Dominion Era/Prophetess Llyrileýwa
The Prophetess Llyrileýwa (Tretalleri: /ljɪ.ɾɪ.lɛ.jɪ.wæ/), known to the Elledynnë as the Prophet d'Lyr~lea Lyrisovë (Prophet Lyr~lea of the Golden Brow), is one of the more important points of conflict between the Dominion and the Silvered Realm. A woman, or a man—depending on the historical texts consulted—of the people, the Prophetess was loved by all, despite her transparent ties to the opposing faction of elf. It was the Prophetess that was the last great leader and adherent of the Druidic Lore in the East, and it was she that last attempted to broker peace between the Elledynnë and the Tretallë.
Though the two elfin kingdoms would never heed the Prophetess' wisdom on the matter of their rival, they did listen to her for all else. The people loved the Prophetess, and though the leaders of either culture would have rather she not existed, they could not move against her without rousing the ire of the people. Alas, it was this love for the Prophetess that further drove the two races apart, as the vision that she and her retainers experienced at the moment of her supposed death formed the foundations of two very different elfin outlooks on the afterlife.
Early Life and Background
Born of an era long before the entrance of the insidious Triple Goddess into the yet-united Elfin realm, Llyrileýwa was one of the few elves that came into being during the mysterious Time Immortal. Though born with the gift of eternal youth, the prophetess grew up during a time of great societal upheaval within the Elfin realm. By the eldest accounts of her birth, life, and death, during the prophetess' childhood, tensions were coming to a head between the two major factions of Elfin society at the time&mdask; the Immortal elves, Di'Tatydynnë and the mortal elves, Di'Netatydynnë. Allegedly, the prophetess' birth, some three hundred years after the last Immortal elf was born, made it apparent that the immortality that had once blessed the Elfin-folk was beginning to leave the blood.
The prophetess was born to druid acolytes—mortal elves whose names have long been forgotten to the mists of myth and legend. She was raised among a people that believed that immortality had been a gift from The Pale God and that its loss was a punishment because the Elfin-folk and their kings had begun to turn away from the druidic roots of their people. For a time, the balance between the mortal and immortal elves was kept by the prophetess' people, but as the first of the elves who would eventually become the Tretallë emerged from the population, the political and social clout of the druids was decimated by an opportunist king. This king blamed the Pale God for the weakness in the blood of the elves, claiming boldly that he had abandoned their people, where the druids believed that the truth was the exact opposite.
Soon enough, many of the elves turned to the belief that their gods, primarily the Pale God, had abandoned them. The prophetess could not bring it upon herself to accept what the rest of her brethren had readily embraced. The stories say that in her youth, the Pale God had come to her and befriended her. Legend still whispers that the prophetess alone was able to interpret the will of the Pale God with accuracy. She alone knew the Pale God best, and she alone stood resolute in the face of the change that was sweeping across the Elfin realm.
Where a number of her closest friends, once-high members of the Druidic Order abandoned the ancient gods, the prophetess remained resolute in her faith. While the Elden Circle lay broken at her feet, she rose to take the Gnarled Crown of the Order with little resistance. The prophetess warned of dire punishment from the Pale God, and to this end, she demonstrated the powers that he granted her, singing trees into shape—a talent that had been thought lost until then—and bringing the newly fallen back to life.
The legends speak of the prophetess never being far from the instrument of her proselytization: a staff made of wood so pale it was white like bleached bone, where an iron spike was embedded in the tip and held in place by a delicate latticework of the same wood as the rest of the staff. All mages in the Elfin realm knew that such a staff could not be used for magic, as its arcane focus was made of iron and yet, the prophetess performed miracles with her weapon. Nevertheless, the prophetess' dire warnings fell upon the deaf ears of the elves that would one day become the Elledynnë. Many took to calling her Doomsayer in mockery. Few took the prophetess seriously among the fairer portion of the population, since so very few still believed in the gods of old and so many had turned their backs on the roots of the Elfin people.
