House of Cloudseye

**Head of House**
 **Founder**
 **Land Holdings**
 **Occupation**
Craftsmanship [multiple]

The House has its roots in a Highborne sect of Priests, blessed with both the Arcane and the Divine. At the time of the Sundering, they fled the night elven kingdom once its true end was nigh. After finding shelter from the elements and being allowed to carry on their religious practices, those gathered soon figured out that their reliance on both sources of power was not going to be able to endure the new political orders. Unwilling to part with either, the Cloudseyes accompanied those who sailed across the sea, taking with them what they could of their congregation.

Settled in what would become the north-eastern reaches of mainland Quel’thalas, the sect of devotees sought to gain strength firstly by faith, and then by popular appeal. A hardworking people despite their high blood, they earned the favor of the people by offering their aid and being generous with how their daughters and sons spent their time, or their gifts. Either the beginnings of Sun-based Light or the talents of the Arcane were present in every child, rare ones blessed with both, and the family was marked by eyes the greying shade of clouds. A side-effect of such a unique trait was blindness in their older age, but rarely did any Cloudseye worry about wanting in such a state, their long lives guaranteeing ample time to acquire what they would need. Otherwise, the House espoused the belief that perfection was possible, and sought to acquire it in their own measure, usually that of some faith or some skill that the people coveted.
Behind closed walls, however, their altruism held less true. As the generations grew in size, the money available to any one member dwindled, as did the prospective matches with any gain to them. Their perfectionist ideals were lost to faithlessness or lackluster matches in political terms, and as titles and land grants by blood diminished they found themselves soon to crumble. They lacked any sort of noble claim, all their worth coming from their fertility and highly skilled crafts, and thus there was a need to maintain what could still be theirs.

## History

### Prior to the Sundering

High Priestess Ilyasviel Cloudseye was a Highborne devotee of the demigods, her life away from Zin-Azshari and the grandiose life of most elves granting her the chance to practice her own cult freely. While she did adequately glorify the Flower of the Moon, Light of Lights, Her Highness Azshara, the High Priestess would also involve as many elements of the hedge faith that those around her followed. Her cult, based around the Sun and Moon, would eventually gain a sizable amount of acolytes and followers, which she did her best to tie as closely to her as possible. Their power lent to her own, and it was in this way that she was able to lead a privileged life despite her lack of involvement with most court affairs.

It was common for her to take lovers and bear them children, dismissing the father and raising the offspring as her own. Her surname would simply pass on as she willed it, marrying off tokens and spreading her web of influence with no major pain nor glory, until the time came of the demonic invasion. An elder daughter of her, Sentinel Commandant Eryllin Cloudseye would plead with her to pledge her forces to those of Lord Ravencrest, while one of her sons married into the Highborne magi named Syllethim Kir'lial would hold her back. Only nearing the end of the conflict, once she heard that her son had fled with a group of Highborne led by Sunstrider, would she aid her family's side by joining the remnants of the rebel elves fleeing Zin-Azshari.

### First settlements

With the loss of the Well of Eternity, Ilyasviel would notice that her intimate bond with the Arcane and the Divine was weakened: even then, she felt her eyes grow duller and her bones fail to hold her as steadily. Hiding this proved challenging in the marches towards first safety and then a new capital. The High Priestess would not take easily to her lack of commodities, but by carefully manipulating her followers she soon rebuilt what she could of her faith nearer to Eldre'thalas and reverencing nature. There was never again a time of prosperity such as was held before the Sundering, and Ilyasviel would pass away in as much luxury as she could of apparently natural causes. With only her eldest child, Eryllin, witness to her death and the mystery of such a powerful Priestess dying so quietly, Syllethim would swiftly maneuver to put Eryllin to the sword for murder.

It is said the Sentinel was spirited away at the last minute, it is said that she threw herself to the nightsabers rather than face the indignity of being trialed for matricide and treason. Nonetheless, it was Syllethim who would become Patriarch of the Cloudseyes and tie them closer to the Highborne magi still practicing their arts in the new capital.

While Ilyasviel's and Eryllin's deaths would strike their faithful hard, and cause loss of support, the Cloudseyes found a small surge of power concentrated in the few most loyal and studious. The Arcane would take focus, the Divine relegated to a select, almost-perfectly skilled few that were kept cloistered and tending to the people that their scholars would barely see. It was then that they became perfectionists, their hedge priests preaching what the scholars would advise to gain more power, and the trademark given merit among the elves.

Like his mother, Syllethim would eventually succumb to blindness, although he would find himself almost healed by his own skill and, it is said, by imbibing water from a moonwell touched by Elune herself. While the feat was probably more mundane- in so far as extravagant arcane can be mundane- than that, nonetheless it was something to brag about at court and then would allow him closeness enough to know of the imminent separation of the Kaldorei.

### Across the Sea

It would be a now venerable-aged Syllethim who would hear of Sunstrider and his sect sailing across the sea to find freedom to practice the Arcane and indulge in its power. While he would not make it across the sea, deciding rather to stay where it was comfortable, he would play it so that some of what remained of his faithful would find new land and stop leeching from him.

One of his daughters- Myn'rae Cloudseye- was a skilled priestess with enough of a following to make her appealing in the eyes of those sailing across the sea. While not overly numerous, the priestess had chosen to ply her craft at a sea-facing port town, bustling with people and many willing to follow their beloved priestess across the land. She would take as many of her fellow clergymen with her, along with the most skilled of her artisans, sentinels and their kin, and serve the beginning of the Sunstrider dynasty with honors.

For her service, Myn'rae was able to gain lands to her name and those of her faithful. Knowing that most of her followers were not skilled in matters not of magic, battle or commerce and that her blood was not as elevated as her father had made her believe, Myn'rae would wisely choose to settle down where the sloping mountain ranges of the north sank to the sea, following winding rivers and woodland that would trap arcane-touched sunlight underneath its canopy. The valleys were fertile enough to serve for good agriculture, the water and woods would hold enough bounty to feed and drink her people, the cities were to be nestled against the cliffs and sprawl only where the sea rose to the land.

The land was named the Emberveil for the cloud cover that would often scatter sunlight into dappled patterns and hide in the woods. The priestess would erect a tall spire, housing a well of Sunlight and arcane power, far to the north and overlooking the sea. While simply named the Emberveil Spire, it was both a rallying point for those that had followed her and a marker that would lead down to the main port city of Via Cleyra.

While her 'reign' would be prosperous, Myn'rae's power would decline slowly. Her blooded kin would marry more freely once courtly life was less of a concern, and the priestess was known for her kind and giving nature. Her standards were fiercely kept, as was her particular brand of faith twisted to the Sun's sole loyalty, but in time her coffers would deplete far enough to make the Cloudseyes only nominally the leaders of the Emberveil, their blood diluted enough in the territory to make anyone of sufficient wealth a fitting claimant once Myn'rae ceded her power.

### Rebuilding

Eventually, Myn'rae would fall in battle, her devotion taking her to mend in the skirmishes versus the trolls and driving her beyond her living limits. Her children- two brothers, named En'darelan and Kae'ranth- came to a somewhat-peaceful agreement to split the lands of the Emberveil between them.

En'darelan was the eldest, a mild-mannered and quiet priest that would take the north and east of the territories, mainly Emberveil Spire, Via Cleyra and all that was the livelihood of those there along with a mage's academy that laid further south, almost entirely isolated. Taking as bride a renowned follower of his faith- Dia'lathel Lightsong, a low-ranking noble that was not eligible to inherit due to her not being the eldest- he too would father many children, and live in absence of major courtly events as his mother had done. He was most fond of his eldest child, a skilled priest by the name of Cael'vir Cloudseye, while Dia'lathel favored the only daughter they had raised. Afflicted by blindness at an early age, and too tempestuous to make a good match with little but her skills, Synthiel was groomed to be the one to inherit exclusively the Emberveil Spire: with that, En'darelan hoped to be able to trade her and what would be merely a relic of the faith away for more power, while he groomed Cael'vir to take over more administrative duties of Via Cleyra. His other sons were to seek fortune elsewhere, unburdened by any inheritance and free to raise themselves as they would so long as they upheld the Cloudseye tenets of perfectionism and faith.

Had the wars against the orcs and dragons not weighed so heavily upon the high elves, En'darelan would have been successful. As it is, he and his wife would perish against the orcs, and a grieving Cael'vir would abandon Via Cleyra to follow Kael'thas south then split and join up with what still remained of the Alliance, Quel'thalas soured for him from all the loss. Of Synthiel, the only thing her family knew was that she, along with her two remaining elder brothers Sarelan and Reyalan, had fled the Emberveil and was presumed lost. Currently, the Emberveil Spire lies mostly vacant, and those of Via Cleyra are clearly still mending and worrying over their lost 'leaders'.

Kae'ranth, meanwhile, would play a faster game. He took over the western territories, more mountainous and forested but dense in towns to protect and people to gain standing with. Hard of mind and body, he was a stalwart protector of the elven people and as glorious as his family demanded every single member of theirs to be. A paragon of the faith, he was a militant priest in the wars and took a swiftly-ascending noble ranger by the name of Ysaleyn Dawntree. While grants of land and power by blood or magic were becoming rarer, military might ensured he and his wife would gain in both as fast as they proved themselves in battle. Soon enough he found himself donning armor, and later joining the Blood Knights to further his own gain. Children came much later in his life once his power was secured, two comely daughters and a son, perhaps at the behest of his wife, and save for the son they were swiftly married off to other lesser nobles to maintain their newly-gained status. He plans to one day reclaim the waning Emberveil, both to honor his family’s memory and to further his own gain.

While his lands were bountiful, richer farmland less marred by the slow descent into the sea and marked by bustling villages, he was given a lesser share of elves skilled beyond what the land could make of them, and little contact with other parts of the world barring his military involvement. He does not occupy the Emberveil's territory, the rustic yet lovely villages too plain for his grandiose tastes and lacking enough communication for a courtesan or man of war. His wife Ysaleyn manages a ranger lodge in his absence, fruitful if lacking much renown.

For his part, Kae'ranth ascended to the Sunsworn regiments and serves Lady Liadrin herself.