R W Byrum

Eleuthis the Bard R W Byrum

The elves of Sinopia in the years before the First Reign were a tradition minded people and no tradition was more important to them than family planning. The elves did not regard the bringing of new life into the world as simply a personal choice but a decision involving the interests of the entire community. In order to maintain a stable population, elven tradition required each family to produce two children, one boy and one girl, no more and no less. The elves ensure compliance with this tradition through the employment of magic to control their fertility. With this magic, elven women were able to completely control not only when they conceived but the sex of the child as well. While the elves of Sinopia were a long-lived race, they were still mortal and that mortality created the need for the elves to produce children. Thus, elven children were conceived to be the replacements for their parents. That was why elven tradition required every elf to marry and each married couple to produce exactly one boy and one girl. Elven traditions had kept the population of the village of Toremibethiris stable and harmonious for uncounted millennia. Then that harmony was disturbed when Mavis, wife of Avalor, gave birth to a second son in contravention of those traditions. Clearly that second son, Eleuthis, would not be able to follow in the footsteps of his father in accordance with elven custom, so what would become of him? Will he carve his own niche in elven society or will he remain an outcast dwelling on its periphery? Will he find acceptance among the other elves of the village or will the other villagers reject the elf who was born in violation of their cherished traditions? Will Eleuthis find love in a village where the population was so closely controlled that the male and female populations were exactly the same? Will he remain in his native village or will he dare to do what no other elf in living memory has done and leave? The answers to all of these questions and more are to be found within the pages of Eleuthis the Bard.