User:IceFireWarden/The V'eraidi-Lai: Wives of the Flame
The V’eraidi-Lai (a word in High Ek’hi that translates roughly into “Concubines of the Forge”, or “Wives of the Flame” in Low Ek’hi), sometimes referred to as the Daughters of Ravara, is a monastic sisterhood of blacksmiths dedicated to the worship of Aryus, the Echmeri god of fire. Their order can trace its lineage and practices from Ravara Raelei, the First Gerentess of In’eslae and Wife to Anhano the Hidden. Before the Noraken-Dwemer vanished without a trace from Yneslean history, Ravara served under her overseers as an attendant within their foundries and smitheries, resulting in her gaining a great deal of blacksmithing expertise; she would later use this experience to forge two legendary armaments—the impenetrable Raiment of the King and the tower-shield/chakram hybrid known as Sunweave—for her soon-to-be husband, and with them he was able to kill Ban’gei Jaimon the Ignited and seize control of the Rhetoric Throne.
Before Ban’gei died, however, he made one final request of both Anhano and Ravara: the warlord wished for his failing body to be cremated in the Vermillion Forge gifted to him by Aryus, alongside those of his subordinates, and in exchange the secrets regarding heat and fire he had received from his divine patron would be theirs to command alongside his very own soul. Anhano obliged his request after realizing his former rival in the slave-arenas was being completely sincere, and after the deed was done Ravara is said to receive council from Ban’gei’s now-incandescent spirit. With her new knowledge, the Vermillion Forge, and Ban’gei acting as her familiar, the future queen was able to help her husband end the Unification Wars via teaching arcane forging techniques to the armorers and such under their leadership, which led to the extermination of rebellious groups that used inferior equipment.
Although Ravara went down in history as the Forge-Queen and became the Venerant (or Virago) associated with craftsmanship and romantic duty, with her example leading to the timeless tradition of bat elven women being the ones usually performing blacksmithing duties in their culture, she would specifically create an organization of women whose duties would be protecting and studying the mysterious Vermillion Forge, as well as safeguarding some of the more dangerous and powerful secrets given to her by Ban’gei during the Wars. And thus, were the V’eraidi-Lai formed.
Unlike other religious groups that were dissolved during the Divine Mandate installed by the E’ga-Zi Dynasty, the Wives of the Forge were kept active due to their cultural and societal importance. Almost every blacksmith of reputable merit in In’eslae were taught at one point by the V’eraidi-Lai due to them having their own blacksmithing school in the Tije’geutsaz (“Shattering Fusion”) District of Oexra’numsaz; unfortunately, however, only women are able to actually join the ranks of the Wives. The usage of the words “wife” and “concubine” are also not without reasoning, as all members of the group (or cult, depending on how you look at it) take an oath of sexual celibacy and spiritual purity amidst the crimson clouds of the Vermillion Forge in order to better serve Aryus. The V’eraidi-Lai use titles such as Forge-Sister, Coal-Mother, and Ember-Witch to denote specific roles and levels of competence. When a sister becomes too old to smith or is injured in a way that she can no longer smith, she will often be given the title of Radiant and may either become a tutor to the younger sisters or retire in peace.
The Concubines of the Forge are renowned for several reasons, but their most notable one is their unique sorcery known as “ore-speech”, which allows them to manipulate raw metals and minerals through the use of poetic stanzas and songs. One of their core beliefs is that every weapon made is alive and has a soul, as the materials used to make them come from the world and the world itself is alive, meaning that even something several people across Nirn view as nothing more than a tool might actually have a more powerful and important story than they do. By conversing with weapons, metals, and stone, the V’eraidi-Lai are able to coax out their tales and imbue them with even greater power.
Ore-Speech has often been equated with manasmithing, another type of Yneslean magic that focuses on forging as well, but the two are fundamentally opposed according to masters of either craft.
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