Silver Elves: The Silver Sparrows

The great Lorehouses of Oronia use many means to keep track of the world abroad. From their diplomats and emissaries, who represent the collective Council of Lorekeepers, to the mighty astrologers and diviners, it is known that they see much of what transpires outside the Islands of Oronia and their eternal, shroud-wrapped girdle.

What is not known abroad is the presence of the Silver Sparrows, agents of the Lorehouses who have been magically prepared to serve as their eyes and ears in the world, always hunting for the artifacts of old Sylvasil and news of the evil dragons that drove the elves from their home. Silver Sparrows are not an order or a secret society, but rather a position maintained by each of the Lorehouses.

Custom dictates that the magi trained to become Silver Sparrows have their truenames recorded in the Lorehouse records, but they themselves have the memory that name magically erased from their past. Indeed, Sparrows are prepared by means many outsiders would consider dangerous or mad: polymorphed repeatedly into different races and animals, they learn to blend in with the outside world, to dull the silver sheen of their skin with custom-blended pigments, and to watch and observe quietly abroad.

Many Sparrows have the elven Infiltrator or Collector kits; all serve a Lorehouse devoutly, disguised as other elves, half-elves, humans, or, in rare instances, as beasts of the wild. Their lives are extended by use of palliative magics to purge and alter their memories but keep their skills in tact, and their bodies are tested against the most powerful alterative arts.

Silver Sparrows often wear a Sidabrinian elf-silver ring wrought in the shape of a sparrow that provides them a passive capacity to retain their personality when polymorphed, even for many years, into an animal form. This is known as the Sparrow-Ring, and Sparrows often identify each other by means of this jewelry.