Hyadilith the White Lady Character in Arrhynsia | World Anvil

Hyadilith the White Lady

NSFW - non explicit bisexuality

"Do not be fooled by soft words and appearances. Hyadilith, though she is the most gently spoken of the Four, is anything but kind to those who cross her. Her power is great, for she holds sway over the noble houses and most of the female elves. She sings their power for her own ends, rarely sharing, even with her Lord. Do not challenge her, for she is Wind, and carries sand in her bosom."
— The Oracle

Born and Raised for a Marriage of Convenience

  Hyadilith was the first born daughter of the Prince Mnementhe and Princess Aurae of the noble house of Miraphyra which ruled lands in the heart of the Spiral Mountains. She was expected from birth to make a excellent match from among the elven noble houses to further the ambitions of her family. She was invited to join the intimate court of the ancient god and Voice Lameravis, a move that was unexpected, as the sexual preferences of the god were no secret to his followers. Hyladilith quickly distinguished herself from the few female candidates for Lameravis's attention, and after extensive negotiations, she accepted the god's offer for her to become his second consort, subordinate only to Saimon and Lameravis himself.   Hyadilith was under no illusions regarding the nature of her relationship to Lameravis. Theirs was a union of power and convenience, and in her position as second consort she would be elevated above all other women and almost all men as long as the elves grew into a united nation, an objective that aligned to Saimon's wishes for the elven people. Hyadilith had been well trained and was skilled in the areas of governance that Saimon felt need for help with, and she could sing the power of the elven women, a skill beyond Saimon's own power. In addition, she locked the loyalty of the elven nobility to Lameravis's court, as the nobles were inclined to independence and self rule, having been neglected by their god due to his habit of leaving his lands and people in search of new experiences and exotic beauties. With Hyadilith in a high position of power in Lameravis's court, the nobility now had a direct path to the ear of the god and his second-in-command, Saimon - who was the de-facto ruler of the land.  

Lameravis and The Giver of Eternal Life

 
Children are simply a bore and a chore - the brain spawn of my tiresome sister Jiisho with her constant harping - "grow up and be responsible." She's even worse than Tark - he'll nag and bore me to death, but Jiisho manages to figure out ways to actually make me do what she wants me to.
— Lameravis
  Unlike a typical mortal king, Lameravis had no need for an heir. He was indifferent to the possibility of offspring for himself or his consorts as the heirs they parented could never inherit from him, an immortal god. His union with Hyadilith brought up the issue of offspring, and caused him to realize that he actually disliked children even though it was obvious it was necessary for the elves to have them. In a self-proclaimed fit of generosity, Lameravis stirred himself to modify the genetics of the elves to extend their natural lives to roughly a thousand years and slow their reproductive cycles such that the females ovulated no more frequently than twice a year. This reduced the number of children he had to tolerate in his lands while maintaining a robust population base. For this reason Hyadilith is sometimes referred to as "The Giver of Eternal Life". Lameravis's immortality and indifference to offspring also led to indifference on his part of the sexual partnering of his consorts as long as they did not interfere with them catering to his own desires with regard to the time, attention, activities, and responsibilities that he expected of them. Children were of course, born to members of the court, but these children were taken away from the palace whenever Lameravis returned from his travels. It is speculated that Saimon and Hyadilith had an on-again, off-again sexual relationship, and that Saimon was the father of her eldest child.  

Singer of Women

  Beauty was a prerequisite for any member of Lameravis's court, and Hyadilith was a stunning woman with a cool, sophisticated and gracious elegance about her, which earned her the moniker "The White Lady". She was able to "sing" the female elves and draw power from them, a skill that Saimon lacked and Lameravis was disinclined to use. Hyadilith was a coloratura soprano but could reach lower having a full three octave range, thus enticing the majority of elven women to sing with her, a means the Six demi-gods used to absorb power from their followers.  

A Goddess Made

  Initially, Lameravis had no intention of elevating Hyadilith to the level of demi-god which would effectively make her immortal, though it would not confer andy more power on her than she already called. This changed as he grew used to her in his court and occasionally in his bed, leading him to re-think his original approach of replacing her every thousand years after she died. Hyadilith was beautiful, she was useful, he liked her, and he didn't have to take a risk that his shiny new nation of elves with it's ever evolving conveniences and developing aesthetic sense would disappear because of mismanagement. He decided to extend godhood on Hyadilith as he had Saimon, and so again, generously stirred himself on behalf of his people.  

Wielder of Power

  The elves had been slow to consolidate and form a cohesive central government due to their missing central unifying diety, which left them subject to frequent military incursions by the aggressive orcs. For all their primitive appearance, orcs were excellent warriors and conquorers, and the unmilitarized elves were defenseless from their onslaught. Saimon had tried to put a military guard in place, but his nomadic warrior background was well suited to defend a nomadic people, not a geographically settled population residing in cities and towns. Saimon found himself at a loss with no resources to find, fund, and train a well equipped military to defend the land. The only military capable of defending against the orcs belonged to the nobility. Thus, Saimon advocated with Lameravis for the addition of another consort drawn from the elven nobility, and was an proponent specifically for Hyadilith's selection, believing that she would bring stability and help unite the people into a coherent nation.   Pragmatically, the union of Lameravis and Hyadilith was much more about her partnership with Saimon than with the god. Saimon, burdened with the governance of the entire elven people alone due to Lameravis's frequent lengthy absences, sought in Lameravis's new consort a partner who would be competent to help him rule the elves. Unfortunatelly, the selection of Hyadilith was more problematic than Saimon had anticipated. Hyadilith was not just competent, she was extremely good at politics and governance, and not in the least naive regarding the ways of power. Nothing in Saimon's life had prepared him for the machinations of Lameravis's new female consort.   Through her connections to the elven noble houses, she effectively controlled all agriculture, commerce, the military and internal politics, and she had access to the magic of women which roughly approximated the male magic that Saimon was able to control. Saimon quickly found himself at a disadvantage when there were conflicts with Hyadilith whenever Lameravis was not in Fellalond - which was most of the time. Fortunately, their disagreements were very infrequent. Hyadilith was not deliberately adversarial towards Saimon, but she governed for her own advantage and the advantage of her family and her power base without regard to full consideration of the interests of all the people as Saimon had naively expected her to.   Saimon may have been the Father of Elven Civilization, but Hyadilith was the founder of it's education and power structures. She paid close attention to the teaching and advancement of magic, establishing an Arcane University System for the discipline and teaching of magic, and she established a basic educational system for elven children, making literacy available to the common elf generations before humans arrived in Arrhynsia or the dwarves made basic literacy and figuring a common skillset. She established the Magic Workers Guild, the second guild amongst the elves, and set them to working on developing magical spells to benefit agriculture and elven warriors which enhanced the power of the nobility who controlled the land and the military that existed.  

In Death, the Sound of Blessing

  Hyadilith was the first of the Six to die in the Betrayal. Technically there is no evidence that Hydilith's death was actually connected to the Betrayal, nor even in fact that she died at all. The Dawn of the Gods simply records that "Hyadilith the fair was lost. Long she was sought, but the searching brought no fruit - she could not be found, not even the echos of her song." The completeness of the death of the demi-goddess is akin to the compleness of the death of Lameravis himself who "was made to be no more."   What is certain however is that her followers remembered her, and had recorded her enchanting voice, capturing it in the magical artifact known as The Semblance of the White Lady which is housed in the Palace of the Green Lady in Fellalond, City of Elves. Here visitors from all over Arrhynsia come to marvel at the unutterably beautiful descants of Hyadilith as sung by the Semblance, while elves come to mourn their lost gods.

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