A Pamphlet on the Barsaebic Ayleidoon
In honor of High King Jorunn of Skyrim, the Tribunal of Morrowind, and the Hist of Black Marsh. It is through them that the Ebonheart Pact remains strong enough to combat its enemies.
As requested, I have compiled all of my research notes along with other notes from various works on the Barsaebic Ayleidoon and have sent them to your station in Ebonheart. I trust these inquiries will help you in your understanding of these enigmatic elves and the Pacts’ excursions within their ruins. I hope you remembered the payment this time.
#The Barsaebic Ayleidoon: The Mer of Black Marsh ##Prologue Ever since I was a hatchling, I have always been entranced with the ancient Ayleid structures that grew up from the moist mud of my native home of Stormhold. In my free time, I would frequently go and make stone etchings of ruined spires and gates sprouting near my hut. My parents found me unusual because of my fascination by them, and told me to consult the local Tree-Minder over my ‘obsession.’ It was the old Saxhleel himself that told me the true name of the ruins’ creatures, the Barsaebics, and forever planted the sapling of exploration in my soul.
I have gone to many places, fought a multitude of creatures, and consulted with persons both mundane and magical in my travels. But I was always fascinated by the forgotten Ayleid culture of my homeland. And so, I returned to Black Marsh and spent twenty years studying the Barsaebic culture (however, thanks to an unique condition I caught years earlier, those years felt more like days to me). Now, I hope that the tome that will be created by such studies will help fellow scholars and adventurers alike for centuries to come.
##Introduction To this very day, no one truly knows why the Ayleidoon splintered from the Altmer of Summerset Isles, but in any case they did. It is commonly believed that they arrived in mainland Tamriel second behind the Falmer and third behind the Dwemer, settling within the region that would eventually become modern day Cyrodiil. Upon their arrival, they built the spectacular White-Gold Tower (which some link to the mysterious Celediil of The Song of Pelinal, Volume 3: On His Enemy) and began to immediately enslave the indigenous tribes of men known as the Nedes. Each of the Ayleid ruins (or some conjointly) were ruled by an Ayleid Lord and his beliefs. Thus, some cities were more Aedra aligned or more Daedra aligned than others. This eventually resulted in a rift within the Ayleid hierarchy called the Narfinsel Schism (see Ayleid Survivals in Valenwood for more details), with the Ayleid Lords feuding over the ‘correct’ belief.
Life for the Ayleidoon soon became conflicted by the uprising of the female slave Alessia, who rallied her fellow slaves and received aid from the ancient Nordic Empire in Skyrim. However, the most deciding factor of the war came from the Ayleid Lords themselves. Disgusted and ashamed of their Daedra-loving brethren, the more Aedric aligned Ayleid Lords joined arms with Alessia in order to defeat the Daedraphiles once and for all.
Said Daedraphiles viewed this as a betrayal of kin, and fought the rebellious Lords in anger. It is around this time that the Barsaebic Ayleids are first mentioned. Led by Aran Yarimor Labal (King Yarimor Time-Stone), these Aedraphile Ayleidoon fought against the armies of the Daedra worshipper Aran Glinferen of Atatar at the Scouring of Wendelbek. While they fought valiantly, the Barsaebics proved no match for the conjured beasts of the enemy king and were forced to flee to avoid being completely destroyed. The remnants of Yarimor’s forces (who either mainly hailed from the Ayleid city of Barsaeb or Barsaebi; no one is entirely sure, and the ruins have long since been destroyed) eventually found their way to the northwest regions of Black Marsh, where they would settle until dying out sometime at the end of the First Era.
##Section One: Barsaebic Culture and Customs Although they had left behind the Ayleidoon of Cyrod, the Barsaebic Ayleids continued many of their practices. Upon arrival in Black Marsh, Yarimor (who would eventually die of his wounds from the battlefield) ordered the construction of the traditional Ayleid architecture – half aboveground, half underground structures made from stone and layered with magic.
However, the Barsaebics realized that the environment of the Marsh was vastly different than the jungles (or forests? I’m pretty sure it was jungles, but you’ll have to take that argument to someone interested in metaphysics) of Cyrod, and consequently they adapted their culture to increase their survival.
They forsook the more heavy armor of the Cyrod Ayleids, adorning themselves in silk clothing to negate the hot and humid temperature of Black Marsh. They also began to journey outside their cities to hunt and domesticate wild creatures, building aboveground pens to house to them to avoid tougher creatures from devouring them. The Barsaebic Ayleids also took up the use of torches to scare off beasts, leaving behind old superstitions about fire being lesser than light. These unique mer also apparently dyed their skin a mixture of green and brown through magical means (I learned of this from a Kothringi tribesman friend), causing them to blend in with their new surroundings.
In a very unique way, one can say that the Barsaebics became even more primal than the Bosmer. Abandoning much of their former civilized culture, they became a bizarre combination of scholarly pragmatism.
##Section Two: Barsaebic Society The Barsaebics’ society was very similar but at the same time very different than the societies of their cousins in both Cyrodiil and Valenwood. Upon arrival in Argonia, the Barsaebics were believed to have contacted the Kothringi to assure that those tribes of men would not find themselves subjected to the slavery of old. Once that matter was resolved, the Barsaebics are then to have communed with the Hist of my people (how they did is unknown, but the Hist itself might have sought them out) and discussed several things. After both of these events, the Barsaebic Ayleidoon built their vast cities and kept to themselves.
It is often thought that the Barsaebics were led by a central city, where the Aran (King) resided. Smaller city-states led by Lords came after this, who all reported to the Aran. Because of there closeness as a people and their common hatred of Daedra worship, the politics and religious beliefs of the Barsaebics remained very stable. Their small legions of trained warrior-mages never fought against each other, and their peaceful coexistence with any outsiders was likewise peaceful.
However, the Barsaebics seemed to have believed of themselves to be of a different ‘ilk’ than their former brethren. A prime example of this occurred at the infamous Battle of Glenumbria Moors, where Laloriaran Dynar (or better known as the Last King of the Ayleids; take a look at the book of the same name by Herminia Cinna along with Bisnensel: Our Ancient Roots to learn more about him) aided the Direnni of High Rock against the Alessians in a decisive victory. If some records gleamed from transcriptions found within Ayleid ruins in Valenwood can be believed, Laloriaran had sent a message to the Barsaebics for reinforcements for his army to defeat the ever-approaching men. The Barsaebics however refused, calling themselves ‘more than mere Ayleid’ in their returned reply. Even though the Last King defeated the First Empire without their aid, from that point on the remaining Ayleidoon refused to acknowledge the Barsaebics as fellow mer.
##Section Three: Barsaebic Religion The main reason the Barsaebics split from their brethren in Cyrodiil was over Aedra worship, and when they arrived in Shadowfen that is the religion they continued to uphold. It is noted that they chiefly worshipped Magnus (who they viewed as greater than Meridia, a Daedric Prince), Trinimac, Mara, Auri-El, and Y’ffre. It’s been stated by other scholars that the Barsaebics might have taken up the worship of Y’ffre after their exodus into the marshes, where they became more attuned to nature than the other Heartland Elves, but at the same time not becoming mere shadows of the Wood Elves. The worship of Trinimac might have also been taken up during this time.
While they have also been attributed to tribes of Kothringi and ancient Saxhleel (this idea I personally frown down upon, but it is possible…somewhat), the various ‘Wayshrines’ (read Wayshrines of Tamriel) that can be found scattered across Shadowfen have been highly theorized to have been set up by the Barsaebic Ayleidoon during their existence. The fact that some of the Wayshrines seem to denote some form of reverence for the stars, which the Ayleidoon greatly respected, helps stoke the fire of this theory (the Ayleid phrase “Av molag anyammis, av latta magicka”; ‘From fire, life; from light, magic’ was even found amongst the ruins of the Barsaebic Ayleids).
##Section Four: Barsaebic Relations with Non-Ayleidoon Because of how they were forced out of their original home, the Barsaebic Ayleids eventually converted into a slightly isolationist nature. They kept to their stone cities, built beneath the soggy mires of Black Marsh and practiced their hidden magicks. However, several of my excursions within forgotten Ayleid ruins reveal ancient Kothringi, Lilmothiit, and Saxhleel tools and weaponry. This shows that the Barsaebics might have traded with other cultures along with my own in the past, probably in exchange for materials for their research and crafting.
Oral traditions amongst my people also hint that the Barsaebics would fairly often travel to Saxhleel settlements in the area and study our ways. If my understanding of the old tales prove correct, they were interested in the way we treated and performed magic, and spoke with our Tree-Minders into great length on the subject. It is unknown if they did this for the Kothringi or Lilmothiit as well, but I believe they probably did.
Studies show that contact between the Barsaebic Ayleids and the Cantemiric Velothi were probably minimal in nature. The Cantemiric (an extremely enigmatic and isolationist tribe of Dunmeri Ashlanders, if the term ‘Ashlander’ can even be applied to beings living in a swamp) are believed to have been generally hostile with everyone they met. Along with little information on them – as well as their dying out sometime in the early Second Era – we can never truly know what kind of relationship the Cantemiric had with the Barsaebics.
Their relationship with the other Ayleids can be neatly summed in one word: intolerance. When the First Empire began to persecute the remaining of the Ayleidoon still in Old Cyrod, many believed that the Barsaebics would give them shelter within the almost impenetrable marshes of their new home. However, the Barsaebics refused them entry and drove them away. The most famous of these Ayleid exodus to Black Marsh was done by the Atatarics, who foolishly believed that their old enemies would allow them into their sacred halls. The Barsaebics met them at their settlement in Stormhold, and promptly routed them back west. The fate of the Atatarics is unknown, but it is believed most of them were killed upon entering ancient Elsweyr. Because of this isolationism, the Ayleidoon that fled to Valenwood began to contribute the word ‘Barsaebic’ with the word ‘swamp’, and some ancient transcribed texts even refer to the Barsaebics as the ‘Swamp Elves’.
##Conclusion The Barsaebic Ayleids were a strange, but interesting offshoot from the Ayleids of Cyrodiil. This is prevalent in that others of their kind even began to refer to them as the Marsh Elves, in sharp contrast to the Heartland Elves. Their decline was largely on their small population, resulting in them fading into the pages of obscurity like the brethren they came to view as strangers. However, many of their relics have been left behind in my native home of Shadowfen, which to this day our still used to study their magnificent culture.
I hope that this guide will aid in the excavations and studying of Ayleid ruins within Black Marsh, which seems to have become an interesting side project of the Pact. As I promised, I have also sent the appropriate texts along with this pamphlet that helped me in its compiling.
Signed and sealed, Eis Vuur Warden, Wayward and Contract Scholar of the Ebonheart Pact
Attached Documents For Further Studies:
Ayleid Survivals in Valenwood by Cuinur of Cloudrest
Stormhold, City of Shadowfen by Cirantille
Wet Wilds of Black Marsh by Cirantille
Daedra Worship: The Ayleids by Phrastus of Elinhir
Wayshrines of Tamriel by Beredalmo the Signifier
Ayleid Inscriptions and their Transcriptions by Beredalmo the Signifier
The Last King of the Ayleids by Herminia Cinna
Bisnensel: Our Ancient Roots by Scholasticus Incognitus
The Song of Pelinal by Anonymous
Magic from the Sky by Irlav Jarol*
Glories and Laments by Alexandre Hetrard*
[The books I have placed a (*) by were…procured from the Imperial Geographic Society, on loan from the Imperial Library. What is interesting to note is these books appear to be from the future, with one of them even mentioning a ‘Third Era’. Ah, the IGS and their secrets. Perhaps one day I will speak with the agency over matters of scholarly pursuits.]