OF LORDS & LADIES:
IAURISM & THE ELVEN GODS
The story of the elves, as does many creation myths, with the Mother.
In the elven tongue, she is called Ontaria by the Iaur and Aemilia by the Sylvanar, respectively. Her name translates to "mother" or "begetter" and she is the ultimate creator god in the elven religion. And she is believed to have been the first star.
When she washed away the sins of the clay people and fled, the Mother left behind her sons. Eldest among them was Iaur who created the elves by plucking stars from the sky. He saw the creation of the Twilight Realms and was so enraptured with the beauty of the Dawn that he decided to make it his home. In the Forest of Iaur, he built the Starry Vale for the young elven race and guided them from his palace, Silverhome.
In Silverhome, he lived alongside his consorts and his children, who would lead to his ruin and abandonment of the mortal world.
Traditionally, Iaur is depicted as a beautiful elf with long raven black hair, bright blue eyes and wearing either long robes of blue, red and gold. In modern depiction, he has taken on a more militant appearance with silver plate armor, a long sword and shield with a blue banner. He is also often depicted with four black wings.
Personality-wise, Iaur is known to be a champion and advocate for the beautiful, the true and the good. His unequaled mastery of the arts, as an extension of his appreciation, has been passed down as gifts to his mortal children: the mastery of music, sculpture & paint, the expertise in glass/metal works & architecture, and their inherent talent and mastery with the arcane arts has allowed the elves to build wonders that are the envy of the world. He blessed his children with adaptability: wherever elves find themselves, they find a way to thrive.
Lord Iaur's appreciation for beauty is admirable but has consequences. He had many beautiful companions and concubines. Their beauty blinded his judgement and allowed them the opportunity to undermine his rule. Their envy drove them to dark and dangerous extremes.
His first wife, Lady Rin-Varna, is a goddess of love, life, and starlight. She is the loremaster and creator of the written language of the elves. It is she that taught the early elves the art of elven rune magic that allowed them to live undisturbed the strange creatures of the Twilight. She is the mother of Kuron and Hurin.
Kuron is a female warrior goddess associated with the hunt and the wild. She is often depicted as teaching martial skills to the elves, such as the mastery of the blade and bow. She had friction with her father for eschewing the finery of his court but was a loyal daughter. Her brother, Hurin, on the other hand, while embracing the finery and manners of court, took great pleasure in embarrassing his father by participating in debauchery from overindulging in fine food, drink and flesh to throwing never-ending and frivolous parties. His libertine attitude earned him reprimands from his father that rebuked by undermining his father by participating in the fey court. While he helped the fey court conspire against his father, he is no one's true ally, and instead takes pleasure in the artistry of deception and betrayal. These "jokes and japes" that he played distracted the court and allowed the machinations of the greatest foe of elfkind to go unnoticed until it was almost too late.
From the darkness between the stars, as if a dark mirror of Rin-Varna, Gwath-Yara found her way to the court of Silverhome. Born of the old one Attlakanakha the Dream-Weaver, Gwath-Yara seduced Iaur into allowing her to join his harem of wives, husbands and consorts and quickly began infecting the Silver Court with her influence. She bore Iaur a son and a daughter. This was all in her plan to have Rin-Varna killed so she could become the queen of elfkind and, eventually, turn on Iaur as well. Once her son and daugter were grown and she felt more secure in her place, once she had Iaur wrapped around her finger and Rin-Varna believing her to be as a sister, and once she had a plan that she believed could bring them all down she set her eyes upon getting Hurin and Kuron out of the way. She took advantage of their friction with court and set them up: Kuron abandoned the court and Hurin was exiled.
And then the Alliance of Gloom descended upon the Silver Court.
An army of dark fey, allied with the twin sisters, were led to the Starry Vale and lay siege to Silverhome. Gwath-Yara used information she had plied from Hurin so that they could break into the forest of Iaur and when Kuron left in a huff, her warriors went with her. This left Iaur to fight the dark forces while Rin-Varna guarded his people in the walls of Silverhome.
The dark fey had underestimated the might and magic of Iaur, especially in his own home, and his wrath towards their ugliness and evil manifested in a terrible manner:
He turned the dream-like glamor of his realm into phantom nightmares that tore at their minds and bodies and each swing of his blade penetrated the dark horde like the rays of the sun. Still, his fey enemies were joined by more powerful foes: the patron gods of giants, orcs, and goblins, as well as several demon lords, joined in their invasion. He struck down many of them but their numbers and strength overwhelmed him and he found himself transforming into a great feathered serpent as he wrestled with them in the vale in a deathgrip. Without aid, they would overcome even his power and he would die…
Meanwhile, the wicked consorts, Gwath-Yara, hid inside Silverhome with Rin-Varna until they could spring her own trap. She had poisoned Rin-Varna and positioned herself as her protector and care-taker as she fell ill. With the court distracted by the invasion, she prepared to end Rin-Varna and blame it on the invaders. But, with the timing that only Hurin is capable of, he intervened and saved his mother. He had suspected some treachery was afoot and, when he saw the Alliance of Gloom descending upon the forest, he went to find Kuron. He apologized and begged her to come quickly.
Her hunters easily turned the tide of battle and helped free Iaur. They sent Iaur's enemies, maimed and humiliated, fleeing but promising vengeance. They then turned to Gwath-Yara and her co-conspirator Kytix. The girl was another consort of Iaur and Gwath-Yara had turned her against him. She had helped her the whole time out of her spite towards the other members of Iaur’s harem.
Rin-Varna lay dying.
Before Iaur could deal out his punishment on the evil beings, he plead with them for a cure for Rin-Varna’s illness. Hurin’s heart grew heavy with guilt and disgust and fury as they laughed at his father. For the first time, he felt remorse. He had not been there to protect his mother. He had allowed his pride to blind him from such obvious treachery. He had also failed to protect his father. And so, he came up with a plan:
As the two stewed in the cell, Hurin came to them with an offer: the first share the cure would be forgiven of their crimes.
Kytix immediately turned on her mistress and gave Hurin the cure. Gwath-Yara turned into a giant monstrous spider, showing her true form, and attacked Kytix. Kytix, having the body shifting powers of the elven gods, changed shape into a ghostly white spider to defend herself. The struggle was so intense that they broke free from the cell and the battle continued into the palace above. Hurin rushed to find his mother a cure as Iaur tried to contain the two creatures. He refused to kill them. A small part of him loved them but, even moreso, he did not believe they deserved a quick death.
Rin-Varna quickly recovered and came to Iaur’s aid. She first cast Kytix down into a world beneath the mountain. Never again would she gaze upon the stars and there, in the dark, she would remain transformed into a monstrous spider woman. Gwath-Yara required a more powerful banishment. She tried to flee back beyond the stars but Rin-Varna and Iaur shaped the stars themselves into a net, catching the spider and trapping her there in the darkness between the stars. No longer would she dwell beneath or beyond the starlight. She could only send her whispers along strings of shadow.
They fates of the Gwath-Yara’s son and daughter are also an important story in elf lore.
Her son, Assarr, was the perfect member of the court. Handsome, clever and chivalrous. He had the allure of his father and his mother’s cunning. He gained a reputation as Assarr the Irresistible. After all, if you could not get into the bed of the king, the prince was the next best thing. He was undeniable and he was never denied his desires.
Her daughter, Nyeera was Iaur’s favorite child. Her beauty was only matched by her talent, kindness and gentle-heart. Even Rin-Varna could not resist her and took the child as her favorite attendant. Together she helped Rin-Varna weave music into the elven tongue and she constantly impressed her father with artistic innovation. But the same charms that won over the rest of the Silver Court also put her in the cross-hairs of her own brother.
Assarr, unlike Nyeera, was susceptible to their mother’s dark corruption. She had molded him into the picture of courtly perfection with the intent of making him king some day. She encouraged his appetites. His morals were twisted and, even with his mother gone, he could still hear her whispers. She turned his desires into a madness and his wishes became increasingly impure. The only one more desirable than he was the child that none would dare approach with romantic intent. Nyeera was too pure and kind. And the sick son of Gwath-Yara developed a fantasy: to overthrow his father and rule with Nyeera as his bride!
Hurin saw the way his half-brother looked at his half-sister and tried to warn Rin-Varna. His concerns were rebuffed. After all, Assarr’s reputation was as clean as crystal. Kuron believed he was making trouble. Hurin knew better and began to keep an eye on Nyeera.
One night, while Nyeera walked in the ever-blossoming garden of Silverhome, the moon cast an ominous red light over the scene below. Assarr approached Nyeera from the shadows and made his dark confession. Nyeera rebuked him, as mercifully as she could, and begged him to reconsider. She begged him forgive her for it and she begged him to turn his heart’s desire elsewhere. Assarr had never been denied anything by anyone. In that moment, something broke and the prince showed his trueself. A monster. He attacked Nyeera. Luckily, someone was watching.
Hurin intervened, having been watching from nearby, and came to Nyeera’s defense. The two half brothers became locked in combat and, quickly, Hurin realized he was no match. Hurin called for Kuron and, like a swift wind, she came. The huntress threw him out of the garden and the prince’s ferocity immediately turned to cowardice. He ran to his father. He threw himself upon the floor and begged for his father’s protection. He spun a story:
According to Assarr, it was Hurin who was the predator in the court. He had intended to assault Nyeera and, in the process, ruin Assar’s reputation. Hurin disguised himself as Assarr since, after all, he was a master of disguise. When he heard his sister scream, he came to her aid, only to be attacked by Hurin and Kuron.
As Assarr finished spinning his elaborate lie, his other siblings arrived. Iaur demanded an explanation and relay the accusations of Assarr. Hurin pointed out the falsehoods in his story and that the blood upon the white-haired lord's lips was not his own. In his lustful attack, he had bitten Nyeera's neck. Rin-Varna banished Assarr to the deep, dark depths of the material plane, in the World Below, and Iaur cursed him:
He became the monster within. From that day onward, Assarr recoiled from the sun and was filled with unending lust for blood. Assarr was the first vampire. Perhaps, Iaur and Rin-Varna would’ve kinder and wiser to destroy him. After all, this scandal proved the final straw for many of the first elves. The elves that had been loyal to Gwath-Yara and Assarr felt betrayed by Iaur. They abandoned Silverhome and fled to Assarr’s side. Those most loyal became the first vampire lords, the Assarrites, and the first “drow”. These “drow” or “dark elves” were pale with fangs, red eyes and bat-like features. The drow were a slave race for the vampire lords and built an empire beneath the world surface, terrorizing the citizens of the underworld, and Assarr reigned as a living god.
Eventually, during the Wyrd Wars, this empire was weakened by multiple conflicts. In the final battle between Mal-Dorig and the gods, Assarr took the dread conqueror’s side and was dealt a devastating defeat by his father. Many of the surviving by vampire lords fled to the far corners of the world to infect the above world with their curse but others took Assarr deep below the world to recover. Other drow finally escaped enslavement and found a way to break their vampiric curse but still had adapted to live beneath the world and returned there.
The drow have a reputation for being evil-doers; most interaction those in the world above have with drow is with drow raiders but not all drows are slavers. Those slavers are most often Gwathnir, those who turned to Gwath-Yara for guidance, and are villains among most other peoples of the dark underworld. But others worship other gods and have other careers. Some are pirates, some are merchants, some are cultists, some are priests, but they are all artists. And they come in all manner of unusual hues. The Assarite drow may have been so pale as to be almost translucent but the freed drow are spectrum of reds, blues, purples, and darker hues.
As much as it is a shame that the elf-father has lost a connection with his children, it is even more a shame the world cannot appreciate the beauty these elves have cultivated out of their pain.
As a last note, it is important to remember most known version of the elven religion are written by the Iaurdin, who left Saesun at the dawn of the second epoch and their religion, as well as their gods, reflects their values. The Sylanar, the elves who stayed behind on Saesun, often envision the gods in a more naturalistic way as embodiment of natural forces and include the druidic gods, like Silvanus, in their versions of elven myths.
Like the Iaurdin, the Sylvanar value beauty, but in more natural and liberated form compared to the heavily constructed and controlled beauty of Iaurdin society.
Iaur had many more consorts and children. Their tales remain to be seen as we discover more of elvenkind.
