Elidhu

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The Elidhu are a fictional race of beings which exist in the world of Pellinor created by Alison Croggon.

They are an impossibly old race of immortal, invincible, elemental beings, created when the Sky shed a tear onto the Earth. The Elidhu have enormous power and can breed with mortals if they so choose. Known Elidhu/Bard hybrids are Maerad and Hem. The power of the hybrids is higher than the average of the two components: Maerad is stronger than the midpoint of the average Bard and the average Elidhu.

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[edit] Varieties

The Elidhu come in two varieties:

  • Personifications of the Abstracts: These Elidhu are the abstract concepts become material. Examples include: Sky Elidu, Tree Elidhu, and Arkan the Ice Elidhu. They are not imbedded in the concept, though they have power over it. These Elidhu can travel far from where they live, though they often prefer to remain sedentary.
  • Imbedded Spirits: These Elidhu actually live in, or are a part of that which they embody. The prime example is the Landrost. He is a mountain: his spirit cannot roam from there, and his power only extends as far as the mountain extends (though this may be proven untrue in the fourth book, The Singing), unlike Arkan, whose command of ice can affect things wherever he goes. The same conditions apply to another mountain Elidhu, the Lamedon.

[edit] Good or evil

The Elidhu generally have little interest in the goings on of the mortal world and are seen as neither good nor evil, with two notable exceptions. These are Arkan, the personnification of ice, who is often seen as evil (although Maerad is given reason to think otherwise in The Riddle); and Ardina, Maerad's ancestor, who is seen as good.

Ardina, and possibly others, live according to multiple, often contradictory personalities. Whereas when first appearing in The Gift, Ardina is a playful, mischievous, dryad-like sprite who lives without attachment and lightheartedly scorns attachment as a transient thing, she later appears (in the same book) as a solemn, wise, perceptive queen who seeks to always serve the welfare of her people. She appears in The Riddle as a lunar faerie or demigoddess, called the Moonchild, in which form she is said to be the daughter of the moon. It is presumable that she lives according to other personalities as well, changing them without hesitation as she pleases; she seldom reveals this information to humans, on the grounds that they would not accept it for that which it is.

[edit] Powers and Abilities

Elidhu have a variety of abilities uncommon to humans, though these, in turn, seem to vary among individual Elidhu. Ardina is shown having taken the form of a wolf (an ability inherited by Maerad), and sometimes appears as a "moonchild"; a celestial fairy able to hover upon the air, travel great distances within minutes, and heal wounds with a touch. Arkan is shown creating deceptive illusions, producing light from no apparent source, and commanding the weather. Landrost, spirit of the mountain, summons strange demonic life-forms called "wers" to his aid and can direct them by his will. Nyanar, a forest Elidhu appearing in The Crow, is able to change shape with ease and identifies himself with and as his environment.

[edit] References