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| {{Entry}} | | {{Entry}} |
| <b>From the writings of [[PCs:Sun-and-Moon|Sun-and-Moon]]
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| = GREAT LOVE TRAGEDIES =
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| == #1 -- Dilaps and Alestra ==
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| Long, long ago a husband and wife fell out. If I tell you the husband was [[O’Ma]] and the wife was [[Titania]] and they fell out over O’Ma’s creation of new [[fey]] races for Avlis, then you know this was no ordinary falling out. The hostility between this god and goddess brewed for many centuries – even through the birth of their only child, [[Skern]] – until our time, when it precipitated the [[Second Fairy War]].
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| It was a terrible falling out with dire consequences for all on Avlis, but perhaps none more so than two who loved each other dearly. [[Dilaps]] was a [[half-nymph]] and beloved by O’ma among all his creations, such that the god gifted Dilaps with one of his favourite staffs. This simple Ashen pole, whose ends were bound with [[mithril]] bands inlaid with gold and silver wirework, was both impressive when admired as a fine work of art and lethal when wielded as a weapon.
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| At that time Titania maintained a glorious grove near [[Mikona]], and one of its treasures was a maiden called [[Terisi]] who was beloved by the goddess. She may have been a nymph, a dryad or some other form of fey - no record can tell us - but she was one of Titania’s own. She was the very symbol of beauty, vitality and innocence and known through the land as ‘Terisi Swiftfoot’ and also ‘the Shining One’. This latter name undoubtedly refers to her beauty as well as to her legendary raiment, gifted to her by Titania, which some say once belonged to the goddess and others that the goddess had specially made for favourite. Of these divine vestments, the greatest was her cloak that, despite its trailing length, could never be sullied by grime. This great cape was of a shining white samite of such quality that cannot today be made by the most skilful of weavers; and it bore arcane patterns in gold threads and rare gems chosen for their brilliance. So magnificent was Terisi ’s cloak that it was said that it could charm dragons, adding to her own considerable talent’s in this direction.
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| So, it came to pass that Dilaps, on a mission for O’Ma, saw Terisi and was smitten by her at once. Or rather, from a hill, he saw the great sparkling of her train in the great forest that once covered where [[Bachwood]] now lies, and on drawing near, was enchanted by the incarnation of beauty, vitality and innocence as she rested in a clearing, attended by woodland creatures and their songs. Dilaps, too, was handsome and tall, with a commanding presence, as Terisi could not help but notice when he stepped forward from the trees to greet her. This was the first time Terisi had met one of O’ma’s own fey, and for Dilaps likewise with one of Titania’s own. The very air became charged with electricity and a tension stronger than gravity; and like meteorites falling to earth, they were drawn to each other in a blaze of energy. We draw a veil over their meeting and their passion, save to say that the gods themselves could not fail to notice the ripples within the life-force of the land itself, that flows through the great Lifestones that once dotted the land.
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| The love-gravity between the handsome Dilaps and the beauty incarnate that was Terisi was so great, they could not bear to part - even though they tried (albeit half-heartedly) they could not – and so remained in that grove of their own, wrapt in each other, attended by woodland creatures, for who-knows-how-many days. Inevitably, both O’Ma and Titania, noticed the absence of their favourites. Their divine [[clairvoyance]] soon located the lovers in their woodland bower and their doom was sealed.
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| Remember, this took place at the onset of the [[First Fairy War]]; right when the schism between husband and wife was at its rawest. It was a time when Titania’s rage vowed a terrible war on O’Ma and his land and people and he, full of righteous pride, vowed to defend them with all his power. Both gods saw the lovers and both felt the cold surge of betrayal and both in anger struck out with a vengeance that both regretted for centuries.
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| A thunder so violent its sonic waves were more devastating than the blows of a warhammer fell upon Dilaps. He was hurled through the air and struck a great oak, bludgeoned to the earth. The fall mortally wounded Dilaps as he landed on his staff - O’ma’s gift – and it sundered, one half piercing his side. He staggered out of the clearing – could not bear the look of horror on Terisi ’s face that was the last thing he’d see – and found himself trapped on the edge of a ravine. Whether he flung himself over the precipice, or whether O’Ma’s punishing thunder, which continued to strike him, knocked him over, is no matter now. Dilaps fell to the river below, clutching the half of the staff and pulling it from his side.
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| Terisi also ran from the clearing, knowing, in that terrible instant of violence, that her mistress would be looking for her. She tried to hide, but in a divine cloak whose shimmer and sparkle could be seen for miles that was rather difficult. Terisi hear Titania’s voice in her ears, in her mind, shrieking her fury, and then the vengeful lighting struck, and again and again, until even the goddess was exhausted and no more damage could be done to a pile of smouldering cinders.
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| But what, I hear you ask, of this [[Alestra]]? And why do our histories – such as they are – give to her the attributes of Terisi? The answer is simple. Terisi was beloved by her people as much as by her goddess, and they preserved their memories of her natural goodness and beauty in stories told in secret. To hide these literary remains from Titania’s unpredictable wrath, Terisi’s name was changed over time to Alestra. We know her today, from the few poems that have survived, as ‘the Shining Alestra’, ‘Alestra the Golden’, ‘Alestra the Swift-Foot’, ‘Alestra of the Dangling-train’, ‘the Gem Alestra’, and so on – references, it is supposed, to her divine raiment.
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| That was the end of Dilaps and his lovely Terisi, but what became of became of their only remains? Time passed as time does; a great deal of it. One piece of Dilap’s staff lay in the clearing, soon overgrown and hidden. The other, that pierced his side, floated down river, out to sea, and in time ended up in [[Sorvanok]]'s cavern in the [[Underdark]] close to Mikona. Terisi’s cloak of immaculate samite survived her, hidden under – but not in any way begrimed by – her pile of ashes. How they were sought by the [[Shemathen]] and how they were finally repaired, with the help of the [[Healers of Cha’reth]], as gifts for Skern to present to his parents in heartfelt petition for their reconciliation, thus bringing to a close the mercifully short [[Second Fairy War]] and the terrible [[Seige of Elysia]] – that, dear Reader, is a tale for another time.
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