Styia, She Who Laughs
There was once a young elf who danced through the carnage of the Ascended War, her blades making a song of blood and death, her bow twanging with the arrows that brought death each time her fingers moved. Through all of the carnage, Styia laughed, even through the tears that ran down her face. In time, laughter became stronger than steel to defend her, and in time, Styia hunted down and killed three dozen Ascended after one put her tribe to the sword.
Perhaps Styia would even have survived the Ascended War, if not for the foul taste of Ascendance in her own mouth. On the day she knew what she had become, her laughter faded, and her many enemies brought her low, their blades finding flesh where once they would only have met empty air.
Yet the story does not end, for Styia became a symbol to a people who lost everything in the chaos and destruction. Many Elven tribes took a sacrifice from their number, a young elf who gave up her identity to wear a laughing mask stained with tears. The Laughing One became justice and judgement in one, dealing retribution to those who wronged the tribe, carrying Styia’s legacy with them.
The original Laughing Mask has been lost to time and history, but those who carry Styia's story have made their own masks and some amount of her story has been interred within the wood or bone from which the mask is carved. Typically the motif is of a face carved into an expression of mirth, with tears rolling down the face. The more powerful of such icons weep tears or even blood along their surface, all while echoing Styia's unhinged laughter.
Comments