Sabrael the Distant

<i>‘You have failed my test – as I knew you would. I knew that in time you would prove my lack of faith in Humans to be correct. If anything, I gave you too much credit. Now I leave you to your own foolishness, and your cries for my aid will go unanswered.’</i> – Sabrael, to the mortal elders of the Sacred Order, soon after the onset of the Red Crusade * Sabrael the Distant is one of the oldest beings in Teleria, one of the earliest Firstborn given life and has lived in Teleria almost continually since it was created. The mortal world hardly lives up to her lofty standards, but she prefers Teleria to the perfect, changeless, and 'sterile' Halls of Eternity, which did not suit her taste. Furthermore, she values the sense of superiority and power that she feels living among mortals and comparing herself to them. Sabrael prefers Teleria’s mortals over the Demons and Demonspawn she has hated since the Great Divorce, for she sees Siroth and his creations as unrefined and ugly. But she would never consider any mortal, no matter how powerful and worthy, a peer. None can live up to her standards of intelligence, taste, and panache. She demands orderly behavior blended with exciting dynamism, obedience without servility, effort that appears effortless, and more – requirements mortals struggle to even comprehend, much less embody. Only the Elves, long-lived and elegant, remotely approach the perfection of her immortal kind, as far as Sabrael is concerned. Aravia thus sees her interventions most frequently, though it is hard to say if she truly favors anyone or anything besides herself. She has come to be viewed as a distant, but constant, spiritual protector of the High Elves, though they praise her as much out of fear and awe as out of gratitude: a single harsh glance from Sabrael can cause even the haughtiest mortal to wither in overpowering shame and disgrace. She exudes an air of supernatural charisma and beauty, inspiring reverence and deference, and to have this charming, almost addictive presence turn to disapproval is a shattering experience for the mortal mind. For the Dark Elves, Sabrael is a figure of terrible wrath, like a mother ashamed of her wayward children seeking to punish them and bring them back in line. She considers them a ‘waste’ of Elven glory, and calls them ‘depraved moss-eaters’, 'slaves of bugs', and ‘lords of dirt.’ Sabrael returned to Teleria as a Lightbringer after the Great Curse and as a result was a founding member of the Sacred Order, though she was never heavily involved in steering it – such things were beneath her. When the Order inflicted the genocidal Red Crusade, Sabrael left it, along with the other Lightbringers. This was not out of sympathy for Orcs, Ogryn, Skinwalkers, Lizardmen, or heretics – she had no cares for the internal prejudices of mortals. Rather, she abandoned the Order because the Humans had shown themselves to be much more classless, thuggish, bloodthirsty, short-sighted, and impetuous than even she thought they could be. Being one of the few Lightbringers to announce their renunciation of the Order, the Sacred Order begged her to stay. Sabrael for the first time revealed her true form that lay behind the self-limiting guise of an Elf-like mortal she wore most of the time. Her real body, as she appeared within the Halls of Eternity and at the moment of her creation, was awesome and terrible to behold. She unfurled great white wings, summoned to her side an ominous scythe of otherworldly metal and crystal, and girded herself in golden armor and a golden mask. The great and the good of the Order crumbled beneath her scorn. With but a few disdainful words, she made them silently weep in despair. Thereafter, whenever Sabrael was seen as her gold-masked true self, it was certain that a great conflict was about to be resolved with grim, remorseless justice.