Order Tactics : OOC

Centuries ago (at least three) a family of lesser nobles lived in the Larian marches, the house of Silvermist. They had a daughter, Falesa, famed for her rare beauty, and two sons, Edral and Gerob, both of which were famous for their skill with the bow and as hunters and trackers in the eastern forests. One day they chanced upon a single Noldor being attacked by a large group of poachers. They had heard the tales about the cruel Noldor, but also about their mastery of the bow and their own curiosity outweighed their fear (something that might be characteristic of our order as a whole), so they helped the Noldor fight off the poachers with several well placed arrows.

The Noldor, in horror of being in a relation of blood debt to humans, asked them what they wanted as reward for saving him. They replied they wanted to learn how to master the bow like the Noldor. The elf was startled but had no choice but to agree reluctantly - a blood debt is a blood debt.

In the years to come the three would regularly meet in the forests near the family's tower house and the elf, his name was Meranir, would teach them how to meditate, to become one with the bow as it is drawn and one with the arrow as it flies, how to move soundlessly in the forests and how to move fast even through thick undergrowth. In time the brothers' honest curiosity and will to set old prejudices aside made Meranir think that perhaps not all humans were bad and he started to also teach them about the Noldor culture.

When finally their father, the old Baron Silvermist, demanded to know with whom his sons had been meeting all the time he at first was furious. The marcher nobles had fought the Noldor for centuries and he did not want his sons to consort with the enemy. Yet, after a lengthy discussion the father's curiosity proved stronger than his old fears and hates, too, and he resolved to invite Meranir to his home to have a look at this elf teaching his sons.

Still wary the elf accepted the invitation, yet as soon as he entered the Silvermists' tower house and caught sight of Falesa he was enthralled by her and vice versa the grace and refined features of the elf let Falesa fall in love with him. Meranir became a frequent guest of the Silvermists and after some time he and Falesa married.

Tales spread across the land of the two Noldor-trained archers and their sister with her Noldor husband, and scholars and bowmen alike sought out the humble tower house of the family. Meranir, who was of Ithilrandir's house convinced some of his relatives to meet with interested scholars. However, since the other elves still deemed it too dangerous to leave their forests they established a secret meeting place in the woods, half way between Elacrai and the tower house. For the Noldor it was safe to travel there, but the human scholars needed escorts through the forest to protect them from brigands and cutthroats. The brothers gathered like minded archers around them, whom Meranir trained together with them. Their company of archers, soon called the Silvermist company, escorted many a scholar to the meeting place in the forests and back and after some time they started to actively hunt for brigands and highwaymen to make the surroundings of their home safer.

However, after a draught and the following famine old prejudices got hold of the surrounding population who needed a scapegoat for their bad luck, and naturally they chose the Noldor friendly Baron. The family had to flee from the tower house as a pillaging mob neared and their own men-at-arms threatened to turn on them. Only the Silvermist company remained true and together they escaped to the secret meeting place in the forests where they established a camp and in time some wooden hovels. Ithilrandir heard of the mischief that had befallen the family for their friendship with the Noldor and allowed them to permanently settle at the camp site.

They hunted in the forests and the Silvermist company continued to escort scholars through the woods, demanding payment only in kind: some cloth, bread and grain that were unavailable in the forests. As the baron and his wife got old and frail Ithilrandir achieved a rare exception: For being among the first humans wanting to befriend and learn from the Noldor they were allowed to spend their last years within the walls of Elacrai, sparing them an undignified and painful death by long sickness in the damp woods. The Silvermists and their archer company even established contact to the other Noldor houses and even Aeldarian agreed to not attack them at least.

Edral and Gerob led the company until their end, although they both had slightly different concepts of how far the contact between the Noldor and the humans should go: Edral dreamt of both races living together peacefully, while Gerob was doubtful that the differences between the races could ever be fully overcome. He wanted the company to help establish contact between the few that were able to set aside their prejudices but elsewise act like a gate keeper: Letting through wisdom as well as trade goods, but keeping the different cultures rather separate. Up to the current day the Silvermist is (weakly) divided into the two factions of Edralians and Gerobites.
Falesa and Meranir were blessed with a son, whom they called Quigfen.

After the death of the two brothers Meranir kept the company alive and Ithilrandir allowed the company to use the Silvermists' camp in the forests as a permanent base and the company flourished moderately as a rather small group of elite archers that hunted brigands and escorted the more daring scholars to meetings with cooperative Noldor. After Falesa's death Meranir retreated to Elacrai in grief.
Over the centuries the company developed a hierarchical structure and from some point on the chroniclers refer to them as the Order of Silvermist.
Quigfen proved to have inherited the Noldor trait of not ageing and when a duke of Laria was succeeded by his more open minded son Quigfen was accepted as Noldor emissary in the city.