The Tomes of the Velul

These are books under the possession of Goroth Klaren.

Tome I of the Velul

"Velulaei, Moon Goddess & Protector of the Night." ~Written by High Velul Priest Vel'tas Klaren

Book I - The Silver Globe

Chapter 1 - The Moon's Plains

From the creators world, we see but a globe which is slowly shrouded by the sky and then reemerges. However it is more than what we perceive.
After the world we live in was created, the creator made a sphere of silver appear. This was to accommodate Velulaei, the Aengul of the moon and night. This sphere was of a beauty matching the one of Velulaei. The creator placed it in the sky alongside the sun so it would provide another light in the previously dark nights.
The landscape of this place was covered in a light gray glow, as if the grass were clippings of silver. The sky was dark as the darkest night in which one was able to contemplate the creator's world in all it's magnificence. However, there was nothing else in sight, only the mountains of silver coated in the glowing grass and the occasional spirit.
During the day of the sun, this space grows faint, as if it was but a dreamland. However it is but covered by the blinding light of the sun. Then the sun will fall again and Velulaei shall rise.

Chapter 2 - Lands of the Night

Though the silver land that we call moon seems empty, there are many inhabitants. These are the shadows of the Creator's world, the spirits of dark elves who have passed away and the Aengul herself, Velulaei. These congregate in greater numbers for the dark moon assembly, thus why the moon is shrouded every few cycles.
Velulaei called the land of the moon the lands of night as it is an eternal night. However, the night is the remover of shadows and the unification of beings. To the contrary of the sun which burns and destroys with its light, furthermore segregating beings of the creator. This is why the dark elves chose to worship her in the dawn of time, because they knew she was the fairest.

Chapter 3 - Up Above, Her Home

What we don't see when we look at the moon is the palace of Velulaei. Her residence in the silver valley of the great ranges. It is pictured as dome from which three towers extend into the sky. Protection, family and night. The palace of Velulaei is called 'Nighted Sphere Keep'. The middle chamber of the residence is a big one. It has a throne made of silver in its center which faces the singular entrance. The seat is elevated on a pedestal in the middle of the bare room. A light mist floods the lower parts of the hall. Leaving it through a great door way, one enters a circular hallway.
The hallway goes all around the main chamber and connects to the three towers of faith and some other secondary chambers. In those, one can find ancient libraries of old scrolls written in Old Elven.
The three towers are similar in design, seen from the outside. However the interior varies depending on the value they represent. Protection has a solid and uniform flow of moonlight falling through the middle of the tower. It's walls are thicker representing the defensive aspect of this important value. One can reach the top via a spiraling staircase which only stops at the source of the flow.

Family has a lighter and more watery flow of moonlight dropping from its center. Around it rise various pillars, created to represent members of a family. They are linked halfway up the tower by double arches on the second floor. One can reach only that floor by taking one of the two turning staircases.
Night has a sparkling midnight sky colored and troubled flow of moonlight falling down the center of the tower. The tower has no windows and thus the inside is dark, provided only with the glow of the magic. There are no stairs in this tower, how to get to the roof is an unrevealed secret.

Chapter 4 - Our Haven do we Demise

There is another reason the silver sphere was created. It was to accommodate the faithful spirits of the dark elves when they die. Velulaei would take the spirit of a slain priest and bring it with her back to the plains of never-ending night. The spirit would take the form of a shadowy figure.

The spirits of the past ones roam the lands of Velulaei, gifted with immortality. They are permitted to roam through the palace of the Aengul. Many spend the majority of their existence reading the scrolls of the moon and learning the full reality of the world below. It is said that there are those which are blessed and that retain their form of the creator's world.
Up above is our haven. It is the last place to go for those lost on land. There have been some which sacrificed themselves for their shrine, to gain access to the moon's plains. Velulaei is fair and gives residence to all those shadows she pulls from the world. It has been said that in the after life a priest would have their own library chamber within the mountain ranges of the moon. Those who are blessed receive a personal room within the palace and stand beside Velulaei during the gathering of shadows.

Book II - Goddess at Night

Chapter 1 - Moonlight Reaches Everywhere

The Aengul of the moon has such power, one impossible to imagine or to even manipulate in the creator's world. She has the power to rule the sky at night. She watches everything which hides one the shadows, her dark nights allow her to see everything. It would be foolish to challenge, as foolish as challenging any Aengul.
Her powers, her moonlight, are present everywhere and at all times. Though the sun makes it harder to see, the moon hides behind the sun still shining on the world. It reaches the deepest caves, the darkest castles and the boldest shadows.
Her powers heal and protect. The dark of night hides the wound, the dark of night shrouds and stops the hostilities. It is not only monsters that arise in the dark, so does Velulaei.

Chapter 2 - Rivalry of the Day

The goddess of the moon has a dominant position in the night sky. However the sun forces her away at day as it takes her place. Velulaei is always in competition with the sun, pushing it away time and time again. We have noticed her presence behind the sun at day, but she is unfortunately not dominant.

Velulaei is not an Aengul which does wrong, she does not wish for holy battles between her followers and those of the sun. Even if we think she deserves the dominance of the sky, we follow her decision. There must be harmony. However those of the sun beg to differ, the fools.

During the day, her powers are present. They are the ones which bring the dim light to the caves and shadows. That is why her worshippers stay in the dark shrines at day and avoid leaving at sunrise.

Chapter 3 - Her Immortality

As an Aengul, she is immortal and never aging. The laws of time are toys that she has left in the closet. She will always listen to our prayers and our requests. She shall always look over the creator's world. She passes her immortality to those spirits that come to her residence after they die. She has the time for everything and everyone. She does not rush, she takes the time it must. She is never late, never early. Her powers will never end, she cannot be vanquished. However this means the conquest of the sky shall also last until the end of time. Furthermore we shall pray for her until our own time comes for the ones who are unfortunate to be killed.

Book III - Maiden of the Mali'ker

Chapter 1 - Velulaei

Our deity is the fairest of them all. Her beauty surpasses the one of any inhabitants of the creator's world. Her skin is of the color of the lightest ashes left after a soft fire. This one as soft as silk, smooth and soothing. Her body shape made of perfect curves. These outlines showed off by the silver blue upper and lower clothing she wears. Her blue eyes glow in the shine resembling a sapphire held up to the sun. Her hair is of a silvery white tone, it's length flows loosely upon her as she walks through the the world. Her voice is said to calm even the reddest rage. It is of a soothing tone like the one of a mother. Her aura is is dim, as the light which emanates from the moon. She is adored by those who know her, as she is also filled with knowledge.

Chapter 2 - Our Creator

It is said that Velulaei gave life to the first of the dark elves. She descended upon Aegis and made love to Malin, creating our race. We descend from an the Aengul of the moon. We owe her our faith for this gift. Unfortunate that many ignore our origins. From Velulaei, we were given her intellect. Some say that the females are more learned then the males. We lost our some agility to our robust build. In appearance, a distinct bloodline of the dark elves conserve the glowy eyes of our Goddess. Our culture has developed have us looking fabulous to honor our ancestor. The love for our family, those bonds are there because of our possibly divine ancestors, we had to take care of our kin. The blood of the moon flows within all us dark elves, let us not forget this.

Chapter 3 - Our Protector

We are the children of the moon, thus the moon protects us. Velulaei looks over the dark elves as mother looks over her children. Her power, moonlight, is strong around us. It seems gives us an aura of protection, invisible, but present. Many of the dark elves that live today do not know of its existence. Furthermore, she hides us in the dark of her night, making us barely visible. As many say in our race, love your mother and you'll be blessed. Those who ignore this and assault a dark elf shall perish in account of their ignorance.

Chapter 4 - Her Visits upon Us

There are various accounts of her appearance on the creator's world. On the contrary, we would not know much of what we currently do. The reason she descends upon our land is because she wants to visit her race and faithful. However she only appears in front of one person alone. It is a sign you are blessed if she is to touch you. There are three notable appearances. A couple of generations ago, Vel'tis the Blessed was visited by the Aengul. She came to congratulate him for continuing the faith in her. His reward was the blessing and it is how he became the most respected of the priests. He is the one who gave us the looks of the Aengul. When he was executed in cold blood, Velulaei came down from the sky and pulled his soul up onto the moon. That is the only known time that Velulaei presented herself before a race other than the dark elves. Another notable visit was when she appeared before Velendor, an Elder Priest. He was a great researcher of a large shrine. She blessed him, but also demonstrated her divine powers. She taught him how to summon her light to use when needed. He died in the cave in of the Velul'aheral (Moon's Grace) shrine, however, Velulaei still retrieved his soul. The other important apparition was when she came to encourage Vel'warthos, the head high priest of Velulaeisul lin'ceru (Moonlight Stronghold). Before the last battle she visited to give him power to fight off the inquisitor attack force. He was blessed the day he died for his shrine. Defending the last shrine and elder until his last breath. Velulaei was not disappointed and brought his soul up with her that night alongside the one of Vel'tis.

Tome II of the Velul

"Life of the Order of Moon Priests" ~Written by High Velul Priest Vel'tas Klaren

Book I - Cult to Order

Chapter 1 - The Origins

Generations ago, the dark elves were conceived. As all races did, these ancient elves all believed in a goddess. Velulaei is the name of this goddess. She was actually an Aengul which lived on the moon. At the time of the ancient, the clergy among the dark elves were priests encouraging the worship of Velulaei. They made great altars and shrines in her name. This endured for the first generations of elves. The dark elves started lose faith as their race mixed in with the other kin. They would either start to follow the Mali-god Malin or they would become pragmatic on the subject. As the situation continued, even some lower priests of Velulaei left the faith. As the humans arrived to Aegis and expanded, there came to be less and less of those who maintained faith in the Aengul of the Moon. However, a distinct priest and his peers endured this exodus of sorts. This Mali'ker was Vel'tis Nightheart. He attempted to maintain the religion in place, however there were only a couple of Dark Elven houses which stayed faithful. Thus those still faithful broke from the Dark Elven society to practice their religion elsewhere.

Chapter 2 - The Birth

Led by Vel'tis, the dark Elven priests descended into the depths of the earth and built the first shrine to Velulaei. The first night they prayed, they rejoiced. The Order of the Moon was founded by the houses remaining to the faith. These being House Vel'Nightheart, House Klaren and House Thol'Daa. The founding members however, were but eight. I was the only of House Klaren to stay in the order. The years of the foundations were harsh. Which made the later years seem far too easy. Food was a major problem, we fed off the mushrooms in the caves, grew pumpkins in the little light we had. The order survived regardless, the faith taking us through those painful years. The priests of the ancient religion had to adapt, we were no longer in the middle of a society. The practices changed little, the beliefs and rules were imposed to a greater extent. This was not a problem in our small group, we all knew each other very well.

Chapter 3 - The Growth

Years after the founding of the order, it started to grow. First descendants of the priests, then dark elves which were converted and from there started to appear the real order. It would no longer be a sect or cult, it had started to grow.
The first shrine was expanded to hold the priest which joined. Then came the need to make others. The second shrine was built in strong stone, under a small mountain. The tree implanted in this new place of prayer was one of those closest to the Elder tree in the first shrine. That method of construction and spreading was re-used for the other shrines. Tunnels connected the closest to the first. These were the years of construction and expansion.

Chapter 4 - The Elder Years

As the order grew, there was a large amount of discoveries. A whole generation of peace and quiet. The priests thrived in the depths of earth. It is said that this is the era when Vel'tas Nightheart became Vel'tas the Blessed. After that event, we became more united, the said appearance of the Aengul before our leader was symbolic.
There was a lot more inter shrine activity in this era. Traveling at night was permitted for High and Elder Priests which has learnt basic moonlight magic. Plenty of important figures came to be known of at this time. Most of these were descendants of the Vel'Nightheart House. Many made interesting discoveries and many tomes were written. They were all kept in the peripheral chambers around the main shrine. However we didn't know this wouldn't last.

Book II - Priests in Secrecy

Chapter 1 - The Praying

Our prayers were not defined by time. We could spend from all night to a single moon movement in the main shrine chamber. The order wasn't summoned to go pray, initiative was important. We would pray in two different ways to Velulaei. The prayers were not only worship but also teachings to our peers. The repetitive pray was the simple Elven sentence of "__". Repeating this, we knew that we could someday be blessed by Velulaei or live on her land when we perish. The phrase is more so sung than recited. The children learnt this from a young age and would accompany their elders to the shrine. However, the main prayer was a sort of research thesis. we would present our research and conclusions to Velulaei. She would listen in and reward us, was the research correct. This is why the younger peers would stay in the shrine longer, to listen to the findings and fill their minds with knowledge.

Chapter 2 - Our Sanctuaries

An average sized sanctuary would fit underneath a large mountain. The main sanctuary was so big it extended under the whole Mountain range. However, small ones will easily fit in a rather small mountain, if not a large hill. There was always one main entrance which forked off into three to four tunnels which reached the surface. The amount of chambers in the sanctuary depended greatly on the population. However, the largest never surpassed twenty. There was a particular layout to the sanctuary and uses to each chamber. The center one would have at least a single elder cloud tree. It is the shrine, in bigger ones, there could be a larger elder tree surrounded by growing ones. This room was usually covered in emerging roots and small ponds. The soil was always maintained to have a soft and fertile texture. A single exit was present, hidden in foliage it led to a circular corridor which orbited the shrine. This usually led to the separate chamber where the priests slept and the library. In smaller sanctuaries, the sleeping chamber did not separate the elder from the normal priests. However where there was space, the elder would live in an anti-chamber of the library. The rooms were carpeted with black ink soaked carpet and the walls were carvings in the stone of the cave. Keeping the cave up and strong were quality pine logs. The library, an important part of the sanctuary was carpeted is lapis ink colored wool. The bookshelves were grooves made into the stone of the cave walls. It was usually made into various levels on which one could stand on some redwood planks. The books which this chamber contained were products of the research of the priests which had passed through that sanctuary.

Chapter 3 - The Practice

The order of the priests had a couple rituals, simple but symbolic. Although prayer may not be considered a ritual, it was to the priests. Mainly because they gave the offering of knowledge they had worked hard to find. However, there were also what people would consider rituals. The conversion of the elder tree, the blessing of a chosen one and the seed lunar celebration. The conversion of the elder tree was the most important of all Velul rituals. It was practiced when a new cloud tree had grown to the age where it had become such a size that unless cut down, it would continue to thrive. This consisted of the gathering of all sanctuary members in the center shrine.