Charismata

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: Many a yeartide swithly did pass, and again through the shade-dappled hurst Serenity rollicked delightedly with her sistren, and playfully she wrestled with them in the green brush, and through the underwood gamboled. Again she giggled and sang and skipped about the forestlands; again she was and seemed content in the Way of Nymphs. And the seasons did pass, and the Dryad band had great merriment frisking about the woodlands, entertaining Satyrs and Fauns who would for days with them travel, and idly then part ways.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: After many a year Destiny had become gravid, and in the span of a mere six sennights she birthed unto her band a caul. The band placed this caul in I tog le tree, and daily cared for and watched it as it nourished its roots off the tree’s sap. Each day the caul swelled larger as the child-Nymph grew within it, until after twenteen years was hatched the Nymphet named Prosperity.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: Thus the Band of Destiny and had grown too large, and so split into two bands of seven: Destiny remained the Alpha Dryad of the first band, as Faith became the Alpha Dryad of the second. And so Destiny, Harmony, Trust, Divinity, Grace, Solace, and Glory remained in the Elder Band of Destiny, which also was the Whilom Band of Faith, whilst Faith, Charity, Eternity, Felicity, Ecstasy, Serenity, and Prosperity became a , romping, and playing, and whose nights were graced by visits from the Pixies. Always they pranced and reveled throughout the Emerald Forest, ceasing only to nap r make love. And each many years Faith bore for her band another caul, and each caul was placed in a fruit tree where it would grow until it was bowned to hatch. In the next [INSERT NUMBER OF YEARS] six more Nymphets were from Destiny borne, whose names were Charisma(?), Radiance, Affinity, Letity, Essence, and Surreptity.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: Yet even with her twelve sistren, Serenity was still lonesome.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: Then one day as she sported ’round the forest Serenity went her unto a clearing whence beyond a nearby brake in the underbrush she saw curtained in kelly sunbeams besprent so densely in dustmotes and bespangled in pollen and lion’s tooth ___ aglow as to appear nigh opaque amid the swart green shades neath its thick-pleached ogive bolework vaulting the old fern-fettered Treen Hall, straught from Fairgate of Dryopoly in the east near the more easterly, ancient twin cities of Samelphame and Dryopolis herself westward unto the untrod bridge through Wraymoss, myst-veiled maniholm strewn about the marshes and meres upon eighlets, hummocks, eights, hags and eyots by hoary causeways and archway bowed bridges and viaducts by arcaded abutments braced and by plank causeways aloft arching bolework of bent boughs borne or afloat upon mere-waters bridged, through Weremark unto Atham, obscure settlement amid miasmic brume of the mere-mysts on hummock beset, and heard her there erstwhile a stridor well up rebellowing afar easterly from her and erelong whelm the viridescence-strewn shades of the Stywood in wake of the strepent cacophony that bore it through that very Covered Highway forth from the Fairlands hither unto their fringes the Worldmarch nigh. And so therefore hastened Serenity to cast her upon herself a glamor, lest the dread source of so noisome a threat as to wreak such clamor espy her thence in that clearing(?) adjacent the Treen Hall and, mayhap, sunder Serenity there utterly or rape her into bondage wither she knew not, yet wherefore unto what doom recked all those of her kind according caught, whether bound in ___ perennity her captors unto, in treen BLANK mewed or within trammeling [[[fishnet]]] entangled[?] having been sold or traded to an other, she be either abaft bars of isen pinfold mewed as poacher’s prize in BLANK of eccentric naturalist’s gallery to be /\/\/\ shewn rarity or immured by convex isen hatch of antiquary’s vault [[among all manner of rariora]]] or by whatsoever [[[captivity]]] [[[chosen to withhold her]]] she be strupated in many a wise each such horrid ___ mistide her, she found she could do nobbut in those short and swithly dwindling [[[moments]]] howbeit longly she durst not ponder. And so Serenity there waited under cloak of her glamor stilly, that she might first espy her foes -- an foes they be -- and act in accord to whatsoever threat mote it be.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: And rebellowing clamoring point of light down the crossing curtains of spangled viridescence filtered from the daylight through without the intertwined walls and forest canopy of the Covered Highway upon the clover and buttercup flower and moss-fettered flagstone slab pavement between the thistle, hemp, horsetail, foxglove, and lion’s tooth spangling the darkled ferny brakes of that selfsame Treen Hall.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: Serenity saw her a pair of grey caples, fair and adorn with armor and caparison of silvern sheen, bearing riders of paley mantle belike a star that shone clear and bright whence yon distant shades came the clamor, swart as pitch howbeit by glittering sunbeams pierced by glowing rays of shimmering green; a sight assuring her they be not fell men, for mankind knew naught in those days yet of the for mankind knew naught in those days yet of the least equestrian ways, nor could any man living yet ken the most easily mastered of equestrian skills.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: Elvards harnessed in the brilliant sheen of plated chain armor comprising silken mail of finely linked argent chain fastened unto their actions, their byrnies plated like unto the muscles of the upper body with finely wrought adamant silver, broignes bedight with a kerys(?) of argent breast plating articulated in the form of the individual major pectoral muscles with BLANK device of the Elven Sun God inlaid in the center, argent abdominal muscles articulated by an additional layer of argent mail plated in platinum [?] resembling the tendinous intersections, gilded lower minor pectoral lames and anterior serrate scale armor, back plating(?) in the form of scapulas jointed by rhomboid and dorsal lames to vertebral scale armor, beset with a studded, gilded collar and gorget with a similar layer of studded gold-leaf edging, forming a folded circular guard descending in a semicircle reaching adown over the clavicle lames partly atop the pectoral plating afore and another semicircle partly over the scapula, deltoid and rhomboid plates and upper pith of the vertebral scale armor abaft so as to protect the innermost shoulders and bridge the gap in plate between collar(?), clavicles, scapula and rhomboids with cascading pauldrons, the top layer edged in a studded, gilded-layer trim that formed a BLANK on either side of the collar where the utmost plate of the pauldrons overlapped the gorget(?) shaped as deltoids...; canons(?) with forebraces forged in the image of biceps and rearbraces like unto triceps under .. joined to the sides of the gorget, with fingered elbow gauntlets of finger lames so fine and hand plates so articulate as to nary the slightest their manual dexterity inhibit, complete with BLANK plates and bracers reaching back not merely to reinforce the elbow BLANKS but overlap the (upper arm armor) with the outstretched arm, argent codpieces between BLANK with BLANK forged in the image of (front leg muscles) and BLANK wrought as (rear leg muscles) under BLANK protecting their napes, shinbalds (?) rising above the knees each to overlap the BLANK of the straightened leg yet curved so as to allow the BLANK-covered knee to lock if needed and sabotons of lame armor

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: A great white pair of war-armored pack elephants crinite in coats of short ivorine fur as brilliantly bright as their great paired ruel-bones begat fro their upper incisors before them borne bowed laterally convex yet vertically concave, deeply sloping into anterior descent adown before gradually unto ventral crescent spiroid crooks tapering each athwart its other into scorpioid/cheliform/falcate spires sharply turned medial at their gedded argent (caps) tips to wrap around the straighter horizontal ruel-bones jutting in pairs forth whence the aforesaid nigh-spiroid tusks curved about afore these thick opalescent boles of [[[dental bone???]]] about atop the twain tusks emergent from

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: With a crinet-like coat of lames protecting the proboscean appendage to which the articulate armor had been tightly by mail thongs tethered nigh entirely the length of the thick, serpentine nose-lip rooted under their eyen and between their great ruel-bone tusks

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: capreolate crooks capped in spiked latten ferrules out-jettied before the proboscean appendages steeled between each pair of ruel-bone roots and a crinet-like coat of laminate plates protecting that selfsame prehensile proboscis to which the articulate armor had been tightly with many a leathern thong and by great buckles tethered nigh the length in entirety of the thick, swaying, serpentine snouts rooted before their sanguine eyen.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: ferrules

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: stellate with a tower of wicker and sindon...

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: ledged wagon with roofed porches skirting the wagon from the entry brighted between square-housed gem-paneled lanthorn sidelights beneath the anterior arch of the roof and enclosed by the supporting arcade of tortile latten brackets under arching brachiations of brown-bright sprigs and gilded leaves returning the exterior walls to a smaller anterior doorway letting out each side of the cottage compartment overhanging the rear wheels by a short stair adown either flanking side of the return-roofed porch upon the (crest?) which

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: Blows bespangling the

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: ...and there she happed upon...

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: The Darkelfish man then spoke, yet in a tongue far younger than that of Serenity’s. Though a being as ancient and wise as Serenity, having9 heard as many tongues, could detect easily the differences between his tongue and her own, and apprehend the meaning of every word he spoke.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “Are you alright?” called out the man, and Serenity was taken aback, for these were not the words of a dreaded Darkelf; these were not at all the words of a creature from the baneful shaded deeps, insofar as Serenity was wont to believe. And so Serenity cast away her glamor and approached on cautious feet, minding of whatsoever danger might there have been, yet far too curious of him to withdraw.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: When into the open she came Serenity saw this Darkelf was escorted by two Lightelves, mounted each upon a white mare. Escorted perhaps as a prisoner, yet in no way bound or restrained was he. More likely it seemed he was being guarded; in fact protected by the Lightelves, in such a wise as to befit a man of great import. And although Serenity understood very little of the concept of clothing, she could discern by the way the Darkelf’s ebon robes draped from him that he had been so as to convey nobility adorned.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: As Serenity continued her approach she studied the Darkelf’s affectations.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: The Lightelves readied their spears, but already had fallen enchanted, victim to Serenity’s fairness; for naught but the greatest-willed of wights, be it male or female, could endure the thralling lure of a Dryad’s lustrous beauty. Then under helotry of Serenity’s fascination the Lightelves let slip their weapons from their hands, as the Darkelf was staid motionless, entranced by her and enthralled.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “Lo!” said Serenity, “for I am a Trewardess of the Emerald Forest and Nymph of the Cherry Tree. Ye have strayed far too nigh the homewood of my band, and endanger the sanctity of all within its bounds. Therefore I must know your purpose here ere I permit you pass beyond this point.”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “These men are taking me to Atham,” stuttered the Darkelf, mustering the needed composure to speak, “for protection against the Unseely Court , from which I have defected, and now must hide away.”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: Serenity smiled, and yet she then narrowed her eyen, and upon the three Elves she cast a look most dire, and said unto them: “Harken ye intently unto my bid: ye Lightelves may pass of your own accord, an ye do so light of hoof, but no Darkelf may be permitted to tread upon yon hallowed ground. Unless, Darkelf, thou wouldst be willing to submit thyself unto me, and allow me, as a protectress of the Elder Whits, to lead thee through the wylds of Sylvany myself.”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: The Darkelf nodded affirmation, and gestured for the Lightelves to wend ahead ere he dismounted his black mare. And there in that clearing along the Treen Hall he and Serenity remained as the Lightelves awayward rode. Serenity and the Darkelf then tarried there till the Lightelves had fully left their sight, and began leisurely after them.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “What be thy name?” asked Serenity of the Darkelf.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “Lyrian Dror ,” answered the Darkelven man.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “Welcome, Lyrian,” said the Adryad.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “Well met, Serenity,” replied the Lyrian.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation:

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “So, Lyrian,” began Serenity, the Darkelf beside and just abaft her walking his mare as he and Serenity strode ever down the covered highway toward the untrod bridge, “tell me more of this Unseely Court, whence thou hast defected. It must be very troublesome.”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “How is it that a Fairykin, even a Nymph, could know nothing of the Unseely Court?” asked the Darkelf.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “I know many a whit,” said Serenity, with all the erudite temerity of a being as ancient and wise as she. And she turned to face the Darkelf, still walking astride just afore him, and gazed deeply into his ruby eyen, and said coyly: “But an thou wouldst speak unto me pretending I knew naught of it at all, I should verily thus be pleased.”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: This somewhat confused the Darkelf, though he humored her natheless. “Well,” said he, “the Unseely Court is the highest host of the Daoi-Sith , formed thousands of years ago, after Ephraim the Father had founded the city of Darkelphame and wedded the White Queen of Umbry, Malkalivna the Livian , daughter of Flavian Maor , to beget six children: Rivekka the Valerian , Sarah the Rufine , Liora the Florentine , Adina the Cyrian , Avigayil the Treacher , and Jedan the Illyrian , the first King of Darkelphame , who married with Kalila the Augustine to found Dom Illyrium , the first house of the Unseely Court, uniting the Sidhe of the Spider God Uttu with the Sidhe of the Demoniac Mother Lilith . The Cloan ny Moyrn , the Couril , even the Nigheag na Hath must answer to its authority.”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: Serenity raised her eyebrow at the Darkelf, and she asked him: “Thy grandmother being the Golden Drow, thou shouldst have wealth and power and infamy! Doth not every wight of the Clan Darkelven for such whits aspire?”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation:

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: Serenity shook her head. “Yet still little or naught doth that explain of wherefore thou hast defected. Art thou not of the Darkelven?”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “Not if you were to ask my clansmen,” said Lyrian, “or former clansmen I should say. Dom Illyrium came to include Illyrian Jedan and Illyrian-Augustine Kalila as well as their six children, the second generation of the White Queen, of which the sixth-borne child and heir to the throne of Darkelphame, Illyrian Melekuzzi , married to Felician Atarah , to bear the second generation of Dom Illyrium. This third generation of Livian Malkalivna numbered six as well, of which the sixth child, Illyrian Saul-Melek , went on to wed Guardian Siphra , also known as Avitan Samira , and ascend to the throne of Darkelphame in his father’s wake, and had six children of his own. The sixth-borne of these, Illyrian Gideon , was wedded to Livian Navanoa before taking his own place at the throne, and had six children himself; the sixth of which was Illyrian Jered-Melek [ ], the next and fifth King of the City of Darkelphame. After ascending to the throne, King Jered-Melek, also known as King Illyrian V, was married to Cyriacan Adara , and had six children, the sixth of these being my grandmother, Illyrian Lilithena, born Illyrian Adi-Aliyah ; who, having been born with blonde hair and yellow eyes, among other traits, fulfilled the prophecy of the Golden Drow being born the sixth child of the sixth child through to the sixth generation of the White Queen.”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation:

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “I don’t often follow the ways of my people,” explained the Lyrian, “not that it bothers me as such. What they desire is control and oppression, but what I wish for is freedom, equality for all peoples. That’s why I’m trying to reach Anarchy.”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “What seekest thou in Anarchy?” inquired Serenity, her gaze in question tautened.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “Liberation,” replied the Lyrian. “There’s a group, based in Atham. A small group at present, yet ever growing. While the Seely Court prepares for war against my grandmother’s armies, this group prepares for the contingency of her success.”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “Success wherein?”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “In the war,” said Lyrian.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation:

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: It’s imperative therefore that I reach them.”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation:

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “ ‘Tis imperative, is it? And wherefore is that, O heroic and brave Darkelf?” scoffed the Dryad, grinning upon the Darkelf haughtly, in wait of his reply.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation:

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: The High Empress of the Unseelie Court, Lilithena Daelal: she’s begun a campaign to overtake our nation, to set the Unseelie Court as the commanding Sith of Transylvany, to appoint herself Transylvany’s supreme ruler, and to transform Transylvany itself into the seat of the Unseelie Court for all of Borea.”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation:

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “And just how dost thou think thou wilt be able to aid them?”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “Information,” replied the Elf. “I can give them information, as I once held a seat on the Unseelie Court’s Legislative Directorate.”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: Serenity’s eyes then grew that instant very wide as she pored at the Darkelf. “Wow,” she expired, smiling brightly, and she asked him: “However couldst thou have accomplished such a feat?”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “Legitimately, as much as I hate to admit it. Well, as legitimately as anywhit else in the Unseelie Court. I’m of Dom Illyrium myself. The High Empress is actually my grandmother, and so it was by her endorsement that, in addition to being an heir to the highest throne of the Unseelie Court, I was appointed the Cloan ny Moyrn Sith’s representative Director of Legislature once Jaakov the Agripetan (father of Barak) supplanted the High Priestess of the Unseely Court, Navaatarah the Valentine.”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “Well,” laughed Serenity, “an thou art not Mister Highborn....”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: And together Serenity and Dror strode through the wealds, and in wonderment Serenity listened to him speak of the world outside of the Emerald Forest. And Dror told her many tales.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: And when at day’s end they had raught the road to Atham, Serenity asked the Darkelf: “Wouldst thou give unto me thy troth that thou wilt return here unto me in a sennight?” Longly the Wood Nymph stared at him as she spake this, her eyes yearning.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “To this very spot?” asked Dror.

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “Nay, not here of course,” quoth Serenity, laughing slightly. “We be far too nigh the city of Atham for my liking. The clearing wherein we just met, where we can be alone together, far from the city and its noises.”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “I would love to meet with you again,” said the Darkelf. “Though I can’t help but wonder what a creature as beautiful as a Nymph could want from as comparatively lowly a wight as an Elf.”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “That would be mine own concern, wouldn’t it?” replied Serenity. “Yet an thou givest unto me thy troth thou shalt return whither ere we first met, mayhap thou wilt discover to thy behoof just what it is that I desire of thee. And in return, mayhap thou wilt receive what thou desirest of me.”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: For a moment Aramyn’s jaw hung slack, until somehow he mustered from within himself the wit to reply unto her: “How could I possibly refuse you, talking like that?”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “Thou knowest as well as I that thou canst refuse me not, no matter how I speak,” answered Serenity. “I am a Nymph, after all....”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: “You’re right,” said Dror. “Of course you have my word. I’ll meet you back at the clearing this time two sennights from today.”

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation:

Dryad §αIV¶I. [To be finished]

Translation: Elvards harnessed in the brilliant sheen of plated chain armor comprising silken mail of finely linked argent chain fastened unto their actions, their byrnies plated like unto the muscles of the upper body with finely wrought adamant silver, broignes bedight with a kerys(?) of argent breast plating articulated in the form of the individual major pectoral muscles with BLANK device of the Elven Sun God inlaid in the center, argent abdominal muscles articulated by an additional layer of argent mail plated in platinum [?] resembling the tendinous intersections, gilded lower minor pectoral lames and anterior serrate scale armor, back plating(?) in the form of scapulas jointed by rhomboid and dorsal lames to vertebral scale armor, beset with a studded, gilded collar and gorget with a similar layer of studded gold-leaf edging, forming a folded circular guard descending in a semicircle reaching adown over the clavicle lames partly atop the pectoral plating afore and another semicircle partly over the scapula, deltoid and rhomboid plates and upper pith of the vertebral scale armor abaft so as to protect the innermost shoulders and bridge the gap in plate between collar(?), clavicles, scapula and rhomboids with cascading pauldrons, the top layer edged in a studded, gilded-layer trim that formed a BLANK on either side of the collar where the utmost plate of the pauldrons overlapped the gorget(?) shaped as deltoids...; canons(?) with forebraces forged in the image of biceps and rearbraces like unto triceps under .. joined to the sides of the gorget, with fingered elbow gauntlets of finger lames so fine and hand plates so articulate as to nary the slightest their manual dexterity inhibit, complete with BLANK plates and bracers reaching back not merely to reinforce the elbow BLANKS but overlap the (upper arm armor) with the outstretched arm, argent codpieces between BLANK with BLANK forged in the image of (front leg muscles) and BLANK wrought as (rear leg muscles) under BLANK protecting their napes, shinbalds (?) rising above the knees each to overlap the BLANK of the straightened leg yet curved so as to allow the BLANK-covered knee to lock if needed and sabotons of lame armor