Caolynni¶
"Ashtareth, I entrust you with the bearing of the Seed of Caerylas. The future of the Elven race is in your hands." — Caolynni (S057)
Caolynni is the High Priestess of Arya who guards the Shrine of Caerylas and its tree in the forbidden forest of Arne'Athosia, and the mother of the ascendant Inwe. Her body died during the Hollowing, some two hundred years before the Proturan campaign, but the Seed of Caerylas keeps her alive for as long as it remains in the shrine (S057).
Guardian of the tree¶
Caolynni has kept the shrine across many lifetimes. In Inwe's earliest memory she walks with her daughter beneath a young tree with white bark and silvery-green leaves, a gift of the goddess whom she calls Arya-Auilien, and explains that guarding the tree is her duty and now Inwe's as well. Elves came from everywhere on pilgrimage for its "blessings of fertility and rejuvenation". When the nearby city of Anoth-Urulien was destroyed in the War of the Moradrim, the shrine was hidden and the seed taken away for safe-keeping; it was unveiled again shortly after Inwe's birth. Caolynni had guarded it the whole time, "and as a reward for her faithful service to the goddess Arya-Auilien and the Caerylas Tree, Inwe was conceived" (S056).
When Inwe rose higher than her mother in Arya's clergy, Caolynni bowed to her. She taught that "the fate of the elves is intertwined with the Caerylas Trees. Without the trees, elven fertility will not be enough to sustain the elvish population, and eventually their entire race would be but a memory" (S056).
Later, with a Necruspex of Teneb'Vari stirring in its failing prison at Alyr-Emuien, fifty miles away, Inwe begged her to take the seed somewhere safer and start anew. Caolynni refused, "citing the lost generations of elves should she abandon the last tree now, and that only Arya-Auilien herself could command her to abdicate her duty." She promised to send the seed away before the corruption overtook the shrine, "but she makes it clear she will die defending the Tree even after the seed has moved on" (S056).
The undying priestess¶
She is still there in the Proturan present: "very powerful", "being constantly kept alive by the seed. It can resurrect her when she dies without effort. Her body expired during the Hollowing, but the seed keeps her alive while it's in the shrine. If she left, she would die immediately." She "has not seen another elf since the Hollowing (200 years or so)", and "is quite desperate to die as she is in considerable discomfort and pain when animated" (S057, S056). Her wish is for the seed to be "returned to the High Elves, or priests of Arya" (S057).
The shrine answers to a verse: "We are guardians of the tree, Open now, set your roots free" (S057).
Bearers she judges worthy she gifts and binds with a Greater Geas. Her charges are preserved: the bearer must see the seed "safely delivered to noble High Elves or righteous Aryic Priests", and its guards must "defend the Seed of Caerylas and its bearer, and destroy those who seek to harm them" (S057; S054 words it "I charge you to defend … and destroy any who seek to harm them"). What she gave and to whom is recorded in the Proturan Campaign.
Gap
The sources say nothing of Caolynni's age, her husband or Inwe's father, or what will become of her once the seed has left the shrine; by her own account she will die, but no later document records it.
Kaelin¶
Kaelin was a dwarven runecaster and a friend of Caolynni's "some ages ago". Before his death he gave her three orange runestones "to bestow upon a worthy runecaster", which she in turn gave away (S057). He is not Kaelin Stonewright III. Nothing else is known of him.