And while Tryannde thought this to be a crushing defeat for the Dragon Dreamkeeper, in a way, she played the part that Ysera would have had her play, all along. Dissention, jealousy and mistrust were running rampant in the midst of the Kaldorei leadership, namely Tyrannde and three of her Sons whom had joined with her to govern Aear Alda and be protectors to the Kingdom of Tides. None could trust the other, sure that their presence in the realm was for personal gain and glory, and not for the good of the whole. Tyrannde sought to soothe the chaffing by equalizing the responsibilities, a balancing of power, hoping it would lead to a balancing of wills (very strong ones, ah, so much testosterone!) and an equilateral bond of governance. Some of this was of her own doing, for try as she might, she could not conceal her greater affection for her youngest son, the one called the Beautiful Blade, and this was known to the other two, as it was indeed throughout all the Kaldorei. She loved them all, but for Iniev, there was something set apart....for wounded in spirit and broken in heart even as he was, his was the surest, the truest, the most divine heart she had ever known. There was an arrogance to him, yet a mystery, fed by great intelligence, coupled with the strongest will of honor of any of the Kaldorei warriors, present or past. Truth be told, there was more than his own mystery, there was also one that Tyrannde held deep within, so deep that not even Iniev himself suspected its existence and Tyrannde kept it that way, for to have him or anyone learn of it, would destroy the alliance of her Sons, as well as possibly the rest of the heart of Iniev, what was left of it, and that, Tyrannde could never bear. So she kept her mystery close to her heart and breathed not thought into it, lest any of her Sons probe her mind.
Because Iniev was her favorite, and because there was also a special relationship between Iniev and his brother Cestawan, and because the Third Blade recently returned to the Kaldorei after hundreds of years of exile for a wrong-doing he did not commit (and because in the meantime he had amassed and now commanded an army of quite considerable strength and power, not to mention he had also become a dragon-rider, something only one other elf in all the Kaldorei presently could accomplish, and that being Tyrannde), in an effort to equate all things between her three Sons, Tyrannde gave the Eye of Ysera to the Third Son. That proved to be disasterous. Iniev immediately became defensive to the point of paranoia, suspecting everyone of turning against him, Cestawan was overwrough to the point of serious illness and vacated his place at the alliance in deference to his own health (a position Tyrannde was not opposed to), and Number Three Son just had a pissy nature that nothing seemed able to improve, let alone some stupid silver bracelet that only clanged against the hilt of his fighting sword. Sheesh!! Let anything interfere with a guy's sparring and you just get one foul-mooded (and foul-mouthed) Son.
Such ripples of discontent between Tyrannde and her three sons sent waves of distress throughout the collective consciousness of all the Kaldorei people. The great strength of the Kaldorei is their affinity one for the other, their bond, which is a consciousness of all of them together, yet it can also be their Achilles heel. Through that bond flows their very life, from one to the other. The disharmony and distrust rampant in the Temple of Elune could not be disguised or contained for long and soon all the night elves were feeling its effects. Periodically Ysera used her "Eye" to scan the situation within Aear Alda and soon she, too, had learned of the serious rift occurring among the Kaldorei. During one particular difficult counsel meeting, it all unravelled. The Third Blade walked out of the counsel, effectively vacating his seat, taking his army with him....and the Eye of Ysera bracelet that his mother had given him. This so distressed Cestawan that he vacated his seat and left the Great Tree elfdom as well, vowing not to return until a lasting truce was in place and the Kaldorei were at peace among themselves. That left only Iniev the Youngest Blade and Tryannde, who were not speaking to one another, he under the impression that the taking of the bracelet, Eye of Ysera, by the Third Son signalled his personal doom to forever reside within the Emerald Dream and Ysera's control, like his father before him. Ysera, watching all of this through the Eye, seized her opportunity. Her attack on the Great Tree was swift and efficient. The Kaldorei had little heart to fight against her, or put another way, to fight for Tyrannde. With hearts so burdened, their magic was weak, they were vulnerable, and Ysera overwhelmed them easily. Most of the elves perished that day.
Tryannde Whisperwind walked out to meet Ysera, admit defeat and surrender, in order to stop complete annilation of her race, but Ysera wanted only one thing from her: the Eye. Tyrannde had to tell her that she no longer possessed it. Ysera was furious, naturally, and reached out to impale the defeated Leader with her immense talons, but Iniev stepped between them. Over Tryannde's screams, Ysera took his offering, but chose not to kill him, deciding he would better serve her by being imprisonned forever in the Emerald Dream, there at her beck and call, for all the rest of time. A frantic Tryannde tried to follow, but one must have a dragon to do that....and without the power of the bracelet of the Eye of Ysera....Tyrannde had no control over any of the dragons....as they were all Ysera's offspring.
Any conquerer knows that to truly defeat your enemy there is one thing you can never leave them with..... hope. Ysera's final act, before dissolving into the safety of her Emerald Dream with Iniev in her clutches, was to destroy the elves' Great Tree. The Kaldorei were beaten....and broken....and homeless. Fewer than four-score had survived. But so had Tyrannde. A grieving wife and now mother, a defeated warrior, to be sure, but her sworn duty was to preserve the Kaldorei race above all. They no longer had the home of the great Aear Alda. It looked as if there was no future for them.
And there was not. One by one, the Kaldorei that survived now succombed to that most fatal of all diseases, for the softness of heart that lay within them. Their will to live gone, they just faded away. And one night, as the first light of dawn began to streak the horizon, Tyrannde lay down to do the same....never to rise again.
But that was not to be....not....then.....
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