The First Illyrian · Who Held the Pass at Ramiel
Enalius
“He died after defending this spot for three days. Climbed with his guts hanging out to the sacred stone at the top, and died there.”
Recounted at the Blood Rite · A Court of Silver Flames
The warrior the mountain remembers.
A young Illyrian who held the worst pass on Ramiel for three days against the Ancient Beings, and died there at the sacred stone. Every year since, his people climb the mountain in his name. We climb it too, in our heads, every reread.
The legend
Three days at the Pass.
A young Illyrian warrior. An ancient war — faeries against the Ancient Beings, an age so old it predates the Night Court as it now stands. At a crucial battle on Ramiel he found a natural archway of stone in a tangle of boulders and made it his bottleneck, and he held the Pass for three days while his allies reached the mountain. He died there, at the sacred stone crowning the peak — guts hanging out, still climbing to it. He never won the war from that spot. He just refused to let it close behind him. The line held because he would not move. That's the whole story, and it ruins us every time.
The mountain remembers
A name worn into the rock.
Of all the routes to Ramiel's summit, the worst one carries his name: the Pass of Enalius, reached the way the Illyrians call the Breaking. To take it is to walk the same killing-ground he held until he couldn't anymore. The monstrous things still roaming the mountain on moonless nights are the dregs of his war — Ancient Beings that survived it and hid. The mountain that took him kept his story the way stone keeps a carving. Not gently. Permanently.
The rite in his name
What the living are made to prove.
Once a year, when the holy stars rise over Ramiel, the Illyrians strip their warriors of wings, Siphons, magic, and supplies, scatter them across the mountains, and tell them to survive a week and reach the summit. That's the Blood Rite, and it exists for him — for one last stand five centuries deep. Roughly five hundred years before A Court of Silver Flames, three low-born warriors ran it and touched the stone; later, three women did the same, and one of them, Nesta Archeron, chose to hold the Pass of Enalius instead of climbing — turning back the warriors sent for them so her companions could reach the top. The Rite asks every Illyrian one question. When the line is yours to hold, will you hold it the way he did? Nesta answered. We're not over it.
Bound to the legend
The threads that run back to the Pass.
Swipe to meet them all
Also in the story
Connected
Allies, rivals and enemies — the ones this story crossed.
Iconography
What carries his name
No monument to Enalius but the mountain itself — the places his stand is written into.
The File
- Who
- A young Illyrian warrior of an ancient war
- The war
- Against the oppressive Ancient Beings, an age that predates the Night Court as it now stands
- The stand
- Held the Pass on Ramiel for three days, buying time for his allies to reach the mountain
- The death
- Fell at the sacred stone at the summit
- Named for him
- The Pass of Enalius — the worst route to Ramiel's peak, reached via the way called the Breaking
- Remembered by
- The Blood Rite, run every year in his commemoration
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