Maraloi The Maraloi , or Ancient Lords , were a mysterious race inhabiting northern Kara - Tur . Name . The word ' " maraloi " meant " ancient lords " in the Pazruki language . Race . The ancestry of the Maraloi was unknown to outsiders . Some thought them human , others that they were a form of spirit folk . In fact , they were an archaic eastern branch of the elf race and were counted as being spirit beings as Kara - Turans knew them . Description . The Maraloi were known to be tall and fair of skin and hair . Magic & Technology . Maraloi wielded tools and weaponry forged of bronze , because iron was apparently poisonous to them . Thus they never used implements of iron . They were said to command a potent and alien magic . History . Legend told that , millennia before the 14th century DR , the Maraloi ruled the lands known as the Northern Wastes . They opposed the ogre magi , oni , and lesser humanoid races , and maintained their dominance until the use of iron became widespread in the Ama Basin , and thereafter fell into decline . To outsiders , the ultimate fate of the Maraloi remained unknown . It was thought possible they were all killed , that they migrated to other lands , or that they joined with and were assimilated into the human tribes of the area . For example , several small native tribes ( those unrelated to the Issacortae , Pazruki , Wu - haltai , or others , and not more recent immigrants ) of primitive ways who still wielded stone and bronze , not iron , were theorized to be descendants of the Ancient Lords . They figured in many local legends . Most humans thought they no longer existed . However , the Maraloi lived on in secret , dwelling in " the great northern wood " This was a secret known only to a few outsiders , but included the Emperor of Shou Lung ( Kai Tsao Shou Chin around 1359 DR ) , who imparted it to trusted agents , such as a hu hsien assassin . Bayalun was half - Maraloi , being the daughter of a Maraloi woman and a human man . She grew up among them but married into the Tuigan people and became prominent as Second Empress Eke Bayalun Khadun beside Yamun Khahan of the Grand Army of the Tuigan . She was also a talented wizard . Lands . Relics and ruins attributed to the Maraloi could often be found in the Koryaz Mountains , concealed in its isolated valleys , and at sites in the Ama Basin to the north . The ruins in the Valley of Nanayok in the eastern Koryaz Mountains were the primary Maraloi site . Filled with ruins , though mostly no more than heaps of crumbling stones shrouded in vegetation , it was believed to be a center of Maraloi culture and politics . It was whispered that places beneath the ground here still contained the secrets of the Ancient Lords . Legends . The Maraloi appeared conspicuously in the legends of the Pazruki people , who lived near the Koryaz Mountains . However , they had a taboo on the matter of the Maraloi . They would never accept relics known to be taken from Maraloi ruins , not in gift or in payment , and few would set foot in the Valley of Nanayok . Only a few intrepid Pazruki wu jen dared investigate the site ; those who returned did not speak of what they might have found . The Pazruki said that a child of remarkably light complexion or , more rarely , hair color bore the " the mark of the Maraloi " . This believed to be a portent of their high potential for magic al talent . Such children were expected to become wu jen . For example , Ayana No - Shui had white bangs amidst her jet - black hair , and was a powerful magician .