U. The Aevakar

The Aevakar: myth or reality? About all we truly know about these creatures is from ancient records, ballads, stories, depictions painted on ancient buildings or pottery, or the few people who say they have encountered them. Because they have been rarely, if ever, seen it is not any wonder why many say that they are only mythological?                 Many good quests begin with a search and then discovery. I began my quest in the Eternal Desert to search for clues into the Aevakar’s historical past. 
Why the Eternal Desert? Because the earliest depiction of these beings is found on ancient pottery found in the ruins of the ancient cities that existed during the Empire of the Golden Sun 4000- 3700 B.C. Under the emblem of a blazing sun one can see elegant and delicate, winged figures painted on the pottery of this age. It is not likely that the Empire of the Golden Sun was the Aevakar given the findings of many common hand tools and some ancient plows. Much more likely the Aevakar lived in the same region and traded with the ancient peoples of the Empire of the Golden Sun. The Empire of the Golden Sun disappeared suddenly in 3700 B.C. perhaps destroyed by a great stone that fell from the sky and so to does any mention of Aevakar. Not until roughly 300 B.C. is there another mention in the story ‘The Fall of the Thirteen’:

The winged angel, Oriela, rose in the sky and with her last effort nocked her bow. Her arrow heralded the death of the Necrolord, Routgar. The angel, she then fell as a single tear from the sky that mourned.

 So what happened to them in the years between? Where are they now after they supposedly forsook the world of Walkers after the Battle of Aralon in 1741 A.C.? What is their civilization like? I had so many question and too few answers so I sought the counsel of E’lara R’eva, the oldest living Faelakar on Shaintar and a historian herself. What follows is a record of the more salient points of our enlightening and sometimes unnecessarily poetic five hour conversation. 

Who or what are the Aevakar and do they exist? 

E’lara: Riding upon the breathe of Targon, the Sky Father, the Aevakars took wing and flew from Corelesia down to the newly created world. They are like and unlike us.

Like whom?The Faelakar or humans?

E’lara: Yes, we are all born from the same spring.

I see you are not going to elaborate.

E’lara: What else do you wish to know.

When they came to Shaintar where did they originally settle and from whence did they go from there?

E’lara: Before the great sky-stone fell they soared over verdant lands that had not yet turned to sand. They then became two. One flew north to the lands now overrun with the Eleran m’Kal-a-nar. The other flew to Dranak’Or.

Yes, that would correlate nicely with the records of Kal Warlords almost hunting them to extinction for use of their wings as a decoration. And it further gives them all the more reason to have been present at the Battle of Aralon in 1741 A.C. Dranak’Or? You mean Shaya’Nor? 

E’lara: Yes, before it fell to darkness.

Why then is there no mention of this group? What happened to them?

E’lara: The tainted, Shaytankar. No, they do not speak of them.

Who does not speak of them? Why is there no mention of ‘dark Aevakar’ in Shaya’Nor or in the historical documents talking about the Age of Darkness beginning in 700 A.C.? 

E’lara: Brothers and sisters do not speak of lost ones when it causes them pain. 

Why are they not mentioned as being a part of the Hordes that overran Shaintar in 600 B.C?

E’lara: When doom approaches do you look up or do keep your gaze to the ground as you run? 

When the Age of Doom swept over the land from 600 B.C. to 300 B.C. where are they? 

E’lara: They suffered in silence but they bore the same shackles as many did those days when many races were enslaved. I believe there are several  songs of the time which carry the verse “Vainar brought down Zavonis’ kindred and kept them chained to the ground. No longer free to fly their wings wept.”

Yes that is true. I did not fail to notice that those two songs have Fae roots. Did they come to you for help? Did Vainar’s Plague affect them? 

E’lara: The realm of the sky was theirs again after Vainar was defeated. But it did not last long as the sickness began to take them. We wept with them as many were cast away. 

So you helped them. Where did the survivors go after the cure was found?

E’lara: Yes, the Fae helped them. Before the Covenents, Zavonis bequeathed them the gift. It is the gift of the wind to sweep away their passage to help keep them hidden; to keep them safe. Three are the safe havens that exist. As long as they dwelt there, they shall be safe from harm from the world of walkers.

So are Bastion and Last Home are two of the safe havens for the Aevakar? 

E’lara: You will not find what you seek for it does not wish to be found.

Many report a overwhelming feeling of danger that causes them to flee or a lost sense of direction when walking in Bastion or Last Home. Is there a another place in Shaintar that this phenomenon has been reported?

E’lara: Perhaps they are simply being lead astray by the music of their minds. 

So there is a spell of protection on these two areas? A spell that Zavonis cast to create a safe home for the Aevakars, yes?

E’lara:  Imagination is a powerful tool in the hands of believers. Would you have me dispel it with a casual wave of the hand? 

Yes, actually. I would. 

E’lara: I cannot do for you what you must do yourself.

Is it because you cannot or will not?

E’lara: Jonkeph, if you reached down to pick that flower from its green haven what happens?

Ah, I see. If I find what I seek others then, will too. And by plucking the flower I will destroy it. Very well, then if they had these safe havens to call home before Landra enacted the Covenents at Mark 0 then why did they did they remain in lands so hostile to them when the Kal began to take over in 1400 A.C?

E’lara: You know your histories, Jonkeph. It is for the same reasons why the dwarves of Dranak’ Or could not leave so easily. They had come to love the land long before the Eleran violently claimed it as their own. They knew of the three but choose to remain in the world of Walkers a little longer.

But not all have retreated. By many reports Shaydra, an Aevakar, was at the final battle that won victory over Vainar and Ceynara during the Betrayal War. She was a member of the 4th Company of the Silver Unicorn. Why was she present as were some other reported ‘angels’ on battlefield?

E’lara: The young do not often wish to remain wrapped in a silk cocoon. They emerge, spread their wings and explore the larger world. When they do emerge, the world is given to see a rare beauty.

So, my dear lady, will we see their kind again?
E’lara: The future is like the seasons. A time will come when they may be needed to fight back the darkness.

							Jonkeph Skein
							Preface to “Flights? or Fancy?