Eldain

"Do you really wish to know?" — Spoilers from the books and/or adaptations to follow!

	Step carefully, you're in my forest now.
- Eldain, Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales Audio version: Media:Eldain voice line.ogg

Eldain was the leader of a group of Scoia'tael in the Moulderwood in Aedirn during the Second Northern War.

Biography[]

Before joining the Scoia'tael, Eldain's was a merchant operating near Gulet. After his family was butchered during a pogrom in 1246, Eldain radicalized.

Years later, Eldain met Queen Meve and her army in 1267, when the latter was heading towards Aldersberg to help King Demavend III of Aedirn to defeat the troops from Nilfgaard.

When Meve and her company entered Caedva Gaenvid in the Moulderwood, Eldain kidnapped and killed three of Meve's scouts, after which attacked together with his commando the queen's army.

In the end the queen of Lyria and Rivia managed to defeat Eldain and his troops. Before dying however, Eldain begged the queen to bury his corpse.

If Meve doesn't accept to bury Eldain: Meve however showed no mercy to the dying elf, thus left his body being eaten by worms and crows.

If Meve accepts to bury Eldain: Although Eldain showed no mercy to Meve's scouts, the queen accepted to bury his corpse.

Personality[]

Eldain's story is familiar – painfully so. He tried to live peacefully among humans, and, like so many before him, he quickly realized that it's ultimately impossible. Even if you keep your head down, swallow your pride, there'll come a surprise hailstorm, a disease, a miscarriage, and someone has to be responsible. This is just how humans work, they can't accept that things just happen, they need a scapegoat – more often than not, an elf. And then come the beatings, the rapes, the pogroms. Again and again. What were his choices? To run – or to fight. He chose the latter.

Eldain knows he is doomed – all elves are, ultimately – and decided to go out with a bang. He'll die, tomorrow, in a month, next spring – soon, anyhow. But he can live in people's memories, he can become their nightmare, a name they mention only in a lowered voice, a name you utter to scare your children. That's a monument more lasting than bronze. Eldain knows how to instill fear in his foes. His warriors paint faces with war colours, they torture and leave their victims' maimed bodies for others to see, they strike from the deep shadows of the primeval forest, silhouettes barely visible in the morning mist, poisoned arrows flying out of nowhere.

But people who actually got to talk to Eldain – and lived to tell their tale – swear he's nothing like the bloodthirsty monster he's said to be. Apparently, he's calm, soft-spoken and takes great pleasure in music. One captive troubadour even asked, as his dying wish, to be allowed to play the flute, hoping that Eldain, moved by the beauty of the song, will spare him. Indeed, Eldain listened, mesmerized by the melody, and clapped with appreciation after the last note echoed off the trees. Then he skinned the troubadour alive.

- Jr Community Manager, CARD LORE: ELDAIN

Gwent: The Witcher Card Game[]

Eldain is a leader in Gwent.

Reward Tree entries[]

Scroll 1: Eldain tried, with all the strength his will could muster, to live in peace among humans. He bowed to his neighbors in respect, brushed off insults and the occasional shove. Yet when the surrounding orchards suffered from blight, a scapegoat was needed. Someone, anyone to blame for their misfortune. Eldain was an elf - and that was enough.

Scroll 2: Eldain joined the Scoia'tael fully aware that their was was doomed to fail, and at the end of that road only death awaited him. He decided, therefore, that his mission in life would be to live on in memories of humans - as a nightmare.

Scroll 3: Eldain knows how to stir and play on people's fears. He tortures his victims in roadside thickets, where their screams are within earshot of every passing traveler. The mutilated corpses he then leaves exposed to rot near human settlements.

Scroll 4: It comes as no surprise that quickly Eldain became the most hated of all Scoia'tael in Aedirn. Yet despite the immense bounty on his head by the king, few dared seek him out...

Chest 1: It's commonly known that Eldain had a soft spot for music. In fact, prior to joining the Scoia'tael, he frequented human festivals as a lutist. On one occasion, Eldain's forces captured a minstrel who requested to sing rather than utter his final words, in the hopes that Eldain would be swayed to mercy. Indeed, with a grin across his face, Eldain enjoyed and applauded the bard's performance. He then ordered the man flayed alive.

Chest 2: Eldain selected the Moulderwood as as the base of his commando's operation, for it was a primordial forest so dense that even under the glare of the noon sun it bore the resemblance of twilight. Only two types of human caravans ever traversed it: those surrounded by at least twenty armed guards, and those that never emerged.

Chest 3: When Eldain's commando seized control of the Moulderwood, many Aen Seidhe insisted he rebuild the numerous elven ruins scattered throughout, yet Eldain always refused. Some suspected the ruins benefitted the Scoia'tael by reminding the elves of human cruelty. The truth was much more mundane. Columns serve as better cover when toppled.

Gallery[]

External links[]

See the GWENT standalone game version card: Eldain