During the Age of Restraint, Elyra became a crossroads of merchants, scholars, craftspeople, travelers, mixed families, and those who fit comfortably beneath neither Crown nor Council.
“No Crown shall rule here. No Council shall govern here. Those who enter Elyra enter as themselves.” — The Elyrian Compact
Orenthian and Caeloran merchants shared markets. Scholars exchanged methods. Families crossed borders more easily than governments did. Elyrian identity grew from the belief that coexistence did not require surrendering oneself to either neighboring power.
Three names remain inseparable from Elyra's later history: Rothgar Merefield, defender of Elyrian identity; Osmund Wilhelm, builder of its commercial connections; and Zoltheris Wynfield, scholar of its greatest discovery.
Beneath Elyra, Wynfield found evidence that Aether did not merely gather. It moved.