Faen and Faren
In long years past, when the elves first awoke upon Great Mountain, they were split between those who chose Faen as their paramount and those who chose Faren. The elves of Faen were those who would kill to eat, but the elves of Faren were those who gathered only, saying, “We shall not gorge ourselves upon flesh and blood as beasts do.”
So Faren led his people into obscurity upon the surface, while the people of Faen prospered and took to the skies.
Now the elves of Faren were few and proud. They wandered the surface, gathering sustenance and shunning the other races, until they came to a great wood, which they named Neirmalas, and sought to make their home.
But a spirit of the old world already dwelled there, and in its wrath forbade them to remain, harrying them at every turn. For the spirit had foreseen that should any dwell in Neirmalas, the wood would be consumed by fire. But Faren entreated the spirit on behalf of his people, saying, “We eat not the flesh of animals and have no need of fire.”
And the spirit relented. So it was that Faren seduced this spirit, and by their union peace was struck and Faren called her Wyld. Thus the elves of Faren were permitted to remain. Therefore the elves of Faren lived out their lives having no offspring, fading slowly from the world, until their numbers were no more.
The Children of Faren in Neirmalas
But Faren sired three offspring by Wyld, and he named them Fae, Falth, and Feere.
Falth and Feere were spirits of mischief, and great harm followed wherever they walked. Even Wyld despaired of their presence and exiled them from Neirmalas. But they had no offspring, and so Erenth was spared from the further harm their seed might have wrought.
But Fae of Wyld was loyal to her mother and gentle to her father. She remained in Neirmalas as a creature of two worlds.
The Children of Faen in Aramalas
While the elves of Faren dwindled in Neirmalas, the elves of Faen flourished and became Aramalas, the great realm of the air.
Faen himself was slain by the ignorance of men, and so his line was extinguished in the realm. Of his two sons, who had contended since the womb, one was slain and the other banished for the deed.
Aedrie, wife of Faen, endured as matriarch, and from her later line came many heroes and people of song.
Now Faelon, son of Faen, was the one who was banished for the cruel slaying of his brother. His wings were torn from him, and his wife would not follow into exile. Yet Faelon the Torn took with him his infant son Fidran, and with his own hand cut the child’s wings away. Then in grief, he fled to the Forest of Neirmalas, where the spirits of wood and water laughed and sang though the world on the surface grew dark. There he entrusted Fidran Wingless to a river-spirit who dwelt within the forest and Faelon the Torn himself was slain in the war that then came.
Fidran and Fae
Fidran Wingless grew with no knowledge of his father and when he was grown took Fae of Wyld, daughter of Faren, to wife. She bore him nineteen daughters and only one son.
Her daughters were wild and could not be tamed, nor would they remain in the House of Fidran Wingless. Rather, they found mates across the wideness of Erenth and established houses of their own. From such houses rose the dryads, sylphs, nymphs, sprites, pixies, nixies, atomies, grigs, brownies, kilmoulis, and leprechauns.
Still others of their line were untamed and became like the beasts in form, but bore still the spirit of Fae within them—swanmays, centaurs, and the like.
Ilidor to Idrisier
But Ilidor, the only son of Fidran Wingless and Fae of Wyld, was unlike his untamed sisters. He was calm and contemplative, and he followed the ways of his father, and he eschewed the passions of his grandfather Faelon the Torn.
He took to wife Herae, a warrior of Aranelmalas who fell into Neirmalas by broken wing. Ilidor nursed her to health, and though her strength returned, her wings would never bear her aloft again. She forsook her people, cut away her wings, and clung thereafter to Ilidor in the forest. There they dwelt until such time as the war consumed Neirmalas with fire, as was first foretold by Wyld.
From the union of Ilidor and Herae came Idrisier.
Idrisier the Elf was proud and noble. He did not speak of Faelon the Torn, nor remember his name. But his people prospered upon Erenth. They traded with mortals and with the elves of Aramalas, who recognized him as distant kin and honored him.
In look and bearing he was as the elves of old, though wingless. In time, he took Gaera, daughter of Aneri, to wife. And she, too, gave up the sky for love of the land and of him.
And Idrisier is counted in the lineages of Harandir, Silvandir, and Sashelas who were the grandsires of Wood Elves, Wild Elves, High Elves and Aquatic Elves.
Thus are all these the children of Fae.
