Epic History of Aelyria

Preverse of the Epic

"The tale of the Aelyrian Empire is an epic song of how a paternal race of benevolent gods descended from the heavens, brought Law, Order and Justice to a land ravaged by lawlessness, chaos and warfare, and gave birth to a land of inmeasurable glory and adventure. It has been my distinct pleasure and honor, during such a time of crisis for our people, to sing before all in the original Imperial Tongue the very verses that the Church of the Faith have immortalized in our High Masses. This rendition is a translated interpretation of each major original verse of the song. I submit it before the Academy for final consideration." -Talia Songbrooke, Imperial Conservatory. Aelyria Prime, ca. 11121.

"Ab Initio ... Ad Aeternum Produxerit."
Verse 1: In the Beginning ... towards Eternity

In the beginning, there was nothing but darkness - the absence of light and the vacuum of inspiration. Outside of this plane, and in the Plane of the Heavens, Aetheria, Ioannes, the Three-Faced God of Eternal Law, Perpetual Order, and Infinite Justice, cast down upon the Plane of Mortality a single tear. His tear coalesced into a single sphere and the darkness broke about around it, igniting in a single spark that which would emerge as the planet born of the Tear, or Telath. Life had been given to lifelessness, and our story had begun.

"Solari Aliares ... Aelyriani Crescant."
Verse 2: The Aelyrian People

A race of winged people were Ioannes' chosen race on the fledgling world of Telath. The Father of Eternity had broken the rules of neutrality when he bore the sun down gracefully upon the Insula Coronae Solaria - the "Isle Crowned by the Sun" - and gave the small island the benefit of every climate and temperate region with the protection of his divine providence to defend it from the lesser races. The Ancient Aelyrians, as we now know these winged creatures, were angelic in appearance and believed to have been immortal. They formed into three patria - or families - and three gens - or tribes, though the tribes and families regularly intermixed. The Ancient Aelyrians found harmony and peace under their Conclavis Aeternum - an assembly wherein every Aelyrian that had mastered the power of flight, usually attained after the Age of Ascension, could sit and vote in deliberations over the fate of the entire isle.