To assist her, Ariel sends forth her emissaries Naestra and Arahan, twin maiden sisters who can only be told apart by the shade of their hair and their contrasting temperaments. Never has this been truer than in these dark days, where every broken bough or withered leaf carries an omen of darker times to come. Despite being powerful beings, the King and Queen in the Woods do not seek to act as the world’s protectors, nor enthrone themselves as its rulers, but there are times when Ariel’s will must shape the fortunes of other lands for a greater purpose. Through the mysterious power of the Oak of Ages, the spiritual heart of Athel Loren, Ariel acquired the aspects of Isha, the ancient Elven goddess of nature to become a Mage Queen, ruling over the Asrai alongside her consort Orion, a demigod in his own right. Thus it was that Athel Loren opened up its many secrets to the Elves who made it their home, treating the forest with the awe and reverence it deserved and demanded, seeing the essence of their ancestral gods in its seasonal cycles. Initially inhabitants of an Elven colony on the fringes of Athel Loren, the Asrai forged an alliance with the powerful spirits of the forest after Ariel, the foremost amongst their magi, learned the art of tree-singing and became the first to speak to the forest. Like all Elves, their origins can be traced back to the cradle of Ulthuan, but the Asrai, as they would come to be known, splintered from their ancestral home long before the acts of jealously and spite which led to the Sundering and on to the beginnings of the age-old conflict between their High Elf and Dark Elf cousins. For thousands of years, the Wood Elves have lived in harmony with the sentient forest of Athel Loren and the spirits which dwell beneath its boughs.
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