While is somewhat cliched to have an evil race of elves, it is also in the grandest traditions, and thus we present one of the ancient key players in the mortal drama's of Haven, the Daeylyraeth.

They take their name, of course, from their founder Daeylyraeth Darsyltier.  I would say leader, but the reasons to avoid such a term will be exposed soon enough.


Back in the heady days after the destruction of the Titans, when magic was irrevocably altered, some would say weakened, the Elves that survived banded together, hiding in the great forest from the wrath of the other slave races of the Titans.  What became of those Elves that did not retreat to the Hydimenoi is lost to us now, for only the followers of Siti survived to the modern age.  Siti, it is said, was the great leader of the Elves during the Titanswar, and his daughter was their Queen after his loss until the Warlord's March.

Magic was a wild and untamed thing in those days. The Titans had enslaved or slew all who could oppose them, which meant of course, all the races which had learned the secrets of magic, and with their loss, the secrets of harnessing it were lost as well, only those scraps stolen by the Elves remained in the World.

The Elves were barely fit for life without magical comforts, barely fit in those days for the harsh life imposed by the Great Forest. Many died to wild beasts, many more to starvation.  

Yet, to the East the Dwarves had settled on a great and fertile plain. The loss of magic was a tragedy even to the doughty laborers, but they soon learned new ways to harness the bounty of the earth.  It was easy for them, for the Titans had them havest those same crops from many of the same feilds since before time, only the method and masters changed.  

In desperation the elves, one and all, turned to raiding the farms of the Dwarves, stealing harvested crops, fatted calves, anything they could take back to the forest with them.  The dwarves responded with guards and fences, and some even say primative magics that caused the very land to become unfriendly to Elves.

It was one elf, Daeylyraeth Darsyltier by name, who was the most eager to lead these raids, who opposed the moderation of Siti, who reminded the Elves that it was they who had brought the Titans low, and that the Dwarves had been ever loyal.

Siti, ever uncomfortable leading his people, argued with Darsyltier, some say for days without end.

The circumstances of the first Murder, as only the most ancient legends call it, are lost to us, but it was Darsyltier who struck the blow.  He returned home, triumphant, the blood of his victim staining his hands, his bags laden with food and more.  

The elves, once unified in the name of survival, now fragmented, split between those who remembered the terrible flight from the Titan's burning cities, and the younger elves who saw only the hardship of their current life and the apparent ease of the Dwarves nearby.   For a time this uneasy split was quelled by the necessities of the war, for the Dwarves did not sit idly by as their kin were murdered their crops stolen.  They marched on the forest with axe and fire, wore skins of metal that turned aside arrows.  The Immortal Elves knew death then at Dwarvish hands.

Darsyltier proposed, backed by his many followers, a great spell using the old weapons and secrets of the Titans to destroy the Dwarves so that their lands and farms could be settled by the Elves; leaving the forest behind to live lives of comfort and ease on the great plain.  This too was opposed by Siti and his followers, and it was they who best knew the secrets of the Titans.  Though the words are lost to history, Siti's speech to his people is still held to be the finest example of the orator's craft, his remarks so cutting that Darsyltier fled in shame... only to return in the night to steal a great thing, known now only as Yih Siashi, the Waster.  He and his followers gathered in a cursed place, a barrow of the Forest where the trees did not come and began a ritual to employ the device.  

Siti, it is said, felt the power flowing from the clearing and with his most loyal followers confronted Darsyltier's band, interrupting the ritual.  Siti and Darsyltier both died as the power became unleashed, uncontrolled, but Darsyltier rose once more.

The ritual was not unsuccessful, as Siti had feared. The Dwarves ended their war, retreating from Yih Siashi's power to the dark places of the earth were they were not heard from again until the Goblin Wars. Their farmlands were laid to waste and little grows there even to this day, and dark spirits walk the land.

Such power can not be claimed easily, and once claimed often refuses to be tamed. So it was for Darsyltier's followers and they were marked as surely as Dwarves had been.  It is said that all his followers not just those at the terrible ritual were marked, the magic flowing through their bonds of fraternity and loyalty. The nature of the marking has been lost, for the Daeylyraeth have long since been changed in other ways as well.

Appalled by the death of the most beloved of them, and refusing the once dead Darsyltier a place at their head, the Elves fell to an uncomfortable peace for a time until, eventually the two sides fell to war over who should lead them.   For one so young, the daughter of Siti, whose name may not be spoken without proper reverence, took command of her shattered kin and wisely cast the Daeylyraeth from them, telling them that the farms they had coveted so badly were theirs, and forbidding her people to follow.

Having sacrificed so much, Darsyltier could not go silently and in an act that forever condemned him attempted to murder the fledgling Queen in the night. He failed and was killed a second time.

His followers rose up in rebellion over his execution and in protest of their exile, stealing his body as they were driven from the Hydimenoi, though they did not settle.

When Darsyltier rose yet again from the dead he was appalled at his followers cowardice, enraged that the queen had cheated him of his victory, but to his dismay the very forest barred him from entry, remembering the ritual he had enacted perhaps.

Those Daeylyraeth who survived his retribution each swore never to follow another ever again, though they banded together for survival and slew Darsyltier a third and final time, each stealing a measure of his power by consuming the corpse, leaving only his withered black heart for Death to claim.  

The Daeylyraeth wandered for a time, finding no succor anywhere in the world. They sought the places of the Titans, made deals with dragons for knowledge, and even stole from the temples of the Lizard Kings, the last power to oppose the Titans.   It is said that when Death arrived to claim Darsyltier's heart they tried to steal Its power, and were protected from retribution by the undying flesh of their leader that they had consumbed.

At last they sought out the entrances to the Demon Realm on the other side of the world, and in time gained entry.  No other race of Haven has ever done such a thing before or since, and what they found there can only be speculated. How they survived, for they did indeed, is a matter of even more conjecture.

All races learned in time to fear the Daeylyraeth. Those who did not learn of their evils during their wanderings found out later, when they launched raids from the Demon Realms to the lands of Mortals.  It was they who destroyed mighty Tibor in the night, it was their sport that drove the orcs to build their first walled city beyond the mountains to the north.  It was they who cursed the Goblins to their terrible hunger and madness.

In truth there are but a handful of Daeylyraeth.  While perhaps hundreds followed Darsyltier's exile, most were slain by the risen demigod in his anger.  The Daeylyraeth, the lost second tribe of Elves, may only have numbered two score, and those who participated in the cannibalistic feast may have been fewer still, but no one counted.

Over the many millenia since that terrible time, a few have died, slain by powerful heroes or, ever more rarely, natural accident.  They do not slay each other, for all their loathing for one another they understand that it is only their own kin that they can understand and vice versa.   This reluctance to murder their kin, to have lasted so long, may be the result of their ritual murder of Darsyltier the Thrice Dead.  Certainly with each one to die, their fallen 'leader' grows every closer to returning from the land of the dead.

Indeed, when one talks of the names of demons, it is the Daeylyraeth that are spoken of. Demons may not walk the face of Haven without permission of the Gods, and only rarely violate that pact older than time, the fallen elves are their agents much of the time, though given the legends that the fallen swear no loyalties, nor obey any leaders there is much theorizing as to why they would obey their demonic 'masters'.

Two of their kin are known to reside on the face of Haven. Esua, who was trapped during the Banality and the Queen of the North, known to her kin as Besa'ki.   Both are permanent exiles from their kin, hated for betraying their kind, but still immortal.  Besa'ki is said by some to have risen to the status of Godhood, the protector of the northern shores of Haven from Chaos... not even the Daeylyraeth are so foolish to tempt that which even the Gods fear... though her motives may be darker.  Of her appearance, only legends say and they can not be trusted.

Esua is much better known, a purer example of what the Daeylyraeth became since their fall.  During the Banality he could be seen without any artifice, any illusions, and though he hid from public scrutiny many tales and ancient arts depict him.

In appearance they are much akin to their elvish cousins, though their hands appear permanently bloodstained, as do their mouths. Their teeth are jagged fangs that fill their mouths, their bodies withered and skeletal, their hair coarse and wispy.  Esua's eyes are black voids, though most legends claim their eyes are red and bloodshot.  His ears were longer than typical for an Elf, though some claim that all the oldest elves have such long ears, and ragged, as if chewwed upon.  Without the advantage of illusion, he smelled always of sulfer and ash and rot.  Despite the apparent fragility he possessed great strength, able to shatter swords with a blow of his hand.  In modern days he appears as a typical elf, dressed in finery, and is reknown even by those who do not know his secret as a powerful magus.  Like Besa'ki, his motives are uncertain but do not appear directly malevolent, and he often employs catspaws and mundane heroes to do various tasks for him.  Unlike Besa'ki, he does not appear motivated by companionship or lust, and appears to disdain mortal slaves of all sorts.

In short the Daeylyraeth are not, in truth, a race or tribe of Elves, but a band of demonic demigods from the very dawn of history.  Rumors of rituals to summon them are false, however. One may, if one has a name, call to one out of the demon realms, but it is up to the individual to arrive, and their motives would remain their own.   They have knowledge of soceries unheard of in the modern age, and thanks to ancient Demonic pacts they may still use sorceries that have been denied mortals by the very Gods.  

If one has followed the metaphysical underpinnings of Haven, they have all acheived a measure of apotheosis, becoming 'Gods of the World', elements of the Great Engine that protects Haven from the Chaos that surrounds it... tainted however by their demonic alliances.  Should they ever become truly ascendant then while Haven would be secured from dissolution into chaos, the face of Haven would become more akin to the alien and inhospitable demon realm.

Darsyltier himself is still a powerful force, long forgotten by mortals.  The Heartless Ghost, as he is known, remains trapped in the Underworld until he can retake his lost body by destroying his surviving followers.  The source of Darsyltier's power, his apparent immunity from death came from the loss of his Soul to the Yih Siashi, one of four superweapons stolen from the Titans (not the only artifacts stolen).  Normally this would have killed him, but he stole Siti's soul, shredding it and using it to power his flesh, lacking a proper soul, Death simply was unaware that he needed to be claimed, and took his heart to the Underworld, trapping him there.  The remanents of his life force, fused with the stolen power of Siti, roam the underworld, escaping every so often to wreak havoc on the mortal realm.   Those who know of Darsyltier's tale believed that should his heart be destroyed then the vengeful spirit would gain enough power to escape permanently, though it could not take flesh until its stolen flesh is returned to it.  Given the few deaths of Daeylyraeth to date, it only has enough substance to commit occasional murders.  Luckily, most of the Daeylyraeth are in the demon realms, where his ghost can not go...

Not entirely happy with how this turned out. Just sayin'.