Lyitael was born to the largest Avariel settlement still remaining- which still isn't saying much, considering there are a scant 102 individuals. However, this village is also the meeting place for the other flocks (their Capital city, if you want to think of it that way) so during the summer the city can house a few thousand avariel, who move north during the hot summer months to escape the heat.

Furthermore, more have been moving to the mountains to escape the spread of normal elves' cities. Their race barely escaped the massacres the high-elves visited upon the forest-dwellers, and those who stood in their way, so the avariel have little desire to mingle with their earthbound cousins, whom they view and crude and violent.

But in a city ruled by the predator birds- owls, hawks, falcons and above all, the eagles, Lyitael's family was of rather low caste. His mother's family had once been a clan of mighty warriors, light-elemented fighers who had once, or so it was said, fought off terrible demons. But the line had fallen into disrepair as peace descended on the avariel race, who no longer saw a need for great warriors. The Crows were the only police force, left, and they were little needed save for the occasional harpy attack, or rogue leopard.

It was during one such attack from harpies which took Lyitael's parents from him, and the youth moved to the outskirts of the city with his uncle, an odd old bird who taught Lyitael the basics of fighting, and how to use his element correctly. Lyitael also learned a good amount of animal husbandry (useless), how to herd goats (useless), but also how to drive off or kill even the most fierce of mountain predators with little more than a shepherd's crook, and a slingshot (useful!). These rudimentary skills would serve him well, for in his first century of life, a drow raiding party would attack the city during the winter, and though they were eventually repelled, they took many prisoners, and killed a large majority of the small village.

Of the prisoners, only two survived the trip down to the under-dark-- Lyitael, and one of the nobility, Amaera. They were sold as a pair to a then-starting out gladiator ring.

By some miracle, Lyitael learned combat fast enough to not only survive to make it to a higher rank, and thus better living conditions, but then do so for a long four centuries. Amaera had an easier time of it, her gift of healing was discovered early on.

It was sometime during these long years that Lyitael managed to make an arch-enemy of Tarovir- though with Jaska's arrival, the young drow managed to create a common cause between them, and the grudge, created for reasons neither the avariel or elder fighter would disclose, eventually dissolved into a oftentimes friendly (though other times... not so much) rivalry between the two. Where Tarovir was simultaneously Jaska's best friend, lover, and mentor, Lyitael and Amaera become Jaska's over-protective parents. There was little about Jaska's past that the two Avariel were not privvy to- Lyitael knows many things about the young drow that even Tarovir, or Kailyn and Kian do not.

However, these happy times were not to last. A viciously cruel half-orc, Kagan, arrived and upset the long-standing structure of Tarovir's championship. Apparently he had once owned Tarovir, and now sought to punish the drow for his disobedience, taking out his frustration at Tarovir on Jaska, Lyitael and Amaera. Eventually a traumatized Jaska was sold off to an enemy House in the dead of night, and Lyitael and Amaera were made to face each other in the ring. Faced with the prospect of either one, or both both of them dying, in the end Amaera ended her own life.

Enough was enough, and the remaining band of warriors, Tarovir, Lyitael and a few others who did not appreciate their treatment, rebelled against their owners. The Coliseum burned, and in the chaos Tarovir and the Avariel escaped.

Lyitael would return to his village a few months after ensuring Tarovir's safety in the drow's new home. He would go back to his old profession of shepherd, happy to have some peace for once... though it always seemed to those around him that he was restless, waiting and watching for someone...