Lore:The Silvenar

The Silvenar
Edhelorn, the Silvenar
Race	Bosmer	Gender	Variable
Resided in		Valenwood
Appears in		ESO

This article is about the person. For the place, see Silvenar.

"He's the representative of the People, legally, physically, and emotionally [...] When they're healthy, so is he. When they're mostly female, so is he. When they cry for food or trade or an absence of foreign interference, he feels it too, and makes laws accordingly. In a way, he's a despot, but he's the people's despot." — A Dance in Fire

The Silvenar is the Voice of the People for the Bosmer. While often viewed by outsiders as a title for the Bosmer's political representative for foreign affairs, the Silvenar is more than a mere politician. Each person who bears the title is thought of as merely the Silvenar's aspect. The Silvenar represents the Bosmer people legally, physically, and emotionally. He is said to be their spirituality, in contrast to the Green Lady, who is their physicality. It is said to be the union of the two that makes Valenwood whole. He reflects the state of the Bosmer people in his way of thinking, his health, and even his gender. He is inseparably tied to the Bosmeri people, and they to him, making him supernaturally empathic and aware of their concerns. They also believe that he looks after their spirits, as well as their bodies. As the Voice of the People, the Silvenar has many rights which grant him great authority in Valenwood. For one, only the Silvenar can grant foreign building and trade contracts, meaning any foreign power which wishes to build in Valenwood or do business with the Bosmer must deal with the Silvenar first.

How the Silvenar and, by extension, Green Lady, came to be is shrouded in mystery. Some folktales claim that the first Silvenar and Green Lady were pilgrims, a childless couple who tended to the Eldest like their own offspring. The Green Lady, however, insists that her memories date all the way back to the Dawn Era.

As the Silvenar exists primarily as a story, his only true origin is the tale of his meeting with the Green Lady. In the tale, the Silvenar begins as a being who can see the whole of Valenwood and is left saddened and empty by its purely primal nature. He eventually comes across a Bosmer unlike any he had seen before, whose raw strength and passion made all before him terrified. She begins to attack him, but he instead tells her to stay with him and see the beauty of the forest. Eventually, The Green Lady comes to see the Valenwood as the Silvenar does, while the Silvenar's emptiness became filled with her passion. The two became bound to one another, both taming the wilds and strengthening the Green in the process..

This story, in addition to functioning as the beginning of the Silvenar, also serves as the Silvenar's now and future. Each time a Silvenar dies, a new one is selected by the Green and will once again repeat this tale to unite with their Green Lady. As such, the Silvenar is a constant in Bosmeri society.

While the Silvenar represents the civilized nature of the current Bosmer, the Green Lady has the raw physicality and passion of their primal past. If the Silvenar dies, his Green Lady's bestial nature is irrevocably unleashed, and her fury turned on all those involved until she joins him in death. Upon the death of the Silvenar, the new Silvenar officially takes on the title at a wedding. This wedding, which is known as the Handfasting, is an important occasion for the Bosmer which only occurs once in a generation. It is responsible for both anointing and marrying the Silvenar and the Green Lady. Even before the Handfasting, the Silvenar may feel the new identity taking over. For the Silvenar doesn't just represent the will of the Bosmer to outsiders. The Silvenar actually feels the will of the people and acts upon it, and the people likewise can feel the Silvenar's influence and be swayed by it.

At the time of the founding of the Aldmeri Dominion under Queen Ayrenn, the Green Lady and the Silvenar spoke on behalf on the Bosmer. There, on the island of Khenarthi's Roost, the Silvenar was slain by the Maormer. When a mage named Indaenir sacrificed himself to save the Heart of Valenwood, the Valenwood brought him back by Y'ffre's will, seen as an act of Y'ffre chosing him as the new Silvenar. Despite this, some denounced him as a Dominion puppet, who asserted that the Dominion had "corrupted" sacred Bosmeri rituals. During the Alliance War, the Silvenar was abducted and had to be saved from his captors.

The Silvenar is traditionally protected by a personal guard called the Silvenar's Own Jaqspurs, which consists of Valenwood's most elite long-range archers. They were disbanded at some point prior to the Second Era, but were reconstituted during the time of the first Aldmeri Dominion.

Known Silvenars

• Unnamed Silvenar (ca. 1E 2920)
• Unnamed Silvenar (ca. 2E 382)
• Edhelorn (? - 2E 582)
• Indaenir (2E 582 - ?)
• Varbarenth (in 3E 80)
• Unnamed Silvenar (ca. 3E 397)

Notes

• †	The Silvenar seems to be customarily referred to as male, despite supposedly taking on the gender characteristics of the Bosmeri population as a whole.

See Also

• For game-specific information, see the ESO article.

Books

• A Dance in Fire by Waughin Jarth — A clerk's adventures in Valenwood
• Diplomacy during the Handfasting — A short guide to Bosmeri spirituality and rituals
• The Eldest: A Pilgrim's Tale — Religious rites of the Bosmer
• History of the Handfast — A poem dedicated to the anointment ritual and wedding of the Silvenar to the Green Lady
• The Voice of the People — On the rise of a new Silvenar, Voice of the People for the Bosmer
• Wardens of the Green — A tale of the Green Lady and the Silvenar