Anumaril's Plot

**Anumaril's Plot** was a conspiracy developed by King Anumaril Arana during his family's exile in Valenwood following the Alessian Slave Rebellion. It would go on to be the demise of both Anumaril and his son, Naelor.

## Background

After the Alessian Slave Rebellion the majority of the Ayleid race were dispossessed of their homes and exiled or slaughtered. Those that sided with Alessia I Paravant during the rebellion were permitted to remain, though after the Empress' death they too were driven from their homeland by the Alessian Order.

In an attempt to return his people to their previous position of grandeur and power, the exiled King Anumaril Arana thought to use the power inherit to the walking graht-oak tree which had temporarily grounded itself in the Bosmeri capitol of Elden Root, in order to transform the vast forests of Valenwood into a new homeland for the Ayleid people.

## The Plot in Motion

Anumaril told none of his plot, though in his confidence he invited his son Naelor to join him in Elden Root. There they met with the wood elven king, Faldan I Camoran, who was willing to show his royal guests the mystical graht-oak tree which had temporarily grounded itself in his capital. It was when they decended to the lower levels that Anumaril saw the Tree's mystical Perchance Acorn, and used his great magic to restrain Faldan and begin the process of transforming Valenwood using the Acorn's power and a shard of the Staff of Towers, which he had created and promptly destroyed many years prior.

What should have lasted mere minutes began to take much longer than expected, and upon realising the fundamental incompatibilities between Ayleid and Bosmeri magic, Anumaril realised his failure and opted to end his own life before Faldan could. Using what remained of his strength Anumaril warped his flesh and body, turning them to metal and stone. He shaped his body into a great orrery, and according to Beredalmo Direnni's *Aurbic Enigma IV: The Elden Tree,* hiding his shard of the Staff of Towers "between the moons". Some have claimed that "between the moons" may literally refer to the physical representation of the moons on the orrery, though others theorise that it means he hid it in a pocket plane of Oblivion so as to ensure no one could ever reconstruct the staff and abuse its terrible power. During the transformation, the graht-oak's Perchance Acorn had its magic consumed, turning the mystical walking tree into a regular inanimate one, permanently grounding it in Elden Root.

After Anumaril was transformed into the orrery, he was pronounced dead and Naelor was taken prisoner and promptly beheaded for his father's crimes by Faldan I. Naelor's severed head was sent to his son Aerel on the Stepstone Isles as a warning, signaling that he and his family were no longer welcome in Valenwood.

## Aftermath

After the event, relations between wood elves and Ayleid refugees in Valenwood deteriorated, though open conflict never came to be.

Upon hearing of his father and grandfather's deaths, Aerel Arana, who had remained behind on the Stepstone Isles, mounted his gryphon Nereon and dissapeared towards the west for a fortnight, only to return and comission a map be made using his acquired knowledge of the western archipelago. Rather than seek his vengeance against Faldan I, as his sister-wife argued, Aerel turned his gaze west, recognising that only ruin lay on mainland Tamriel. In 1E 366 he departed from the Stepstones with his two sisters and a small army, eventually conquering the five kingdoms of the Summerset Archipelago and uniting them into a single realm.