The Illuminated Trust was an expansive alliance system of high elven houses on the Shattered Continent during the Elvish Empire. It was unique in several respects, including the size and diversity of its constituent houses, its racial coherence, and its uniquely Baovuldian aristocratic system.

The Legend

The high elves of the Shattered Continent lived in many small houses, recognizing they were one race and venerating the same gods but no more united than this. Annalleien of House Synelle, just one house among equals, was a promising young noblewoman and the heir of her house's rich estates on the central channel. She loved to swim in the crystal-clear ponds and waterfalls running into the channel, and often visited the farmers' village next to it; she used her magic and artistic talent to embellish the local facades and peristiles with white and yellow orchids. She was so kind and open-hearted that she even loved two different farmers from this village, and graced each with flowers of one color. She loved Terenien, to whom she gifted white orchids because she saw in him an untainted soul and goodwill for all things, and gave Ulillien flowers with yellow petals, because she adored his cascading golden locks and his soft, musical voice.

One day, as Annalleien chose to visit the Rock of Lights, a white rock in a small source pond around which a white-wood peristyle had been built; the whole place was consecrated in the name of Callobar Hallonas, the patron of the high elven people, and was a place where elves liked to come to show their art so their god could hear. And as Annalleien placed white and yellow flowers in the water by the rock, her most beautiful creations yet, she heard the voice of Callobar. He spoke to her, and told her that it was time for his people to come together and live in harmony, and that all the houses should heed each other. Annalleien listened, and founded an alliance called the Illuminated Trust in Callobar's name. Annalleien became the matron of the important House Synelle, all the high elven houses of Bao-Mou joined the alliance, and a large temple was built around the Rock of Lights in honor of Hallonas Tillie, "Hallonas the Ruler", called Aerundil.

Structure

The vast Trust was politically structured in a way similar to vassalage. Each house, with its title and status derived from the wealth of its land and of its demography, was bound by holy order both to heed the advice of a superior house called "aen haen" in matters of religious duty, military or labor service, and relations with other elven houses; as well as to subordinate houses called "teine haen", to which it owed protection, advice, and help in need. In philosophical terms, the relationship between an aen haen and its teine haen was equated to that of a custodian and their ward, keeping it safe while it owed respect and submission. These links between houses were both very strong, being holy in nature and thus irrevocable and quite powerful (aen haen could demand large numbers of soldiers or professional workmen from their subjects, and their arbitrations were final), but also limited in extent; the relationship dictated by Hallonas Tillie did not entail any financial or material obligations, for instance. Aen haen were also responsible for mediating and arbitrating disputes between any two houses which were their direct or indirect subjects.

Houses in the Trust

Each house was an independent, self-contained political entity in the Trust; the Trust only existed between houses.

Each house owned its ancestral land delineated by traditional borders, and all the individual elves and animals whose home was on that land; even elves who had lived elsewhere for decades but had their roots in a house's lands were still its subjects. The house's name, symbol, and title was set in stone. The titles served as a way of ranking houses, and nominally each house's aen haen was one title above and teine haen one title below it, though in practice there were many exceptions.

Religious Authorities

Though they were not formally included in the trust and did not have an explicit political role or power within it, religious authorities were essential for governing the system, especially where questions of legitimacy or rights emerged. Figures with holy authority - which were not organized into any one clergy, but could be many different kinds of people, though the most important figures were usually the head priests of the Temple of Aerundil and potent mages recognized as "sages" who could speak in Callobar's name - were in essence the judges of the Trust, the only individuals with the authority of deciding who, in the end, had the rights to a given house.

Most disputes were handled by the house above the two angered parties. However, there occasionally cropped up difficult questions of inheritance, or who kept the rights after a couple broke up, or whether two houses could be united if their families merged or whether families breaking up could break up their house alongside. In the end, individuals speaking in the name of Callobar adjudicated such things, though in the overwhelming majority of cases these decisions were felled such that the party with the best claim following the rules of custom and precedent won. In some cases, these decisions were made in the interests of the powerful factions who patroned the religious individuals in question. Direct intervention by Callobar or his angelic servants in such matters, even when it concerned haen'silva, was extremely rare.

A special caste of priests, residing in monasteries dedicated to Hallonas Cearill, had the authority to alter house heraldry and sanction their use.

Internal House Politics

Matters below the scale of inter-house affairs were left untouched by the Trust. However, the authority of the haen'silva and prevailing customs did have a large influence, such that in most cases houses had a cultural set of rules which served as a reasonably unified code of law. Likewise, most social, religious, political and professional customs were unified by culture throughout the Illuminated Trust, and deviations were usually minor.

Customs also rapidly developed to determine who, exactly, governed a house. Houses had to have one leader, the matron or patriarch - or, in some cases, the House Council - who customarily sprang from a given family. The ruling family established a kind of dynasty, which was entitled to the rights of the house and supplied the matron's replacement. In the ideal, theoretical case, each house had one specific continuous ruling family. However, the politics were often much more complex, with different families rising to power, forming couples with other families to spread out their influence or end up being taken over. Extending the family beyond one house was good, because it meant the one family could build its power on the influence of multiple houses, however complex inheritance laws could easily upset such systems. In some cases, multiple families vied over the rights to just one house, each with intricate historical claims to that title.

History

The First Houses

Annalleien Tillie Ilanaen, the matron of Ilanaen aed haen'silva Synelle, was the religious and political leadership figure of the Illuminated Trust by Callobar's Grace. Under her, Synelle swiftly consolidated as a house much larger than any potential rivals, and it made extensive use of the labor of its teine haen to expand its home port and seat of economic power, Ilanaen'Mythal, as well as the religious center of the Trust, the temple Aerundil of Hallonas Tillie. After Annalleien's centuries of rule ended, the Trust was a well-established system that had won the faith of its large population. Though she did not equal her mother's religious prominence, Annalleien's daughter Elinne - reputedly born in the very waters of the Rock of Light in Aerundil - smoothly took over House Synelle and continued the Ilanaen dynasty. In fact, Elinne was a very good-natured and popular individual, who was so charming even to the matrons of the Elvish ruling houses that she was welcomed onto the council (she managed to get such an exclusive position by marrying Alinille of House Melleneth and occupying one of the six seats together with her; her daughter, as Melleneth weakened, would then take the seat for her alone).

In legends, the important haen'elle House Taelinn was founded in the first century of the Trust, when Terenien - Annelleien's lover of the white orchids - realized he would never be able to take Annelleien's hand and did not want to fight with Ulillien, so instead he left and founded a new city, Roial, and with it House Taelinn. In any case, two centuries later, Taelinn was among the three large haen'elle houses and Roial was a metropolis, run together with the wood elven Buurma'nal, which continuously grew and in fact became the capital of the Elvish Empire in 8'719 b. OW.

The Rise of haen'elle Taelinn

Around 6'000 b. OW, House Taelinn was clearly the largest of the haen'elle, and even approached Synelle both in economic power and in influence through blood ties and friendship. However, there was no doubt that Synelle had more status, because it was still the religious center with important temples of Hallonas Magil and Hallonas Cearill, both sages residing in Ilaenen'Mythal, and of course Aerdundil all being located in Synelle, and because Synelle's matron had a seat in the ruling council and thus, both by holy prerogative and de facto, set the Illuminated Trust's stance and policy. However, things began changing when House Mystraleth of Litchy, the largest high elven house, started trying to gain influence in the trust. It struggled with the closed system, however, finding that none of the smaller houses cared for its foreign presence and that Synelle, intent on keeping its political monopoly, refused to engage in any official measure with Mystraleth. But the large house found an entrance through Taelinn, making a deal, initially just out of friendship: the two houses agreed to mutually support each other, Taelinn allowing Mystraleth to set up arcane manufactories and purchase some docks in Royal while Taelinn nobles got the opportunity to interact with the Elvish elite thanks to Mystraleth introductions.

For the first time, a house other than the haen'silva began interacting with the world outside the Trust. There was little Synelle could to to inhibit this, aside from imposing greater workman and military levies on Taelinn in an attempt to weaken it, but Mystraleth's financial aid amply compensated the losses and Synelle could not risk going further and angering both Mystraleth, Taelinn, and Taelinn's large group of friends inside the Trust. Taelinn even went a step further in 5'704, when Cynletie, the Mystraleth matron's daughter, married Hannien Tinfea, the popular musician and Hunt Master of House Taelinn. Taelinn continued to form familial bonds with Mystraleth, expand its economic power thanks to foreign deals (more so with Maer'Duth and Buurma'nal than with Mystraleth), and build up a network of friends and relatives in the Elvish elite. In late 5'500, Synelle was forced to concede Taelinn's newfound influence and a high priestess from Aerundil promoted House Taelinn to haen'silva. The houses of Synelle and Taelinn were holy bound as each other's teine haen.

Elvish Wars

The Illuminated Trust, due to the closeness of both Synelle and Taelinn with the Elvish elite as well as its geographic proximity to Maer'Duth and other Black Spider-associated territories, was deeply involved from the start in the turmoil of the Elvish Wars. In fact, both the middle daughter of Matron Synelle and the betrothed of the heir to Taelinn were among those mudered by the Black Spider in guise of a declaration of war. So the two haen'silva declared the Trust would go to war against the Black Spider, and drew up their forces from their teine haen.

The direct impact of the Trust on the wars was limited, however. It was incapable of raising a united army - even the leadership was split between two houses, though the political system itself was not suited to raising a large army - to protect its borders, much less go on overseas campaigns. Taelinn promised its full support to Mystraleth, and dispatched the few thousand troops it could raise overseas as Mystraleth auxiliaries; it then allowed the larger house to garrison a force in Royal and set up large training camps across Taelinn, where new recruits would be trained and then join the ranks of Mystraleth proper. Thus, over the next century, Taelinn developed into a puppet state of Mystraleth's, a process which was concluded when the Mystraleth officer who served as Lord Urbarch of Royal married the five women and two men who had a claim as heir to Taelinn. In 4'099, there was an attempted uprising by most of Taelinn's teine haen to try to throw off the yoke of Mystraleth rule and take other houses of the Trust as their aen haen, but this decade-long civil war ended in total Mystraleth control over northern Bao-Mou.

Synelle, meanwhile, failed to participate much in the Wars' opening moves; Synelle, worried about assassination attempts and unrest in the city of Royal, and being unwilling to travel to Litchy where the headquarters of the Elvish imperial army were established, instead fell back to Ilanaen'Mythal and remained isolated for a few years. Many small houses suffered devastating attacks by Black Spider raiding forces; some cities were even burned to the ground, while a few minor houses, such as House Eldenaar in the south, chose to outright make deals with the drow. Various houses, including Synelle, raised forces to defend borders, strike back against invading Maer'Duth armies, and reclaim cities which had fallen to rebels, but the Illuminated Trust's military performance record was poor, and it gradually disintegrated initially because of Black Spider raids, and then because of both external forces trying to claim pieces for their own and the houses falling on each other's necks. The Illuminated Trust by Callobar's Grace, like the rest of the Elvish Empire, fell to a confused civil war.