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Faerie have been on Tamriel, in all probability, long
before recorded history, perhaps since or before the days of the Elder Ones. The tales of their
mischief are found in every culture, in most every village, town, and city-states in the Empire.
Alternately they are called Faerie, Fey, Illyadi, Sprites, Pixies, and Sylphim, and their
natures seem to flit from one story to the next with the same variation. It could almost be
said that Faeries are anything unpredictable in nature.
The noted scholar Ahrtabazus studying at the time in the
Crystal Tower of Sumurset Isle developed an interesting if controversial theory about Faerie.
He organized the Fey variants on a chain, beginning with the glimmering sparks called Pixies
or Whilloki by the Redguards at one end and the godlike beings such as Gheateus, Chonus, and
Sygria at the other. In the middle are human and semi-human beings generating up to intelligent
trees, brooks, rocks, even mountains. All of this was a new and completely original theory and
would have prompted enthusiastic, if somewhat skeptical response had Ahrtabazus not added this
footnote: "It may be that elves as a whole are part of this chain, above whilloki and below
nephrine. They certainly have similar features and propensities for magicka as the other
Faerie." (Ahrtabazus, "The Faerie Chain" Firsthold, 2E 456)
No elf liked to be put in a hierarchy slightly above
whimsical pranksters like the whilloki, and Ahrtabazus was challenged on his assumptions based
on very slight coincidences. Nevertheless, with modification, his Fairie Chain theory has
gained wider and wider acceptance since its publication.
The hierarchial chain is not, in the strictest sense, an
order of command. While Gheateus and Sygria are said to be surrounded by a host of minor
Sylphim, faerie on the whole are not followers nor leaders. Their plans and schemes are not
governed by a higher purpose, simply by their own whim.
To this most faerie scholars agree. Because it is based on coincidental evidence and
supported by auxiliary theories, it may very well be wrong.
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