Alone among the races, the children of blessed Ainii avoided the curse of aging death.  In the dawn of the world before time began, she shaped the Aestari as a single people and gathered them along the shores of Lake Henjis while the Bergrist, Humans, and Ie’dhae scattered throughout the world.  Yet this singular people, of all races, is most apt to lasting division.

The seeds of schism lay with the first deaths of the Aestari for, while they do not age or suffer from disease, the Aestari can be slain.  They are also vulnerable to weariness and despair which can seize their hearts and drag them down into the sleep of death.

It was Cydion, the fallen Etyni, who brought death into the world.  But his plans were thwarted when His Highest Above replied with the gift of birth.  This gift was passed into the hands of the Etyni who quickly bestowed it upon the Bergrist, Humans, and Ie’dhae.  Regarding the Aestari, however, the Etyni were troubled.  They feared that if the Aestari possessed both agelessness and birth, then they would come to rule over all other races.  In the end, they were only persuaded to grant the gift when the Aestari consented to swear an oath… the Oath… to His Highest Above that they would place the good of all the races as equal to their own.  The other races, on the other hand, were bound by no such precepts.

Over time, many of the Aestari became troubled with the Oath they had sworn.  Though they had given their word readily enough at the time, it came to be seen as a compulsion.  The Oath was not a blessing, but a curse that bound them in chains of perpetual servitude.  Blessed Ainii stayed apart and above the debates, wishing only for her people to reconcile and remain as one.  But when she was murdered, each side blamed the other.  What had been a war of words became a war of blood.  Family was riven from family as brother fought brother and daughter fought mother.  Since this Schism, the Aestari people have been permanently split and the wounds that divide them have only deepened with time.

Though there were but two factions during the Schism, four names arose among the Aestari to define their opposed philosophies.

Those who clung to their Oath with honor and fortitude called themselves Hiraestari which means “High Aestari” for they believed that they had taken the higher and more honorable path.  Their enemies, however, named them Tirnaestari which means “Bound Aestari” because they remained enslaved to the Oath.

Those who denied the Oath called themselves Syraestari which means “True Aestari” for they believed that they followed the path that was truly intended for them.  Only freed from servitude can the Aestari become who they were always meant to be.  Their enemies, however, denounced them as Finaestari which means “Dark Aestari” because they had broken their solemn word and forever condemned themselves to darkness.

But on this matter, a little more should be stated.  Oaths sworn in the name of His Highest Above are not easily shattered and the Syraestari discovered this to their loss.  The manipulative hand of Cydion was recognized, too late, in the slow path toward Schism when it was realized that the Lord of Life and Death had his own plans.  Though the Syraestari broke their Oath to His Highest Above, they unwittingly exchanged it for a heavier burden.  Forced servitude to Cydion.  Yet in the last days of the Great War that heralded the end of the Lost Age and the beginning of the Cataclysm, the Syraestari betrayed their fell master.  Unchained by their Oath to His Highest Above and unfettered by shackles to Cydion, the Syraestari came to possess the full freedoms of all races, for better and, unfortunately, for worse.

For a more in depth look at the Aestari, the Schism, and the events that surrounded the divide you can subscribe to my newsletter and receive a free copy of the history of Creation and the Lost Age.