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= Hollow Tongues =

The '''Hollow Tongues''' are a kindred of [[Elves|elves]] cursed by [[Aros]] after their ancestors attempted to '''cheat death''' — resurrecting renowned warriors '''after''' the soul had already begun its crossing into the [[Underworld]]. The curse stripped their voices from their bodies and sealed them behind a glowing '''keyhole''' at the throat, never to be spoken again in their own breath.

Once among the most respected '''High Elves''' of [[Avaria]] — masters of clerical healing, last rites, and spoken resurrection liturgy — the Hollow Tongues can no longer perform the sacred spoken spells and rituals that defined their order. After a century of absolute silence, [[Eriana]] brokered '''The Bonding''': a sacred pact through which each elf may bind a '''familiar''' that speaks, hears thought, and shares emotion on the host's behalf. The blessing is imperfect — familiars carry desires of their own — and the curse remains for life.

Today the Hollow Tongues worship [[Aros]] in penitence, honour [[Eriana]] for mercy, train as fighters and adventurers where they once healed, and still seek a way to reverse '''The Hollowing''' without breaking the [[The Realms of Faeloria#The Great Cycle|Great Cycle]].

== Names and spelling ==

Scholars and kingdom records favour '''Hollow Tongues''' (two words), matching other elven kindred labels such as [[Elves#Kindreds|Wood Elves]] and Ash Elves. Singular: '''a Hollow Tongue''' or '''Hollow Tongue elf'''.

{| class="wikitable"
! Usage !! Form !! Notes
|-
| '''Common / scholarly''' || Hollow Tongues || Preferred in chronicle, temple law, and the [[Arcanum Lyceum]]
|-
| '''Self-name (formal)''' || '''The Keybound''' || Court-elven: ''those whose voice is locked''; used in oaths and pilgrimage record
|-
| '''Self-name (devotional)''' || '''The Penitent Choir''' || Especially among worshippers of Aros; stresses repentance, not the curse alone
|-
| '''Event names''' || '''The Hollowing''', '''The Bonding''', '''the Silence Century''' || Capitalised as proper history; the century between Hollowing and Bonding
|-
| '''Avoid as primary''' || Hollowtongues, HollowTongues || Rare in Avarian print; appears in some trade manifests and foreign ledgers
|-
| '''Do not confuse with''' || '''The Hollow''' || Clerical name for [[Cryos]]'s citadel in the [[Underworld]] — unrelated
|}

=== Names given by other peoples ===

* '''[[Avaria|Avarians]]''' (respectful): ''the Keybound'', ''Penitent Choir''; (common): ''locked-voice elves''; (slur): ''the Tongueless''
* '''Priests of [[Aros]]''' (throughout Faeloria): ''the Whisper-locked'' — ties the curse to Aros as '''The Whispering Wind''' and '''the Whispering Silence'''
* '''[[Dalr]]''' and northern traders: ''wind-stolen'', ''grave-cheats'' — death and silence are Aros-leaning domains in the north
* '''[[Kokoro]]''' envoys: ''soul-recallers'' or ''threshold-breakers'' — emphasis on the original sin rather than the mark
* '''[[Dwarves]]''': ''stone-silent'' — dwarven law treats spoken oath as binding; Hollow Tongues are trusted only when a familiar speaks the words
* '''[[Fae]]''' of the [[Moonworld]]: ''echo-wearers'' — one mortal life voiced through another being; some Wild Fae find the bond uncomfortably close to reflection without crossing
* '''[[Humans]]''' at roadside: ''glass-eyed elves'' — reference to their crystal eyes; often ignorant of the theology

== Place in the wider world ==

Hollow Tongues remain '''Sunworld mortals''' of the [[Sunworld]]. They are not undead, not Fae, and not exempt from [[Aros]]'s domain — quite the opposite. Their story is a cautionary chapter in how '''[[Gifted magic|divine]]''' and '''[[Learned magic|learned]]''' power intersect with the '''Law of Resonant Passage''' (see [[The Realms of Faeloria]]).

Orthodox teaching holds that mercy-healing and '''threshold anchoring''' — rites that hold a soul in the '''breath-between''' before [[Aros]] completes the crossing — may be performed only while the final passage has '''not''' begun. In common temple doctrine that window is brief: often said to be '''about a minute''', though disputed High Elf texts argue for slightly longer at sites of strong ward-line. Once the soul has '''crossed''' toward the [[Underworld]], only Aros may release it; to drag it back is to cheat the design of the [[The Realms of Faeloria#The Great Cycle|Great Cycle]].

The ancestors of the Hollow Tongues did exactly that — and Aros answered with silence.

== Origins — the Choir of the Silver Threshold ==

Before The Hollowing, the order now remembered only in Keybound archives was the '''Choir of the Silver Threshold''' — a High Elf clerical fellowship centred in [[Lumenara]], attached to temples of [[Ariana]] and [[Eriana]]. They were healers, midwives of the dying, and keepers of last rites. Kings and generals sought their counsel; the [[The Luminary Circle|Luminary Circle]] regarded them as exemplary servants of life's sacred arc.

Their downfall was not cruelty but '''grief and pride''' in an age of war. In the early [[Timeline|TRA]] era, as kingdoms such as [[Avaria]] rebuilt after the [[Chronicles of Faeloria#Chronicle of Faefall|Faefall]] and border conflicts multiplied, the Choir's greatest spellwrights turned from '''anchoring the breath-between''' to '''Threshold Reversal''' — liturgy meant to recall souls that had '''already crossed'''. They raised Avaria's most renowned war-dead to fight again.

The rites drew on forbidden convergence: spoken divine petition to Eriana's renewal, structured [[Learned magic|learned]] formulae, and — in the oldest confessions — resonance techniques perilously close to '''[[The Realms of Faeloria#The Danger of Artificial Crossing|artificial crossing]]''', tugging at echo and remembrance to haul identity back from the road to the Deep Quiet. It worked. It also '''violated Aros's charge''' over the final passage.

== The Hollowing ==

'''Aros''', God of Death and '''The Whispering Silence''', answered as his titles imply: not with thunder, but with '''windless quiet'''. He ripped the Choir's voices from their bodies and set them under lock and key at the throat — a '''glowing keyhole''' visible over the vocal cords, a mark that would never fade while they lived. Spoken prayer, sung liturgy, and the breath that carried their resurrection craft were gone in an instant.

The punishment fit the crime. Death is Aros's domain; they had used '''voice''' to steal souls back from his threshold. Without speech they could not perform their sacred healing or resurrection magic as the order had known it. Some lesser workings survived through gesture and [[Learned magic|learned]] sign-cant — but the highest rites of their calling required the spoken word, and those were sealed.

The event is called '''The Hollowing''' in Keybound chronicle. Temples of Aros in [[Avaria]] still read the account on '''The Whispering Night''' as a warning against cheating the Closing.

== The Silence Century ==

For a hundred years the cursed elves lived in absolute voicelessness. Communication was gesture, chalk, and grief. Many died in despair; others were shunned as living proof that the gods could unmake a people's calling overnight. The Luminary Circle sheltered some in [[Lumenara]]; others wandered as penitents.

Eriana, Goddess of Nature and renewal, took pity on her elven children — but she could not simply undo her cousin's judgment. She negotiated with Aros.

== The Bonding ==

The bargain Eriana struck — known as '''The Bonding''' — offered each Hollow Tongue the '''option''' (never the obligation) of a sacred binding with a '''familiar'''. Through the bond, the familiar may speak for the elf, hear surface thoughts, and feel shared emotion. The magic is '''[[Gifted magic|gifted]]''': a joint mercy of Eriana's living world and Aros's refusal to return what was taken.

The bond is not perfect. Familiars are creatures with '''desires, moods, and personalities''' of their own. Miscommunication and misrepresentation of the host's intent are common enough that elder Keybound teach '''sign language''' alongside familiar speech — insurance if a familiar dies, is stolen, or simply refuses a phrasing. When a Hollow Tongue speaks through the bond, the '''keyhole mark and crystal eyes glow''' with soft light.

Gratitude for Eriana's mercy did not end penitence toward Aros. The Hollow Tongues believe both truths at once.

== Keyveil and modern culture ==

After The Bonding, the survivors founded '''Keyveil''' — an enclave in the [[Avarian Forest]] foothills between the deeper wood and the plains road toward [[Starryglen]]. Keyveil is deliberately modest: stone and timber, open-air shrines to Eriana, and a '''Threshold Chapel''' to Aros where no celebrant speaks aloud unless through a familiar or a visiting priest of the Keepers of the Threshold.

Culture among the Keybound diverged sharply from their High Elf origins:

* '''From healers to guardians''' — Unable to sustain large-scale clerical healing, they became fighters, wardens, and adventurers — still serving the realm, but with blade and vigil where once they held the dying.
* '''Dual worship''' — Daily repentance and quiet rites for Aros; festivals of renewal and familiar-blessing for Eriana. The Bloomtide and The Quiet Rest weigh heavily in their calendar.
* '''Memory duty''' — Elders pass oral history through familiar-voice and '''signed cant''' so the young know life before The Hollowing and The Bonding.
* '''Familiars as kin''' — Bonds are treated as sacred household members; to harm a familiar is a grave insult. Some familiars are beasts, others fae-touched small spirits — Eriana's domain welcomes both, within Aros's limits.
* '''Quest for reversal''' — Scholarships at the [[Arcanum Lyceum]] and pilgrimages to Aros shrines seek a cure that does not '''break the Great Cycle''' — a line few dare to cross twice.

Keyveil maintains trade with Starryglen herbalists and Lumenara arms-guilds. Hollow Tongue mercenaries and tomb-wardens are sought along roads where the dead must be honoured correctly — ironically, by those who once failed to honour the crossing.

== Physical characteristics ==

Hollow Tongues are marked by the curse and its aftermath:

* A '''glowing keyhole''' over the vocal cords at the throat — the lock where voice was sealed
* '''Crystal-glass eyes''' — clear, faceted, faintly luminous in low light
* '''Porcelain-fractured skin''' — pale complexion with fine craquelure lines, as though baked clay had hairline cracks; more visible in strong emotion
* When speaking through a familiar, '''eyes and keyhole glow''' in tandem

They otherwise resemble the High Elf bloodlines they descend from: tall bearing, long life, and the dusk-sense common to elven kindreds.

== Magic ==

* '''Lost''' — Spoken divine resurrection and the Choir's threshold-reversal liturgy; any rite requiring the host's own voice at the throat
* '''Impaired''' — Most clerical healing that depends on spoken prayer; some progress through signed cant or familiar-proxy speech, but never at the old order's scale
* '''Retained''' — Non-vocal [[Learned magic|learned]] magic where gesture and sign-cant suffice; martial training; [[Gifted magic|gifted]] power through the familiar bond (communication, some nature-aligned workings aligned with Eriana's mercy)
* '''Taboo''' — Any research into post-crossing resurrection; enforced by internal law and watched by Aros clergy

== Where Hollow Tongues are found ==

* '''[[Keyveil]]''' (primary enclave) — Avarian Forest foothills; spiritual and cultural heart
* '''[[Lumenara]]''' — Penitent houses, Aros shrines, a few Lyceum scholars
* '''[[Starryglen]]''' and southern Avarian roads — herbal trade, tomb-warden work
* '''[[Dalr]]''' — Rare; viewed with suspicion; only the hardiest travel the mountain passes as guides or sellswords
* '''Adventuring companies''' — Dispersed individuals across Faeloria seeking redemption, reversal, or simply a life that still serves

== Relations ==

* '''[[Elves]]''' — Other kindreds respect their penitence but keep polite distance; Wood Elves share sign-cant along forest roads
* '''[[Humans]]''' — Mixed pity and unease; Avarian crowns have employed them as elite guards since the early TRA wars
* '''[[The Luminary Circle]]''' — Complicated legacy: the Circle mourns what the Choir became, but aids Keyveil's Eriana rites
* '''Keepers of the Threshold''' (Aros clergy) — Close theological ties; some Keybound join as lay penitents
* '''[[Fae]]''' — Respect for Eriana's bargain; unease at familiars that sound too much like the mortal they serve

== Key figures and chronology (broad) ==

{| class="wikitable"
! Approx. date !! Event
|-
| Early TRA || Choir of the Silver Threshold at height in Lumenara
|-
| ~85 TRA || '''The Hollowing''' — Aros strips the order's voices after Threshold Reversal
|-
| 85–185 TRA || '''The Silence Century''' — voiceless exile and penitence
|-
| ~185 TRA || '''The Bonding''' — Eriana's familiar pact with Aros's assent
|-
| ~190 TRA onward || Founding of Keyveil; shift from healers to warriors and wardens
|-
| Circa 530 TRA || Present era — quest for lawful reversal continues; population scattered but Keyveil endures
|}

== See also ==

* [[Elves]]
* [[Aros]]
* [[Eriana]]
* [[The Realms of Faeloria]]
* [[Underworld]]
* [[Gifted magic]]
* [[Learned magic]]
* [[Avaria]]
* [[The Luminary Circle]]
* [[Timeline]]

[[Category:Species]]
[[Category:Avaria]]
[[Category:Elves]]