Undying Court

Dragons have attacked Aerenal many times, only to be turned back by the unified might of the elves. Centuries sometimes pass between battles, but elves and dragons have been at war for thousands of years. The battles are often magical in nature, and the lion’s share of the war effort falls on the shoulders of the Undying Court.

Some scholars believe that the dragons know the ultimate plans of the Undying Court, and that those plans are at odds with the Draconic Prophecy. Others, citing that dragons could easily have eradicated the elves if they chose, say that the dragons are molding the elves toward an unknown purpose. Whatever the truth, the majority of elves hate dragons, especially elves whose ancestors were slain in the conflict.

The Aereni claim no knowledge as to the origin of souls. According to their belief, souls travel on their journey before birth, as well as after death; the physical realm is simply one stage of that journey. They believe, as well, that elves who do not become undying remain in Eberron as spirits, watching over their descendants. Although these souls cannot continue their own spiritual journey—only the undying do that after death—they can at least observe and aid others in doing so. Only the truly unworthy join the other races in Dolurrh, the final destination for all souls that have given up or failed on their journey

Priests of the Undying Court—or soungraloi, as they are known in the Aereni dialect—are elves who have dedicated their lives to assisting others in their spiritual journey rather than pursuing their own. While a great many soungraloi are found worthy to receive the Rite of Transition, their primary focus is on guiding other Aereni in their lives and worship. A soungral serves the Undying Court directly, as the spiritual leader of a community, as an advisor to rulers on matters of faith, or as the religious leader of a family.

Soungraloi dress primarily in white. During rites, they paint their faces like skulls or wear death-masks; some soungraloi do so even when they are not performing rituals. While some Aereni emulate the undying, hoping to appear more worthy, soungraloi do so to identify themselves as priests, and to make it clear that they speak for, and serve, the ancestors.

Becoming a priest

Worshipers who wish to become soungraloi need merely request that their own soungral begin to train them. If a would-be student has participated in the faith and its rites, and has shown suffi cient reverence for the ancestors, the soungral might take her in as an acolyte (ersvitour). These acolytes train for decades, and a soungral might have several ersvitouri studying and serving under her at a time.

Hierarchy

The soungraloi do not have a strict hierarchy of ranks. Rather, the length of time a given priest has served the undying corresponds to her authority. A soungral who has served for seventy years holds sway over one who has served for sixty-eight, but must yield to one who has served for eighty-one. A younger soungral might be of higher class level, and might even be more respected in the community, but only length of service counts.

Only one soungral out of a hundred is chosen to become a mordral, or a Priest of Transition. The mordraloi are responsible for performing the Rite of Transition, in which they transform an Aereni into one of the undying. The mordraloi also travel Aerenal, seeking out and studying those who might be worthy of the transformation. While the members of the Undying Court ultimately decide a candidate’s worthiness, the mordraloi make recommendations. In fact, they are the only living beings whose counsel the undying consider. The mordraloi do not lead ceremonies or serve in most other priestly capacities, so their interests rarely overlap with those of the soungraloi. Should they do so, however, the mordraloi’s wishes take precedence—the only situation in which age and experience do not decide authority.

Duties of the Clergy

The soungraloi conduct religious rites, advise the Aereni on matters of faith and service to the undying, and protect Aerenal from supernatural threats. Marriage on Aerenal is not a religious affair but an agreement between two elves who love one another. A soungral would bless a marriage if asked to do so, but the bond itself has no spiritual significance. Births and deaths, however, are marked with somber religious ritual, since each represents the beginning of a new stage of the spiritual journey. These rites include dozens or even hundreds of participants, drawn from the child’s or deceased’s family, and led by at least one soungral. The rite must take place within three months of the event, and a birth or death that goes unmarked by the proper ritual is considered unlucky. An elf who has not received the proper rite cannot become an undying, no matter how worthy she otherwise might have been.

Aereni worshipers express their reverence for the Undying Court in a number of ways.

Prayers

Aereni prayers are simple utterances, little more than the name of an ancestor (often preceded or followed by an honorific), and then a request or expression of thanks. For instance, “Revered Vellaye, honored grandfather, grant me the patience to deal with these outlanders!” Aereni never pray to the Undying Court as a whole, believing true divinity is beyond mortal understanding. Rather, a worshiper offers a prayer to a specific ancestor—usually one with relevant interests, such a great-great-grandmother soldier on the eve of battle—or to direct ancestors as a whole. These ancestors act as spiritual emissaries, carrying the prayer to the Undying Court or, if their own powers are up to the task, dealing with the matter themselves.

Minor Rites

The Aereni hold rituals regularly, to celebrate births or deaths, to request aid in an endeavor or intervention in their followers’ lives (such as during times of plague, war, or famine), and simply to honor the Court. Every family marks the deathday of each of its members who have gone before, and they hold a rite at sundown to commemorate that anniversary. Depending on the size of the family, this can result in daily observances.

Aereni rituals seem alike. Worshipers light flames, draw sacred symbols on the ground in wine or blood, and engage in somber, dirgelike chants and prayers. Rites usually involve slow, steady dances with steps determined in advance by the leading soungral, based on what movements most please and honor the undying being invoked. While the Aereni worship the Undying Court as a whole, most such rituals name a few specific ancestors to carry their words and petitions to the Court. Rites last anywhere from a few minutes to several hours, depending on importance. Funerals, for example, can last an entire day.

Major Rites

The greatest ritual of the Aereni is the Rite of Transition, or the levan mordr-aer. This rite can take place only in the City of the Dead, a region particularly suited to this activity due to streams of positive energy emanations from the plane of Irian. The rite can be performed on the living or the dead, so long as the corpse is no older than three months.

The levan mordraer requires the participation of multiple mordraloi. Tradition demands that at least one of the undying stand as witness, and the closest relatives of the subject are present as well to herald his passage. The priests bathe the subject in oils and embalming fluids (which include, among many other substances, distilled mordrei’in), lay him upon a bier, and draw holy symbols on his body in the willingly given blood of witnesses. Finally, the mordraloi cast a sequence of spells over the subject, including either create deathless or create greater deathless, as well as spells of blessing and other mystical utterances that do not appear to be part of any known spell. This 48-hour rite, empowered and modified by the ambient forces of the City of the Dead, anchors the resulting deathless to the energies of Irian. Deathless created elsewhere can never become ascendant councilors, no matter how old they grow. The Aereni claim that the rite functions only on elves, but since it has never been attempted on anyone else, the truth of this statement remains in question.

Leaves of Death

During rites, Aereni priests and practitioners might consume the mordrei’in, or “leaves of death”. These are the leaves of the mordril, a tree that grows only on Aerenal, and only in grave dirt. The leaves are deadly when eaten raw, but with the proper application of herbal and alchemical techniques, they become only mildly poisonous and enhance the consumer’s ability to focus. Worshipers hold this trancelike state to be a bridge between the living and the dead—and, thanks to improper treatment or low resistance, some practitioners don’t return from the journey.

The Calendar

The Aereni calendar is a strange affair, practically unreadable to anyone not raised with it. It measures time in repeating cycles. For instance, while the calendar acknowledges the concept of “days,” they are not considered important measurements of time in their own right. Rather, they are the component parts to overlapping cycles called tuernai (singular tuern), which consist of three days each and are the primary unit of measurement on the Aereni calendar. A similar overlapping cycle of twenty-one tuernai equals a luenir, roughly three months on the Galifar calendar. This process continues, with luenirai overlapping to eventually form the Aereni year, years forming cycles called ruelnai, and ruelnai forming nuerlnirai (roughly analogous to a decade). Only then does the calendar restart. Specific holidays vary by family and the deathdays of ancestors.

It’s a common misperception that the Aereni have no concept of the divine, that their ancestor worship omits the potential for true gods. This is a great fallacy and the largest hurdle to truly understanding the faith. The Aereni do believe in divinity: the assembled spiritual might of the Undying Court itself. A given ancestor or undying counselor might possess great knowledge but relatively little power. The Court as a whole, however, shapes the world of the Aereni, grants spells to clerics and adepts, and essentially forms its own “god.” The Aereni believe that no mortal being can truly comprehend divinity, and thus offering prayers directly to this god or any other is meaningless. They pray instead to their ancestors as emissaries and servants of the Undying Court, knowing that these individuals can present their words and deeds to the “God-Court ” as a whole.

A few Aereni maintain that some form of divinity existed even before the formation of the Undying Court. They believe that a previous race of beings had, as a whole, reached the end of their spiritual journey, even as the elves and undying of Aerenal seek to do. These beings ascended to become the gods that would create the next world—a power that feeble mortal minds can only interpret as Eberron, Khyber, and Siberys. They believe, too, that when the elves of Aerenal finally reach the end of their own spiritual journey, they will shape the world to come.

Temples to the Undying Court—or souvrouh, plural and singular—are stone structures, normally consisting of two to five rooms on a single level. Some of the largest have multiple floors, often in the form of a step pyramid. These are used for particularly massive ceremonies, or to hold multiple rites at once. The interior of a souvrouh has perfectly smooth walls and floors, allowing practitioners to add whatever symbols are appropriate for their ancestors.

For those without access to a souvrouh, or the means to build one, a patarouh will suffice. This is simply an empty lot, surrounded in religious symbols and consecrated for use as a shrine. The ground must be earth, stone, or wood; living vegetation is unacceptable.

Both a souvrouh and a patarouh must be built around a “death’s tree,” or mordri-ellin. This can either be a living mordril, or any other type of tree that was planted in grave dirt and is now dead. The tree represents the temple’s tie to both life and death. In some of the larger souvrouh, the tree is completely within the structure.

Death-Eaters

This is the closest thing the Aereni have to a heresy. These zealots believe that if they consume a deceased elf before the funeral rites, they can absorb his soul and gain power and knowledge he might otherwise gain. Members of the Death-Eaters keep their allegiance secret, for other Aereni—horrified at the implications—imprison or even kill them on sight.

Dynastians

This is not a proper sect but a term that describes individuals who share a similar belief. Dynastians maintain that the Undying Court is not a unified body at all. Rather, the ancestors of any given lineage—both spiritual and undying—in fact make up their own “deity.” These gods cooperate with one another for the preservation of Aerenal, but one must ultimately dominate the others. Unsurprisingly, an individual Dynastian believes her own familial divinity must prevail. Thus, while they are not overtly hostile, each occasionally sabotages the efforts of other families in the hope of advancing her own dynasty’s position