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(Created page with " === The Roll of the Lost === '''A Short Reading with Notes''' '''Presented by Tiwlip, Novitiate Postulant of the High Council Sylvisterai in the Wild''' ==== Introductory Notes ==== Our tradition is an oral history, passed down through the generations and years via the hierophantic memory. As such, when written, some nuance of performance is lost. Herein, I have attempted to illustrate sections of our poetical<ref>For more information on sylvan poeticals, see Gael (5...") |
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=== The Roll of the Lost === |
=== The Roll of the Lost === |
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Revision as of 12:29, 20 September 2025
Roll of the Lost is an Official GemStone IV Document, and it is protected from editing.
The Roll of the Lost
A Short Reading with Notes
Presented by Tiwlip, Novitiate Postulant of the High Council Sylvisterai in the Wild
Introductory Notes
Our tradition is an oral history, passed down through the generations and years via the hierophantic memory. As such, when written, some nuance of performance is lost. Herein, I have attempted to illustrate sections of our poetical[1] roll of the lost, specifically that section which details the Primary Hierarchs of our High Council of the Sylvisterai.[2]
The Text
Margred[3] is first of the lost
only her name survives
through time we forgot
how she made us
what magic
was once
hers
Second is Meinwen the Gold[4]
Imaera’s beloved
keeper of Her words
yet life was short
gone like leaves
in fresh
snow
Third, we sing of Hefina
who lifted us skywards
unbound from the ground
and outside greed[5]
into trees
borne on
boughs
Fourth came our pride, Citlalli
arise, D'ahranal[6]
how we self govern
and each is placed
each is known
by strong
bonds
Tuwm, fifth, led from Ithnishmyn
swayed[7] by Eislemar’s[8] words
in the high gold[9] grass
both lie broken[10]
lost for pride
to foul
wyrm
Sixth we recall Roswytha
mother of Oriahn
violence[11] was done
peace was undone
and her hopes
a cold
wail[12]
Maelle, seventh, had the sight
and from Nevishrim[13] led
to silver aspens
and modwirs great
Yuriqen
at last
home
Annotations and Comments
- ↑ For more information on sylvan poeticals, see Gael (5107), Of Poetry and Memory.
- ↑ Though the High Council has existed since before the founding of Ithnishmyn, within our histories we divide it temporally into several periods; the High Council of the Sylvisterai in Imaera’s Grace, the High Council of the Sylvisterai in the Boughs, the High Council of the Sylvisterai on the Trail, the High Council of the Sylvisterai in the Glade, and the High Council of the Sylvisterai in the Wild. The first sylvan government, the High Council of the Sylvisterai in Imaera’s Grace, is usually referred to simply as Imaera’s Council. This period is marked by the direct presence of Imaera in sylvan life, as She guided her chosen people away from the dangers lingering from the Ur-Daemon Wars. The High Council of the Sylvisterai in the Boughs was a period of settlement, during which many core sylvan institutions, such as the D'ahranals, were established. The High Council of the Sylvisterai on the Trail comprises those years of wandering and loss after the desertion of Ithnishmyn and Nevishrim. These are sometimes also referred to as the Councils of Loss or the Councils of the Golden Anvil. The choice to use either of the alternate terms is highly political, and indicative of familial and academic ties and allegiances to particular schools of history and theory. Those who use the term Councils of Loss extend their conceptualization of this period to include the founding, residence within, and abandonment of Nevishrim. (This inclusive of the Undead War.) Those who use the term Councils of the Golden Anvil separate the period of travel between the dissolution of Ithnishmyn and the settlement of Nevishrim. The High Council of the Sylvisterai in the Glade oversaw a golden age of sylvan culture. During this time Yuriqen rose, and Imaera’s people again felt Her hand in their constructions and discoveries. It was a time of art, culture, and family, as the population rose and the Seven Modwirs were filled with hope and the sounds of children’s voices. When Yuriqen was lost, the High Council of the Sylvisterai in the Glade was split. Some members of the High Council remained in Yuriqen when the barrier went up, while others remained outside, sacrificing their place in the city to serve as a traveling government in exile. Those who made that sacrifice became the High Council of the Sylvisterai in the Wild. Making oaths to Imaera to preserve the hierophantic memory, and oaths to Gosaena to accept their burden even beyond death, they have remained hidden and on the move ever since. As a consequence of the Greater Nanrithowan, hierophantic memory has been severed between those who reside within the Silver Veil, and those who reside without, in the larger Wild. As such, the Hierarchs of the Council Sylvisterai in the Wild, derived as they are from the line of the lost High Council in Yuriqen, have a sacred duty to preserve the Roll of the Lost, while adding to it until such time as the barrier is dropped and the councils can be formally rejoined as one.
- ↑ Margred, sometimes spelled Mwrthgrd or Margryd, is the first named Hierarch within the Rolls of the Lost. Hierophantic memory recalls her as a conduit between Imaera and the sylvan people, but the specifics of how she came to be a chosen of Imaera, and what magics she personally possessed, were lost. Imagery of Margred was common in Yuriqen, but depictions varied, and such representations are, at best, fanciful ideals.
- ↑ Meinwen is the second individual mentioned within the Rolls of the Lost. There is some confusion as to the translation of her epithet, as within the Sylvan there are multiple meanings for the word Aurl, all contextual variations on the concept of gold. As such, whether ‘the Gold’ refers to hair color, political standing, birth month, or family association is unclear. The oral tradition from which the Roll of the Lost is derived further complicates the situation, as the original term might not be from ‘Aurl’ at all, but instead from a similar sounding source term such as ‘Arl’, which means one-armed, or ‘Aerl’, translated as ‘fragranced’.
- ↑ Colonialism within Elanthia is a larger topic than this document has room to address. Consumptive cultural practice as precursor to colonial action and ultimately colonial oversight is well-documented, however. External acquisitions of sylvan heritage crafts and practices of cultural patrimony, both tangible and intangible, are widely regarded to have served non-sylvan interests more than sylvan interests, and attempts to maintain cultural primacy led to a breakdown in the sylvan relationship with exterior cultures.
- ↑ Under the leadership of Hierarch Citlalli and the High Council of the Sylvisterai in the Boughs, the D'ahranal system of guilds and interdisciplinary membership bodies was created. The political ramifications of the D’ahranal organization were threefold. First, the D’ahranal served to break up growing power centers via lineage, replacing ties of blood with ties of interest. This was a social leveling device that promoted equity, removing in-born advantages derived from family affiliation. Second, the D’ahranal provided limited self-governance and autonomy to the various guilds, while placing them firmly under the overall oversight of the High Council. Each D’ahranal could police its own membership and set its own system of recognition and demotion, but the groups were expected, overall, to conform to social and economic norms set by the High Council. Third, the D’ahranal provided opportunities for service and leadership for those outside of the hierophantic schema. This created pro-social benefits for engagement with community that were previously denied to most of the population.
- ↑ The agreement between Hierarch Tuwm and Eislemar was reached after discussion that excluded the rest of the High Council. It is not known what arguments Eislemar made that persuaded Tuwm to agree to the dismantling of Ithnishmyn, but the arguments were buttressed, in part, related by the strength of Eislemar’s populist support and a growing fear that the High Council would be supplanted if drastic measures were not undertaken.
- ↑ Eislemar Nathlai was a member and later cavalot of Tyesteron D’ahranal, and a mage by training. His power outside of his D’ahranal was driven by xenophobia and fear-mongering, largely concerning the kidnapping and enslavement of sylvan youth by elves. Though some kidnappings did occur, modern scholarship indicates that this rhetoric was overblown, and no wide-scale system of sylvan enslavement actually occurred.
- ↑ Again, the term ‘Aurl’ is used, in this case very clearly in the context of color. Following the events of the Trail of Ages and the Golden Anvil, the term ‘aurl’ became a pejorative within sylvan storytelling, and for a time, gold fell out of favor as a material or descriptor. This led to a preference for vaalin, though the elven monopoly on the material in later days led to resurgence in the use of non-metallic materials.
- ↑ The ultimate disposition of Eislemar’s remains is contested. Some versions of the story of his end leave him in the gullet of the wyrm, screaming until death and abandoned in the sylvan flight from danger. Others, kinder in their telling, and perhaps more closely affiliated with the deceased, leave Eislemar buried on the field. Curiously, the versions differ in the role of Tuwm, a Hierarch of the High Council. In both iterations she dies along with Eislemar, though in stories wherein Eislemar is swallowed, she is referred to as the Primary Hierarch, while in stories where he is buried, she is also noted to additionally be his sister. A familial relationship between the two would give more reason for Eislemar’s power with the Council, but to believe that version of events would also require to believe that the wyrm did not make away with his corpse, and would cast doubt on the gains of the D’ahranal in breaking down blood kin-based power dynamics during this period.
- ↑ The Undead War and the final battle at Maelshyve decimated the sylvan army and resulted in the death of Oriahn Delsechal, the leader of the elite scouting unit known as the Eranishal. Oriahn’s death was a great blow to the sylvan people, and his name is still held in high esteem. As an honor, to be considered ‘Yr’Oriahn’, literally translated as, ‘Of the tree of Oriahn’, is to be regarded as a sylvan of high valor and merit by the High Council.
- ↑ Oriahn was the only child of Hierarch Roswytha, sometimes known as the Hierophantic Augur, and a descendent of Tydfil, a Hierarch during the High Council of the Sylvisterai on the Trail who was lost at the Golden Anvil. Roswytha never revealed any additional details of Oriahn’s parentage, only ever stating, in childhood, that he was ‘...a gift from Imaera…’. Upon learning of his death, Roswytha cried out, ‘...undone, undone, it was not Imaera, but Gosaena! Oh, how we are undone!’ and threw herself from the height of the great tree at the center of Nevishrim, breaking her body on the ground below.
- ↑ Though it was hoped that Nevishrim would be the final and lasting city of the sylvan, far from the incursions of elves and the taint of the losses in the Golden Anvil, these hopes were dashed with the deaths of Oriahn and his mother Roswytha. The Hierarch who followed Roswytha, Maelle, was gifted with divinatory sight and with the ability to speak directly to the spirits of the forest, the rocks and stones, the creeks and running waters. Her Sight was instrumental in locating the glade and modwirs in which Yuriqen in Andemyon, ‘The Trees of the Sky at the Edge of All’ was constructed, as well as obtaining the blessing of the local spirits for the sylvan people to reside there.