House Aelfwar

**House Aelfwar** is a villainous faction serving the Dragon of Life, Greenscale. They seek to end civilization and replace it with the endless competition of the wild.

## Description:

The Dragon Cult associated with Greenscale, the dragon of life. It is mostly composed of a breakaway faction of High Elves under the leadership of Prince Hylas, who seek to destroy civilization and remake the world as a primordial jungle. In addition to the elves, it has members of the faerie court and large creatures such as treants.

For eons, the High Elves of House Aelfwar safeguarded Telara’s wild places. Then the Ascended returned from death as protectors of all Telara, and Aelfwar fell in status from Tavril’s chosen to mere mortals. When the goblins emerged from Gloamwood to burn the Elves’ wood to the ground, Prince Hylas of Aelfwar resented the Guardians’ failure to act.

The Prince led his house to worship Greenscale. Now they loathe the orderly civilization that betrayed them, and work to foster the wild at its wildest, spreading the Primeval One’s philosophy of endless competition. No less glorious for his bitterness, Hylas is a leader of ambition, charisma, and intense focus. He may quickly outstrip even Fae Lord Twyl as civilization’s most implacable enemy, though once he was harmony’s devoted friend.

## Members:

* Battlemaster Atrophinius
* Fae Lord Twyl
* Lugghodan
* Prince Hylas
* Trickster Maelow

## Excerpts:

A tale about Prince Hylas and the Aelfwar:

> *Why exactly did Prince Hylas, a High Elf, team up with the bad guys? High Elves have always been about protecting the forests of Telara from destruction or corruption, so what gives? Why would he go against his spiritual beliefs?*
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> *It all started when he met Shyla Starhearth, a priestess of Tavril (who as we’ll remember is the goddess of the land). Shyla was highly-respected among the elves. She devoted her life to guiding her people, to keeping them on the path of true faith to protect the forests of the world. She and Hylas fell in love, but when the Mathosian civil war broke out, they could not agree on the best course of action for the elves. Shyla wanted to side with Prince Zareph, but Hylas wanted to stay out of the war completely, saying this human war had nothing to do with them.*
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> *Shyla disagreed. She led her followers to fight by the side of Zareph, leaving Prince Hylas behind. As we know, Shyla died during the Shade battle and was resurrected as an Ascended by the Gods of the Vigil, where she helped stop Regulos breaking through the Ward into Telara. When she returned to Hylas and the other elves, wanting them to ally with the Guardians (strength in numbers and all that), Hylas would not even speak to her. He had refused to join the fight against the Blood Storm and took his entire royal clan, House Aelfwar, and closed himself up in their ancestral castle, locked away from the world of Telara.*
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> *Prince Hylas later gave his allegiance to the Dragon Greenscale after Maelforge’s Fire creatures started invading the woodlands and threatening their solitary peace. It was a dark pact made for the survival of the House of Aelfwar. Greenscale the Primeval, with his Life powers, started influencing the woodland creatures, and allowed life energy to seep all the way to Silverwood to counter Maelforge’s fire invasions. This is when he truly turned his back definitely from Shyla and the Guardians.*
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> *The Ascended began a chase on Hylas through to the doors of Greenscale’s prison where Prince Hylas was planning to free his new master. However, the Ascended killed Hylas and Greenscale, weakening for a time the Plane of Life.*
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> *Tragic love story...*
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## References:

1. ↑ 02 July 2010 Lore dev IRC Chat
2. ↑ Telarapedia - House Aelfwar
3. ↑ Telara Tales