoke a prophecy of the coming of one with a dark and terrible power, one with command over the dead, who would break the Elven Nations and lay waste to the land. He also spoke to those who followed his teachings, telling them that they would rise to power if they should follow his Way, and that if they did not they would face fire from the heavens.
With the fading of his words, Ivaryn hoped the Elven people, awed by his power and his tale of a horrible fate, would turn again to the Arkati as gods, forsaking their newfound strength. Many might have, for his words did bring fear, but for the hope that sprang forth from the darkness.
As the last words of Ivaryn echoed upwards, a small, quiet whisper cut through their cacophony. Liriasha Faendryl, a descendant of Erydith, surrounded by a soft silvery-blue nimbus of light that pushed back the darkness, stood quietly at the edge of the crowd. Her tear-filled eyes took in the gathered assembly, and then lighted upon Ivaryn. She spoke in a whisper, but that whisper was louder in the hearts and minds of every Elf present than were the noisome proclamations of Ivaryn.
“Why do you bring such darkness to our people Ivaryn? You would have us deny our true selves, diminish, and become creatures of that darkness. Know you this – the Doom that you foresee shall be caused not by the Houses of the Elves, but by those whose spirits you have twisted and turned from the True Way. Should those who follow you not turn from this dark path, it shall be their folly that leads to the rise of this Evil. The Curse of your hatred shall flow forth from the one you name, and she will fall against the Elven people, bringing destruction to all the Lands. Only by remaining true to our Way shall we have the strength to stop her, but in doing so, in saving the Lands from her Darkness, we will become a shattered people. Only if you and yours return to the Light and the Way can this dire fate be averted. Will you not come Home?”
Even in asking Liriasha knew that Ivaryn would not repent and turn from the darkness. She knew the fate that awaited the Elven people, and, it is believed, the decision that must be made by the Faendryl during that coming time of despair. Her tears were for those who would leave, for those who would fall under the tides of horror brought by the one to come, and for the fate of the Faendryl.
Ivaryn recoiled, unable to bear the light or the words of Liriasha, and once again used his dark gifts to vanish, returning, it is believed, to the side of the Arkati. Tahlad, as deaf to the words as was Ivaryn, also left to begin to make preparations to depart. He would take his followers to unknown lands where they could practice their dark ways far from the Light of the Elven people.
Shortly thereafter Tahlad gathered his followers to him and announced their departure from the Elven Home. He called them the Dhe’nar, a distortion of the Faendryl Dhu’nari, meaning First Born. By the Faendryl they were called a’Niall Dhu’nari, meaning First Born to Darkness.
Numbering somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 Elves, the a’Niall Dhu’nari made up only a small percentage of the Elven people, but their leaving filled all the Elven people with sorrow. At their departure the Elves wept, for they mourned them as Lost, they mourned the corruption of the Elven spirit, and they mourned for the future they knew awaited the Elven people.
For a time, the a’Niall Dhu’nari were followed by the families and friends of those who were leaving. They did not want to release their loved ones to this darkness, and pleaded with them to return to the Elven Way. Some few did return, but most did not. Eventually, the Elves who followed in hope returned in grief. The a’Niall Dhu’nari vanished from our history, and their fate would remain unknown for the passage of many millennia.
It was the first Breaking.
Tahlad also took with him the Faendryl teachings of al’Amayl’Ari. Through the years, the warped view of Tahlad and his followers would lead to the perversion of the Gift of Amayla, mixing it with energies and knowledge found in artifacts left by the Ur-Daemons and turning it into a dark distortion of the High Art. One well-known artifact, the Book of Tormtor, was either discovered by the a’Niall Dhu’nari among the Ur-Daemon artifacts at Rhoska-Tor or was created by them to record this Black Art. Whatever its origins, it was lost by them deep in the caverns of Rhoska-Tor. It would later to be found by Despana and used, as was prophesied by Liriasha, to destroy the Elven Empire and lay waste to the world. The madness sowed by Ivaryn in the soil of the a’Niall Dhu’nari would come to fruition in Despana, and forever mark the world.
If the a’Niall Dhu’nari had returned to the Light and the Way, the Book of Tormtor would not have found its way into the world. Despana would not have been able to call forth the Undead, and the Light of a united Elven people would still shine forth upon the lands. As foretold by Liriasha, it was the folly of the a’Niall Dhu’nari that led to the destruction of the Elven Empire, and nearly to the world itself.