A high elf was born Éilraën Lond.

As a youngster, he became infatuated with illusion. His great uncle would perform sleight of hand tricks before his smiling visage and those tricks would excite, mystify and intrigue him.

Lond's education did not thoroughly acquaint him on such subjects, the elf unaccepting of the route to become an elven mage. So it was only later, after daily classes studied elven rudiments like geography, history, nature and healing, that Éilraën began to study what was known of the greatest mysteries of the world, and the properties of illusion. This generally involved visits to the vast libraries, and hour after hour of contentedly roaming through old tomes, reading rare passages on a variety of obscure topics. Throughout the course of this surreptitious learning practice, Éilraën was happy to discover much of lands shrouded in darkness, learn histories of evil races, read tales of ancient myths and legends, and rare artefacts.

The mysteries of unknown places filled him with a sense of wonder and excitement.

His endeavours led him eventually to cultism, witchcraft, and, curiously, mesmerism. The sensational adventure of a strange gypsy mesmerist named Marok Kovanitski captivated him, a wanderer who sought to gain information by hypnosis. The figure in the tome, Marok, appeared to acutely resemble Éilraën: a slight form wearing uncommonly dark clothes. He also had a similarly pale visage. His eyes, particularly, were the outstanding trait: a bright, searing azure which matched Lond's very own. The onlooker was invariably drawn to an origin of great willpower.

Éilraën's obsession became more widely known: the elf just couldn't suppress his new-found tales to his school colleagues and friends. Other elves joking came to call him Marok, not out of any malice, just through good-natured humour. Éilraën accepted it all, and a part of him even came to appreciate the resemblance to this dark adventurer.

Friends knew Lond had determination about him, a great desire to achieve, certainly the willpower of a hypnotist. Few of his friends thought he would go as far as he did however. The day came when Éilraën Lond thought he did no wrong when he hypnotised a young elf maiden merely to test if he could do it or not.

He succeeded. And what happened, while it would seem harsh, was inevitable in his open soceity.

"You are no longer Éilraën Lond. You are Marok Lond," the High Elven Speaker declared, with sadness and pity. "You are foreign to your own race. Go now and do not return."

That day, Marok welcomed exilement, and the chance to escape the goodly veil of elven society. Here was the opportunity to depart the secret forests and learn of truths—to unravel the true mysteries of the world.

Lond later came to realise that the High Elven community was something rare and precious however, its many, many inherent mysteries perhaps lost to his exploration forever. Often, he would look back upon his elven roots with the same sense of hope and wonder that he felt there during his early adulthood.