The FaerieSzun TriopfaerieˆÒ) ø ùýThe Faerieù Faerie have been on Tamriel, in all probability, longbefore recorded history, perhaps since or before the days ofthe Elder Ones. The tales of their mischief are found in everyculture, in most every village, town, and city-states in theEmpire. Alternately they are called Faerie, Fey, Illyadi,Sprites, Pixies, and Sylphim, and their natures seem to flitfrom one story to the next with the same variation. It couldalmost be said that Faeries are anything unpredictable innature. The noted scholar Ahrtabazus studying at the time in theCrystal Tower of Sumurset Isle developed an interesting ifcontroversial theory about Faerie. He organized the Feyvariants on a chain, beginning with the glimmering sparkscalled Pixies or Whilloki by the Redguards at one end and theögodlike beings such as Gheateus, Chonus, and Sygria at theother. In the middle are human and semi-human beingsgenerating up to intelligent trees, brooks, rocks, evenmountains. All of this was a new and completely originaltheory and would have prompted enthusiastic, if somewhatskeptical response had Ahrtabazus not added this footnote:"It may be that elves as a whole are part of this chain, abovewhilloki and below nephrine. They certainly have similarfeatures and propensities for magicka as the other Faerie."(Ahrtabazus, "The Faerie Chain" Firsthold, 2E 456) No elf liked to be put in a hierarchy slightly abovewhimsical pranksters like the whilloki, and Ahrtabazus waschallenged on his assumptions based on very slightcoincidences. Nevertheless, with modification, his FairieChain theory has gained wider and wider acceptance since itspublication. The hierarchial chain is not, in the strictest sense, an orderof command. While Gheateus and Sygria are said to besurrounded by a host of minor Sylphim, faerie on the whole arenot followers nor leaders. Their plans and schemes are notgoverned by a higher purpose, simply by their own whim. To this most faerie scholars agree. Because it is based oncoincidental evidence and supported by auxiliary theories,öit may very well be wrong. ö