» Thu Jun 10, 2010 1:02 am On The Ayleid Lineage
by Alexandre Hetrard
Across the face of Cyrodiil there is no thing so mysterious, so admired, so misunderstood, and sometimes even feared as the memory of the old kingdoms. One must travel far into Colovia and beyond to keep from seeing the ruined spires of the Ayleids peeking out from pristine greenery, and around the bends of the timeworn roads. So pervasive are the works of the Wild Elves, and yet so little we truly know of their ways, customs, beliefs, or even their ultimate fate. It is the purpose of this essay to attempt to delve into the dark recesses of the past when the Ayleid domains rose and fell. Here, I hope to draw a line between what we know of the Ayleids in the distant past, and later history which must have been shaped by their hands. In this, I hope to shed some of their own treasured latta on their doings and ends for the benefit of we who look back in wonder at their creations.
Few things can be gathered about the Ayleids in the pre-Alessian age. Any history that they themselves may have kept has been lost to us. The only written records being inscriptions found on their structures, which while thankfully well-preserved, do not enlighten us as to their deeds or major events of the time. The Elven records of Summerset Isle are not very helpful either, as the Ayleids seem to have been quite happy to keep their distance from their Altmer brethren. However, recent excavations of certain ruins reveal the surprising fact that some sites show signs of continuous habitation after the fall of White Gold Tower in 1E 243. This easily discredits the dubious Alessian claim that "all thy wicked elves who enslaved us were cast down, their works undone completely..." Obviously some Wild Elf communities survived the revolt, and even seem to have done quite well for themselves. This leads to the conclusion that either the rebels could not dislodge them from their territories until much later, or that they may have actually aided Alessia in felling their own sovereign(s), and thus were granted sovereignty themselves until the time of the Alessian Reforms.
The dark times of strife in Cyrodiil that mark the rule of the Alessians (I refer here to the Order of Marukh, not Queen Alessia) are looked on almost universally with shame, even by the most stubborn Primates of the Imperial Cult. In this time all things Elvish were destroyed by the ignorant barbarians, who even tried to deny that the Eight Divines were originally Elf (Ayleid even) deities. What is often overlooked here is the fate of the Elves themselves who still lived in Cyrodiil. We know that some, perhaps even most survived the original revolt, so they must have been forced to flee the land beginning in 361 (over a hundred years of Man-Elf cohabitation in Cyrodiil preceding). A key detail which has so far been overlooked by scholars is the almost perfectly synchronous rise to power of the Direnni Hegemony in High Rock. Their meteoric ascent beginning in 355, and culminating with the conquest of much of western Tamriel in 477, gives credence to the idea that the Direnni gained their most loyal troops and supporters from the Ayleids fleeing Cyrodiil. So perfectly do they match even, that the Direnni fell from power almost as a result of crushing the Alessians at Glenumbria Moore a little over a decade before. Precious few records exist from this time, most being the laments of the Alessian priests, most of whom did not distinguish between different groups of Elves. But one vital fragment exists of a Direnni account of Glenumbria, which tells of the "last king of the Ayleids" being among the Elven order of battle. It seems apparent that this "last king" did not rule in Cyrodiil, as the Alessians would have never tolerated any Ayleid lord lingering there, but rather he must have followed his kin into exile. Arriving in High Rock, he no doubt swore his loyalty to the Direnni in exchange for retaining sovereignty over his people; his warriors going forth into Skyrim and Hammerfell to conquer new lands, which some day could be settled as new homes for his sundered clan. Such was not to be, however. The links between the influx of Ayleid refugees into Valenwood, and the rise of the Camoran dynasty there is also an unexplored area of history, which unfortunately will remain so due to lack of available records.
The question I am asked most often by the uninitiated is "What really happened to the Ayleids?" This can mean one of two things, "what happened to the Ayleid civilization?" or "what happened to the Ayleid people?" The answer to the former is that it is gone. The slave revolt in Cyrodiil and the fall of Elven power in the west spelled the end of the Ayleid age. No evidence exists at all of any Ayleid nobles, tribes, or city-states lasting past the end of the First Era. As for the latter, look around you. Your friend, the local shopkeep, a famous art collector, any and all of your Elven neighbors, perhaps even you yourself, may be a descendant of this proud and mysterious race. The Ayleid people lost their nations, but responded by adapting and assimilating into other Elven cultures, particularly those in Valenwood and High Rock. Some evidence exists that certain words in the Bosmer tongue may have even been adapted from the Ayleid language. As little is known of the Ayleids before their diaspora, it will take us a very long time to decipher the full extent of their influence on the modern world, and the races therein. But it is certain that they were not the pale spectres of the forest so often whispered of by the rustics of Nibenay, who tormented men in the early times, only to be banished into darkness and perdition by his rise. No, theirs is a lineage that has lasted through the ages, albeit obscured to our sight, and may yet be a force in those to come.
