The Ryn'Vrydarii were the First Mortal Children of Aelandra. Many legends
throughout Aelandris call them the progenitors of all sentient peoples, while
others hail them as patrons or even as lost gods, having fallen into the Dream
and given up their immortality. There are also those, particularly modern mages,
who believe they were merely skilled weavecrafters, wielding powers long since
lost to the world. Having raised their cities into the skies, the Vrydarii were
masters of the Aether, so much so that even in more recent times their Artifacts
have had profound effects on the course of history.

Little else is known about the Vrydarii themselves. What secrets the Vaelandrii
keep are rarely shared, and even they seem to have lost much of their ancestors'
knowledge. The Prime Sending Stones, which led to the development of Sending
Arts, were one of the Ancients' long lost marvels. As is Sigilkeep, the blue
tower at the heart of Altheria.

Their ruined citadels were thought to have once drifted through the skies before
some terrible cataclysm in the far distant past brought all but one crashing
down. While remnants of the Vrydarii are everywhere, they themselves are thought
to have been entirely wiped out save for a few who survived on Vaelandris, in
time becoming the Vaelandrii. The last great wonder of Old Magic left by the
Ancients, the massive floating island with its fleet of wingships, is as much
the stuff of legend as the people who built it.

The connection to their cities, some scholars speculate, was more than just a
mastery of weavecraft. The existence of the Keldar, the children of Vaelandrii
descent born outside of Vaelandris with a weakened connection to the Aether,
makes it likely that the very essence of who the Ancients were as living beings
was somehow tied to the Old Magic of their floating islands.

See also:
vaelandrii, keldar, vaelandris, wingships, senders, sigilkeep, artifacts

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