Gelu'lax¶
Gelu'lax, the Boreal Scions, is the god of the Boreal Elves: three Scions, Hoarfrost, Ice and Death, "each is a different aspect of the same being (Elder God) according to their religion" (S100). The elves call it Than Agle, or simply Than, and their shamans bear the same title. Its natural form is a frozen treant, and its mortal enemy is Teneb'Vari, whom the elves name Naneth Fuin, the Mother of Darkness (S100, S051).
Also called: Than Agle, Than (S100).
The three Scions¶
| Scion | Elvish name | Role | Form |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gelu'rime, Scion of Hoarfrost | Than Echor | "The maker and provider" | a blue tree coated in frost |
| Gelu'crus, Scion of Ice | Than Heleg | "The preserver and warrior" | a brown tree adorned with long dripping icicles |
| Gelu'mor, Scion of Death | Than Gurth | "The visionary and knowing" | a black tree adorned with skulls |
The Fifth Age notes on the Boreal Elves (S100) and the Proturan campaign notes (S051) give the same account word for word.
Worship¶
"Shamans (Than) leaders guide the tribes, perform rituals, and act as intermediaries between the natural world and their people" (S100). The shamans are also the tribes' keepers of record: "using a variant of Elvish, tribes carefully record history in a tribal record. The Shamans of the tribe are responsible for curating and caring for all sorts of information" (S100). Treants are counted among the elves' allies (S100). How the Boreal Elves live, fight and settle is told on their own page.
The elves' war with the darkness is a religious one. In Etterwood a buried fragment of Teneb'Vari corrupts the forbidden forest, and the tribes guard it "from a safe distance", herding its scourged beasts south; the Utinus Domae Tribe, the "Sons of the Night", holds the northern border (S051, S052). Those elves the darkness takes become its cultists, "corrupted Boreal Elf … which looks a lot like a Dark Elf with bluish-slate colored skin" (S052), and a scourged Boreal Elf shaman "possessed by an Eye of Teneb'Vari" was found beneath the Shrine of Kae'Ferrel (S053).
Earlier accounts¶
The Into the Rift outline of 2020 gives the Boreal Elves a patron of another kind: Uiren, a Frost archon whose heart the fire-cultists of the Primal Union of Ter'Gaia sought in "The Glittering Caverns of Uiren" (S010). The 2023 notes name Gelu'lax as the god the elves worship and do not mention Uiren; Uiren is treated under the Demigods.
Gap
No source describes Gelu'lax's rites, holy places or symbols, says whether the Scions are imprisoned like the other Elder Gods, or explains how a god of frost and death relates to Izhtari's pantheon.