How the Sister Kindreds Came to Be

There was once a man and woman who had no children. So wearied did the woman become, that she pined away and died at a young age. The man – whose name was Lonorfin – swore upon her death that he would, by any means he could, pour his own life out to create for her children.

From tear watered ground the first child blossomed, like a plant. Growing, she bloomed in form as graceful as a goddess, but she was made of wood. With stunning beauty, but lacking voice and expression, she could not be made a fitting child for the man. So he named her Nunellin meaning Her Mother’s Tree and tried a second time to bring forth a child.

The second child was birthed when the man sang a song of life in harmony with the wind. She had neither color nor substance but with a voice she could speak and with her thought take on the form of any substance and that substance could provide any form, whether animal or human or other. So the man named her Lorellin meaning Her Mother’s Song and tried a third time to bring forth a child.

This happened when he slept and dreamed that he saw his wife once more. In his thought he took the form and substance of her, and molding it with his consciousness, gave it some of the memory of her and the thought of him. Waking, he found sleeping upon his breast, a child. Her skin was whiter than snow, as was her hair and her eyes were like pearls. He named her Erellin meaning From Her Mother and ceased to engender children.

So the three were raised by Lonorfin, their father, who loved them equally, though understood Erellin best. As time drew on, and they came to womanhood, Nunellin found herself ill content to dwell voiceless amongst those who speak. So one day she took her leave, wandering deep into the forest. There, beside a stream, she wept for her loneliness, and from her tears there grew a plant. Slowly, into a young tree the plant grew and there, beside the stream, Nunellin was given a son. So the race of the Innunniell – people of the trees - was born, and whenever they feel the pangs of loneliness and weep, a child is given them whom they may tend and love.

After Nunellin’s departure, Lorellin too grew weary of her lonely state with a sister and father who could be seen and touched, but could never truly see or touch her. So she took her leave and wandering into the northern mountains, she entered a cave. There, for the first time in her life, she sang a song of sorrow, like her father’s but sweeter and wilder. And as she sang another voice joined hers and they sang in harmony until the song ended. There she met, born from the song of her heart, another of her kind, a brother to her in her loneliness. So the race of the Inlonniel – people of the wind - was born, and whenever they feel the desire for another voice to sing with, they create a lament which brings forth for them either a sister or a brother aid in the wind-like harmony.

Erellin never left her father as she grew to womanhood and though she missed her sisters often, the joy of life and breath and song and sight and sense was comfort enough. Eventually, she met a man and they were wed and from her came the race of people named the Ithiniel – the Silver Folk, for their skin and hair and eyes shine purer and brighter than the silverest stars and moon.