The Wylde's Vengeance

The myths and legends and slanders around Elysia were many. Void spawned, born of foul consort between elf and nightmare, elf and beast, beast and nightmare. Skin-changer, demon, and many even more heinous titles. However this was built off a reputation earned secondhand, earned in word of mouth, before she'd ever been seen on a battlefield. She was a leader without a face at first, a rallying cry, yet one unknown to the forces of the faithful. Until one fateful battle in 233 changed everything. We have a surviving record of this battle, and though it references the era as the Sundering (SuD) we know that by this time the years, the calendar was tracked about as accurately as we can hope. So indeed this story is but 2-3 elven generations old, a crazy thing to consider. But yet myths about her still persist and this one, the one where she would become seen as the Wylde's Vengeance, a manifestation of Talia's anger and disappointment, is one that she would never shake, even unto death. Even now, Elysia Tel'ni'vairi, for all her other accomplishments, amongst Talia's faithful she is recognized as the Saint of the Vengeful Wyldes.



After this battle, a battle who's location we are still not entirely certain of, though we know it had to be somewhere in the Depen, likely given the year, near what is today known as Kelethan. There were many clashes at that time between the proto-magisters and their supporters and the forces of the Ascended Crusaders. But from this battle, Elysia Tel'ni'vairi, whom would forever maintain she only did as her moral fibre demanded, would become something bigger than her mortal life. Both because of her involvement, her direct hand upon the foundings of the Magisterium but also for her spiritual association, intended or not, with her bloodline. Whether it was intended or not, those of Talia's faith claimed her, counted her among theirs and venerated her in such a fashion and with such faith and fervor that it is believed, given how invoking her in your prayers of power can manifest them so uniquely, almost as if magick of the Emerald, that she did in fact become a saint.

Her story is much longer than this lone myth, but the stories of the Wylde's Vengeance would permeate and spread, particularly among the Ascended Crusade forces on the continent of Durol. She would become a subject of fear, of terror, of distraction. A myth, a ghost amongst every shadowed bough of the thick forests of that continent, hiding perhaps over every hill, within every tangle of tight knit trees and amongst every canopy. For every time she would take the field, similar stories to the first quoted her would circulate. She seemed a force of nature, seeming beyond mortal. An object of the fury of Nature itself.

This myth of course, and the way the story would change to suggest that she was born of the need in that first battle, coming to life at the anger of the wilderness and of Talia, the Lady of the Leaves, is simply ridiculous. We have historical records of her existence, and know what year she was born. We also know her bloodline is that of Talia. Of the Ascended of Magick and Nature. Because of this the story could hold some merit, though to say she was 'born of thorns and bark and the blood of innocents being spilled by heinous acts of those claiming faith' is a bit of a stretch to say the least. Yet inevitably that is the direction these stories went, seeing her as the wildfire eyed spirit of Talia's vengeance upon the field of war.

We know both during and after the Crusade it was spread, it is in fact, in one form or another, still part of the doctrine of Talia's faith to this day. To give credit to the followers of the Lady of the Leaves, they generally do not imply she did not exist before taking on the form of the Wylde's Vengeance, instead they attribute that to a small speck, a spark of Talia's own divine essence being woven into her soul in that moment, the goddess marking her, choosing her, to intervene in this time of great need, to avert catastrophe. They hold that had things continued down the path they were on before this change of momentum in the conflict, it would have led to another Sundering, so weak would the Aether have become from the wholesale slaughter of the only ones capable of balancing the taint of the Void, those with the ability to speak, hear and manipulate the tainted energies of corruption and filter, though with great risk to themselves, some of that corruption out and back into the Void, vanquishing it back to the side of the Dreamweave it belongs on. Such is the gift, curse, and responsibility of Arcane Magick.

Could that be true, perhaps but we shall never know. Even those whom have tried to commune with the heavens, to reach those of Talia's domain for answers, finds they refuse to share. They believe it better serves as a safeguard if mortals never know which is true. Was she divinely inspired? Or were her actions and heroics merely the power of a mortal, a mortal whom simply knew that the stakes were so high and knew if not her, then whom?

As noted there is a variation of great importance to the faith of the Lady of the Leaves. Beyond that however, tis an old folk tale of the Woad Elves, and is documented in some chronicles of old and ancient tales of Valerick, early foundling myths. But in the modern day, though her importance is immortalized in faith with the Church of Talia, and within the Magisterium, Elysia's story and life, and its details both true or myth are losing importance. She has become more important for what she symbolizes than who she was directly and what happened directly in her life.

She is oft depicted in art tied to the Church of Talia, however the depiction everyone knows is one tied to the Magisterium. Because though it is not necessarily how she always looked, it is how their ancient founding documents remember her looking. Thus, if that was the portrait she included and the descriptions included in those founding documents, then so far as they are concerned, it is in that visage she should be remembered.