Vaelis
Vaelis, the Songbringer, embodies the elven concept of expression, the harmony between emotion, memory, and creation. They are the melody within all living things, the voice of Essence that binds hearts to the world and to one another.
To the Kor, Vaelis represents the perfection of beauty through discipline, the art that transcends mortality. To the Bah-Kor, they are remembrance made sound, the power of song to carry what history forgets. To the Mer, Vaelis is the wild rhythm of life itself, the heartbeat of storms, the laughter in rain, the cry of the hunted and the hunter alike. Through song, the elves say, Vaelis teaches that to feel deeply is to live truly.
description
Vaelis is depicted as a figure woven from light and sound, their form outlined by a soft shimmer of gold and silver that seems to hum faintly when gazed upon. They are often portrayed carrying a harp or a flute. Their movements are fluid and eternal, like a dance glimpsed in the corner of one’s eye. In murals and tapestries, Vaelis is often shown surrounded by a thousand spectral spectators or animals mid-song, their harmony forming the shape of the god themself.
Activities
Titles
Adjectives
Worshippers
Alignment
Symbol
Domains
Favoured Colour
Songbringer
Vaelin
Artists, performers and historians
Any
A Harp
Art, Emotion, Memory
Pale Gold
Worshippers
Basic Information
Vaelis’s influence can be felt wherever beauty is shared, or emotion is given form. When elven choirs sing in perfect harmony, when the wind carries a song, or when an artist’s work moves another to tears, the Songbringer is said to be near.
They do not manifest to command, but to remind, that creation is meant to connect, not possess. Their presence is most keenly felt in moments of collective emotion, the songs of mourning after loss, the quiet melodies that accompany dawn, the chorus of voices that arise in victory or grief.
The elves believe that every shared song is a fragment of Vaelis’s eternal voice, echoing back.
Personality
Vaelis is both passion and peace, the embodiment of expression without vanity. They do not demand devotion but invite it through the act of creation. To feel deeply and share that feeling with others is the truest form of their worship. Yet Vaelis’s music is not always joyful, their songs carry the weight of endings as much as beginnings, joy balanced by sorrow, harmony shadowed by loss. They are said to weep and laugh in the same breath, seeing beauty in all things transient.
Vaelis came into being when the first elves learned to give sound to their emotions. In the earliest days, when language was still young, they shaped their grief and wonder into melody. From that first chorus of voices rose the Songbringer, not a god of command, but of communion. Vaelis was the realization that art and magic were the same act, the transformation of feeling into Essence.
Among the Kor, their name was sung in the great halls of Ash-Rilar, where choirs wove enchantments with their voice alone, blending art and spellcraft until the two were indistinguishable. The Bah-Kor, wandering beyond the barrier, turned to Vaelis’s songs as memory, verses that preserved their lineage. The Mer, who live with nature’s unending rhythm, hear Vaelis in the rustle of leaves and the whisper of waves, for them, every sound is a fragment of the divine melody that shapes existence.
In times of war or despair, when silence threatens to swallow hope, the elves say that Vaelis walks unseen among them, teaching the living to sing once more. For as long as one voice endures, they believe, the Songbringer endures also.
History
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Eryllis, The Blade of Autumn – Shared devotion to impermanence; beauty in fleeting moments.
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Lirael, The Whispering Grove – Harmony between healing and expression.
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Solara, The Dawnmother – Mutual reverence for creation and renewal through compassion.
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Aetherion, The Eternal Flame – Connection through inspiration; divine creation made art.
Relationships
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Chorus of the Dawn: At the first light of morning, elven singers perform a hymn of renewal, this is common across all Elven settlements.
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Festival of Voices: Held once each century, this rare event unites all three elven peoples in song beneath the moonlight.
Rituals
Vaelis’s presence flows through every expression of elven art, language, and song. Musicians, poets, and storytellers revere them not as a patron but as the eternal muse within every creative act. The Kor dedicate entire academies to the study of harmonic Essence, blending sound and spell in pursuit of perfect resonance. The Bah-Kor preserve their oral traditions through sacred songs, ensuring that even in exile, history lives through melody. The Mer see no separation between song and survival, every cry, chant, or whisper beneath the canopy is an offering to the Songbringer.
There are no temples to Vaelis, only gatherings, circles of performers, dancers, and poets who create together beneath the stars. The elves say Vaelis listens not from above, but from within, for their voice is every voice joined in harmony. To honour them is to create without fear, to feel without restraint, and to understand that even silence has its place in the eternal song.